secret_online's recent activity
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
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Comment on The Berkshire mystery: Where exactly is "Berk"? in ~humanities
secret_online LinkI find it fitting that a place whose name is pronounced like "bark" is a woodland.I find it fitting that a place whose name is pronounced like "bark" is a woodland.
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Comment on Jet Lag Season 16: Hide + Seek United Kingdom | Trailer in ~hobbies
secret_online LinkOn the game design episode of the podcast there were a couple of changes noted. There wasn't anything too spoilery that won't be covered naturally in the first couple of episodes, but I'll still...On the game design episode of the podcast there were a couple of changes noted. There wasn't anything too spoilery that won't be covered naturally in the first couple of episodes, but I'll still put them in a details section just in case.
Game design notes
The hiding period has been increased to 4.5 hours. They don't really go into why, but I assume this is due to train frequency. They should be able to move pretty far with that, so it'll be interesting to see what kinds of spots they end up in.
There is a change to the veto rules: vetoing a question now completely blocks it. The seekers can no longer ask again for double the cost. This was a pretty common comment on the game design, and they've been pretty resistant to audience suggestions in the past (probably for the better). They do briefly explain why it was there in the first place, which is to prevent situations where it would be literally impossible to find someone, but this hasn't happened in practice.
But probably the most impactful change is what they're calling "time traps". They're something in the hider deck like everything else, and have a time value associated with them. When you play a time trap, you choose a station to lay it on. It doesn't have to be nearby, it can be across the country. If the seekers decide to go through a station with a time trap, then the time gets added to the hider's run length. The time also increases by 10 minutes every hour.
They discuss some interesting strategy from the hider's side (which I was thinking of as I was listening), where the hider could use the traps to try and block the seekers, or even fake them out by placing the traps in a different direction. They could even place it on their home station to get a guaranteed time bonus. There's also some decision making as a seeker, as you have to judge what information you're getting from the placement, but also whether you go straight through or go around a particularly large trap.
There are also some new curses. They are joined with a few others in the expansion for the home game, which is available for purchase on the Nebula store. Any cards in the expansion that refer to distances are doubled, with one in each of correct and customary units. Most of the episode is spent going over a selection of their favourites and putting them on a tier list of sorts. There are a couple mentioned that appear in the season, so I won't be commenting on them here. You can either listen to the podcast yourself, or wait to see them being used.
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Comment on Tildes Minecraft: What do you want to see in the next season? in ~games
secret_online Link ParentI should also be able to offer the services of secret_offline. At some point I want to set up a system to allow them to be requested at a particular place (like sending a message in-game with a...I'll likely be offering my AFK services this season.
Definitely gonna need you for some of this!
I should also be able to offer the services of secret_offline. At some point I want to set up a system to allow them to be requested at a particular place (like sending a message in-game with a location and they go there), but every time I've thought about it I realise how much work it'll actually be and I stop thinking about it. Until then, I'm happy to walk them to various locations.
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Comment on Divinity | World premiere trailer from The Game Awards 2025 in ~games
secret_online Link ParentThe presentation is goofy for sure, especially in D:OS1. I found the worlds themselves (the writing more-so than the visuals) to get pretty grim towards the end of both games and the moments of...But the original sin worlds were just a bit too goofy, or didn't let take themselves seriously enough for me.
The presentation is goofy for sure, especially in D:OS1. I found the worlds themselves (the writing more-so than the visuals) to get pretty grim towards the end of both games and the moments of levity to be a welcome break from that. Obviously this is a matter of taste, but D:OS2 in particular worked quite well for me.
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Comment on Divinity | World premiere trailer from The Game Awards 2025 in ~games
secret_online LinkDivinity: Original Sin 2 is one of my all time favourites. It was just the right game at the right time for me. I'm not big into body horror (or other horrors for that matter), but I'm more than...Divinity: Original Sin 2 is one of my all time favourites. It was just the right game at the right time for me. I'm not big into body horror (or other horrors for that matter), but I'm more than willing to give it a chance because it's Divinity and Larian. If they're willing to make this their big announcement trailer in the largest game event of the year, then I think they'll be willing to just let the writers, designers, and artists loose which I can appreciate.
They're said it's still in Rivellon, and that the gods are "silent", which feels like they're setting this after D:OS2 (after which the gods will be silent for... quite some time). Though since this isn't an Original Sin game perhaps it's in a different timeline? I suppose we won't know until it comes out.
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Comment on Tildes Minecraft: What do you want to see in the next season? in ~games
secret_online Link ParentI have no idea why Mojang didn't add player heads to the bar so you'd actually know who is what dot. There's a mod for that, which is what is used on Hermitcraft, but it really should have been a...I have no idea why Mojang didn't add player heads to the bar so you'd actually know who is what dot. There's a mod for that, which is what is used on Hermitcraft, but it really should have been a feature of the game.
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Comment on Tildes Minecraft: What do you want to see in the next season? in ~games
secret_online Link ParentLive feed of Laser Kiwi upon hearing this news. -
Comment on Tildes Minecraft: What do you want to see in the next season? in ~games
secret_online Link ParentI will certainly be letting them know and offering a Tildes invite to them when the server starts, but there are some reasons why he didn't join last time when I joined. He's are a pretty...I will certainly be letting them know and offering a Tildes invite to them when the server starts, but there are some reasons why he didn't join last time when I joined.
He's are a pretty technical person, and there are farms we've built on that server that would be broken by Paper. And I think it's worth keeping Paper since I don't know the state of common plugins like World Protect (or alternatives) for Fabric, and I have personally witnessed a fly-hacker take a whirlwind tour of the server, try to break blocks but fail, and give up after I stopped showing interest in them (Tea banned them shortly after I sent a message). He's also been known to throw some of the snapshot versions on when particular changes are added, and Paper doesn't do snapshot updates.
The other main reason is that it also doubles as a family server, with two kids of different ages using it as a place to explore, grow, and build. While you all are great people, the Tildes server does have a different vibe to a closer family environment, and he still wants to connect with his kids in an environment they're comfortable in. Some of the value of the server for him is the fact it's a small place just for them to hang out in, with some well known and familiar faces jumping in too. I'm sure as the kids get older, this will be less of a concern, but for now that's the impression I get.
As I said at the top, I will let him know, and probably post in another place to see if some other Minecraft friends who will probably fit the vibe are interested.
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Comment on Tildes Minecraft: What do you want to see in the next season? in ~games
secret_online Link ParentYou joke, but last week I was reading a document at work dated December 2025 and for a whole minute was confused wondering why it was from last year despite being topical to right now. Realising...You joke, but last week I was reading a document at work dated December 2025 and for a whole minute was confused wondering why it was from last year despite being topical to right now. Realising that it was still 2025 shattered my world view for a while afterwards.
And of course now is the time that my usual Minecrafting partner is wanting to get back into our shared Minecraft world, so I'm probably going to end up split between servers again when this server starts up. I'll need to figure out how to balance the two, as I did burn out last time.
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Comment on Introducing SlopStop: Community-driven AI slop detection in Kagi Search in ~tech
secret_online LinkThis is great. I've been wondering what I'd be doing once SEO spam slop domains filled up my domain filtering list (which is still a long way away), but this seems like it will solve that issue....This is great. I've been wondering what I'd be doing once SEO spam slop domains filled up my domain filtering list (which is still a long way away), but this seems like it will solve that issue. Crowdsourcing feels like a natural fit for Kagi, especially placing it in the same menu where you change the ranking of websites in general.
My only concern is that this is at the domain level. I know it's by far the easiest, but a similar issue happens with the AI image labelling in Kagi's image search. Stock image sites saw AI as an opportunity to not pay people for their work and so the same domain had both a large library of actual stock imagery and AI slop, so you couldn't really mark the entire domain as AI. It's certainly better than nothing, so I'm not really complaining.
I wonder what the effects of (eventually) releasing the dataset will be. Kagi is too small to have a noticeable impact on the traffic to websites (really only Google is big enough for that), but if it gets used by more people and projects then there is at least the possibility that something changes.
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Comment on Tildes Minecraft: What do you want to see in the next season? in ~games
secret_online Link ParentI'm not so sure on a nether Tildestown. You basically need to spawn-proof everything, and the light levels required to prevent spawning are much higher (you need 12 or higher, compared to 1 in the...I'm not so sure on a nether Tildestown. You basically need to spawn-proof everything, and the light levels required to prevent spawning are much higher (you need 12 or higher, compared to 1 in the overworld). Either every surface needs to be brightly lit or made of non-spawnable blocks which really limits the blocks available to you.
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Comment on The best Steve Yegge posts (2015) in ~tech
secret_online LinkYay! More reading material. Though I think there's a pretty big omission here. Stevey's Google Platforms Rant was originally a Google+ post that was meant to be internal to Google but wasn't, so...Yay! More reading material. Though I think there's a pretty big omission here. Stevey's Google Platforms Rant was originally a Google+ post that was meant to be internal to Google but wasn't, so we have archives of it like that gist link. In it, he compares his prior time with Amazon with his time at Google. I'll let the following two quotes (which are paragraphs apart in the actual rant) be the hook.
One thing that struck me immediately about the two companies -- an impression that has been reinforced almost daily -- is that Amazon does everything wrong, and Google does everything right.
[...]
But there's one thing they do really really well that pretty much makes up for ALL of their political, philosophical and technical screw-ups.
It also contains my absolute favourite sentence in all of non-fiction writing, which I'll spoiler block here. If you have better sentences, please send them to me. I love a good crunchy sentence.
The best sentence
But I'll argue that Accessibility is actually more important than Security because dialing Accessibility to zero means you have no product at all, whereas dialing Security to zero can still get you a reasonably successful product such as the Playstation Network.
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Comment on Affinity V3 is here with a new freemium model in ~design
secret_online Link ParentI don't know how they're going to make money on AI subscriptions. Making it free just sounds like they're desperate to take market share from Adobe (and we absolutely need that) by any means...I don't know how they're going to make money on AI subscriptions. Making it free just sounds like they're desperate to take market share from Adobe (and we absolutely need that) by any means necessary and they'll try make it profitable later.
I do notice that they don’t talk about designer, photo, and publisher, though, so maybe they are merging them all into one product?
This was the big thing for me. Even in Affinity 1 (which is all I paid for) Designer and Photo already felt like two sides of the same coin, so it doesn't surprise me they've gone the route of making it one thing.
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Comment on Jet Lag Season 15 | Official trailer in ~hobbies
secret_online Link ParentEpisode 6 spoilers Congrats Ben and Brian on getting the first ever certificate of merit on the show! And to Adam for winning twice in one season. This is the hardest anyone has been...Episode 6 spoilers
Congrats Ben and Brian on getting the first ever certificate of merit on the show! And to Adam for winning twice in one season.
This is the hardest anyone has been DeutscheBahned in the history of Jet Lag, it's almost sad. In both Nuremberg and Kassel the boys were planning on taking a train that would allow the chasers to catch them, but both times the chasers have been delayed. the first being an actual accident where the train hit a tree, but the second where they're just stuck for two hours not far outside town is just bad luck.
That said, there's still a fair amount of drama for the lack of action in the latter half of the game. Well edited.
I love that we have two Snack Zone segments where both teams eat the same train biscuit.
My favourite part of this week's podcast was when they talked about getting on that final small train. The conductor was an old man who was confused as to why the three boys were getting on this tiny local commuter train, and absolutely forbade them from filming. He later brought them up to the front of the train to show the controls and complaining about how the train was old and bad. He also wanted to talk about the Detroit Lions because he loved the Detroit Lions. Adam asked if he'd been to Detroit. Nope, but he loves the Lions. Brian asked if he liked football (soccer), to which he said no and called the player cowards. Still no filming.
The chasers decided to call the game a little early, though it was pretty much over anyway, so that they could get their closing shot in Frankfurt while it was still daylight. The camera falling over just before they say the name of the show was just pure comedy.
I think this was a great season of the game. Having two teams changed the format enough to keep it fresh, and I'd love to see another game in this format later on.
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Comment on Removing obfuscation in Minecraft Java Edition in ~games
secret_online LinkThis is actually pretty cool. For years I've been wondering if Mojang would try and force people over to the bedrock edition somehow, but doing this seems like they still want people tinkering...This is actually pretty cool. For years I've been wondering if Mojang would try and force people over to the bedrock edition somehow, but doing this seems like they still want people tinkering around with, and therefore playing, the java edition.
I suppose I'll convert my tiny mods over to the official mappings soon to make the upgrade easier. I'm sure the fabric/neoforge/architectury projects will be where most of the work is going to go, so it's nice they're releasing both obfuscated and non-obfuscated snapshots after the next major release.
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Comment on Removing obfuscation in Minecraft Java Edition in ~games
secret_online Link ParentAs mentioned in the post, they didn't even release the obfuscation maps until 2019, 5 years after the Microsoft acquisition. This is also years after Mojang had hired the co-founders of the Mod...Though I'm honestly shocked it wasn't done sooner, before the Microsoft purchase.
As mentioned in the post, they didn't even release the obfuscation maps until 2019, 5 years after the Microsoft acquisition. This is also years after Mojang had hired the co-founders of the Mod Coder Pack, which was one of the earlier toolchains for decompiling/deobfuscating the game. I wonder what prompted them to remove the obfuscation step altogether, since it probably would have been easier to just keep it in.
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Comment on Jet Lag Season 15 | Official trailer in ~hobbies
secret_online Link ParentEpisode 6 spoilers Yeah, this was the hardest the crew has even been DeutscheBahned. The chasers were so close from the start of the game day around Zurich, and kept catching up, except something...Episode 6 spoilers
Yeah, this was the hardest the crew has even been DeutscheBahned. The chasers were so close from the start of the game day around Zurich, and kept catching up, except something would just go wrong.
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Comment on What ridiculous thing would you spend billions on? in ~talk
secret_online Link ParentI'm glad someone linked it. There's also a video version for people who want a 5 minute watch with mouth-based sound effects (and the sequel).I'm glad someone linked it.
There's also a video version for people who want a 5 minute watch with mouth-based sound effects (and the sequel).
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Comment on Tildes Minecraft: What do you want to see in the next season? in ~games
secret_online Link ParentI can also offer up secret_offline for some AFKing. I've always wanted to set it up as a bot where you can request for it to afk at certain places, but I got discouraged pretty quickly every time...I can also offer up secret_offline for some AFKing. I've always wanted to set it up as a bot where you can request for it to afk at certain places, but I got discouraged pretty quickly every time I've tried. So for now I log in as them, walk to the spot, then restart the afk bot process.
As is tradition, as soon as I finish up work for the year, my brain goes "you should be writing code". It's been nearly a year since I released my Tiny Flowers mod for Minecraft, and it has one major issue that I knew about from the start that I want to change.
The issue is the block state explosion. The game has two ways of storing data about blocks, the simplest of which are block states. My little garden blocks had 4 slots that could have 20+ different values in each and the block could be rotated one of 4 ways, and the game had to enumerate and build block models for each of these combinations. Also, these combinations were constant and couldn't be expanded upon by other mods.
My plan with V2 of the mod was to use a block entity instead, which is an entirely different system for storing data about a block, and use a data pack to define all of the flower types. The latter point would mean that other mods could define their own tiny flower variants and it would just work. I've done most of the rewrite now, I just have the hardest part left: rendering.
That system of enumerating every possibility was extremely convenient to use, as it took advantage of an existing system in the game, but now I don't really know what to do. There are pages on the Fabric wiki and docs (Fabric being the mod loader I'm using), but I don't know enough yet to know what I need to know from them. It also seems like the way the game wants you to do custom rendering is changing at the same time, so I don't even know what the best practice is here.
Ideally, I'd have something similar to the block state system but on the fly, where I can go "I want this model, this model, and this model all together with these textures" and use existing game code. I don't know if that exists or how to find it if it does, but that's what these kinds of projects are all about: doing something you haven't done before to learn how to do it.