text_garden's recent activity
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Comment on Denmark plans social media ban for under-15s – PM Mette Frederiksen links social media use to anxiety, depression and lack of concentration in ~tech
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Comment on Cory Doctorow: Tech-like apps can obfuscate what’s really going on, sloshing a coat of complexity over a business that allows its owners to claim that they’re not breaking the law in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentYou're mistaking the author telling you what he thinks as him telling you what to think. It's an opinion piece, not a report.There's quite a lot of telling you what to think and rather little reporting.
You're mistaking the author telling you what he thinks as him telling you what to think. It's an opinion piece, not a report.
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Comment on Travel essentials: eight items to pack for your next trip – and what to leave at home in ~travel
text_garden Link ParentIt's deeply ironic that the "advice" to buy a $2000 phone because it has a novelty-sized screen is from "the Filter US: our newsletter guide to buying fewer, better products". Having too much crap...It's deeply ironic that the "advice" to buy a $2000 phone because it has a novelty-sized screen is from "the Filter US: our newsletter guide to buying fewer, better products". Having too much crap is a hole you bought yourself into. You're unlikely to buy yourself out of it.
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Comment on Deus Ex Remastered | Announcement trailer in ~games
text_garden Link ParentThere were no such projects for Forsaken or the original System Shock. The free source ports of ROTT are not good, in themselves outdated and buggy. The Doom 64 remaster is the continuation of...There were no such projects for Forsaken or the original System Shock. The free source ports of ROTT are not good, in themselves outdated and buggy. The Doom 64 remaster is the continuation of Doom 64 EX which the Nightdive programmer worked on before he joined Nightdive; just a more complete version of the same work.
What it boils down to then is whether you are interested in playing these games. If you're not interested, of course their remasters must seem pointless to you. If you are, they're great for the reasons we both agree on. But that's not so much a comment on remasters as it is on your taste in games.
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Comment on Deus Ex Remastered | Announcement trailer in ~games
text_garden Link ParentI think their good remasters are perfect as remasters. Mostly just the original games ported and touched up with some modernities like wide screen support, modernized control schemes, mouse look...I think their good remasters are perfect as remasters. Mostly just the original games ported and touched up with some modernities like wide screen support, modernized control schemes, mouse look and uncapped framerate. Just lowers the friction of replaying these games (or for me, when it comes to Forsaken and Doom 64, trying them at all).
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Comment on Deus Ex Remastered | Announcement trailer in ~games
text_garden Link ParentI think Nightdive does a good job with remasters, with some exceptions.I think Nightdive does a good job with remasters, with some exceptions.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
text_garden LinkI played through the original Star Wars: Dark Forces. It's one of those games that somehow end up "in rotation" for me, so I end up replaying it every year or two. From moment to moment it plays a...I played through the original Star Wars: Dark Forces. It's one of those games that somehow end up "in rotation" for me, so I end up replaying it every year or two.
From moment to moment it plays a lot like a decent-not-great Doom clone, but it differs in that its levels are each their own mission, set in a believable location with a variety of objectives serving a clear purpose in terms of the overarching narrative. I'd say most first person shooters at the time didn't have the ambition to approach levels as anything more than a weakly connected series of challenges to get from the start to exit. System Shock comes to mind as an exception, but System Shock is also not really as much of a Doom clone in design as Dark Forces, probably owing more of its sensibilities to the Ultima Underworld games.
Sure, the objectives of Dark Forces are basically just a fancy abstraction over key hunting but that's often enough to give the game a sense of purpose. Still, sometimes the game sometimes manages to hit the worst of all worlds: Star Wars logic combined with LucasArts puzzle logic combined with FPS puzzle logic.
I also played Truer than You, a VN where you play as a gig worker who gets hired to play the roles of a friend, lover, a parent or whatever in social situations for a variety of clients. A sort of ultimate form of Sartre's waiter where you have to be what someone else wants, all while figuring out what they want you to be. At the same time, as a player you are of course role playing the character role playing a character, so it can get confusing. The game then throws curve balls at you through situations where you awkwardly have to choose between authenticity and playing your role. It deals with its subject really well and I liked how interactive it was, through frequent choices (and no explicit choice always being available as a choice in itself).
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Comment on What writing 'tics' stand out to you? Repeated phrases, strange words, or otherwise weird stuff that jumps out at you. in ~books
text_garden Link ParentInstead of thinking of it in terms of direct substitutes I would reach for "show, don't tell". Below I never directly attribute anything to anyone and I never explicitly write how something is...Instead of thinking of it in terms of direct substitutes I would reach for "show, don't tell". Below I never directly attribute anything to anyone and I never explicitly write how something is uttered, but I feel like it comes across well enough, and that the dialogue is more animated for it:
He looked up at the night sky, holding his hand out in an exaggerated theatrical pose. "Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck." She pushed his hand back down in laughter. "Nice one, Macbeth, but how do you suppose we navigate?" Looking back up, he still held onto a smile, but scanned the stars carefully this time. "That bright one right there would be the north star, I think." It was her turn for theatrics. "Behold! He doth pluck after all!"
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Comment on What writing 'tics' stand out to you? Repeated phrases, strange words, or otherwise weird stuff that jumps out at you. in ~books
text_garden LinkDune series. "Presently" in the sense "soon". I think Frank Herbert just really liked the word. I googled "frank herbert presently" just now, and that sense of the word is apparently obscure...Dune series. "Presently" in the sense "soon". I think Frank Herbert just really liked the word. I googled "frank herbert presently" just now, and that sense of the word is apparently obscure enough that the leading theory on Reddit is some far-fetched nonsense about using it to distinguish between the present and Paul's visions of the future.
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Comment on ChatGPT is blowing up marriages as spouses use AI to attack their partners in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentI imagine that without ChatGPT, they would have to duke it out alone, with the confidence, compassion, stamina and patience of someone actually human. I read the article thinking it's being used...I imagine that without ChatGPT, they would have to duke it out alone, with the confidence, compassion, stamina and patience of someone actually human.
I read the article thinking it's being used in place of something like a close loyal friend taking your side to console you. But even those friends will get tired of your shit. They will develop views of their own. They will tread carefully where they don't have a complete picture. They will know when you're being one-sided. They will be concerned with your relationship. They will be concerned with your mental health. They will have a mental health of their own to be concerned with.
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Comment on Sweden's health minister has urged the EU to push ahead with social media restrictions for kids while insisting it be treated as a pressing matter in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentI suggest "diddler", for Dedicated Integer Data Dust Lavishing Entropic Robustness.I suggest "diddler", for Dedicated Integer Data Dust Lavishing Entropic Robustness.
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Comment on Sweden's health minister has urged the EU to push ahead with social media restrictions for kids while insisting it be treated as a pressing matter in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentThe EU is developing a zero-knowledge proof solution for age verification. With zero knowledge proof, proof of age can be given without revealing to the attestation provider why you want to, nor...The EU is developing a zero-knowledge proof solution for age verification. With zero knowledge proof, proof of age can be given without revealing to the attestation provider why you want to, nor to the relying party anything else about your identity. Of course, ZKP means that an age proof could be for anyone.
My main issue with it all is that it makes the barrier to entry higher for anyone wanting to run a service which the EU decides must be age restricted. This benefits large, well established businesses with practically endless resources to implement them, and disproportionately burdens new, small businesses. This is an overlooked issue of the "chat control" proposals as well, and even moreso: a complex technical solution (coincidentally pushed by lobbyists intending to sell that solution as a service) is a form of regulatory capture.
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Comment on Wireless earphones: a belated review in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentThe crucial difference is that there's a significant delay between the physical response of playing the instrument and the audio reaching your ears, in a setting where timing sound is important. I...The crucial difference is that there's a significant delay between the physical response of playing the instrument and the audio reaching your ears, in a setting where timing sound is important. I don't think you need a particularly good ear for it: handfuls of milliseconds of delay can be absolutely jarring. Some musicians may be able to compensate for it in their playing to some degree, but to most, maintaining rhythm is a matter of both feeling and hearing the instrument.
There are other contexts where that level of difference is not as important (e.g. some video games, phone calls) and others where it can be mitigated altogether by delaying whatever it's synchronized with accordingly (e.g. watching a video).
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Comment on Super Mario Bros. Remastered in ~games
text_garden Link ParentThe name and branding is like asking for a takedown request. There's a good reason most recompilation projects use names that don't directly refer to the original titles. Looks fun, so now I have...The name and branding is like asking for a takedown request. There's a good reason most recompilation projects use names that don't directly refer to the original titles. Looks fun, so now I have it downloaded at least!
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Comment on My guess and opinion on the common blockers to Linux adoption in ~tech
text_garden (edited )LinkI'm low key fine with a Linux-based system having the characteristics of the Hole Hawg of operating systems (hilarious read on the power and danger of Unix and the arrogance of its proponents)....I'm low key fine with a Linux-based system having the characteristics of the Hole Hawg of operating systems (hilarious read on the power and danger of Unix and the arrogance of its proponents). Adoption only seems relevant to me insofar that it sustains maintenance and development of the software I use and turns enough vendors onto the fact that there's enough money to make supporting it that I can easily buy or build a computer that'll run it and have a job writing software with and for it, which seems to be the case for now.
What I see as its main practical benefits as a day-to-day operating system over other options doesn't apply to my uncle or my mother. It's largely in software built by power users and enthusiasts for power users and enthusiasts. High configurability, simple ad-hoc IPC via text streams, workflow automation by the same means you use it interactively, high degree of respect and trust for the user. When the trend for a lot of commercial software is to identify and streamline some highly marketable subset of potential workflows at the expense of any other use case, a typical Linux distro software repository or even just a given single GNU tool is a kitchen sink of options tacked on over time by contributors with different ideas of what the software could be used for.
To most people, that would probably lean more towards being a weakness because considered as a design, it's unprincipled and lacks coherence, resulting in software that sometimes defies intuition and discovery by experimentation, something which Windows or moreso OS X are cleverly designed to facilitate.
I'm sure you could build an elegant, coherent desktop operating system on top of a GNU and Linux core, as Next and Apple proved you can do with a Unix-like. There are already some promising projects which I think are getting closer to that end by building their own software suites according to shared sets of design principles and methodologies. Hopefully more people will eventually find it useful enough for their own purposes because of that, but I say that for their sake, because I'm just not very interested in it myself.
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Comment on Looking for some video game suggestions based off some specific parameters in ~games
text_garden LinkI will recommend Solar Settlers. It's a sci-fi board game-like worker placement game where you need to balance production of resources to move workers around, to maintain a workforce and to build...I will recommend Solar Settlers. It's a sci-fi board game-like worker placement game where you need to balance production of resources to move workers around, to maintain a workforce and to build habitats for workers to eventually settle in within a given number of turns. Mechanically simple yet strategically deep and infinitely replayable. Difficulty will ramp up if you start winning, and then jump back down a bit if you lose, so it kind of self-balances to your skill level as you play more and more rounds. Rounds are short and all the context is on a single screen. You eventually get to unlock new alien species to play, so there is some degree of drip feeding new game elements, but not in a way that feels exploitative or particularly limiting.
BrainGoodGames has a few more games that may be interesting to check out as well. Do note that the Linux build is stuck on some earlier version of the game, but it runs well using Proton.
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Comment on Linux noob question regarding full / partition in ~comp
text_garden LinkYou can get an idea at a glance of what's taking up that space using something like qdirstat or kdirstat, which recursively visualize which subtrees occupy most of the partition.You can get an idea at a glance of what's taking up that space using something like qdirstat or kdirstat, which recursively visualize which subtrees occupy most of the partition.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
text_garden LinkI've mostly been playing Pioneer. It's a Free software take on what is essentially Elite II: Frontier, a space sim set in a future where much of the galaxy has been colonized by humans, You travel...I've mostly been playing Pioneer. It's a Free software take on what is essentially Elite II: Frontier, a space sim set in a future where much of the galaxy has been colonized by humans, You travel around with a ship to make ends meet however you want (trade, mercenary work, exploration, smuggling, policing, assassinations, passenger traffic, courier services, shipping...), with very simple simulations of things like economics, conflict, legal systems and so on. It's all at realistic scales, although you can use some kind of wormhole travel and time compression to make travel bearable. The spaceships have crazy levels of acceleration, yet even so it would take days to do even interplanetary travel in real time.
I enjoy it. Although a lot of its basic concepts are more fleshed out in Elite: Dangerous and its production values are nowhere near that, the relative simplicity and quick startup makes this fun enough in its own right. Very addictive, especially if you have a weakness for "numbers going up". They can do that forever here, and there's always a better ship to buy or some subsystem of the ship to upgrade. If you like the original Elite or Frontier, it's a no-brainer, but I can't make a great case for why you shouldn't play Elite: Dangerous instead.
The greatest weakness is the sound I think. The music and sound effects really aren't to my liking. The lighting and graphics aren't great either, but functional. The ship models in particular are actually pretty great.
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Comment on What's an RPG? (video game) in ~games
text_garden LinkRPGs put players in the shoes of characters and give them a great degree of freedom in deciding in how to approach problems. Traditionally, role playing games ensure that these choices are...RPGs put players in the shoes of characters and give them a great degree of freedom in deciding in how to approach problems. Traditionally, role playing games ensure that these choices are grounded in the characters and the world through the use of systems, a game master and an element of random chance.
Systems govern things like how dexterity affects a character's ability to dodge a blow, how much light a light source provides, how a character's intelligence affects their ability to comprehend information, how much a piece of armor protects you, how fast you can move, how the character learns new skills etc. The game master essentially decides what the world is, what's in it and what happens as the player characters interact with it and narrates it to the players, and takes on multiple roles of non-player characters in the game. The element of random chance ensures that neither the game master nor the players are in complete control of the outcomes of player choices. A player bad at throwing things can throw a knife with the likely outcome of failing but still succeeding by chance.
The systems also typically ensure that player characters can develop and change over time, and the players have to adapt their play styles to accommodate this, but typically also has a great degree of freedom in how a character changes: what weapons and armor they use, what skills they should develop and so on. The players themselves are responsible for maintaining the non-systemic aspects of the character's development: their personality, how they should react to the world and so on.
When these concepts eventually became the subject of single-player computer games some changes were necessary. First of all, the game master had to go and be replaced by more systems and random chance. Especially early on, the degree of freedom and level of narration of traditional RPGs was limited by relatively meager computer resources. Where you could ask a good game master to describe anything or make an unconventional but valid use of a skill in a traditional RPG, you were now limited to predefined interactions and overtly fixed, simple and terse narratives and descriptions, and simplified interactions with non-player characters.
If your character was a kind of wizard or conjurer, in a traditional RPG they could for example use magic to create an explosive blast, and use that to cause a cave-in to block off a corridor, extinguish torches, turn water into steam, intimidate a non-player character or whatever they could think of that the game master agreed was a realistic application of the skill, but in early computer RPGs the use of that kind of magic might instead have been limited to just being used as a direct attack against an enemy.
This improved as computers got more powerful and the techniques to design narratives and systems that more closely approached the flexibility and freedom of traditional RPGs were developed. Visual art and animation could do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to descriptions. Narratives and changes in the narratives could be supported by a lot of text, video and voice acting. Useful abstractions that allow a great deal of interaction between different objects and characters were developed.
Second, making everything a system allowed for an entirely different mode of play. Computers can roll millions of dice in a second and resolve the systems checks without player interaction, so RPGs played out in real time were now an option.
It turns out that simpler approaches to computer RPGs are interesting enough in their own right to survive to this day, and that maybe there's a sweet spot between interactivity and narrative that is appealing to a wider audience. So right now there are a lot of different concepts of what an RPG and especially computer RPG is and what it should aspire to be.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
text_garden LinkI finished the synthesizer portion of the software groovebox I described here. The hardest part was keeping the number of controls limited without sacrificing too much flexibility. The sound...I finished the synthesizer portion of the software groovebox I described here. The hardest part was keeping the number of controls limited without sacrificing too much flexibility.
The sound turned out quite TB303-like but with a very distinct quality because it's all faked using phase distortion synthesis. I made the "filter" slider continuously morph from a sawtooth to a square via a sine instead of using a switch to change waveforms. The "resonance" control just mixes in a sine wave at the guesstimated resonant frequency, which is synchronized with the oscillator that provides the body of the sound and also fades to zero over the duration of a single cycle. This is probably illustrated more clearly in figures 18 and 19 of Casio's patent. One notable "improvement" on the patent is that I introduce feedback modulation of the phase, like in Yamaha's FM synths. That becomes a really nasty fuzz/distortion effect in this design.
For now it sits in my music prototyping/hacks repo is a JACK application that accepts MIDI notes and pitch bend, with simple on-screen sliders for the timbre controls. I will use MIDI messages internally for sequencer control once I build that, so it should be plug-and-play. If anyone wants to give it a go and are comfortable with JACK, the source is available here. I'm using Zig, but I haven't updated that in a while so I only know it builds with version 0.14.0-dev.2605+136c5a916.
Hopefully it will only be enacted once EU's zero knowledge proof solution for age verification has been implemented.