text_garden's recent activity
-
Comment on What are your favorite custom games? in ~games
-
Comment on List of films adapted into novels in ~books
text_garden LinkWe should create a page for novel-film-novel adaptations. I guess there aren't many examples, but it happens! One example is Leonore Fleischer's novelization Mary Shelley's Frankenstein:...We should create a page for novel-film-novel adaptations. I guess there aren't many examples, but it happens!
One example is Leonore Fleischer's novelization Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: Novelization based on the 1994 film Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, of course based on Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein.
-
Comment on Commodore Callback flip phone in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentWhile this product seems mind-bogglingly misguided , they also released a new Commodore 64 based on the Ultimate 64 motherboard by Gideon Zweiter., which is exactly the kind of thing I'd want them...While this product seems mind-bogglingly misguided , they also released a new Commodore 64 based on the Ultimate 64 motherboard by Gideon Zweiter., which is exactly the kind of thing I'd want them to do with the brand.
-
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
text_garden Link ParentOops, it was. Should be fixed now!Oops, it was. Should be fixed now!
-
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
text_garden LinkI wrote a Mandelbrot renderer in Zig. In fact, I wrote two, in order to benchmark the difference between a single-threaded solution and a solution using as many threads as I have logical CPUs....I wrote a Mandelbrot renderer in Zig. In fact, I wrote two, in order to benchmark the difference between a single-threaded solution and a solution using as many threads as I have logical CPUs. Visualizing the Mandelbrot set was just an arbitrary choice of an embarrassingly parallel problem, but it's fun to pan around the generated image file.
-
Comment on Are there any games that had their development abandoned that you followed where you wish that continued/completed development? in ~games
text_garden Link ParentI remember that within a few days of releasing a specification for the virtual machine, people had made assemblers, Forth environments, Pascals, C compilers and so on for it. I even have a DCPU-16...I remember that within a few days of releasing a specification for the virtual machine, people had made assemblers, Forth environments, Pascals, C compilers and so on for it.
I even have a DCPU-16 T-shirt. A hand-me-down from a flatmate, though; I was hyped but not quite that hyped about it.
-
Comment on Write your own virtual machine in ~comp
text_garden LinkOn a tangential note, I recently learned of this from the winners of the IOCCC (International Obbfuscated C Code Contest). It's a single-instruction VM, using a variation of a subleq instruction...On a tangential note, I recently learned of this from the winners of the IOCCC (International Obbfuscated C Code Contest).
It's a single-instruction VM, using a variation of a subleq instruction with indirect memory addressing, connected to basic I/O like keyboard, frame buffer and a clock. The author then went ahead and wrote an LLVM backend targeting the VM and (among other things) ported Linux and busybox to it. Yes it runs Doom!
Even without the obfuscation this is a tiny, tiny C program that is surprisingly viable as a platform for much more complex programs.
-
Comment on What are your gaming idiosyncracies? in ~games
text_garden Link ParentIn Oblivion I appropriated an old house originally serving as a bandit's hideout to store junk in. Every few times I entered, a single bandit would have spawned there. I just threw out all of my...In Oblivion I appropriated an old house originally serving as a bandit's hideout to store junk in. Every few times I entered, a single bandit would have spawned there. I just threw out all of my calipers, brooms, hourglasses, shears, brushes etc. on the floor there. Eventually that turned into a single-digit FPS affair with items flying around the room due to physics glitches.
-
Comment on A vernacular web (2005, Olia Lialina) in ~tech
text_garden LinkI came to know the author's works and the concept of a "vernacular web" through Digital Folklore: the kind of folksy web that was cobbled together by amateurs or "barbarians" before the ambitions...I came to know the author's works and the concept of a "vernacular web" through Digital Folklore: the kind of folksy web that was cobbled together by amateurs or "barbarians" before the ambitions of the semantic web, Web 2.0 and so on largely took over. I don't know why I thought of it again now, but I still think it's a relevant perspectice today, if nothing else because the article is old enough that we can evaluate it as a historical item in itself.
The article predates and predicts, perhaps inspires a lot of the small movements around brutalist web design, small web, the resurgence and reimagining of tilde communities etc, Geocities nostalgia etc. through its fresh perspective on what was then the user-created web of not-that-long-ago losing to professionalization and a kind of gentrification.
A you can imagine, the choice between ~tech, ~art and ~humanities wasn't easy for this one.
-
A vernacular web (2005, Olia Lialina)
7 votes -
Comment on Your URL bar can be a CLI for searching websites in ~tech
text_garden LinkMy tangential hot tip is to disable history and suggestion entries in the address bar, leaving only bookmarks (including keyword bookmarks). I still retain a browsing history which can be searched...My tangential hot tip is to disable history and suggestion entries in the address bar, leaving only bookmarks (including keyword bookmarks).
I still retain a browsing history which can be searched separately if the need arises, but for most day-to-day tasks it's enough that I can quickly access my slowly expanding set of bookmarks.
-
Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk
text_garden LinkI firmly believe in the concept of manufactured consent in that the outcomes of superficially democratic processes are primarily designed by the still-present ruling class using the weaknesses...I firmly believe in the concept of manufactured consent in that the outcomes of superficially democratic processes are primarily designed by the still-present ruling class using the weaknesses inherent to profit-driven mass media.
But that's perphaps better viewed as a natural consequence of existing power structures than as a carefully orchestrated conspiracy.
-
Comment on What do you think about Destiny 2’s imminent death and games as a service? in ~games
text_garden LinkI have never played Destiny 2. I'll only pay for service-type games if I anticipate that I'll get more out of that than I'll lose when they inevitably kill the service. I think others should to....I have never played Destiny 2. I'll only pay for service-type games if I anticipate that I'll get more out of that than I'll lose when they inevitably kill the service. I think others should to.
The only real problem I see with this is information access. I imagine that some people aren't actually aware of the conditions that apply to buying a game like Destiny 2, because the fact that they're services that could be shut down at any time at the whims of the publisher is buried somewhere deep inside a license agreement designed more for the publisher to avoid responsibility than to actually inform consumers.
With that in mind, Destiny 2 shutting down would have the upside of increasing consumer awareness of the risks of investing their time and money in a service that could at any point be shut down by its operators, so that consumers who don't like that will be more wary of it in the future.
Still, I imagine most people affected by stuff like this will happily pay for more such games. That is their choice and reflects their values as consumers. It's not for me to say that they should stop just because don't share my views on whether a game like Destiny 2 is worth the money. Maybe they don't mind that the games they enjoy end up being passing experiences that can't be revisited as much as I do. Maybe there are other qualities of these games that they enjoy so much that they outweigh downsides of the short lifespan.
It's certainly not for a lack of options that people buy service-based games. You mention AAA games, in response to which I'll say that it's to some extent these greedy (IMO) practices that afford such games the massive amount of resources invested in them. Smaller games backed by less resources generally also means fewer practical reasons to extract every possible sliver of return from them, because they'll compete with other smaller games that can afford not to. But you can't have the cake and eat it.
-
Comment on How has inflation changed your quality of life? in ~finance
text_garden LinkFinancially it's not really an immediate issue. I spend well below my means. I'm saving less, so I guess that in the long term I'll be working more as a result. I'm also a bit more cynical about,...Financially it's not really an immediate issue. I spend well below my means. I'm saving less, so I guess that in the long term I'll be working more as a result.
I'm also a bit more cynical about, work, wages and consumption. The way I interpret this is as a massive wealth transfer from the working class to the owning class. Hopefully history will recognize it as such.
-
Comment on Movie fatigue in ~movies
text_garden LinkA couple of oldies I like: The Mark of Zorro (1920), lazy bum by day, protector of the little man at night. The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), man gets betrayed and exacts an epic revenge The Mark...A couple of oldies I like:
- The Mark of Zorro (1920), lazy bum by day, protector of the little man at night.
- The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), man gets betrayed and exacts an epic revenge
The Mark of Zorro is at least in the public domain. Not sure why you can watch The Count for free; it ought to have a few years left.
-
Comment on Do you prefer to 100% games, or to move on to new experiences? in ~games
text_garden LinkIf I've done everything remotely worth my time in an AAA open world game only to end up with 173 collectible trinkets strewn about the landscape in such a way that finding them doesn't present the...If I've done everything remotely worth my time in an AAA open world game only to end up with 173 collectible trinkets strewn about the landscape in such a way that finding them doesn't present the slightest modicum of challenge to anything but my patience and tolerance of boredom, I'm probably going to quit the game.
If on the other hand 100% means doing more of what makes the game fun in the first place, I'm more likely to play it all the way through.
-
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
text_garden Link ParentThanks! BRILLIANT!- Thanks!
- BRILLIANT!
-
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
text_garden LinkI made Snipping music. It's Steve Reich's Clapping Music, but performed by an ASCII crab snipping its claws. I implemented a small DSL, CrabML, for programming the rhythm patterns. As you can see,...I made Snipping music. It's Steve Reich's Clapping Music, but performed by an ASCII crab snipping its claws. I implemented a small DSL, CrabML, for programming the rhythm patterns. As you can see, you can write your own crab arrangements this way. The VM minus my stack implementation is only 62 LOC! The compiler is a bit bigger, but not much.
I've mirrored the entire source code on Github. There are some other WebAssembly experiments inside. I think it might be a nice introduction for a systems programmer to WebAssembly, or for a web developer to systems programming. I only do fun stuff like interacting with a canvas or the audio API.
-
Comment on Announcing web serial support in Firefox 151 in ~comp
text_garden LinkOn one hand I think this is neat. On the other hand I'm already concerned with the absolutely massive attack surface of a modern web browser. An interesting workaround if you're implementing an...On one hand I think this is neat. On the other hand I'm already concerned with the absolutely massive attack surface of a modern web browser.
An interesting workaround if you're implementing an USB gizmo and already have a use case for widely supported serial transfer to/from the browser is to implement the USB MIDI device class and use SysEx messages. That's already supported by the Web MIDI API, as far as I know in all major browsers.
-
Comment on Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of May 24 in ~games
text_garden Link ParentI'm glad you told me, because it made me look into it again. Turns out I've neglected to keep my flatpak environment up to date, and both Heroic and the graphics drivers had pending updates after...I'm glad you told me, because it made me look into it again. Turns out I've neglected to keep my flatpak environment up to date, and both Heroic and the graphics drivers had pending updates after which it ran perfectly. Thanks!
From my brief play it seems they really nailed it with this remaster. I'm more than a few levels into it with OpenLara so I'll probably finish TR1 that way, but I'll come back to this for TR2 and replays later.
It's amazing to me that a "Beloved, still actively played multiplayer PC game from 1999" Jeapordy card would have like 4-5 correct answers. AOE2 was mentioned elsewhere. I will add Unreal Tournament to the list for its mutators, without naming any specific ones. Because they typically only affect some aspect of gameplay and can be combined freely there's a combinatorial explosion of possibly fun, interesting and silly setups.