#(and this was the only one available at the time that had all the hardware i needed--it was the same model just a bigger size)

[bosspigeon]

something i think is very funny about veilguard is the black sclera FINALLY being an option now

i know i was pretty fuckin loud about qunari/vashoth NEEDING to have black sclera back in the day (it sets them apart a bit more as something more than just "taller humans with horns) , and i still stand by that, tbh, but upon playing da2 (the game with the first Solid Qunari "design"--even if it was like three models reused ad infinitum) for the first time in several years on a bigger screen and higher definition, i've come to a realization

i don't think the qunari actually ever had black sclera, i think their eyes were just so deep-set and shadowed by their brow (because THE HORNS FOLLOW THE BROWBONE, VEILGUARD!!!!) that it just looked like the da2 qunari's sclera were black!

so, we were wrong the entire time

but i WILL keep doing it regardless😤

[awkward-teabag]

This was what I was taught in school. You make sure the site works on different browsers and at different resolutions and you absolutely do not rely on hardware to compensate for you being a bad designer.

Granted this was the 00s so hardware acceleration wasn't much of a thing but still, the most important part of your job was that the site didn't punish people for their hardware/OS/resolution/browser. If people couldn't use it (or could but it was broken and/or slow), you failed.

Even in the days of Angelfire and Neocities 1.0 where gif- and midi-infested sites were a risk, if you looked up how to build a website, you'd be told not to use them just because you could and to be mindful of what others may have to deal with such as speakers turned on (don't play music unprompted and certainly don't jack up the volume and hide the pause button if you do), don't use bmps for images because they're godawfully massive and people may have slow internet and/or a data cap that a few images could take a chunk out of, make your site legible (your ~aesthetic~ doesn't make white text on yellow background readable), and so on.

Even during the MySpace era, a lot of this still held true and was seen as something you just did if you at all cared about people who would see your site.

But then hardware acceleration became commonplace and the internet became more corporarized by people who didn't have to worry about dial up, data caps, or using a machine more than 5 years old in their personal experience. Now so much of it relys on hardware to compensate for bad optimization and prioritizing looks over function and, even with widgets, you basically have to gut it and rebuild it from scratch to get away from it eating RAM like it's trying to download a car.

To say nothing of the added strain that ads cause.

Disabling hardware acceleration (god it's horrible and can cause so many issues), having ad block, and using script block to manually control how much Javascript I have to deal with is the only way to use some sites and get me to not click away out of frustration.

Sure it means some sites are broken or need to be reloaded but it makes the internet far more usable these days even with the drawbacks.

i think that web developers should be fucking required to test their shit on bad computers. it's unconscionable the way some shopping websites run.

having recently upgraded my computer from a 10-year-old castoffs build to a mid-high-grade gaming computer, it is WILD how many sites i thought were GARBAGE, just actually entirely unusable!! (one of these was ulta, but another one was an indie sex toy company!!! >O ). and it turns out they seem fine... on a computer with a near-to-highest-gen processor and a video card the size of a tank!!!!

this is ridiculous, you can't expect to sell to people when you don't know if they can't even get through checkout on your heavy-ass site! calm it tf down. make it run without 32 of gods own gIGS OF RAM. i swear to fuck

[milkteabinniechan]

*⁠♡Happy Father's Day - Chan

MINORS DNI 18+ ONLY membership // m.list

pairing: single dad! Chan x afab reader

warnings: fingering, lots of mouth sounds, angst (if you squint your eyes)

I’ll tell him about you.

Your friend had an adorable three year old. A loud, sticky, energetic three year old. But adorable nonetheless. You had a pretty regular babysitting gig going. A few people around your neighborhood had talked and heard about your services and now you were basically a seasoned vet when it came to entertaining toddlers.

But your friend was a full time stay-at-home mom now and could watch her own adorable, sticky three year old. And now you needed another spot to fill those last bit of monthly bills. So she said there was a new dad at the preschool that seemed like he was struggling. “Struggling”, she said in air quotes. You agreed and asked her to give this new dad your information. Even though you mostly worked with the mothers, money was money.

A few days passed and eventually your phone rang, an unknown number flashing on the screen.

“Hello?”

“Uh, yeah. Hi. This is Chan. The.. uh.. Dad from Sunnyvale Preschool? I was told you could help me out with babysitting?”

He sounded nervous, or maybe he was just a shy person. Maybe he hated talking on the phone. But did his voice sound sexy? There was a deep, velvety smoothness to the way he spoke. Even between the stutters and pauses. You lingered for a moment, lost in the thought of that voice of his.

“Are you still there?” His voice pierced through your eardrum.

“Shit. Sorry, yeah. I’m here. And yes, I am available. Do you have time this week to set up a meet and greet?” your voice quickly went into customer service mode, knowing exactly what to say, memorizing the script you had made for yourself months ago.

THe two of you agreed on a time and day and said your goodbyes. You took a deep breath and tried to forget the way the sound of his voice made you feel. And you prayed all night that he didn’t look as good as he sounded.

Soon, you found yourself at the front door of Chan’s house. An expansive four bedroom home with one of those driveways that was nearly at a ninety degree angle. The door itself was large with two thin lines of stained glass running vertically down the front. A wooden WELCOME sign layed lazily against the door. A novelty sign you could buy as a last minute purchase at a hardware store. The front door clicked open and Chan stood in the doorway, child on his hip.

“Come on in,” He said warmly, arm gesturing for you to walk inside, “Did you find the place okay?”

Inside was a long staircase leading up to the bedrooms, a chandelier hanging from the top floor and swinging down gracefully into the foyer where the three of you stood. Past the stairs was a long hallway that led to the living room and an open floor plan kitchen. Windows surrounded the rooms in a sunlit blanket that made the whole house seem as if it was holding its arms out to you, embracing you.

The three of you sat down on the sectional couch in the living room. You sat on one end, while Chan and the small child sat together on the other corner. Chan introduced the small girl as Lilly. She clung to Chan tightly, her small, chubby finger gripping onto his shirt as if it were a lifeline. You smiled at Lilly and introduced yourself to her. You held eye contact with only her and asked her about some of her favorite things. You had learned over the years that children appreciated when you spoke to them like you understood them. Like everything they said was important, because to you it was. Lilly lit up and talked excitedly about some of her favorite books, jumping at the opportunity to show you. She ran to her room and hastily returned with a few small books. One was about animals, another was about a tractor that made a new friend. You exclaimed in amazement at Lilly’s amazing books. She was smart and she was quiet, but you could tell she was very well loved.

Chan watched the two of you talk about books and the different noises that animals make. It had been a long time since he had seen Lilly open up to someone so quickly. It made his heart feel full to burst, seeing the way you interacted with his daughter.

“You’re hired.” Chan said as you started to walk out of the door. His sudden decision startled you, usually it took most parents to call a few days after the meet and greet. You smiled warmly at Chan, giving him a firm handshake. The two of you quickly made a schedule of the days you would be working and before you knew it, you were in the routine with him.

Months went by with the three of you falling into this routine. You knew exactly when Chan would get home, you knew the foods that Lilly liked to eat, with her tastes changing by the week. You knew when to have dinner on the table and when to have Lilly in bed. And there was comfort there. A comfort in Chan coming home, in making a meal for him. You loved Lilly, and you couldn’t ignore this role that you were easing into.

“Happy Father’s Day!”

Chan walked in the door to find you greeting him with balloons and a cake on the dining room table. Lilly ran to Chan and squeezed his leg. You stood by the balloons and cake, waiting for his reaction. But for a moment he just stood there. Then, he picked Lilly up, propping her on his hip and walked towards you, embracing you with his free arm. He pulled you in close and whispered a soft thank you against your neck. As he pulled back from the hug, the two of you lingered there for a moment, caught heavily in the tension building thick between you. Later that evening, you walked back downstairs from putting Lilly to bed. You entered the kitchen to see Chan cleaning off the rest of the plates and silverware, blue frosting speckled on forks and spoons alike.

“I hope the cake wasn’t too much,” You spoke softly, moving towards Chan at the sink, “It was Lilly’s idea, she really wanted a cake.”

Chan chuckled softly at the thought of his daughter begging for a cake, with only blue frosting, blue being her current favorite color.

“It was perfect,” Chan stopped washing dishes and turned towards you, “you’re perfect.” Chan slowly moved his hands from the warm sink water, to your waiting waist. His fingers crept along your stomach and landed flush along your back, pulling you close to his body. You gasped at the sudden movement, but your body reacted reflexively to his touch. He took you by the hips and propped you up on the kitchen counter. He moved in towards your legs, spreading them open, making room for him. He gripped your thigh with his large hand and pulled it up and around his waist. Your eyes burned bright at his brazen actions as you wrapped your hands around the back of his neck, pulling him into a deep, possessive kiss. Chan forcefully glides his tongue into your mouth, letting it graze across your teeth. You let out a soft gasp as you feel his tongue slide inside, sending a shiver up your spine. You open your mouth wider for him, letting your tongues tangle together in a slow, sensual dance. You press against Chan, craving more of his touch, desperate for it.

He lets his hand fall lazily down your chest, then your stomach. He easily unclasps the button of your pants and lets his hand slip inside. The rush of warmth from his hand causes your head to fall back, your back arching at his every movement. A low growl escapes from inside Chan’s chest seeing how responsive you are to his touch. He lets his teeth graze lightly along the skin of your neck while his fingers trace hypnotic circles around the entrance of your cunt. He can feel how wet you already are for him and it causes something feral to happen in his brain. He buries his fingers deeper inside you, the sudden impact and pressure causing you to squirm and squeal pathetically in his strong arms.

A small, faint cry comes from the top of the stairs and suddenly the two of you snap back into parent mode. The sound of Lilly’s tiny voice pushing all other thoughts and feelings aside. The two of you run upstairs to find Lilly in her bed, crying from a nightmare.

Chan melts instantly at the sight of his daughter safely lying in her bed, instantly thinking the worst may have happened. He sits on the bed with her and holds her close. He consoles her and reminds her that dreams cannot hurt her, he reassures her that he is here to protect her. That he will always be here for her. But as he speaks, he looks at you too. He looks at you as if he wanted you to hear what he was saying as well, like he was speaking to you and Lilly. That you were both important to him. As if he wanted to protect you too. And love you too. You gave Chan a small nod, so he knew you understood. You loved him too. And you would protect both of them with your whole heart.

taglist: @simply-trash5 @sugawhaaa @trixiekaulitz @chrizzztopherbang @cassidymb121 @roanns-posts @staysinbloom @yaorzu-blog @bubblebisk @cotton-candycloudz @beautyinhypnosis @domicaru @strawberry31 @slxtmeri @newhope8 @tinyelfperson @dandelions-143 @stayyyyyyyyyyyy21 @msauthor @fun-fanfics @ell0thebell @stephanieeeyang @juskz @kimahreummm @readr1221 @kayleefriedchicken @ovulatingrn @hwnglixho @darthmaddie25 @queen-in-the-shadows @itgirlalisaa @miinhoo

[techav]

On Multitasking

Sharing a Computer with Friends

The Motorola 68030 was a decently powerful microprocessor for its day. It is a fully 32-bit processor with 16 general-purpose registers, separate instruction & data caches, memory management unit, 18 addressing modes, over 100 instructions, pipelined architecture, and was available rated up to 50MHz. It was used in computers by Apple, Amiga, NeXT, Sun, Atari, and saw further life embedded in devices such as printers, oscilloscopes, and network switches. It was the kind of microprocessor used for desktop publishing, 3D CAD & animation, photo & video editing, etc.

In short, the 68030 is a microprocessor that can do some serious work. That's part of why I like it so much. It's a real workhorse chip but as far as 32-bit microprocessors go, it's dead simple to build with.

But running a single quick & simple BASIC program hardly seems like an adequate exercise for such a capable chip.

There is a prevailing claim that the 68000 architecture was heavily inspired by that of the PDP-11 or VAX minicomputers — powerhouses of the previous generation of computing. These machines ran entire businesses, at times servicing many simultaneous users. Surely the 68030 with similar capabilities but significantly faster instruction throughput than the decade-older machines would be more than capable of handling such a workload.

As I've mentioned before, one of my end goals for my 68030 projects is to run a proper operating system. Something like System V, BSD, or Linux; a true multi-user system befitting of the 68k's architectural heritage. My programming skills are limited, and getting such a complex project running is still outside my reach. But I am learning, and slowly inching myself closer to that goal.

Recently I built an expansion card for my Wrap030 project to add another four serial ports to it. In the context of the old minicomputers, another serial port means another terminal, which means the ability to serve one more user. My new 4-port serial card should give me the ability to add four new user terminals.

If only I had software capable of doing so.

Excluding symmetric multiprocessing and today's multi-core behemoths, supporting multiple user processes on a single computer processor means dividing time between them. The computer will run one user's program for a little while, then stop and run another user's program for a little while. Do this fast enough and neither user might ever notice that the computer is paying attention to someone else — especially since the computer spends much of its time just waiting for user input.

There are a few ways to accomplish this, but the simplest is to just make sure that every user program is written to cooperate with the others and periodically yield to the next user program ("Cooperative Multitasking"). A good time to do this is whenever the program needs to wait for input from the user or wait for a device to be ready to accept output.

Enhanced BASIC (68k EhBASIC), which I have been running on all of my 68k computer builds, was written in such a way that lends itself well to this sort of cooperative multitasking. It runs a tight loop when waiting for input or output, and while running a BASIC program, it stops at the end of each line to see if the user has pressed Ctrl-C to stop the program. This means that EhBASIC never goes too long without needing to check in with slow I/O devices. All that would needed is a simple kernel to set things up and switch to another user's processes whenever each time one of them is waiting for I/O.

So I set about creating such a minimal multi-user kernel. On startup, it initializes hardware, sets up some data tables for keeping track of what each user program is doing, loads BASIC into RAM, then starts running BASIC for that first user. Whenever a user process needs to read data from or write data to its terminal, it asks the kernel to handle that I/O task for it. The kernel will save the state of the user program to the data table it set up in the beginning, then switch to the next user to let it run until it too asks for assistance with an I/O task.

The kernel works through all user processes round-robin until it loops back around to the first user. After restoring the state of the user's process the kernel will service the I/O task that user process had originally requested, and return to let that user process run for a little while again. So all of the other user processes get their chance to run while one is waiting on data, and each process makes sure to allow the others a chance to run for a while when they are in the middle of running their own program.

I was able to throw together a quick proof of concept using the EASy68K simulator. What followed was days of catching all of the tiny mistakes I made, such as saving register A0 to the memory location reserved for register A1, overwriting the value previously saved for A1 and effectively losing both in the process — an error which resulted in BASIC printing only the first three characters of its startup header followed by a long string of null characters.

Debugging was tricky. I was starting from the bottom. No standard library, no existing structure or frameworks to rely on. The kernel process relied on the very same registers the user programs were using. Any changes to register contents by the kernel would affect the user processes. I ended up adding assembly macros to print short statements and register contents to the kernel console to try to get some insight into what was happening. I was able to track when registers came out of the user context save/restore process different than when they went in to find where I had bugs in that process.

This was a challenging project resulting in nearly a thousand lines of very low-level 68k assembly code, all of which I wrote and rewrote multiple times before figuring everything out. I've written small pieces of assembly code over the years, but none which required such deep dives into the CPU documentation to discern fine details of how the chip operates. I got there eventually though and now I have an 8MHz 68030 homebrew computer with 2MB of RAM that can run four BASIC programs simultaneously.

I'm going to need more terminals.

[river-taxbird]

Have YOU got an old Windows PC Microsoft has told you can't run Windows 11? It's time to give it a new life!

How to install Windows 11 on unsupported PC Hardware using Rufus. You can also disable some other Windows 11 bullshit like data harvesting and needing a Microsoft account.

It has been in the news a lot lately that Windows 11 isn't allowed to be installed on PCs without certain requirements, including the TPM 2.0, a chip that was only included in PCs made in 2018 or later. This means that once Windows 10 stops receiving security updates, those PCs will not be able to (officially) run a safe, updated version of Windows anymore. This has led to an estimated 240 million PCs bound for the landfill. Thanks Microsoft! I get you don't want to be seen as the insecure one, but creating this much waste can't be the solution.

(I know nerds, Linux is a thing. I love you but we are not having that conversation. If you want to use Linux on an old PC you are already doing it and you don't need to tell me about it. People need Windows for all sorts of reasons that Linux won't cut.)

So lately I have been helping some under privileged teens get set up with PCs. Their school was giving away their old lab computers, and these kids would usually have no chance to afford even a basic computer. They had their hard drives pulled so I have been setting them up with SSDs, but the question was, what to do about the operating system? So I looked into it and I found out there IS actually a way to bypass Microsoft's system requirement and put Windows 11 on PCs as old as 2010.

You will need: Rufus: An open source ISO burning tool.

A Windows 11 ISO: Available from Microsoft.

A USB Flash Drive, at least 16GB.

A working PC to make the ISO, and a PC from 2018 or older you want to install Windows 11 on.

Here is the guide I used, but I will put it in my own words as well.

Download your Windows 11 ISO, and plug in your USB drive. It will be erased, so don't have anything valuable on it. Run Rufus, select your USB drive in the Device window, and select your Windows 11 ISO with the Select button. (There is supposed to be a feature in Rufus to download your ISO but I couldn't get it to work.?

Choose standard windows installation, and follow the screenshot for your settings. Once you are done that, press Start, and then the magic happens. Another window pops up allowing you to remove the system requirements, the need for a microsoft account, and turn off data collecting. Just click the options you want, and press ok to write your iso to a drive.

From there you just need to use the USB drive to install windows. I won't go into details here, but here are some resources if you don't know how to do it.

Boot your PC from a USB Drive

Install Windows 11 from USB Drive

If you had a licensed copy of Windows 10, Windows 11 will already be licensed. If you don't, then perhaps you can use some kind of... Activation Scripts for Microsoft software, that will allow you to activate them. Of course I cannot link such tools here. So there you go, now you can save a PC made from before 2018 from the landfill, and maybe give it to a deserving teen in the process. The more we can extend the lives of technology and keep it out of the trash, the better.

Additional note: This removes the requirement for having 4GB Minimum of RAM, but I think that requirement should honestly be higher. Windows 11 will be unusable slow on any system with below 8GB of RAM. 8GB is the minimum I think you should have before trying this but it still really not enough for modern use outside of light web and office work. I wouldn't recommend trying this on anything with 4GB or less. I am honestly shocked they are still selling brand new Windows 11 PCs with 4GB of ram. If you're not sure how much RAM you have, you can find out in the performance tab of Task Manager in Windows, if you click the More Details icon on the bottom right. If you don't have enough, RAM for old systems is super cheap and widely available so it would definitely be worth upgrading if you have a ram starved machine you'd like to give a new life.

[cottonlemonade]

A Simpler Life - Masterlist and random Headcanons

pairing: post-time skip Kita x chubby!Reader genre: fluff, slice of life, mutual pining, slow burn, eventual smut warnings: spoilers, eventual mdni, nsfw (part 4) synopsis: In pursuit of a calmer, simpler life you flee the city to move to the countryside - only to fall in love with your neighbor. [part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4]

Here are some thoughts I had while writing that didn’t find a space in the story:

> it took Kita a solid hour to formulate his first note to you

> before having sex for the first time, Kita goes to buy condoms while he is on an errand in the city so as to not alert the entire town - he is really careful about it all only to then realize that you went to buy condoms at the town‘s pharmacy so all his sneaking was for naught and he gets knowing looks next time he’s grabbing supplies from the local hardware store

> he swears the local grannies to secrecy so nothing gets back to Yumie before it‘s time

> he has definitely been happy about accidentally cutting his hand while trimming a tree because he was looking forward to getting fussed over by you

> when you start dating, Roku‘s bed systematically moves closer to the house every couple of weeks - of course Kita notices but he doesn‘t say anything because he thinks it‘s too adorable and by Christmas morning Roku‘s bed is inside, in the corner next to the front door

> I looked up typical dog names in Japan and found that it‘s usual to name dogs numbers depending on their litter size and it felt very appropriate for Kita to do that (Roku means six)

> when you mention that you miss certain veggies from your home country that are not readily available in Japan Kita goes out of his way to grow them for you in his greenhouse

> Kita continues to run his farm successfully while you spend your days helping out around town with whatever necessary 

someone called in sick at the bookstore? They call you to jump in

they need help organizing a school festival? They know you have the best ideas

one of the grannies wants to paint her bedroom pink? She knows who to call

these little odd jobs fulfill you so much more than any office ever did and Kita is so ridiculously proud of how fast you became such an integral part of his community

> he proposes to you with those little wild tulips

> (I chose these plants because a) I wanted a small wildflower native to Japan and b) white tulips symbolize purity, innocence and respect, plus these particular flowers (tulipa edulis) are said to have an effect of vigor - imo that just fit perfectly because as I said before, once Kita has you, he is insatiable)

[iamderp07]

Meet Eddie Dear's Family! These are my new Welcome Home Original Characters (WH OCs) that I created based on Eddie Dear, one of my favorite WH characters! It took me a while to finish them, but I'm happy to have them out of my head!

Some Dear Siblings HeadCanon/Fanon Facts down below 🤣👇

1. Their parents are Elizabeth and Eddison Dear. Beth is from Texas, and Edd is from Louisiana.

2. Emmett is the oldest among the three Dear siblings, and Eddie is the youngest. Ellie is the middle child and the one and only daughter of Beth and Edd (All of them are equally loved, don't worry 😆🤣👍).

3. Emmett is 8 years older than Eddie, while Ellie is 4 years older than Eddie.

4. Eddison and Emmett work at the family-owned hardware shop, with Emmett often handling deliveries using his truck. Beth works at the family post office, where she used to work alongside Eddie. Meanwhile, Ellie owns a diner that was passed down from her grandparents.

5. The Dear siblings all have mitten like hands! Though Ellie has more feminine ones. Perfect for hugging their friends, neighbors, partners, and of course each other!

6. Eddie frequently stays connected with his family through phone calls and mail. ☎️📬

And I like to think that they've added a personal touch to their letters by using custom designed letters, each serving as a unique signature from every family member.

7. Emmett inherited his name from their great-grandfather on their mother's side, while Ellie and Eddie's names were derived from their parents' names - a shortened and endearing version:

Elizabeth - Ellie

Eddison - Eddie

8. Ellie and Eddie talk a lot about their day via phone call-A LOT. During late-night conversations, they end up talking for hours. Eddie often shares a lot with her about Frank, and she loves listening to her brother gush about him.

9. Emmett and Eddie also talk via phone, where Emmett tends to let Eddie take the lead in the conversation. There are times when Emmett ends up dozing off but still holds onto the phone.

10. During calls and when together, Emmett assists Eddie in managing his forgetfulness, much like their father. Emmett provides advice and solutions, especially when he notices Eddie in need of help or feeling troubled. Ellie also contributes in a similar supportive manner.

11. Eddie and Ellie are often mistaken for twins based on their looks and close sibling bond. Ellie actually gets flattered whenever someone mentions this because it makes her feel younger.

12. Among the three siblings, Ellie and Eddie have shared a close bond since childhood (probably because of the short age gap and since Emmett works a lot with their Pa). Despite Emmett being the more reserved and stoic one, all three of them have a good sibling relationship.

13. Emmett is usually fine with receiving hugs but occasionally gives one.

14. Emmett's instrument of choice is the guitar, while Ellie likes to play the harmonica. Eddison bought Ellie her own harmonica for her 12th birthday, and she has always carried it around with her since then.

15. Ellie and Emmett had their Mailman/Mailwoman phase.

16. Ellie is lesbian while Emmett just assumes he is cisgender. He wrong, he is actually bisexual ufhsjgkxxjgz

17. Ellie is like the second mom of the family.

18. At some points during the year, Eddie heads back to his hometown to visit his family.

19. Ellie has a terrible fear of heights.

20. One of the reasons why Eddie has a fear of bugs is probably because of Ellie.

21. Emmett would bring Eddie alongside him during his deliveries when Eddie is around and available.

22. When Ellie and Emmett first arrived in the Welcome Home Neighborhood, Wally somehow mistook them as Eddie's parents. This made Eddie laugh.

23. Emmett is actually good friends with Howdy and Barnaby. Howdy and Emmett would talk about business, while he and Barnaby tell each other jokes.

24. Ellie actually has good balance and poise. But gets all clumsy when she's flustered.

25. Ellie has a crush on one of Julie Joyful's siblings. Specifically, she has a crush on Franny Joyful.

[pareidoliaonthemove]

Left for Dead

Part One

Scott Tracy breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the wheels of the ‘conventional’ jet he was flying left the tarmac.

His never failed to feel lighter once he was no longer touching the earth, but this time the relief was more intense than usual.

As he guided the executive jet – once Jeff’s favourite plane, a sleek long-haul commercial jet that had been the Aviation arm of Tracy Industries flagship product, and dubbed ‘Tracy One’ – exactly through the ‘gateway’ at the end of the runway climb out, the radio crackled to live. The heavily accented English of the Departures Controller for Trondheim Lufthavn gave him his final instructions to clear the Lufthavn’s controlled airspace and join his filed flightpath out of Norway and back to Tracy Island.

He only let himself relax as he hit his cruising speed and altitude, and activated the pre-programmed autopilot.

Reaching back he caught the retractable tray table and dragged it towards him, before picking up his insulated mug, a custom-made gift from Brains that allowed him to ensure he had hot coffee available on a solo flight in the plane.

He couldn’t help glancing back at the safe built into the bulkhead at the back of the cockpit. He still had grave reservations about getting TI involved in the construction of the World Government’s new high-security computer system to be based in Norway; but the World Government had wanted Tracy Industries for their reputation for excellence and security, the TI Board wanted it, and most importantly John wanted it.

Scott tried not to think about the fact that his brother was likely to include a backdoor to the system.

But Scott had been convinced that it was in the best interests of all involved to take the project on, and he had gone to Norway to meet the key personnel and personally take receipt of the plans. TI facilities would produce the various key components and they would be shipped to Tracy Island for construction by one Hiram K. Hackenbacker

Scott sighed, even Brains had been excited by the prospect of getting to look at the designs, and the attendant programming that the hardware would be running. Something about the specifications for the “new ‘unbreakable’ encryption protocols”, and “the next major breakthrough in computing, practically quantum!”

Scott was worried that the two – three if Alan inserted himself into the mix – computer nerds would back-engineer the TOP SECRET computer and incorporate it into International Rescue’s equipment.

When – and Scott was not an optimist when it came to this sort of things, so it was when and not if – the rest of the world figured out that they had that technology, there would be some uncomfortable questions that Scott would be left to try to answer.

And he was resolutely NOT thinking about what Eos could do with all that processing power. Scott had reached a truce with the Space Monitor’s pet AI, but he hadn’t made peace with it … her. She had come dangerously close to killing John, ‘misunderstanding’ or not, ‘self-defence’ or not.

Harming his family was the one sin Scott Tracy could not forgive.

The next hour or so disappeared quietly as Scott brooded on his misgivings, carefully watched the plane’s gauges, and the sky.

Sometime after the onboard computer indicated that it had successfully completed its mandatory handshake with Chinese Air Control Scott stretched, arching his back and spreading his toes within the confines of his shoes. Flying alone was great for relaxation, flying alone long distances however … no matter how good the autopilot, a good pilot never left the controls unmanned.

Tracy One, while fast, was no Thunderbird One. I’m getting soft, Scott thought bemused. Too used to the multiple mach speed of his usual means of transportation.

Settling back into his seat, Scott once more scanned the gauges … only to see them all fade out as the engines whined their rollback to idle and shutdown.

Scott swore, unbelieving, hands once more on the controls, as he quickly hit two buttons, setting his transponder to squawk distress mode, and deploying the RAT, a small drop down wind turbine that dropped from the planes undercarriage and caught the airflow, generating enough power to get some gauges and controls working.

Fingers automatically worked at the controls, reconfigure for maximum glide, run through the midair engine restart procedure. And …

Nothing.

As Scott immediately recommenced the restart, he was on the radio: “Mayday, Mayday, Maday. This is November Tango India Zero One Charlie. Twin engine roll back, loss of power. Attempting restarts. Requesting assistance to squawk location.”

No response. Scott cycled through another engine restart attempt as he waited, nervously watching the altitude numbers seemingly freefall. There was no way he was descending that fast, surely?

Two more attempts at transmitting the mayday resulted in silence. The engines refused to restart.

Scott reached for his collar and swore. The meeting had been so high security even IR’s integrated collar coms were not allowed. And Scott had been in such a hurry to get back to the Island that he hadn’t changed his clothes, only ditching the ordinary – albeit obscenely expensive – coat, suit jacket, tie and cufflinks.

No direct link home. No mid-air rescue for Scott Tracy.

No matter. He could manage.

Abandoning his attempts to restart as the altitude numbers screamed down under the threshold.

His plane was going to kiss dirt. All he could do was make it as gentle as possible.

Scott switched his attention to scanning the ground below him, looking for a suitable space. Thank god he had elected to fly west towards home, meaning he was over the Gobi Desert.

Sand was preferable to water, no matter what Gordon said.

Sand would make for a nice soft runway, provided Scott managed a tail-first. Letting a leading edge dig in would be a disaster. Even with the International Rescue approved safety features retrofitted to the standard executive jet, there wouldn’t be much for his brothers to recover if she dug in and flipped, or windmilled around a wing.

“Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. November Tango India Zero One Charlie. Restart negative. Unpowered landing necessary. Requesting immediate assistance to squawk location.”

Scott breathed carefully, focusing on his search and not the possibilities.

There!

Off in the distance Scott spotted a level area, large enough for the plane to coast to a stop on her belly.

He breathed out, mentally calculated the distance and descent, and carefully reconfigured the plane, setting the ailerons and stomping on the rudder to bring her tail around into the head wind and shed speed: side-slipping. He gently slewed her back the other way, ensuring she maintained the correct heading, but shedding altitude and speed.

This was a dangerous aerial ballet. More so than any dogfight he had been in during his service. One wrong move …

Scott’s hands were sweating on the control yoke. His heartbeat deafened him.

Oh, there was going to be so many lost of control drills for his brothers in the future. It had been too long since they had run any.

His luck held all the way down.

He managed to line up to the long axis of the space, and his tail kissed sand at the edge of the smooth space.

Metal screamed as sand ripped at the undercarriage as Scott gently lowered the length of the plane onto the dirt, and deployed all flaps and slats, increasing the resistance to the air, even as the sand resisted the movement of the hull.

And Scott became a passenger.

He kept his feet at the rudder pedals, trying to keep the plane moving in a straight line. Yaw risked rolling. But it was largely a futile effort, the path was set, determined by physics, geology and … geography!

Scott’s heart leapt into his throat as the plane hurled itself over the top of a rising dune that had been hidden by his approach angle. It was a significant drop down the other side, and the plane had lost enough momentum that it had little aerodynamic power.

The nose fell, and Scott heard yelling.

It took the eternity the plane was falling to realise that it must be him.

Impact was hard.

Metal screamed as sections of the cockpit rushed towards him, dislodged and distorted.

Something above him broke loose, swinging down into his field of vision.

It was the last thing Scott saw.

Notes:

This is Part One of my last Febuwhump Prompt from MariaShades, Part Two will actually address the prompt, but work's been mental, and Scott's been a little shit and really didn't want to crash his plane ... Oh well, better late than never.

And if I post this half, I'll stop faffing around with it and actually write the second half. In theory.

[botgal]

CA Internet Bills Status as of 7/17/2024

I had wanted to wait to make this post until all of the bills updated texts had been uploaded to the usual sites, but it appears what whoever's supposed to be updating AB 3080 has been lagging, so I'll just go with what I have for now. It'll be long as I'll be looking at their statuses and analyzing their updated texts so I'll put it under a cut for now.

A reminder that California's legislature is currently on recess and will be until August 5th. So no immediately imminent bills at this exact moments. But please read below the cut to get more information on the deadlines coming up.

When I last posted, all three of the bills had gone into review in their respective committees and sadly all of them passed out.

AB 3080: 11 Aye - 0 Nay

AB 1949: 11 Aye - 0 Nay

SB 976: 7 Aye - 4 No Vote

All three bills have been amended during their time in committees.

Ab 3080

AB 3080 was amended and passed from committee as amended, it is now available for a floor vote. This is the only one of the three bills where its amended text hasn't been posted anywhere I can find. However, in the analysis of the July 3rd meeting, there were acknowledgements made that not only is there no effective and safe way to verify age to view online content, but also that the existence of VPNs can circumvent any attempts to region lock sites designated as "adult" (the definition as it stands still appears to be limited to commercial websites where more than 1/3 of their content annually is sexually explicit). And that the methods to implement such a thing on commercial and non-commercial websites alike can be prohibitively expensive. So the author of the bill agreed to amendments in the bill as such according to the analysis:

"In response to the concerns of opposition, the author has agreed to amendments that allow a less restrictive means to suffice in meeting the obligation of the bill, mitigating the impact on protected speech and expression. The amendments provide that “reasonable steps” includes the business implementing a system that includes metadata or response headers identifying the product as sexually explicit to parental control software, embedded hardware applications, and other similar services designed to block, filter, monitor or otherwise prevent a minor’s access to inappropriate online content, or that blocks users designated as minors by the operating system of the device used to access the website. It also limits enforcement of this new cause of action to the Attorney General and requires the Attorney General to promulgate regulations to provide better direction for reasonable steps to verify age in addition to those listed."

So it appears that the bill may allow more websites instead to mark themselves or certain portions of their content as adult in order to be properly vetted by in-device content filters and parental controls that can be set by the device operators (or their parents in the case of minors), rather than a method that would require users to provide identification.

It's eased up quite a bit since its initial incarnation. But it's still better safe than sorry with this kind of bill, so Californians let's still push the state senators to veto this bill completely.

Organizations in support of this bill:

Organizations in opposition to this bill:

AB 1949

AB 1949 was amended and passed from committee as amended, and is currently referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

This one has also seen some fairly positive changes during this committee analysis as can be seen in the latest version of the bill. The latest version has removed any indications towards age verification. As well as it having changed several of its details. The bill only comes into effect and prevents the sale of data if the website has actual knowledge of the users' age, and that there shall be an option for the user to transmit a signal that they are under 18 for this purpose. Which again should help the argument against strict age verification barriers due to advertising purposes.

"a business shall not use or disclose the personal information of a consumer if the business has actual knowledge that the consumer is less than 18 years of age, unless the consumer, in the case of a consumer at least 13 years of age and less than 18 years of age, or the consumer’s parent or guardian, in the case of a consumer less than 13 years of age, has affirmatively authorized the use or disclosure of the consumer’s personal information."

"A business shall treat a consumer as under 18 years of age if the consumer, through a platform, technology, or mechanism, transmits a signal indicating that the consumer is less than 18 years of age."

But, once again, it is best to still work against this bill and prevent its passing at all in case it there's push to use it as a stepping stone for any bills which may further push an age verification agenda.

Organizations in support of this bill:

Organizations in opposition of this bill:

SB 976

This bill passed with amendments and is currently referred to the California Assembly Appropriations Committee. Unfortunately no major changes have been made. Only an amendment clarifying that any parental controls are only meant to limit access to "addictive feeds" and limit access to school hours, not any of the content. As this function still requires a "verified adult parent to a minor", this still holds open the door to potential future age verification dangers. As it still states that an application may choose to withhold services to minors altogether, and explicitly leaves open the possibility to allow provisions for age "assurance". So we definitely want to strike this one down if we can.

Organizations in support of this bill:

Organizations in opposition to this bill:

As of this moment, the California Legislature is out on recess until August 5.

The Senate Appropriations Committee (AB 1949) is set to meet on August 5, no word on whether it will be heard that day or on the next set hearing, August 12. So if you wish to send a position letter to the committee it would be best to do so a week before that date, so by July 29. Just to be safe.

No word on when the Assembly Appropriations Committee is set to meet, but the deadline for fiscal committees to pass bills through is August 16, so I expect that SB 976 will be heard before that day at least.

And AB 3080 is set to go to the senate floor rather than be seen by another committee before being read. No word on when the next bill readings will be on the assembly floor after it's reconvened August 5th, but I'll keep an ear to the ground for that.

The last day for each house to pass their bills for the year will be August 31st. So any bills we can stop before then are halted for good for the year.

And for any bills that do slip through, the last day for the governor to sign, let pass without signing, or veto bills is September 30th. So even if the bills pass from the floor to his desk, there's still time to send him messages to urge him to oppose any that slip through.

Thank you for your time, both in reading this and in taking the time to help us fight these bills.

[youlikefanficdontyousquidward]

Colonel's orders!

Summary: Quaritch contends with his crush on Lyle's partner. Meanwhile they struggle with their work load.

Gn!reader x Quaritch, Gn!reader x lyle

No warnings yet, though there will likely be some in future chapters.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Exhausted was an understatement. You were beyond that now. As far as you were concerned it had been 72 hours since you'd last slept. The brief nap the day prior barley counted, you slept for less then an hour. You'd been overworked before but this was a whole new level of stress. Without the constant stream of broken equipment you'd have passed out where you stood.

Currently you found yourself staring blankly at a broken data pad. Hardware was more your specialty but you were available so it fell to you. The irritated scientist hovered close by. Talking angrily about the importance of their work. Like it was somehow your fault they'd broken the damn thing.

To your relief Lyle popped his head in. His imposing wall of muscle cast a shadow over the scientist. They swallowed thickly before scuttling off, mumbling about getting the pad back soon.

"Aw buttercup, you're working too hard. Take a break with me." He smiled down at you. You tried to return the smile but your mouth just twitched. You groaned, suppressing a yawn as you gazed up at him. He shone in the artificial lighting, a fluorescent halo.

You'd been jittery, dropping tools and getting confused all afternoon. You'd been glad to do a more screen based task at first but now the numbers shifted and danced on the screen. Your body refusing to sit still kept flinching and kicking.

"Promise, I'm almost done. I'll come find you when I'm free." You managed to smile properly this time. Lyle looked skeptical but agreed. Leaving you with a kiss on the cheek before he strode out, causing the scientist to flinch out of his path.

More hours passed and you found yourself needed on several more jobs. Currently you were under the link unit, pulling out wires and circuit boards. Something was catastrophically wrong and you'd need to remove and reinstall the lot to even begin to solve the problem.

Dr Augestine had requested, well more demanded that you be the one to fix it. She didn't have much faith in anyone else and you'd proven reliable so it had to be you. The scientists had cleared out since you'd arrived. You think your irritable attitude had sent them scurrying off.

Though you found yourself floating outside your body now. Unable to feel the exhaustion or anger of before. You watched your hands fumble to complete the task on autopilot. You remained that way until you heard someone calling your name. You moved to pop up but misjudged the distance. Your head whacking the machine with a loud thud.

"Y/n?" Miles rounded the side, looking down at you with a frown.

"Sir?" You weakly saluted, struggling to focus on him. He tripled in your vision, wobbling and blurring. It honestly made you rather queasy.

"Lyle says you've not called up. Or back to the dorms for that matter." He looked at you, expecting some kind of answer you supposed. You didn't catch a question however so you just continued to stare blankly at him.

He sighed heavily before squatting down to your level. You'd forgotten how handsome he was up close. Sun kissed skin, icy blue eyes and all muscle. His hard features set in a worried line as he stared back at you. Your eyes could hardly keep focus on him, any of the hims for that matter.

"When was the last time you slept?" He looked deep into your eyes. You could only imagine how puffy and ringed they'd look now. They certainly felt heavy, it took so much effort to just keep open.

"Yesterday." You responded after a long hesitation. It was technically true, you'd had that 'nap'.

He scoffed at that, shaking his head lightly.

"Liar." You gaped, opening your mouth to object. He held his hand up to you, silencing your outrage. You snapped your mouth closed as he looked back to you. A playful expression crossed his face.

"Alright then, you'll do fine at my little game then." He smirked. Your furrowed your brows in confusion. A game?

"I want you to close your eyes, for a whole minute." He grinned.

"That's stupid." You responded, frowning back to him.

"Then should be easy. Close your eyes, that's an order." The humour left his face then. He held the stern expression. You sighed, rolling your eyes but followed his instruction.

You sat there slumped against the machinery, eyes closed as he counted. He'd barely made it to 15 before Miles noticed you'd nodded off. He knew you would, though maybe you'd be stubborn enough to hold off longer.

You looked so peaceful now. Eyes still puffy and almost bruised looking. Your expression was serene though. Miles hadn't thought the next part through however. He'd gotten you sleeping but what was he to do with you now.

Augestine wouldn't be a problem. He outranked her on pretty much everything these days. Her attitude with Parker had seen to that. So it'd been easy to move you off her order and onto his and he'd ordered you off duty. From his system he could tell how long it'd been since you'd actually slept.

He couldn't leave you slumped on the lab floor, no matter how content you looked. You'd be rather sore once you'd awaken and if the scientists returned and woke you before you'd fully rested? Well he wasn't going to let them find put what he'd do.

Only option left seemed to be removing you himself. You barely stirred as he leaned forward. Gently maneuvering your legs over one arm and pulling you close to his chest. In one quick motion he stood, cradling you to him.

He paused a moment but your breathing remained steady. You were so deep in sleep now, even his steps didn't cause you to stir. He wouldn't deny it to himself, he was enjoying this. Your form pressed up against him, hand splayed on his chest. You were so warm and soft, he felt like he was short circuiting.

He wanted to avoid people, scared the noise would wake you. Although seeing people eyeing the two of you did amuse him. They were so blatant in their stares, although they scattered when he looked. You looked like his like this and the idea that they'd think that made him giddy. Though the reality of things soured his mood. You weren't his, you were Lyle's and he'd likely not enjoy the rumors that were bound to spread.

He passed by the windows, bright beams of light shone through as dusk approached. It was beautiful and soon the stars would be out. Miles thoughts were back to your 'date'. God he wished he'd just kissed you, claimed you then before Wainfleet had the chance.

The last weeks he'd seen the two of you together were torturous. His arms wrapped around you, pulling you in. Playful kisses shared whenever you both had time. Hell he'd had the misfortune of coming into the mess hall when you were sat in Lyle's lap infront of your friends. He'd deliberately been changing Wainfleet's schedule since then. It was petty and it didn't work well anyway but he'd felt vindicated.

He hated overhearing the other marines talking about you. Zdog and Ja were especially egregious. Constantly teasing him about his pretty new partner. Making lewd remarks about your appearance or sexual jokes. Hell even ever stoic Mansk had got in on it.

It was only made worse when you actually met them. You'd come up to meet him and the whole squad had been there. You'd greeted Miles first, smiling so sweetly it made him ache. Then off you strutted to Lyle's side. He'd had the audacity to kiss you right there. Plastering you onto his body while he lent against the table. You'd flushed hearing his friends whistle, burying yourself in his bicep as you two left.

You wriggled in Miles arms, pulling him back to the moment. Grumbling you shifted, nuzzling your face deeper into his chest. The light rays made your skin glow. He relished the feeling, you pressing yourself in closer to him.

All too soon you were at your dorm room. He knocked but your roommate was out. Miles let himself in and carried you over the threshold to your messy bed. Crouching low to lay you down as gently as he could. You groaned again at the loss of heat, he could sympathize, not wanting to let you go yet himself. You tugged the arm still over you down and to your own chest. Your arms wrapped round his thick bicep. pinning him there.

Miles wanted to stay, to let you cuddle up to him. God just imaging you curled up on his chest was too much. It was wrong, you were spoken for and he was your boss, not to mention how much older he was. This wasn't just disrespectful to Lyle, it was disrespectful to you. If you had your senses you'd never have let him do this much. He had to leave before he made things any worse.

Untangling himself from your grip proved a struggle. Your eyes fluttering open a little as he finally managed to pull away.

"Miles?" Your spoke dreamily. Not quite awake as you looked dazed up at him.

"Shh, back to sleep." He whispered down to you, taking the last chance to tuck hair off your face.

"mmm... yes sir..." Your murmured, burying deeper into your pillows and tugging a pillow into a hug.

The heat rushed to Quaritch's face. He was jealous of a god damn bit of fabric. His heart quickened at your words though, he liked hearing you call him that.

[nostalgebraist]

Am I right in suspecting that GPT-4 is not nearly as great an advance on GPT-3 as GPT-3 was on GPT-2? It seems a much better product, but that product seems to have as its selling point not vastly improved text-prediction, but multi-modality.

No one outside of OpenAI really knows how much of an advance GPT-4 is, or isn't.

When GPT-3 came out, OpenAI was still a research company, like DeepMind.

Before there was a GPT-3 product, there was a GPT-3 paper. And it was a long, serious, academic-style paper. It described, in a lot of detail, how they created and evaluated the model.

The paper was an act of scientific communication. A report on a new experiment written for a research audience, intended primarily to transmit information to that audience. It wanted to show you what they had done, so you could understand it, even if you weren't there at the time. And it wanted to convince you of various claims about the model's properties.

I don't know if they submitted it to any conferences or journals (IIRC I think they did, but only later on?). But if they did, they could have, and it wouldn't seem out of place in those venues.

Now, OpenAI is fully a product company.

As far as I know, they have entirely stopped releasing academic-style papers. The last major one was the DALLE-2 one, I think. (ChatGPT didn't get one.)

What OpenAI does now is make products. The release yesterday was a product release, not a scientific announcement.

In some cases, as with GPT-4, they may accompany their product releases with things that look superficially like scientific papers.

But the GPT-4 "technical report" is not a serious scientific paper. A cynic might categorize it as "advertising."

More charitably, perhaps it's an honest attempt to communicate as much as possible to the world about their new model, given a new set of internally defined constraints motivated by business and/or AI safety concerns. But if so, those constraints mean they can't really say much at all -- not in a way that meets the ordinary standards of evidence for scientific work.

Their report says, right at the start, that it will contain no information about what the model actually is, besides the stuff that would already be obvious:

GPT-4 is a Transformer-style model [33 ] pre-trained to predict the next token in a document, using both publicly available data (such as internet data) and data licensed from third-party providers. [note that this really only says "we trained on some data, not all of which was public" -nost] The model was then fine-tuned using Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) [34 ]. Given both the competitive landscape and the safety implications of large-scale models like GPT-4, this report contains no further details about the architecture (including model size), hardware, training compute, dataset construction, training method, or similar.

As Eleuther's Eric Hallahan put it yesterday:

If we read further into the report, we find a number of impressive-looking evaluations.

But they are mostly novel ones, not done before on earlier LMs. The methodology is presented in a spotty and casual manner, clearly not interested in promoting independent reproductions (and possibly even with the intent of discouraging them).

Even the little information that is available in the report is enough to cast serious doubt on the overall trustworthiness of that information. Some of it violates simple common sense:

...and, to the careful independent eye, immediately suggests some very worrying possibilities:

That said -- soon enough, we will be able to interact with this model via an API.

And once that happens, I'm sure independent researchers committed to open source and open information will step in and assess GPT-4 seriously and scientifically -- filling the gap left by OpenAI's increasingly "product-y" communication style.

Just as they've done before. The open source / open information community in this area is very capable, very thoughtful, and very fast. (They're where Stable Diffusion came from, to pick just one well-known example.)

----

When the GPT-3 paper came out, I wrote a post titled "gpt-3: a disappointing paper." I stand by the title, in the specific sense that I meant it, but I was well aware that I was taking a contrarian, almost trollish pose. Most people found the GPT-3 paper far from "disappointing," and I understand why.

But "GPT-4: a disappointing paper" isn't a contrarian pose. It was -- as far as I can see -- the immediate and overwhelming consensus of the ML community.

----

As for the multimodal stuff, uh, time will tell? We can't use it yet, so it's hard to know how good it is.

What they showed off in the live demo felt a lot like what @nostalgebraist-autoresponder has been able to do for years now.

Like, yeah, GPT-4 is better at it, but it's not a fundamentally new advance, it's been possible for a while. And people have done versions of it, eg Flamingo and PaLI and Magma [which Frank uses a version of internally] and CoCa [which I'm planning to use in Frank, once I get a chance to re-tune everything for it].

I do think it's a potentially transformative capability, specifically because it will let the model natively "see" a much larger fraction of the available information on web pages, and thus enable "action transformer" applications a la what Adept is doing.

But again, only time will tell whether these applications are really going to work, and for what, and whether GPT-4 is good enough for that purpose -- and whether you even need it, when other text/image language models are already out there and are being rapidly developed.

[rearranged-fanfic]

(Update 6/3)

Sit down a spell, weary traveler. Come and sit by my fire; bask in the warmth of the flame and rest your aching scrolling finger. You'll be sitting a while, for I have a tale to tell:

Okay, so I've had a Toshiba laptop for the better part of ten years. Maybe a little longer. That laptop has survived being struck by lightning, submerged in a bathtub, and literally having a whole bookcase topple down onto it. I thought it was immortal...

I was sadly mistaken.

About six months ago, I noticed that the typing was getting sluggish. I'd patter away at the keyboard and the letters would appear with a bit of lag. That's fine, since I use Dragon to talk-to-text for quite a bit of my writing. I really only use the keyboard for final assembly, editing, and doing quick rewrites. So, it really didn't bother me. Fastforward to April, which we will call The Great Depression. The time discrepancy between typing and having letters appear on screen became a whopping 40 seconds. Yes, I timed it.

But that was okay, because I could still use my Dragon headset.

Until I couldn't.

It would connect, but the words wouldn't appear on screen. I made sure that all of my programs were up-to-date, and that everything was working. The headset connected to my family's computers just fine. So that meant it was something wrong with mine.

Without being sure if it was the hardware or software at fault, I backed everything up to OneDrive and Google Docs.

I factory reset.

Twice. To no avail.

Over the next few days, my laptop stopped registering any keyboard input at all. It got to a point where I wasn't able to turn it on or off.

Taking it to an electronics store to get repaired didn't help, either. No luck. They said that it would be more cost effective to just buckle down and get a new one, since the age of the laptop meant that I would probably be constantly maintaining it.

My poor Toshiba died kicking and screaming, putting up a fight worthy of an epic ballad.

I saved up for a few weeks, got a new laptop, and went through the rigmarole of getting all of my programs back on it. My files are in order. My life is in shambles (but that's normal, LOL).

I DID do some story work without my computer, but... it's bad. Like, I'd die in shame if I posted anything that I thumbed in. So. Many. Spelling. Errors. How people write on their phone is beyond me. That's a talent I simply don't possess.

At this point, I'm thinking of renaming this story "HIATUS" lol. JK. But I'm seriously peeved that this happened after my last big break. Why couldn't the Depression and laptop breakdown coincide nicely? I guess that's too much to ask of the universe *Shakes fist at the sky*.

I'm creating a damn bingo card for every stupid thing that happens to me while I try to write. Because this is getting ridiculous. I broke my fingers, there was a total solar eclipse, I had a major-ish mental breakdown, and my computer bit the big one. With a free space, that's a bingo. Let's hope I don't get a blackout before the end of 2024.

I doubted the fanfiction curse. I really did. But it's apparently real. And this writer's curse has teeth, people. It bites hard.

I have my MerMay two-shot pretty well done (because I was typing it during The Great Depression), but the next chapter for REARRANGED is still rough. Crimson Chapter 3 is halfway done, but who knows how long that'll take.

The bottom line is that I'm alive and still working on the stories. The next update on this blog will be the posting of several chapters for a few different works. Fingers crossed.

Also, I'm very, very slowly answering the comments in my AO3 inbox. Some of them were pretty lengthy, so it might take a bit. Oof.

If there ever comes a time that I drop this fanfiction or am unable to continue for whatever reason, either I or my husband will be posting the entirety of my outline, as well as anything that's been pre-written for you guys to enjoy. That way there are no questions left unanswered or mysteries unsolved.

[charliewhaw]

What would happen if Alastor shared and accept Vox viewpoint of adaptation of time and advanced technology? Do you think you’ll become much stronger or just become very different but the same level!?

( This is a fun question! Alastor accepting new technology? Now there’s something to be curious about! ) (( Post edited and contributed to by balloondrifloon. ))

There are two ways this would go, and both have the same result.

Way one: Alastor would have accepted Vox’s offer to join the Vees. It would have either been a blatant yes or no, no in between. However, if Alastor said yes, then it’d be purely business.

He’d keep his friendship with Vox, so there would be that. But the Vees would only serve as a source of technological advancement for him.

Vox and Alastor would work together in creating new tech, but the advertisement of this new tech would be solely left up to Vox as Alastor’s interest in tech wouldn’t be monetary.

No, Alastor craves knowledge and power. He would contribute to the technological advances without participating in their intended uses. Like smartphones, for instance: He wouldn’t play on a smartphone, but instead, make smartphones fascinating enough to play on so he could spy on people through the phone cameras and microphones. He would spend his time gathering information to use against others when the time came.

Alastor’s true involvement in the Vees would be sinister. Outwardly, though, he would be a bubbly personality that Vox would happily show off to Hell as his partner in tech.

Way two: Alastor still rejects Vox’s offer. There’s no thought behind it other than not wanting to be owned by a company. He was an individual, after all. One that won’t easily go down as just another member of some organization. If he went down in history, he would want to go down as Alastor: The Radio Demon, not Alastor, that one member of the Vees.

If Alastor doesn’t join the Vees, he would have to put a lot more effort into staying on top of technology. However, Alastor is an insanely intelligent man and learning a new trick or two is definitely in his wheelhouse. He’d easily figure out coding and hardware design, with or without Vox’s help. Alastor’s technology wouldn’t be fun and entertainment-based like Vox’s tech is. It would be more focused, refined, and skilled at gathering intelligence. This could take any form that Alastor masters, such as hacking networks, spy systems, or even branching out into something uniquely his, like voodoo-infused weapons defense.

This would be available to the public but only in small quantities, because Alastor’s technology would still not be monetary focused. It would be considered an honor and privilege to own something Alastor designed, and people would literally kill each other for it. Owning weapons defenses, or spy systems, or being a part of his hacking networks would be seen as having a rare power. A sentiment Vox could never rival because his technology is commonplace.

Vox would have to fight to keep up with Alastor’s advancements. They’d constantly be toe-to-toe. Alastor’s would be creating software to hack into Vox’s defenses and gather data on both Vox’s audience and the Vees, while Vox would be in a constant state of upping his defenses to prevent that from happening. “Angelic Security” would never have been considered nor trusted seeing as hackers had a consistent window into Vox tech privacy and firewalls.

Vox, for the safety of his company, would attempt to put his rivalry aside and ask Alastor to join him on numerous occasions. These occasions would always be followed by rejection and another temper tantrum on Vox’s part.

In either situation, Alastor joining the Vees or not, Alastor would be the first to know anything that happens in Hell. You thought he was good at gathering intel to use to his advantage before? You’ve seen nothing yet. This would make it much, much worse. You wouldn’t be able to sneeze in your bathroom without Alastor knowing. Not a piece of information can get through Hell without being already known by Alastor.

Don’t call him Alastor. He prefers Al. It looked like “ai” and that amuses him.

You may think this is a lot of work for one individual, and you’d be right. Al can’t do it all by himself.

So he’d make himself an assistant.

His shadow would do just fine. He would infuse it with electricity and it would be able to jump into his tech and help with software design. Not only that, but it could easily travel through the wires and internet further work as Al’s eyes and ears on Hell.

Al doesn’t use a microphone. He’s got a headset looped around his neck at all times. The headset has little antlers and deer ears on it.

His attire is quite modern. Still spiffy, but modern-spiffy. He wears a red jacket that’s sleek, almost plastic-looking, and lacks tatters. It gives off a contemporary, digital appearance. Instead of his monocle, he wears smart sunglasses that have a HUD display from his point of view. The hoof-shaped soles of his shoes light up and change colors like RGB lights.

He’s really fun to look at.

Al would still attend the overlord meetings, however, he would seem far less interested, wanting to get back to what he was developing. He wouldn’t go in person, instead sending a hologram, so he could work while he listened to Carmilla talk.

Al wouldn’t have a radio tower. He’d have a recording studio with soundproof pads on the walls. Instead of using only radio, he would record digital audio, which he would make available live on his radio show, then later available on his website and other platforms as podcasts.

Al is a wifi hotspot. The hotel never lacks good wifi. People get so excited to see him because it means they finally have full bars in Hell’s naturally spotty connection. Vox’s wifi doesn’t reach everywhere, and where it does reach, it’s not exactly safe to use because Al’s hackers might be lurking, waiting for someone to connect.

Angel Dust would call him over to stand as near to him as he allows while he attempts to upload photos to Sinstagram.

Niffty wants him around while she streams her… ‘anime’… Al requests she wears headphones and keeps the screen from being tilted in his direction.

Charlie and Vaggie use him to keep up to date with the social media platforms Al advertises the hotel on.

Al runs the social media accounts for the hotel, even if they sometimes wished he didn’t. He might be technologically advanced, but he still doesn’t give a shit about what people think or say. His interest in social media is purely business and he has no fascination in it outside of keeping the hotel in the spotlight.

His influence would actually draw more people to the hotel, either as fans, or people who actually wonder if the hotel would work because someone as powerful and influential as him says it does.

He would monetize absolutely everything in social media that he could for the hotel’s budget, then leave the money at Charlie’s disposal.

Cannibal Colony takes a lot of influence from Al. Rosie does her best to keep the colony as tech free as she can, but she lets some things slip by if it means supporting her deer friend. That being said, they have an agreement that Al isn’t to bring new technology into the colony without Rosie’s approval.

Al’s voodoo power is still stronger than his tech power, but together, they’re a deadly combination. He infuses his voodoo into a lot of his tech, which is another reason his tech isn’t super mainstream. But, boy, does it pack a punch.

Al installs a soul detector at the hotel’s entrance without anyone knowing. It quite literally kicks any rejected souls away. Al decided one day that this included Lucifer. You can imagine the king’s surprise when a pixelated, hoof-cloven boot appeared out of the wall and punted him across the hotel’s front lawn.

Al’s prank was not appreciated.

Speaking of pranks, he’s constantly doing shit to ‘prank’ Hell. He never gives any context or ever comes out and says it was a prank, but you know he was fucking with you. Sometimes there’s not even proof he was, and it was simply a mind game. Pure entertainment for Al.

Like, for one example, Al dressed in blue all day long, only to act like everything was normal. He went outside and let people take photos of him. The next day, he’s back in his normal attire, and all photos of him have been altered overnight by his hacking systems and turned red. There is absolutely no proof he ever wore blue.

What? You saw it? No, you didn’t. He would never wear blue. Preposterous.

In conclusion, Alastor would be insanely powerful if he took advantage of technology. I guess we’re lucky he doesn’t.

[gothethite]

Tired of people going 'all goth fashion is super easy to diy and everyone should do that instead' because like... yes a lot of it is but some very much not. So some thoughts on how much I'd recommend diying various goth fashion stuff as someone who does a lot of it:

Simple jewellery is definitely much better to diy and particularly chains and stuff. I remember going to dangerfield one time and they had a chain with a bat ornament on in for 20 dollars 🤣 ... you can get a bunch of chain from the hardware store pretty cheaply and the exact same bat pendant on it I had got like 20 off etsy for 5 dollars. It usually doesn't take that long and extra tools e.g. pliers are helpful but not necessary - 10/10 absolutely recommend for all goths or other people interested in gothic fashion

Same thing goes for distressed clothing/fishnet shirts there are tons of tutorials for that kind of stuff, and it generally doesn't require that much time, experience or materials 10/10

Minor clothing modifications e.g. some tailoring, adding/removing parts, mending damaged old clothing, changing buttons - this is something that is really useful in everyday life, usually doesn't take that long and is very useful for turning normal clothing into more spooky stuff 9/10

Designs on clothes or patches: if you get some fabric paint, screen printing ink, bleach or even acrylic you can paint designs onto clothing pretty easily. Personally I like dilute screen printing ink as it gives the nicest surface, but it can be a bit of a pain to use as you have to do a lot of layers, and it doesn't colour the fabric intuitively in the way that fabric paint or acrylic do 8/10 - would recommend very strongly to anyone who enjoys art, and recommend trying at least once to people who don't enjoy art as much (you can always make stencils), but it does take a long time and you need some materials. Also, for patches particularly for small bands it can be better to order them from the band to support the artist, but also lots of bands don't have patches or merch or international shipping to some countries makes it not accessible

Embroidery: often looks really good and professional in a way that painted designs don't, takes absolutely ages. 7/10 - would recommend very highly for people who enjoy textile stuff and maybe trying a bit for everyone but yeah if you don't enjoy it it's a pain

Smaller articles of clothing: I've made some waistcoats and shirts and stuff which have been pretty fun and it's really good to be able to do specific designs you wouldn't be able to buy (e.g. my skeleton one) and get stuff to fit right. They were all hand sewn and took a pretty long time (however you can also do it while listening to online classes or whatever), + a bit of time to learn techniques and stuff. Definitely a cheaper than buying them 6.5/10 - do it if you enjoy textile art stuff but will probably be a really painful experience if you don't and you're hand sewing. Also useful if you've got sizing or dimensions that mean you just... can't buy stuff that'll fit which is how I got into sewing

More complex sewing: I've made 2 (well, finished one and 98% of the way through another) long spooky coats and one cape with really complicated edges and embroidery and stuff. Coat 1 was entirely by hand out of not great fabric and took absolutely ages but was definitely vastly cheaper than buying it from the store, and it fit well and everything. With the cape, I got repetitive strain injury in my thumb that still is a bit of a problem 3 years later! With the final coat it was mostly by machine and then touching some stuff up by hand e.g. edges of the lining, making the eyelets and stuff, but it still took ages. Also, something I never see people talking about with diy goth clothing is how hard it is to get the materials - there were only 3 black brocade fabrics available in my city - One was really bad quality and I tried to make a shirt out of it, but it kept falling apart. One was 150 dollars a meter. The one I ended up using was really nice and reasonably priced, but I got the last 2.5 meters of it so it almost wasn't an option. So when people talk about diying clothing being cheaper it can actually not be that much because a clothing business can get fabrics in bulk + unless your city is really big there are probably not many options, so there's also shipping costs if you then need to order fabric. Out of curiosity I compared how much the coat cost in terms of materials to the price of a similar looking coat off dracula clothing which is a pretty well known and apparently quality materials and ethically made goth fashion shop and it came out a bit cheaper but not massively so (not counting shipping...) so 3.5/10 - fun to do if you enjoy textile art as a hobby, not even vaguely a practical alternative to buying a coat

And then there's other stuff like more complicated jewellery making and leather work which idk much about

[handeaux]

Memories From Half A Century Ago; The Cincinnati Tornadoes of April 1974

On the evening of April 3, 1974, your narrator interviewed a woman who found a perfectly new, pristinely crisp, twenty-dollar bill in her front yard. This random occurrence of good luck became newsworthy because her miraculous benefit had floated down into her yard from a passing cloud that had recently spawned an F5 tornado.

At the time, I was not a reporter exactly but everyone that evening became either a reporter or a source. The memory of that day remains so fresh and clear it seems impossible that it transpired exactly fifty years ago.

In the fading afternoon, a heavy storm blew in as I drove a clunky Ford Econoline van from the Hopple Street Viaduct onto Westwood-Northern Boulevard. I was, at that time, a senior at the University of Cincinnati desperately yearning to graduate and move on to the next chapter in my life. To cover tuition, I worked as a printer for the Western Hills Publishing Company. Our offices were on Davis Avenue in Cheviot and our printing presses occupied a floor in the historic Crosley Building on Arlington Street in Camp Washington. My duties as the junior member of the printing crew involved shuttling copy and page flats from the editorial offices to the typesetting and composing staff.

As I climbed out of the valley toward the English Woods housing development, hail scattered across the road. Hailstones rattled on the van’s roof, then pounded, then stomped. It sounded like some gremlin with a baseball bat hammering on the roof as ice balls the size of oranges smashed into the asphalt all around. Tree branches cracked and split and thatched the roadway.

Somehow, I made it to Cheviot and pulled into the Press parking lot. It was full of people, just standing around. I got out and looked at the van. The roof looked like a moonscape, there were so many dents in it.

“Hey! Look at this,” I shouted. No one turned or said a word. And then I saw why.

Stretching from the horizon halfway to zenith was the tornado. It was impossible to comprehend the scale. More than two miles away, we heard no sound except endless sirens calling to one another from every direction. Where we stood transfixed it did not rain. There was no wind. There was only the tornado.

“Look at all that paper swirling around,” someone said.

“Those are garage doors,” another answered.

We watched as the horrendous vision scraped its way northward, the finger of God plowing a furrow along South Road out in Mack. We watched as it withered and lifted and twisted into nothingness against a pallid sky, waving it seemed in farewell at last as it vanished. We stared at each other, silent, unable to find any words.

Gradually, we realized that all the lights were out. There was no power in the offices. The publisher sent me around the corner to a hardware store to buy all the candles they had in stock. It was going to be a long night.

At this point, for the benefit of readers younger than I, it is necessary to explain a few details. The cash register at the hardware store was mechanical. It did not require electricity, much less Wi-Fi, to operate. The editorial offices were stocked with manual typewriters. The telephones were landlines, on a separate network, and functioned even when the power was out. Everyone had a battery-powered radio.

Anyone with the ability to write a coherent sentence became a reporter. I was sent out, still wearing my printshop uniform, in the divotted Econoline, to gather eye-witness reports. I found a small crowd at the Western Hills Country Club who had been herded into a downstairs bar while the sirens howled. They queued up for every available telephone to check in with their families. I found people in shock, wandering through piles of rubble that had been their homes, clutching any random possessions they recovered. I saw ambulances backed up in a line, waiting for utility poles and power lines to be moved. I saw people wrapped in blankets, standing in the middle of nothing left, sobbing on each other’s shoulders.

There were people who swore they saw two funnel clouds and people who claimed there were four, twisting like snakes in the sky. There were people who confessed to being so transfixed by the surreal wonder of the twister that they stood paralyzed as it swooped down on their houses.

And, in the curious way the universe laughs at we mere humans, I found humor.

There was the guy who, in a dispute with his insurance company, was photographing damage to his roof when the warning sirens erupted. He saw the funnel approaching and dove into his basement. When he emerged, his roof was gone, and so was the rest of his house, but he bragged that he had the photos to press his prior claim.

I talked to one of the rescue workers who told me about a kid, maybe 15 or 16 years old, who approached him and begged him to hide a bottle of vodka. The kid didn’t want his mother to know he had the bottle hidden in his bedroom – the bedroom that was now nothing more than a debris field.

Meanwhile, at the University of Chicago, Dr. Theodore Fujita drafted a questionnaire to be sent to almost every newspaper, every radio station, every television station in the country. Dr. Fujita asked a lot of questions about the duration and intensity of the 148 confirmed tornadoes reported that day. He and Allen Pearson of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center hoped to refine the tornado classification system they had created just three years previously. Someone at the Press filled out the questionnaire and sent it back.

A year later, having graduated from the university and transferred to the newsroom, I found a largish cardboard tube lying amid the usual pile of news releases and complaint letters that constituted our daily mail. On opening the tube – it was addressed to no one in particular – I found a map of the eastern United States titled “Superoutbreak Tornadoes of April 3-4, 1974.” Dr. Fujita, compiling all those questionnaires, had mapped and labeled every one of those 148 tornadoes.

In the center of the map, there was my tornado, the only tornado I have seen with my own eyes, officially designated as an F5 monster.

[britt-kageryuu]

Donnie is showing off some of the features that Genius Built AR glasses have, to his stream audience. With the help of their camera that can capture the AR field around them. And anything that happens in that AR field.

"The tech team had quite a bit of fun getting some VR games to translate over to AR, like that Clothes making game I made. That was probably one of the easier ones to transfer over, though for whatever reason the cloth/fabric physics kept breaking, and warping the entire outfit." Donnie while explaining this has a dressform pop into existence with a partially put together pattern 'pinned' to it.

"Though we all agree once of the greatest aesthetic features we implemented was, that from the wearers point of view there can be a videogame style HUD that is customizable. Like if you're looking for a location and bring up directions, it will show visibly like a quest marker, and optional sparkling path that you can follow." Donnie makes a purple sparkly path appear around themself that lead offscreen.

Then a pop up window appears with a message. [From Angelo: I for some reason became hyperfocused and organized the spices, drinks, and the alcohol at work. It turned out looking Oddly Satisfying. Here are the pictures! (Pictures of said organized areas, all nice and neat)]

Donnie looks at the message then realized it's visible to the stream. "Well as you can see, there is an option to have your text messages appear as a pop up. I forgot to change that setting before starting. Sigh. Reply: Those look very nice, but aren't you at work? Is it really that slow today? Send." The message they sent also shows up as a chat box, and quickly closes as Donnie opens the settings to turn off the pop up effect. Purposefully ignoring anyone in the chat asking who 'Angelo' is.

"Now, as previously stated, many personalization features are available for these GB AR Glasses. Including a portable memory bank with a solar charging battery pack, for those who want to get into the gaming." A 3D model of a bipedal purple dragon in black pants and a magenta hoodie, wearing visor style AR glasses, pops up. Apparently playing an AR pokemon style game.

"And there's a bundle in the works for vlogging or filmmaking using the AR Glasses." A 3D model of April with Mayhems ears and tail pops up wearing the AR Glasses with a drone style camera robot, recording her talking about something with pop up note floating around her. There is a 'Just a Concept' sigh next to it.

Donnie then banished them from the area before continuing. "There's still alot of things that need to be worked out before we get the first models out in stores. So please be patient. We don't want you spending a ton of money on these, only for them to not work after a short amount of time. We also want to finish up plenty of stress tests on the system and the hardware. Now please hold on minute, I need to check for any pranks that might have been rigged."

The stream audience watched as he found and still somehow triggered a prank that made a certain meme music video pop up and play. And Donnie couldn't get it to close, so the song looped 3 times before they finally found how to get it to stop.

"I will either be threatening to fire someone, or threatening fratricide, but that is for later! There are still a few more new features I want to show off in this stream!"

There are some in the chat that are still questioning about 'Angelo', but the end up getting timed out by Shelldon who only pops in to do this. And answers no questions asked.

----------------

Masterpost