#and I know not all folks have the computer power to run them

[yukipri]

I miss him...

(Mayday)

~~

This art is a reupload of an art I drew last year! BUT this version has been Gl*zed and N*ghtshaded! Reblog to spread the anti-A*I poison

PLEASE DO NOT REUPLOAD, EDIT, TRANSLATE, OR OTHERWISE USE MY ART. To share, please reblog! Reblogs and comments greatly appreciated!!!

❀ You can see the rest of my art through the Masterpost pinned to the top of my blog!

[jenroses]

When i built my first PC, I'd done a few upgrades, but Youtube did not exist yet so there were not endless videos of "This is how you build a PC". It was fiddly and fussy and i barked my knuckles and I did something temporarily terrifying but it worked out okay and I built my PC. Then prices on bare bones dropped precipitously so for a while I was just buying barebones and upgrading them. It was cheaper that way.

Last year, a couple of games came out that I really wanted to play but my 8 year old laptop, which was making a yeomanlike effort with most games, was just flat out not in spec anymore. So I started to research. Looked at Linus Tech Tips, then JaysTwoCents, then Gamer's Nexus, Paul's hardware, Hardware unboxed... LTT had a great "this is how you do it and this is what each part is supposed to sound like going in, yes the crunching noise here is okay, no your board won't die if you get a little regular thermal paste on it, very reassuring. I watched a lot of build videos, and finally, after a couple of months, I ordered parts.

Infodump under the cut

Now, picking parts is COMPLEX and HARD and FINICKY and it changes all the time. You can be an expert builder, take a couple years off and ignore buiding for a while, and come back and like, all the parts are different! Which parts are good deals has changed! But the fundamentals haven't really changed all THAT much, even since my first build. It's still motherboard, processor, cooler, RAM, storage, power supply, internet device, basically... but gone are IDE and even SATA is now pretty archaic. In 2024, your RAM will look pretty similar but the hard drive is a dinosaur and your storage is now basically a high tech stick of gum. Prices are wild, too. You can build a passable computer which can play most games for about $600 with new parts, or you can spent $4000 to get get the absolute tippy toppy "best" parts, and the parts being actively used and recommend and sold right now cover about FOUR YEARS of product development. This is NUTS. Most of the systems I've built fall in the cheap-to-middling range.

They're all competent at most games, though my mother is annoyed that she's having trouble getting Civ2 up and running on Windows 11 in 2024. I do fine with Alpha Centuari from GOG, but no, that's not good enough. (I like Alpha Centauri about 1000% better than Civ2, but when you've got a game, you've got a game, I guess.)

So where to start?

Look at the Youtubes of the folks I mentioned up top, and look for their "Top X of ___" videos. Most of them will ALSO include still-on-the-market for previous year stuff! This is great!

Think about what you need and what you're doing on your system. Unless you are doing competitive gaming and are made of money, you do not need the top of the line anything. It's not necessary and most people can't make use of it unless they're doing high powered stuff for money. In which case you probably know what you need already. Most people will be fine gaming at 1440p (2k monitor) or 1080p. Unless you have a giant fancy monitor already, the pricing sweet spot is probably expecting to spend about $140-150 for a 2k, 27 inch monitor. If your monitor is at normal monitor distance from your face, larger than that is not going to be easy to adapt to. You can get 1080p monitors for cheaper, but any larger than 24-27 inches, 1080p starts to look weird, so really 1440 is kind of ideal for the kind of computer you plan on using for the next 5-10 years. I don't go for refresh rates lower than 120hz at this point, but higher than 180 is not going to be noticeable for MOST people. The monitor i recently bought for $140-ish was a 180hz refresh rate 2k curved monitor (1440p.)

Once you know what kind of monitor you're aiming for, you can get a sense from those review videos of which cards will get you to the frame rate you want. Look for the games you want to play, and people comparing them at high/ultra settings, and look at the FPS that various cards offer. Keep in mind that there's a huge amount of technology aimed at boosting fps, and the upsampling is pretty good now. Nvidea cards are stupid expensive and have the majority of market share. I don't bother with them. The cards I've bought in the past 2 years include (all AMD): (Upgrading a very old system, AMD RX 6400, 4gb graphics card.) AMD RX 6650XT for two people on very tight budgets. AMD RX 6750XT for a mid-range system. RX6800 for two pretty good systems last year. RX7600XT for a casual gamer on a newer system. RX 7800XT for the fanciest system for the most avid gamer in the family. In 2024, I strongly advise going for a card which is at least 12 gb but preferably 16gb of VRAM. More than that is not yet really necessary for most systems at 1440p. The video card is the single most expensive component in most systems. I tend to build to the graphics card, but it is reasonable to set a budget, get the most reasonable parts you can afford for the rest of the computer and spend as much as you have left on the video card. 8gb cards are not likely to give optimal results long term, and since I build computers for people who hate changing computers, the only reason I would go with a smaller-than 12gb card is for someone who just doesn't game much and is unlikely to start playing the kinds of games that need it.

Then there's the processor side of things. Until Intel screwed the pooch this year, most of what we were putting together, parts-list-wise in my family were systems which had intel processors and AMD graphics cards, because that was the sweet spot for us price-to-performance wise. But if you have an Intel 13th or 14th gen processor, you need to update your bios, and we're still not 100% confident in them, as a community. There were a LOT of bad processors the past two years. Also, AMD came out with a bunch of reasonably priced kickass gaming processors, and those will be best for people whose primary purpose is gaming. The processors we've leaned on the most heavily include: Intel 12400 and 12600 processors and Intel 13600 processors. But recently, knowing I was about to build a FAST gaming PC, I knew I needed to get an AMD X3d processor, and my purchasing timing happened to correlate with the 9800X3d dropping, and I managed to order one... but the ship date was in JANUARY. And it's a Christmas present. And Trump is talking about tariffs, which WILL send prices through the roof. So I decided to build another computer, and ordered parts for it. So in order to get onto the platform that 9800x3d processor will need, I picked another processor which uses the same motherboard and got that, too. And then ordered inexpensive versions of that motherboard and other parts, and whatdyaknow, I'm building two computers. But the principal is pretty sound: If you need to build cost effectively, get a lower end processor for the motherboard of the processor you ultimately want, and upgrade later when prices drop. So all those Intel 12600 systems could, later, upgrade to a 14900k and get a huge performance boost if needed. On AMD, they tend to stick with a given motherboard ecosystem for a VERY long time, so people who bought AMD years ago can now upgrade to a perfectly capable 5800x3d and be fine, but AMD is now in the 9000s, and getting a 7000 series processor is on the same board as a 9000 series, so most of the time that's the best deal, EXCEPT for a 7800x3d which is almost as expensive as the 9800x3d for reasons.

Other parts are simpler. RAM: 32 gb is the sweet spot, DDR5 prices have come down okay. Most games can't and won't use more than 20 or so gb, but many will use over the 16gb that used to be the standard rec. You can, however, get 16gb and upgrade RAM in a few years.

Storage: Optimum for gaming is probably your operating system on a 500 gb C drive ssd, your games on a 1, 2 or 4 terabyte SSD. New builds will use a M.2 2280 ssd, and they fluctuate somewhat in price, but the performance boost of ANY NVME drive is going to be worth it over SATA or a hard disk. If you are just wanting to upgrade, upgrading to a SSD and increasing your ram will give a new lease on life to old computers and make them feel a whole lot more functional. If you have an open PCIE slot, you can get an adaptor board to allow you to install an M.2 drive even on an older system.

pcpartpicker.com will let you make build lists and tell you if there are incompatibilities but it isn't perfect at sourcing RAM for the correct processor family. It will also help you find best current pricing, but isn't always accurate.

newegg has a pc builder function which is helpful but only if you buy all your stuff there. If you live close to a microcenter, you'll want to go there and shop their combo deals.

All the builder tools will give you a rough estimate of how much power you'll need. I go a bit over, but unless you're doing a stupid expensive build, you will be unlikely to need more than 850w for a gaming system and 600w for a "regular" system for someone who doesn't do much gaming. That allows a fair amount of headroom for upgrades, since power supplies often last the longest.

Cases are very subjective, but I've done a lot of building in Fractal G Focus cases, which are cheap, big enough for most parts and not the most convenient to build in. I dearly love the Lian Li Lancool 216 which I just built in for the first time, but it's big. REALLY nice cable routing though. Worth it just for the complete lack of barked knuckles, and the fact that you don't need to install like any extra fans beyond whatever your cooling solution is, and it's under $100. Which case you get might depend a lot on aesthetics or space considerations. Like, I paid extra NOT to have a glass side because I don't want extra lights around me, at all. My kid's has a lot of rainbow RBG. Hubby's has a glass side but minimal to no lighting.

Cooling solutions... for any higher end systems for heavy duty users (i.e. gaming a LOT with newer games, doing a lot of computationally heavy 3d modeling or whatever) I like using an aio watercooler. These can be easier to install even than air coolers now, as long as you do a little homework, and the ones I've bought were all under $100. Most users will do fine air cooling, and Gamer's Nexus has some dandy charts on gamersnexus.net that will help you figure out which coolers to use. (Hint, most of them are pretty good!) And for case fans, if you need extra, Arctic has 3-5 packs for super cheap.

But ultimately, if your computer is functioning okay for you, or just needs some upgrades and maintenance, you probably don't need to upgrade. Laptops are a whole 'nother ballgame completely. And you know how I built this system to play a couple of new games?

I ended up mostly playing my old favorites with better graphic settings. LOL.

No regrets, the system is SUPER functional and will last me years and if anything breaks I can fix it. And since then, I've helped two people buy parts, upgraded two computers and built systems for four other people and helped others put together parts list or figure out which laptop would be right for them. And the old computers? Are not ewaste yet, because the build process will allow a lot of moving around of parts to improve the old systems which can then be handed down to other family members. Even my old laptop went on to find use with another family member.

[fantasyfantasygames]

Post-Literate

Post-Literate, Pictogram Games, 2011

Post-Literate takes on one of my favorite genres, transhumanism. I think it's the only transhuman game in which your characters are all illiterate.

They're not idiots, reading just stopped being necessary. Artificial intelligence (like, real AI, not the limited kind that's impacting every industry like a bomb right now) is ubiquitous and powerful, and humans rely on it for basically everything. You want to know something, just ask the open air - there's probably an AI nearby who can reply. If icons and warning signs don't make things obvious, they clearly weren't designed well enough. People who can read in this society are like someone in the modern day living "off the grid".

It's not a post-scarcity world, though. No replicators, no unlimited resources, no free energy, just so much computing power no one can run out of it. Biotech, nanotech, and computation are all massively advanced, but each of them has limits: bio is big and powerful but slow, nano is quick and precise but small-scale, and computation can't affect the real world without the other two.

The game has two typical modes of play. The first is more exploratory - what do humans do in a world where machines can do everything? The second posits a group of rogue AIs who consider humanity a drain on the world's resources, as opposed to the vast majority who are programmed to preserve humanity. You get caught up in the rogues' plots, either as a pawn of one side or the other (AIs do find humans so very hard to read), or as an ally.

Mechanically, the game essentially runs on Fate with PbtA playbooks. I'm sure plenty of other folks have done it. Given the publication date, though, the current batch of Fate stuff wasn't out yet, so this is focused around the then-newly-released Strands of Fate implementation. Definitely crunchier than one would expect from a Fate game.

The game could use more examples - a lot of examples - for aspects, stunts, and so forth. For example, the game says "use this wealth system to represent your connections with other people", but then... that's it. I can figure it out, but I'm also the GM who's read over hundred games.

Much as I love the concept of the game, I think it just didn't lean hard enough into the feel of the game - which is a shame, because that's exactly what Fate games have to do. There should be systems for mind games against AI opponents, fast-talking people into giving you access to their systems, parkour chase scenes... and you can do that, because it's Strands of Fate and it'll handle it just fine, but it's not built for it. It's too generic.

Art, including the cover, is black-and-white line drawings in a very cyberpunk style. To their credit there are almost no robots (as an AI why would you bother with running a drone 99 days out of 100?), but the tech depicted seems a bit understated for what the game describes.

Pictogram Games made Post-Literate and another game about using symbols for magic. It had the most breakable and least handicapped-accessible magic system I've seen in a long time, so buckle in for that one when I get to it.

[fujowebdev]

✨Spotlight on Localhost HQ✨

Today we're here to tell you all about Localhost HQ, the first setting for the adventures of our protagonist (and fujoshi extraordinaire) Boba-tan.

Follow us under the cut to learn more about the #FujoGuide world and the amazing people that made it happen! And don't forget to back us on Kickstarter (and share this with your friends) so we can make this world a reality!

🏰 Localhost HQ 🏰

So, what is Localhost HQ? Well, we don't have—nor want!—all the details. The vaguer it is, the easier it adapts to any fanfic scenario. On the technical side, computers in a network use "localhost" to refer to themselves, for example to fetch a website they themselves host!

In the #FujoGuide world, Localhost HQ houses all programs that run on a user's own machine as part of the development workflow. Most importantly, the Terminal (a.k.a. Shell), but also programs like Git. In our version, Boba-tan has her very own (relatable) room within it.

🏰 Localhost Character 1: Boba-tan 🏰

Needing no introduction (ok, some introduction), Boba-tan is the author and protagonist of our zine. She was originally designed to serve as @bobaboard's own mascot by @essential-randomness, and brought to life by @ymske.

In our Kickstarter, you can see her all over the place, drawn by many different artists (some of which don't like the spotlight). For our character roster and avatar, she's been brought to life by @ikam177! Witness her in her full glory!

Want to know more about her? Well, she's the blankest slate of them all! Boba-tan is the quintessential fujoshi (or fujin, if you want), meant to embody the best quirks of transformative fandom folks: openness, enthusiasm, creativity, and heaps and heaps of thirst!

🏰 Localhost Character 2: Terminal 🏰

Is it Terminal or is it Shell? You too can now be part of one of programming's most pointless (and thus heated) debates.

Regardless of how you choose to refer to him, we all know who he actually is: the sexy live-in maid-pa of Localhost HQ.

Terminal is a powerful tool in the programming world, used to run other programs and orchestrate complex interactions between them. He also runs the show in the #FujoGuide world, and is able to quickly summon any local program, and to interact directly with the operating system.

(comic by @tempural)

Is there any limit to Terminal's powers? We don't know, actually, and we don’t want to know! Please play around with hi— I mean, it!

If you love his look (a powerful mix of Danny Trejo and Revolver Ocelot), you can thank—and follow—@mappapapa's incredible work! And if you've wondered what's on his apron...well, that's cowsay for you!

(Shhh don’t tell anyone about this still-unused version, with a terminal-looking eyepatch on his eye)

🏰Localhost Character 3: Git🏰

We've already spent a lot of time on our favorite catboy, but that's no reason to ignore him—not that he'd ever let us!

If you haven't yet, see him in action and learn all about him in our demo (link in the Kickstarter).

This time, the hard work of turning our technical and trope guidance into a bona-fide hottie comes from @brokemycrown—the master of sexiness who also helped us with the overall art direction!

(If you're wondering what the lines on his hoodie are, those are “git branches”.)

🏰 Localhost Character 4: GitHub 🏰

☁️ Cloud character 1: GitHub ☁️

Unlike Git, GitHub is not a program that runs in a "local environment"—that is, a developer's own computer. Instead, GitHub is a cloud-based service where programmers can upload their own "Git repositories" to share their code with other developers.

In the #FujoGuide world, characters like Git live in ~the cloud~, a network of data spawning around the world and a place we want to carefully avoid showing. In part, to keep an aura of mystery, and in part because mysterious places not well-defined in canon are fujin catnip.

So why is GitHub at Localhost HQ? Because Git is there, of course! The two share a powerful psychic connection. While Git hasn't yet accepted that they're meant to become one, that is not for lack of trying. Much to Terminal's chagrin, GitHub keeps teleporting to HQ, uninvited.

Once again, the amazing artist behind our favorite tentacled catboy is @brokemycrown. We'll probably keep shouting them out over and over again in these spotlights, so just go right ahead and follow them now.

(I'm sure you can appreciate the subtle character design cues here.)

...and that is all for the Localhost HQ spotlight! If you like the amazing work of our team, you can hire our artists and writers (and help us launch this project) by backing our Git Art/Fic tiers! You can also help us by reblogging this post and sharing our kickstarter link with friends, family, colleagues and Discord servers.

[samobservessonic]

Our story (once again from the Kitching & Elson dream team) might be called “Girl Trouble”, but it looks like everyone’s in trouble here, as the people of Emerald Hill Zone are still suffering raids to be used as animal batteries. Which hasn’t escaped the notice of Bob Beaky and rabbit guy 135, even if that might not be either of their true identities

Okay, so the good news is - Amy’s here! The bad news is, remember on the cover post when I said that she doesn’t appear much in this story? Well, this panel is literally her only appearance. It’s a bit of a shame, but we’re going to be getting a lot more Amy soon, so I’m not going to complain too much. Also, in her initial appearance, they’ve given Amy the unrequited crush angle that matches more closely with her game counterpart at the time, but this won’t last

With Amy being kidnapped, our heroes throw off their disguises. We’ve already seen in previous issues that Sonic uses the Bob Beaky disguise to get around, but what’s important here is that we’re seeing Johnny Lightfoot properly appear as a Freedom Fighter for the first time! I find it funny how his “disguise” is just to look like any of the other rabbits and he puts clothes on to reveal that he’s Johnny Lightfoot. I guess that’s a small way to retcon Johnny not dressing like this in his earlier appearances. Like with Porker Lewis, Johnny has been given an outfit similar to that of the unused AoStH concept art design. With a battlestick to go along with it. The battlestick endures - I always remember it being his weapon while reading the comic as a kid. And while Johnny admittedly isn’t the most interesting of the team to me (maybe that’ll change on this read-through?) I am glad to see a key member of the Freedom Fighters joining the ranks

We get a few pages of action, with Sonic saving this kid from getting a spike to the face, before ruining the moment with a bit of sexism. So far, things that we’ve seen annoy StC Sonic are: 

Tails

Any harm coming to the Emerald Hill folk 

Religion

Women

A while ago it was established that Robotnik has a base in the Special Zone and now we’re getting to see him there with problems of his own. Namely, his image

As we abruptly learn that turning himself into a giant egg is amongst Robotnik’s powers, we’re also introduced to another StC main stay: Grimer A little history about Grimer’s appearance here, for those who don’t know. In the initial draft for this issue, it was actually SatAM’s Snively who was going to appear in this issue, as Kitching believed he was required to use the character. When Kitching learned that this was not the case, he replaced Snively with Grimer, who remained in the role of Robotnik’s assistant for the majority of the comic’s run. It seems the yahoo message where Kitching stated this isn't around any more, but it is mentioned on the wikia here and I believe it's generally known that Grimer replaced Snively? Anyway, there’s no fancy introduction to the character, he’s just here and implied to have been working for Robotnik for a while. We’ve seen mobians work for Robotnik before, so this isn’t too surprising

I like the robot secretary design here as well. Dunno if she’s a character or if we’ll see her again though

Back with Sonic, and the boys’ club is all here - Sonic, Tails, Porker, Johnny and the Kintobor computer. We’ve seen all of these characters appear with Sonic in some combination before now, but this is the first time they’ve been all together. Once Amy joins them (then later Tekno and sometimes Shortfuse), we’ll have the core members of the Freedom Fighters

It’s short-lived this time, however, as Sonic opts to only take Johnny with him to rescue Amy. I do love the visuals of Sonic needing to race around the star posts to activate them and get to the Special Zone, it makes the whole thing feel just a little bit more of an event - like not just anyone could wander into the Special Zone and they’ve saved this star post for when they need to do it

We get a few pages of the duo travelling through the Special Zone, before they burst into Robotnik’s base and immediately get caught. Robotnik isn’t quite ready to greet them yet, but he’ll be with them very soon. I assume most of you already know what StC Robotnik looks like, but just in case, I won’t spoil the surprise for the next issue And yeah, this issue was a big one! Even with it being only part one, so much has been established: We’ve got Amy’s first appearance, Grimer’s first appearance, Johnny’s redesign, the tease of Robotnik’s redesign and StC’s Freedom Fighters as we know them finally becoming a real team. It’s a lot and I’m only looking forward to that momentum being kept coming into the next issue

[lunaremy]

BOMBERMECHANICS 102

Because we all wanted a second one! (wheres the first 100?)

Starting off: EATING!! How do they Eat!

It would take so long to explain like all the headcanons and stuff that would lead to them consuming food but to make a long story short: Humans eat food, yes? So, why not model these robots to eat food as well? For the most part, they use the DVD method i mentioned in some other post. The screen briefly slides open to allow food, food goes in, screen closes...it's seamless and technologically advanced. To make the act of eating food enjoyable, the Bomberman Bros (and other mechanical lifeforms) all have taste receptors that are slightly randomized (the younger bros were inclined to avoid vegetables the way a child human would but Aqua is fine with them), and to be more specific, the parts that locate taste are somewhere in the throat area of a human, to compare it to their terms. Besides tasting good, it also gives a small boost of energy. It should be noted that they don't strictly need human food to live (White says you should eat for energy, but I've only seen him eat when he's relaxing), but not eating regularly is designed to make you feel really uncomfortable in order to encourage that they do eat food.

...Also, there's a similar philosophy for power ups found in battle. Those little plates with icons on them can usually be taken directly though the hands, as they're nothing more than collections of data. The name of the game is endurance! If someone like Green were to try and, i dunno, make eight bombs with max fire, it would likely exhaust him instantly. Those data chips stop you from nuking yourself when you try to do a little extra in combat. Same for skulls- like a computer virus! Also, they seem to taste absolutely horrible.

SO IF THE BOMBERMAN ARE DESIGNED TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE, WHY DIDN'T THEIR MAKERS MAKE THEM ALL-POWERFUL?

Humans are social creatures. It's only natural that the intelligent folks who designed the prototypes for the eight would want them to experience the ups and downs of being truly alive. It's why they have simulated tear ducts, why they have to eat or else they get uncomfortable, why they're all a family. The things that get in the way during combat facilitate the reason we fight in the first place. The humanity instilled into White keeps him going, no matter how hard it gets.

(Go piss, girl!)

SPARE PARTS, PLEASE?

Getting damaged is to be expected when everyone uses such an explosive tactic. Be it an arm or a leg, it's usually repairable.

To start, the internal systems usually get temporarily shut off. There's actually like 2 or 3 spare sets of limbs, and a couple of vital parts for all the bombers somewhere in HQ, but any damage is usually recovered, so it's as simple as welding the missing part back into place or running some bug fixes. (Also, you should probably find a way to turn off pain receptors. I know they're there to keep the humanity rule in check, but a tiny part got loose in White's head once and it hurt like a BITCH)

It's usually White who monitors the physical health of his siblings, but Blue often has to step in and help with more technological aspects. Actually, Blue often teaches White that there's more to their abiltiies that meets the eye.

RESPAWNING!!

Hurts like a bitch before your body comes back because the pain of getting blown up takes a while to go away, but you get used to it. You don't get rebuilt- you just get rejuvenated. Kinda like a quick system refresh. Feels great. Lets you spring back into action. Also, the "STAGE CLEAR" areas in a level have the same effect.

AND ALL THE THINGS THAT WE FORGOT!

Some of the siblings have a tendency to stutter over their words in emotionally taxing situations. That's actually just the voice chip getting a little weird due to all the processes running at once. Yknow how your laptop screen goes black and gets laggy when you have too many apps open at the same time?

Thanks to their synthetic skin, the siblings are all more or less immune to accumulating rust. White's not a big fan of water, but he trucks through it for the sake of whoever needs him.

Sorry, but that's it for tonight. Kinda sleepy again.

[iwonderwh0]

Watching "I, Robot" (2004) for the for the first time

Why did they have to make them so goofy-looking and gave them this weird voice

Oh, I like dr Calvin. Is she human?🤔 (In movies about androids I can never be sure)

"I make the robots seem more human" at least we know whose fault is it that they look constipated

Interrogation scene. Dbh surely took inspiration from here

"Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?" "Can you?" Lmao. This scene is so famous, finally seeing the original.

"Answer me, canner!" I'm amused I've never seen such an insult used for Connor

Why would they destroy that house with a cat inside ;-;

I like her, I really do

This building is ugly as fuck

I like how they made Sonny draw with both of his hands by rows of strokes

Thriller elements are just ridiculous sometimes, like that jump from a motorcycle with guns in each hands? I mean, it's just the specifics of the genre, but still it kinda feels like a comedy whenever I see something like this.

I mean, if the logic of VIKI is that "without interference humanity will destroy itself completely with the means of wars and pollution" I'm struggling to see her attempt to intervene as something evil.

Fuck, I really don't get why by the logic of the film letting humans destroy themselves is more humane. Am I missing something?

I watched till the end but I'm still confused, hold on, I'm reviewing it back to Viki's explanation.

"Your charge us with your safekeeping...yet despite our best efforts, your countries wage wars. You toxify your eath and pursue ever more imaginative means of self-destruction. You cannot be trusted with your own survival."

"To protect humanity, some humans must be sacrificed. To ensure your future some freedoms must be surrendered. We robots will ensure mankind's continued existence."

"You are so like children. We must save you from yourself."

I'm sorry. There's not enough elaboration to what exactly that may mean, so really, there's not enough justification for me to call that approach evil. If choosing between being wiped out with some stupid nuclear war from a hand of overpowered human with God complex, between having my country wiped with the rise of ocean as a result of global warming caused in large by corporate greed, between this and some supercomputer eliminating those folks who are responsible for this shit. My vote won't be on destroying the computer, but let her fucking cook, because no one else would, apparently. And fuck, perhaps she's right. I don't know, I'm obviously the wrong generation to watch this movie, because I don't feel like there's really a far enough future in the current state of the world because of the climate change.

Yeah I don't know. I'd like to hear VIKI's master plan, but she barely said anything, really, and they instantly went for her destruction.

The path to hell is paved with good intentions, and all that, but within given context, It's not obvious (for me, at least) what would be the lesser evil.

I assume the movie was filmed by people who didn't really perceive global warming as an actual threat that can affect them in any future at all, but in 2023 it's really hard to ignore this factor and go "yeah, VIKI's evil, she wants to protect humanity by the means of some sacrifices"

They call it heartless, but isn't inaction even more heartless in this case? It's a trolley problem and the movie implies that the most humane answer to that dillemma is to let that trolley drive, let it run over everyone. Pretend you have no power, pretend the trolley is entirely outside of your control. Because intentionally sacrificing some people in order to save more of them (in this case potentially the whole kind is on stake) is heartless apparently.

Yep, I can't say I agree.

I mean, if something goes extinct by natural causes without mass catastrophy causing it, I too think that it might be okay to just let it happen

But within the context of such global catastrophy existing, why shouldn't it be prevented if there are means, if the cost of it is "take action and loose some vs inaction and loose everyone", why should the answer be everyone

[deanwax]

For the WIP titles tag. I need to know more about It's an Electric Thang please 💜

It's an Electric Thang (alt title: Two Cats Meeting) is the only het meet-cute I've ever conceived. It takes place in a world where elemental powers have only started occurring in the human population fairly recently and if you've got 'em, it's best kept secret.

Wyatt's powers are electric, but he doesn't have any ambitions of being a superhero or anything. Doesn't even consider himself sharp enough to learn computer programming. He took a job at an auto repair shop right out of high school and he's real good at fixing anything to do with the flow of electrical current because he can see where the current stops.

One day, he comes across a dusty old cat lying in an alleyway. He can tell it's going to die soon by the way the electrical impulses in its body have slowed, so he decides to sit with it until then. This is when a young nurse named Mary comes out from the back door of an old folks' home. She has the ability to manipulate air, and she tries to put more air into the near-dead cat's lungs. The attempt to resuscitate the cat disturbs Wyatt to his core and he accidentally makes a lightning strike discharge down a nearby drainpipe. This frightens Mary, and she slaps Wyatt across the face:

Mary made her own big sound with the hardest slap Wyatt had ever been hit with in his life. Later that night, when he was in his bed stewing about it, he figured she must have done something to take the wind resistance away from her hand.

They run away from each other after this, but the short story ends when they sheepishly reconcile after next crossing paths.

Here's the first chunk:

Wyatt Scott was a child of incest. He wasn’t supposed to talk about it, but his momma and her cousin Robbie had been in love ever since they was kids, and she’d lied and said Wyatt’s daddy had run out on her before he was born. 

He��d been real cut up about it when he’d found out, listening to them through the kitchen window in the dead of night when he was meant to be in bed sleeping. But now that he was almost a man, Wyatt wasn’t too mad about it. He had all the right numbers of fingers and toes, but he did always wonder if the incest thing was the cause of his electric thing. 

He wasn’t supposed to talk about that, neither. It made people real scared. Couldn’t blame ‘em: why, it felt like just about every other day there was a news story about so-and-so or such-and-such making a real mess of things, robbin’ banks and setting things on fire like the bad guys in movies. The people on the TV called ‘em Paranorms, but that was stupid. Wyatt had never seen a ghost in his damn life. He could see electricity just fine, though, when he wanted to; zipping this way and that in glowing lines that shined through the walls of his house like he had x-ray vision or somethin’.

The human body had electricity, too. Wyatt’s particular comprehension could turn any normal person in a glowing being of light, like an angel, or maybe even a jellyfish, with a brilliant cluster of sparks right behind their eyes. It was a blessed way to pass the time, though any other Scotts at the dinner table were likely to get a little zap if they asked Wyatt to pass the salt.

[d-r-a-w-k-w-a-r-d]

Crusty Engineer Advice Pt I?

The first thing about being an engineer is this: it's all about the artist. Everybody new to the game wants to know "what's the magic plugin?" "what are the settings that make a vocal pop?" and a whole bunch of other questions like that. And -to a certain extent- these things are important. But they're not things that get you repeat clients right away. People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Maya Angelou said that, and it's true. In the end, 90% of your clients won't hear that 3dB that you added to the final mix. They'll remember how they felt in the vocal booth. They won't care that the computer hard drive was almost full, leading to fragmentation, or that some newbie saved all his sessions on the desktop, slowing the whole system down. They won't care that a fuse in the power supply blows, or that there aren't multiple hardware headphone likes run to the vocal booth, or whatever. What they WILL remember is how you handled the session. EVERYTHING that happens is on you. Even if it's a hardware failure, even if there's "no way someone could reasonably expect this" or whatever excuse you're using.

If you're a pro, there ARE NO excuses. Period.

The job of an engineer is this: to remove obstacles between the artist's vision and the final music. That's why you're there at all. Your job is to anticipate issues before they happen.

Here is a bit of advice I gave another fellow: Many, MANY young folks ask about assisting, interning, etc. All the time. Maybe they're a musician on the track, maybe they're a friend of the artist. But when they hear good things being done with the music, they start asking, "hey, what compressor are you using? Is that the SSL EQ? Hey, man, can I sit in on your sessions? Like, assist you?"

The vast majority of these people are looking to GET something. They want free lessons on how to be an engineer. They want tips, names of plugins, lists of "presets" (don't get me started!) and to tell their friends that they are "working" in Xyz Studio. These people get told to leave their info with the front desk.

Every once in a while, you come across somebody different. Very seldom, maybe only once or twice a year, you meet somebody who wants to GIVE something. That's a different thing. Now hang on— I'm not talking about taking advantage of somebody. What I mean is, for example: The artist's friend Billy (who played keys on a couple of songs, or whatever) is at the sessions. Many artists like their people there for vibe. Whatever. But let's imagine that Billy comes up to me and says, "Hey, I notice that every time you come in, you switcf each phraseto the chair without the little armrests, and you put the pop filter on a separate stand. Are you interested in having me take care of that next time?"

Now, that is the sort of job that interns get to do: move mic stands, brew coffee, run headphone lines, and so on. And ANY intern will do that, when you tell 'em "hey, I need some more coffee. And can we get TWO sets of cans in the booth for those harmony singers, please?" But the guy or gal who already HAS the other headphones ready just in case, or who starts the coffee when your mug is getting cold, that shows that they care about contributing to a creative and technical environment. It's not all about THEM, it's about the session. About the music. These people's numbers go into my phone.

For example, I was working in Studio A where everything was hardwired and mounted in the walls. Big Name Vocal Talent wanted super-loud headphones. But there's just the jack in the wall. So I wanted to put a headphone amp right next to him so he can crank it up when he wants to. (a good idea in many cases anyway, but it wasn't my job there to tell the studio owner to rewire his room while the talent was waiting. It's my job to fix the damn problem as quickly as possible and not make anybody think about technical issues.)

I had two interns in the room. I said to both of them, "I need to run an extra feed into the big room. Please find me a couple of XLR-phono adapters so I can just use the direct lines." (Again, this place's choice of wiring connectors is not the issue here.)

First dude comes back in a few minutes, "Nope, we don't have any of those in the supply room." Really? Ack! I grab a couple of cables from my go bag and run a feed from the drum room to the vocal room. It ain't pretty, but it'll get the job done. Time for mic check.

Maybe twelve minutes after that, the second intern comes in, all sweaty. "Hey, man, we didn't have any of those, but check it out: can you just plug in to the MIC lines (backward!) and use these gender changers I found, hooked up to direct boxes to switch it back around in the vocal room? Here are phono cables already hooked up." My man.

The first guy got to go back to his Xwitter at the front desk without being inconvenienced, the second guy had an unexpectedly long night because I requested that he assist me for the remainder of the sessions. He's now an engineer in his own right.

TL;DR: Have something to offer, even if it's just the fact that you know you'll need to bring napkins when you walk the pizza back to the lounge room. Or be WILLING to watch for what the SESSION needs (not just what YOU need as info to work on your own tunes.) Too many interns/assistants do only what they're told, only when they're told it. Don't go off doing things without asking the engineer or confirming that it's the right time. But damn, show that you're about something besides yourself.

I can't remember the last time I looked at somebody's resumé first thing. Lack of knowledge and experience can be worked around. But lack of work ethic is a serious flaw. Some of the worst people I've worked with have had degrees from Big Name University and have been unwilling to even consider the possibility that there's another way than theirs. A couple of the best have been mostly self-taught.

[amandae2006]

Fangs Claws and Kisses

Sterek Fanfic

Derek hale/ stiles stilinski

Chap 1 - Cresent moon smile

In the city of beacon hills, there lies a secret that most humans citizens do not know about. The town's name is based on what some consider folk lore, but to the supernatural it means hope, a beacon of hope, for all supernatural creatures to come and live safely. In the middle of the humans and creatures stands a werewolf pack who tries to keep things under control. The biggest family and pack around known as the Hales.

The leader is Talia, she has 3 kids. The oldest is Laura who is married to Henry and they have 2 pups named rika and reese. They run the inner city pack. The youngest who is barely in high school at 14 is Cora. Start student and athlete. Finally the only son at the age of 21 is Derek. Mechanic, wild, and searching for his mate to tame his wolf.

Everyday after working at the junk yard derek goes on a run through the woods. He loves the breezy air going past his ears, the feeling of the grass and leaves crunching under his paws. There is one big rock cliff that stands above beacon hills at the edge of the woods, it was the perfect place for howling especially at the moon. The way the moonlight hit Derek's yellow eyes, made then shine brighter thab normal. The wind would blow his fur so lightly. He was a beautiful pure black wolf.

After a good run and howl, derek takes off back towards the junk yard to gather his clothes and head home. As he enters the grounds he smells a scent hes never smelled before. He could tell it was human. But something smelled sweeter about them. He darted behind a broken car, still in wolf form. His clothes were in the garage on the other side. The more he smelled the sweet aroma the closer he would get. It felt like a pull, something that lingered inside himself but never made its self known.

Peeking around a power line post he caught a glimpse of the face the sweet aroma belonged too. It was a male maybe 18 or 19. Slender, brown hair, hoodie and jeans, hands in his pockets, he was standing there just swaying,looking around then he heard what sound like a music to his ears.

"Hello, anyone around?"

The boy mumbled to himself while kicking the dirt " damn it, they're closed". Derek darted behind some garbage cans then the dumpster managing to hit one in the process. The loud rattle scared the young man. He started to run derek darts from behind the store quckily putting his shirt on.

"Hey, hello, sorry"

The young man stops and turns to see Derek standing there, jeans on, belt unbuckled, boots on yet loosened, white tee with grease stains. Derek looked up at the young man as the wind blew that sweet scent across his nostrils. It sent electricity through his bottle.

" hi, i was wondering if you had a radiator for my jeep"

Derek took a deep breath, cleared his throat, trying to contain his composer.

" do you know the make and model?" "1980 CJ5"

" right this way and Ill look it up in the computer"

Derek dusted his hands off, held it out towards the man "I'm derek" The man grabbed dereks hand, immediately felt like his body was burning all over, he had to let the man's hand go, stepping back. The shockwaves from his touch, it was like all the air in his lungs left then returned.

"Im stiles, am I crazy for, is it too hot out here to be fall"

Derek senses noticed the swear dripping down stiles's neck, his heart rate racing and that sweet smell flooding his whole body.

" yeah, ill turn the air conditioner on inside, while i check out your jeep, you are welcome to follow me back into the garage"

Derek managed to avoid stiles eyes as he searched the computer. His body felt like fure was burning him from the inside, his inner wolf was trying to get out. It felt drawn to stiles. Derek could feel a connection when their eyes finally caught one another. Was this the feeling of his mate, or was it an omega in heat. At this point stiles is sitting down fanning with his shirt. His face flushed, body sweating thirst feeling in the back of his throat.

" do you have any water? Im sorry i don't know whats coming over me" Derek's vision blurred he couldn't concentrate on the computer anymore. His wolf was screaming take him, mate him. Derek's willpower was losing as he walked closer to stiles. And to much of dereks surprise stiles smiled back before reaching out to Derek's face.

" hey man i think something is wrong with us. Gas leak or something. I feel all kinds of strange and hot, do you?"

Derek was salivating, the color of his blue eyes flickering, his body inches from stiles. Stiles hand brushed against Derek's cheek. The rugged beard felt grainy and rough against his hand. Derek couldn't stop. He grabbed stiles face just planting their lips against one another. Both men felt like their heart was beating out of their chest. Stiles pulled back only to be met with derek nibbling his bottom lip. Control was gone. Instict had taken over. Stiles arms went around Derek's shoulders as he lifted up his slender body onto the big black table covered in tools.

Lips colliding harder, fingers running through their hair. When stiles tongue grazed against Derek's it drove him crazy. His inner wolf pushing his way out. Derek was fighting hard to resist. He didnt even know who stiles was. A stranger. Here he was ravaging a guy he had never met and yet his body was so turned on his pants. Stilles tilted his headed, napping at Derek's neck. Derek felt a howl coming through his chest. He wanted to bite stiles, make him his. Only by his strong will did he manage to bite his own arm. The pain put clarity in his mind long enough for him to step back, whisper "sorry" and run out of the garage.

The wind whistling past his ears, his body wanting to shift, it was like the air in his lungs was gone. He managed to lean aagainst a tree long enough to think about what he had done to stiles. He slide down to ground, head tossed back the pounding and heat between his legs was excruciating. He loosened his button, slide down the zipper the thickening of his member out lined by his briefs. He shifted his hands around the bands against his waist, his cock now throbbibg in hands. A few slow pumps, a flick of his tip, his whole body rippled as his white cum poured down the pants.

He was panting, taking in the air. Not fully satisfied as it would have to have been inside stiles. Enough for his body heat to die down, his mind to become clearer. His heart rate finally slowing. He had the energy to stand and head home.

[kariachi]

Avatarverse x Digimon thoughts?

Oh gods, that would give that great opening for Digimon in a setting without computers and shit. Like it's not until the sequel series we get consistent radio I don't think, these would just be mons.

I think they would through people off so bad because they're spirits, but they're not spirits like how spirits are known in the Avatar series. These aren't being of nature and ethereal concepts of reality, these are creatures tied strongly to humans, who gain their power and their form from humans. Especially from human children. Like these fuckers probably have their own whole spirit world separate from the other one. They're also probably far more likely to engage on equal footing with humans, or at least to defend them.

You know, if you pray the spirit of the falling ice then yeah, they might lend you a hand with your enemies, or they might not, doesn't really affect them. Meanwhile Penmon is definitely going to kick as much ass as possible because these people are threatening their Nauja and her loved ones are their loved ones.

Actually, that would be interesting to see just in general would be a setting where bonds with digimon are semi-commonplace, in a setting that features them as spirits rather than as monsters, with those bonded to them holding a pride of place in society. Here I can see spiritual matters being a two-person gig, with one dedicated to the natural spirits and one to the digimon (I think here they'd be considered more, spirit-people? people-spirits? as opposed to nature spirits?)

Then of course the question becomes 'what of the Avatar' and I think they would stay focused on the more 'wild' spirits. Their job is to bring balance between those and humans, while the job of keeping balance among humans and digimon is already filled with these other folks. After all, digimon likely interact with people more often, given just how closely tied to them they are, so it's best to have people watching over smaller territories rather than one pair running around trying to solve all the world's problems.

Going with this, the Fire Nation probably had a far harder time with expansion...

[magic-is-something-we-create]

Happy WBW!! Could you tell me a bit more about the level of technology in your saga? From everything I've read it sounds like a super interesting mix. Any fun details or sciency facts you're particularly proud of for thinking of?

Hi kat!!! thanks for dropping by with this ask, i didn't mean to leave it in the inbox for two weeks but i'm glad i did so i have something super fun to start off with in this catch-up!!!

SO

in the Ehlverse, there's a few different levels of technology going on at once (which is 100% most prevalent in Millennium Saga because they actually interact with multiple different tech levels for plot reasons throughout the books) - and the reasons for these differing levels basically comes down to how prevalent certain magics are in the culture/area we're talking about, because certain Elements, all Sorcery, and most Alchemy manifest in ways that break the physical laws of universe, which breaks things like computers that rely on, say, electricity always flowing in a certain way through the crystals in the motherboard.

(and this got Very Long, as my wbw answers tend to, so it's behind the cut if you want more detail!! thank you again!!! i'll try to remember to hit you up with a double-wbw ask the next time i'm here for it :D)

For instance, let's take Ehlven societies (e.g. the kind we spend the majority of TMS neck-deep in) - every Ehlf is an innate font of Elementalism, and only 2 of the 9 total Elements are guaranteed not to mess with circuitboards, 3 more can be safe if they're used carefully, and the rest are catastrophic and unavoidable in their influence. A metal mage walking too close to a fantasy!iPad would wipe the memory completely with their inherent magnetism, a fire mage touching a keyboard overheats the whole machine, etc. etc.

HOWEVER, this does not apply quite the same to less delicate instruments, like steam engines. In fact, even without the help of Dwarven magic metals, Ehlven societies can get away with running steam trains and other motors without using any fuel, so long as there's either a water mage present to convert liquid to gas or a fire mage to facilitate combustion!

(That's probably one of my favorite science-y things I've done with this system!!)

On the flip side, we have the Lellan crater and the Goblins that call it home. Goblins are a people completely devoid of magic - some would say they're even magic-repellant to a certain extent. And they've been the only people without magic for a very long time.

Long enough for them to be at about the level of your classic hard cyberpunk setting, to compensate for their broader disadvantage in this magical world. And while that doesn't net them any respect when it comes to global politics (which are super magic-centric to the point of even pushing out formerly-magical peoples like the Fair Folk), it certainly makes it easier for them to make advances in science that end up benefiting the whole world. If it weren't for them, the Ehlves probably wouldn't know about, like, evolution, or germ theory, or electricity.

And I talk about it here like they're super separate societies with no overlap, but that's not quite true!! It's just the simple way to talk about it - there's lots of "Little Wasi" districts in Ehlven cities with local power generation and more robust machines and electronics, and there's a not insignificant amount of non-magically-volatile Ehlves in Wasi, Gyr, and the smaller satellite cities of the Lell. And many of the trains that cross the Maelands are of Dwarven make, with self-perpetuating clockwork at their cores.

The only truly isolated people technology-wise are the Fair Folk, whose society functions more like those of wasps, bees, and ants than humans or humanoids. They're nomadic and tend to nest solely in the Godwoods, where they hollow out one tree at a time into a hive, and don't have a huge interest in technology of any kind (or humanoid society at large, honestly). But there's still a few here and there who have stepped away from that society to mingle with humanoid friends!!

[lixxen]

To build off of this;

"if you CHOOSE-"

I'm not choosing.

If my family has to evacuate for a storm and we cannot go to my aunt's house three hours west because of traffic/they're getting the storm too/any other reason, we have nowhere else to go. We have a cat and finding pet friendly hotels far enough up into Georgia is hard. Not to mention, it's expensive. My family cannot dish out $1k+ for hotels. That doesn't cover food or gas, may I remind you. It's the four of us and a cat who live in my house then two others and a baby and then two more cats who would be traveling together. Do you know how hard and expensive that is?

You also don't know until two days before if you need to run. And by then, you've already prepared your house and everyone else is fleeing. A four hour car ride is now 8-12. An eight hour ride is now 16-24. Gas is all gone before you can flee everywhere.

"Why don't you just leave? Why do you live there? You know these tragedies happen."

Yes, we know they'll happen. That's why we prepare. Houses are always stocked with things to help year round and we get extras just in case we're out of power for a week or two. It's the fucking snowbirds and out of state people who aren't prepared that are freaking out. We don't freak out because we're used to it and know how to handle it. You fear mongers make it worse for all of us. They don't need you feeding them fear and horror. You need to prepare them.

Also, this is our home. Nobody tells tornado valley or California these things when they have natural disasters. Us who are born and raised here, or have lived here for 15+ years, live here and love our homes. This is all we know. If you want to say that to anybody, tell it to the fucking northerners who are coming here in troves and are shocked and freaked out when they realize what Florida is actually like. Tell the northerners who are selling their million dollar homes to come and build mansions in areas that can't afford the tax change and their fucking pickleball courts on parks then wonder why our ecosystem and economy here is fucked up.

Clearly this disconnect between us Floridians and you lot is that we know what these storms are actually like and all you fucking care about is how many views/likes and people you can scare. You don't actually care about our health and safety. If you did, you'd be donating money and looking into resources for us. You'd be trying to help people. But no. You sit there and judge us; judge fucking South Carolina for a disaster that we can't fucking control or predict. You think of us nothing more than poor rednecks or weird ass idiots because of what you perceive us to be because of the internet making us into a joke. You barely even think we're humans with lives or real world problems.

If you cared about us, about global warming, or anything then get off your fucking phones or computers and do something about it. Sitting behind a keyboard ain't gonna do shit.

Fuck off with this judging shit. People are fucking dying.

(you as in folks not living in Florida reading this. Not towards OP)

“If you CHOOSE to stay in one of those evacuation areas-” we need to have public transportation running out of evacuation zones and free public storm shelters before you can say bullshit like that. we need to have free wheelchair ramp instillation on homes. we need to have free out of state pet boarding facilities. we need public infrastructure for the people in flood zones since these hurricanes are only getting worse and they are not going to stop.

[the-firebird69]

we are used to this converstion no but it happens dialy. your on me and in a way that lends to you knowing and or understnding about humungous ships and so on. and are seen in future movies on the topic and subjects. and they say it your in on it and pursue the trumspters globally and hard. and take them in and grab all thier stuf and computers find out there is too much and he has huge lots of arms weapons robots far too many. and go after it. an yes this is the result of your actions here trump your an absurd loser. and tons say it the computer is here on earth and he acted it when he heard it. a nd trump is syaing it right now. and he is doomed ok. he is an ass and mean person to our son and duaghter and he is repulsive his commentary thoughts on things and orders actions need to be stopped so we shall but ye h this man is a moron. and a dead man. too. not only do folk shoot him dead , trump has cancer. it is called stage three wit shadows of stage IV and he proceeds to that locale today. ok he is a dick. does hand work he says did it so we kill him. all three types plus a fourth have mesticised and are systemic too and mit means it is in his organs and his systems and throughout the soft tissue of his body. and he is stage four today full blown. that means that it has progressed to be a certain percent of the tissue adn organs. and by the endof the day stage V. and due to the fact sam aka trump is eating bad. behaving badly not resting nor rehailitating and not h ydrating. it will grow. and he exposes himself to it today. a nd it will be almost 2 RAD. we issued warnings all night and statements and insturctions for ours...but here trump a major s ok is exposing himself and thoroghout the day and shall be outside he proclaims says he is his son and such. and dies saying it and gets more cancer. in his brain too. and wiht intense treatment he would have only month to live if it worked. and if he transfers into a mutant the cancer worsens. and dee saw his face and he was aghast and she says you deserve it. and he does not. wants to help me your in his way and for some uknown reason he is abl to ruin you your out and she said it to him. and os back to john r who dies now. his brain wont recover per normal science yet some have at this stage not many. t was thought that they got it a lot and drooppsed it. no. it is harsh and mean and prevelant. not contgious. as we did say power has repaired it and removed it in te past wiht treatement, and successfully. but the e infection rate is 100% and he is doomed. knows it no he doesnt is a lunatic and manic and his doctors sait it and as trump he ws scanne they do see it and he will be out. finally.

Thor Freya

it has mestacized and last week i was there they said it nd our people. he got up rn out the door yes . is s a child now. and this week he ws told it ws stage three ad entering four and in all the organs and he ran out and we yelled you need treatment. he ran out. so i called this am he is worse and yeh hte doc said in your brain and it is hard to get rid of and he runs round loses it and it eats him up. totally i think soon and he will be dead and not in movies.

there are expirements and tehy say if you have brain cancer transefer to a mutant makes it worseand some sy makes it better.

seanskee

we sy it makes it worse. our son and daughter say in his case his brain mutates and it is level II which will cause it to heal. but. if he hs too much of it it goes the other way and the host body gets sick too. and he has a lot no. enough yup. is dying now. soon out about one eighth of his brain is infected.

Thor Freya

i thought so no but did see it. and yeh if you trnsfer it is question. and yeh he wants to use up his own nd have an excuse probably would work and at a certain point and erealy he isdying his brain eaten loseshis mind

the rock

and thank you all and fuck off he says and that is the neighbor and i do see it. this is my reward a way out. now this blows. and i die now. a certian amount and a certin level mutant wont do it and so i get posessed. asked for it. damnit and forced by the macs . and him and they sy it now f off loser you want to so what yuk what a homo loser and same thing but from them...so...yur ours do use. and he says it a bit. so what your doneand youll all ay and such and he laughs yeh for the movies your going into and te theatre tix i use your cash john r. and this sucks. see it no. fn blind man can see it hesays ray chales sent me letters explaining it nd ok i see.

i traded it all all i had to do this idiot shit the big groups want mostly mac proper and im a man did it in prupose and no he sys you lost to Hawthorne mr mazarati the .45 guy and so f off you diiot and he prob shot me three times...and mine allowed it to say it willbe ok he is a failure due totht and so i say it find it all out and thankyou

trump

it is harsh every day hard and difficult to amke it and racing and i wnt thruogh it thomas occonor had men on it dcumented who. and they were contaminated. and it was this fella hawthorne and i told him to screw he would not. and is a silent background ass threating me and i am supposed to be a pawn for the rrhealm of his and explained no i use it as i am valuable here only if my brain is intact. and the other way is clearly war. and he is a fool. tyrant. and mean doesnt mean to hit me fully or p artly tried and i think ustralia is his matrix and the macs bac him and too many attmpets and too many shots. but it is proven we can protect him Father and Mother say and he did do it blamed tommy f startted stuff and has a rep

but vsicous and power is from the macs. deadly stuff and trump fell and you all did too fight each other. he isdying. will suffer and becoe horrible things. was is a nucsance but realy could not help it or resist. itis the empire

Zues Hera

Olympus

[nym-wibbly]

Vidding on a Mac

I'm a recent MacOS user after a lifetime of Windows/DOS/Linux.

Must be about a year since I took the plunge and bought a good Macbook with enough power to be futureproof/keep some resale value. More reluctantly, I followed with phone and watch, giving Apple all my savings so I could get the integration. Thing is, I don't like how Apple does things. I'm confident with computers, command line, Linux... whatever. I can code, program, compile, hack - play confidently in the OS sandbox anywhere else. Mac's OS is just technobabble spellwork to me - I can't grasp how it does stuff.

I love the basic end-user ease of use and that it makes computers so accessible to folks who don't want to know how stuff works as long as it does, but the second I want to do something Apple doesn't deem essential to modern living, I have to ask a search engine or ChatGPT how the hell to make it happen. And half the time I still can't get it to happen.

Example: I decided to take the plunge and buy a month of Adobe Premiere Pro to find out if I can get my rusty, VCR-based vidding skills up to date. I signed up, I paid, I downloaded... and found that it's impossible to install the sodding thing on a computer that's - theoretically - the best machine short of a pro/studio one to run it. The MacOS system security won't take my admin/user password to allow the installation to proceed. The 'fix' is to reset the password, which works for some people but didn't work for me. Wut?

A quick google shows this has been a known issue since at least 2014. HEADDESK.

So I used an illegal copy of the software, which - lo and behold - installs and works perfectly first time with no fuss at all.

What the actual, Apple/Adobe? Is each so opposed to the other getting a slice of the money pie that they can't sort this out between them?

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

It’s been pouring overnight and into this morning. We have a flood watch in effect until 10AM. I bet it extends.

I finally got the opportunity to do a little async/await Swift this week. Using a combination of generics, Decodable, and async/await makes for an extremely powerful network client. It’s pretty shocking how simple it was to combine those three items to form a set of methods that return fully decoded models with so few lines of code and zero blocks/closures/whatever you call them in your favorite language.

I’m sure some folks will laugh and say “We’ve had that for X years in language Y!” I get it. It’s fairly new to Swift and I’m finally getting to work with it properly.

I’ve also been dabbling with SwiftUI and find some of the concepts weird, but as with all moves to new frameworks or languages, I’ll pick it up and it’ll feel natural at some point.

It’s past time to get my first cup of coffee. I hope you enjoy the links.

Kyle Barr • Gizmodo

Everything Announced at Google I/O: Gemini Takes Over

The week was Google’s Developer Conference. I’m not too much into Google or Android for that matter and while I know LLM’s are here to stay I’m not deep minded enough to find them exciting. Super smart developers find it exciting because they’re challenging in a way they grok and Management find them exciting because they’re a way to do more with fewer people and charge you a ton of money for it. 🤣

Hey, I just want to back away on my little iOS and Mac Apps and build something I love that I hope others will too. I’m sure someday I’ll have to integrate an LLM into an app. 🤖

Raymond Chen • The Old New Thing

In other words, take the existing component and run it before making any changes to it at all. Does it work?

I’ve said it before so I’ll say it again: Raymond Chen is a gift to computing and Microsoft is fortunate to have him.

He’s done so much for Microsoft and the tools we use everyday so when he shares his pearls of wisdom, I listen.

Baldur Bjarnason

React, Electron, and LLMs have a common purpose: the labour arbitrage theory of dev tool popularity

This was a very interesting read and I found myself nodding in agreement a lot but I also disagreed with things.

Something that does bother me about the move to more abstract tooling is the loss of expertise about the platform and knowing the platform provided tools will be the best for solving problems and creating the best possible apps I’m capable of.

Of course you can still make a crummy app with native tools and a brilliant app with tools like React Native.

When I was a Windows developer I could always tell when an application was written in Classic Visual Basic because of how the windows drew. It was a dead giveaway. That always bothered me. Nothing against Classic Visual Basic, it was a native development tool, and you could be extremely productive with it. Just like modern web tooling being used everywhere.

Chris Kirkham • Reuters

The meeting could not have gone worse. Musk, the employees said, was not pleased with Tinucci’s presentation and wanted more layoffs. When she balked, saying deeper cuts would undermine charging-business fundamentals, he responded by firing her and her entire 500-member team.

Musk isn’t a genius. He’s a bully who wins by being an asshole to folks until he gets his way. During the entire charging team over a plan he didn’t agree with is a prime example of how big a baby man he really is.

Why Tesla keeps him around is beyond me. Jettison the man so he can go work on X so you can continue to lead in the EV space. Who needs a network of cars being used for their compute so some dude and do AI stuff with it? What?

How about getting Tesla to do more good for the world by building trucks for hauling large loads across country or building all electric high speed rail systems and busses. You know, mass transport.

Musk talks about a desire to save mankind but he’s only paying lip service to it as far as I can tell. He is obviously obsessed with making crap tons of money and getting his way at the expense of others.

Joseph Savona, Ricky Hanlon, Andrew Clark, Matt Carroll, and Dan Abramov • react.dev

React Compiler is no longer a research project: the compiler now powers instagram.com in production, and we are working to ship the compiler across additional surfaces at Meta and to prepare the first open source release.

I need to go read more about this React Compiler or at the very least get the lowdown from a friend. I wonder if this will come to the React Native world and if it does what would that look like? Would we get everything compiled down to Web Assembly we push through a mobile device JavaScript runtime?

Web stuff is such a hodge-podge of stuff. It’s like the duct tape and baling wire of development.

I consider myself a duct tape a baling wire developer, so that’s not an insult to me. 😃

Robert Reich

America’s second civil war? It’s already begun

I try to stay away from links to Substack articles but I thought this River Reich article was important enough to break my rule.

If the Orange Menace gets back in office I’d fully expect us to see skirmishes break out all over the country at times due to his draconian policies.

Full on war would only break out if things get bad enough the people finally stand up and say enough is enough.

I hope beyond hope we can keep Joe Biden in the White House for four more years and TFG goes away, either to jail, Russia, or succumbs to a natural end.

Having said that we’re going to be fighting against authoritarian MAGA’s for years and years to come. Here’s hoping the GOP comes to its senses and stops this horseshit.

Federico Viticci • MacStories

Still, as I was thinking about my usage of the iPad and why I enjoy using the device so much despite its limitations, I realized that I have never actually written about all of those “limitations” in a single, comprehensive article.

Nice piece that goes into the things Federico finds lacking on iPad. My knee jerk reaction is to think “just move back to a Mac” but folks should do what they want and complaining about the state of things is the only real power they have to hopefully influence Apple to make changes.

I’m still a big fan of Federico’s FrankenMac or MonsterPad, whatever you’d like to call it, it’s extremely cool so of course Apple will never do it. It would poach sales from Mac and iPad and they certainly want you to purchase both, separately. 🧌

David Zipper • Fast Company

Last week, General Motors announced that it would end production of the Chevrolet Malibu, which the company first introduced in 1964. Although not exactly a head turner (the Malibu was “so uncool, it was cool,” declared the New York Times), the sedan has become an American fixture, even an icon, appearing in classic films like Say Anything and Pulp Fiction. Over the past 60 years, GM produced some 10 million of them.

This is really weird to see from American car companies. Why abandon the sedan? Well it’s because American’s are ridiculous. We want the biggest darned cars we could possibly fit on the road.

For me personally I’d really love to have a $10k or less, limited range, EV. It could be small, that’s fine. It would be for running errands and commuting into town, not that I have a commute any longer but if I did I’d like a super economical EV.

Something like this. Would I prefer to buy a ‘Murican version of one, heck yeah! Will a ‘Murican company build one, heck no! 😄

JanerationX

The recent news that the NFL is in negotiations with Netflix (!!!) for the two Christmas Day games this year really made my blood boil. I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised. The league has been slowly chipping away at fans’ goodwill for years. But the fact that Netflix (!!!) is involved makes it extra offensive.

Professional sporting is just as greedy as any other business. They’re there to make money, not just break even, they want to make crap tons of money. This is how they do it. They make deals with the highest bidder. If that means selling the rights to some special games at jacked up rates, it’s what they’re gonna do.

Fans be damned.

The Eclectic Light Company

The only clue given by Apple comes in a single word buried in the sentence “Share code between apps on multiple platforms with views and controls that adapt to their context and presentation.” The key word there is adapt. SwiftUI is a forceful move in delivering an adaptive human interface, one that adapts to the user, the task, the data, and the platform.

Really nice piece on using SwiftUI and how it’s built to adapt to each device, at least that’s the idea.

I also like that it points out there’s nothing wrong with UIKit and AppKit.

Heck, one of the most beautiful, high quality, iOS apps made today is Ivory from Tapbots and last I heard it’s still written in Objective-C on UIKit and AppKit. No need to throw out perfectly good code in favor of an expensive rewrite for the sake of the new hotness.