#cart software system

[queenlua]

lmao (from this CTF writeup):

The final step, emitting the target language, which is nowadays often NOT C, is our greatest weakness in 2024. A new generation of engineers and systems folk have discovered the fruits of Chris Lattner's labor and staked their claim on today's software landscape. Unfortunately for reverse engineers, we continue to deal with the Cambrian explosion in binary diversity without commensurate improvements in tools. We eat shit reading worsening pseudo-C approximations of things that are not C. This problem will probably not get solved in the near future. There is no market for a high-quality Rust decompiler. First, no one writes exploits or malware in languages like Rust or Haskell. Unlike C/C++/Obj-C, the Rust/Haskell/etc ecosystems are predominantly open-source further decreasing the need for reverse engineering. Lastly, improved source control and ready availability of managed enterprise services (i.e. GitHub) make first-party loss of source code much rarer nowadays. So like, no one really cares about decompiling Rust other than unfortunate CTF players. Golang is a notable exception. Golang is like, the language for writing malware--great standard library, good cross-platform support, brain-dead easy concurrency, easy cross-compilation, fully static linking, and design with junior programmers in mind. You could shit out a Golang SSH worm in like 200 LoC crushing carts and ketamine no problem. People worry about AGI Skynet hacking the Pentagon to trigger a nuclear holocaust but really it's more gonna be like eastern European dudes rippin' it with some hella gang weed ChatGPT ransomware. So maybe we'll get a good Golang decompiler first?

[kafus]

i just went on a 2 hour long adventure to find out obscure pokemon information. again. normal tuesday for me at this point

one of the secondhand japanese emeralds i purchased, i noticed had the MysticTicket and Eon Ticket in the bag, the items to go to navel rock for ho-oh/lugia and to southern island to get one of the latis, latias or latios, respectively. i went to go check the wonder card on the save (gen 3 can only hold one at a time) and it's for the mysticticket (しんぴのチケット)!

of course i was curious about the event that distributed this mysticticket so i looked up the japanese title and managed to find an archive.org link for the event from the original, official pokemon website. but i was surprised to see the eon ticket and latias/latios prominently also displayed on the page, and with emerald listed as a possible game for it to be distributed to, no less!

it's relatively common knowledge that international versions of emerald can't receive the eon ticket because they don't have the original mystery event system in ruby/sapphire which allow it to be received, simply replaced by the new wireless mystery gift system. the only way to get the eon ticket in international emerald is through record mixing with a ruby or sapphire game with the ticket. i assumed this is how the eon ticket on this emerald was received, if it wasn't straight up hacked, but now i wasn't sure since if the previous owner truly went to this japanese event in 2006/2007, they could have also picked up the eon ticket according to the webpage...?

well i talked to some folk over at project pokemon and it turns out the mystery event system is still present in japanese emerald specifically, and not only that, they likely had a custom ROM they used in store to distribute the eon ticket to both RS and emerald! there's no photos and certainly no dump of it online, but it's likely there was a menu where they could pick what kind of game they were distributing to, similar to the custom ROM used for international RS eon ticket distributions that had language selection, which we DO surprisingly have a picture of, from a 2004 event in germany:

this event is really obscure for some reason? i had to talk to experts on the subject for more information on it, the serebii eventdex page for the eon ticket doesn't list it, and the bulbapedia page for the eon ticket doesn't mention it either, which may be remedied now that i've talked to some people about it in the near future. but yeah this was a fun deep dive

it should be noted that even though it would make a whole lot of sense through environmental storytelling that the events are fully legitimate, considering the rest of the file is fully legitimate (checked through multiple softwares), well-played and well-loved, and if they went to this event they would have gotten both tickets at the same time, but i have no way of knowing for sure since i wasn't there! however miraculously they never actually traveled to either island and all the legendaries are still up for grabs... so just for the sake of my own fun i'm going to believe these are real and not injected onto the cart, and go and catch navel rock ho-oh/lugia and one of the southern island latis for myself! :]

thank you Z.Z whoever you are!! you have a really cool file by the way, the random shiny zubat from granite cave and the ev trained alakazam that you obviously put a shitton of time into breeding considering the numerous boxes of abra and dittos in your PC are super cool!

[archoneddzs15]

Sega Mega CD - Shining Force CD

Title: Shining Force CD / シャイニングフォースCD

Developer/Publisher: Sega / Sonic! Software Planning / Seraphic / Rit's Co. Ltd. / Winds / Twofive

Release date: 22 July 1994

Catalogue No.: G-6036

Genre: Strategy RPG

If there is one single, great tragedy with Shining Force CD, it’s that so few people ever actually got around to playing it. At the time, the series was just getting on its feet, and the Mega CD itself was still struggling to obtain some decent sales, which it may or may not have ever gotten (depending on who you ask). This combination of sad factors led many to overlook one of the better strategy/RPGs out there. Let me echo the voices of those who stand behind this forgotten classic and sing the praises of everything Shining! Ok, maybe that’s bringing it on a bit thick; you get the picture though. Why, just look at what Sega gave us. Both Game Gear carts (Shining Force Gaiden [1992] and Shining Force Gaiden II [1993]) together on a single disc, with an extra exclusive battle. Four books, 53 battles. How can you not like this? I’ve owned and beaten all the games in this series, and after going back to it, I gained a new respect for it. Not everything is to my liking, I can say that flat out, but the package as a whole is a winner and one solid ride.

What’s not to like? For one thing, the treasured town dynamic has been removed. No longer can you explore and chat with villagers. The game has basically been reduced to the fighting sequences, with some story tossed in for good measure. The plot is now mostly told on the field, and it at least still maintains the same sense of urgency and tongue-in-cheek doomsday atmosphere that the others had. Let’s be honest, none of the bad guys in the Shining Force games have ever been truly menacing, and the CD installment doesn’t detour from that at all.

The adventure opens twenty years after the conclusion of the first Shining Force, with the land of Gardiana having been rebuilt by Luke, Lowe, and Ken; all of whom now serve Queen Anri. Ambassadors from Cypress (not the island nation, mind you) present a gift to her that explodes into a fog upon opening, sending Anri into a deep sleep. A marvelous quest to save her ensues, which culminates with the start of the second chapter, seamlessly attached. Book II’s end in turn sets the stage for the awesome final battle, in which you choose twelve warriors from both forces to end things once and for all (if you meet certain criteria, of course). Did I mention that the main heroes of both books are usable? A neat little touch, that.

Thankfully, it plays as solid as its other 16-bit brethren. I’m not, however, going to get all technical about the gameplay. It’s a Shining Force game, and I’m sure that you’ve played at least one of the other three entries available. Nothing’s changed here, and fans will be able to dive right in without even reading the manual. Newcomers should have little trouble, although they may be slightly turned off by the constant stream of battles that constitute the bulk of the game.

Let me be honest with myself for a second and not let my love for this franchise cloud my judgment. I am more than a bit disappointed by the presentation. Sure, the visuals are a huge leg up from the Game Gear, but when you already have two games done using the same engine, how hard is that? The battles are as beautiful as ever, but where are my animated cut scenes? Moreover, if this is a CD game, why aren’t there any towns? The exploration dynamic could really have been taken to a whole other level here, and it’s a shame that the developers took the short route. Switching between a shop and my HQ just wasn’t the same, and I really did miss being able to wander around. I bet Camelot knew this too and tried to make up for it with Shining Force III Scenarios 1, 2, and 3 on the Saturn.

One thing’s for sure, the soundtrack is simply GODLY. Sega knew how to take advantage of red book audio on the CD system, and this title is no exception. OST-worthy and beautifully scored, the music practically carries the game by itself. It’s by far one of my favorite soundtracks on the Mega CD.

Another plus is the continuation of the Shining tradition of new and hidden characters. As you progress through the game, new heroes will join you, and there’s a bunch that you actually have to hunt down. This has always been cool because it gives a little more replay value to the package and ensures that you won’t complete the whole thing the same way twice.

Well friends, there you have it. A great adventure that was unfortunately given the cold shoulder for too long, is now commanding upwards of $70 on eBay. That’s the price for learning things late I guess, and although Shining Force CD isn’t perfect, it’s so good you’ll forgive its flaws and revel in its strengths. The quest is long, and the characters are lovable, which should be enough to make it worth some of your time. Every Shining fan needs this one, plain and simple.

[usafphantom2]

This was a guidance group, and this technology was long, LONG before GPS. It has used uploaded star chart software to look at stars viewed through an upward-looking telescopic device. This accurately determined where both it and the airplane were. This device as a package was called ANS. NASA maintainers nicknamed it R2D2 because of a vague resemblance. Here, it is shown on its support cart; it was installed and removed from a cavity in the airplane using a crane and was considerably heavy. Built by Northrop. ( Davenport Kirk James)

The astro-inertial navigation system (ANS) of the SR-71 Blackbird was a remarkable feat of engineering that allowed the aircraft to navigate with unprecedented precision and accuracy, even over long distances and in challenging conditions. The system's ability to track stars through a quartz glass window, even in daylight, was a critical factor in its success. The quarts glass was fused to the hule which was a breakthrough technology.

Here's how the ANS worked:

1. Primary relationship Alignment: Before takeoff, the ANS's gyroscopes were carefully aligned with the Earth's magnetic field. This initial alignment was crucial for ensuring the accuracy of the system's position calculations.

2. Star Tracking: Once airborne, the ANS would track stars through a circular quartz glass window located on the upper fuselage. The star tracker used a photomultiplier tube to detect the light from stars, and its computer system would then identify the stars based on their positions and brightness.

3.Position Calculation: Using the positions of the tracked stars, the ANS's computer would calculate the aircraft's position relative to a known reference point. This position information was then updated continuously throughout the flight.

4. Navigation Guidance: The ANS could provide the pilot with navigation guidance, including the aircraft's current position, heading, and course. This information was crucial for maintaining accurate flight paths and reaching designated targets.

5. Daytime Star Tracking: The ANS's "blue light" source star tracker was a unique feature that allowed the system to track stars even in daylight. This was achieved by using a special filter that selectively passed only blue light, which is scattered less by the atmosphere than other wavelengths.

6 Redundancy: The ANS was designed with redundancy in mind, incorporating multiple gyroscopes and star trackers to ensure continuous operation even if one component failed.

The ANS played a critical role in the SR-71's success, enabling it to perform reconnaissance missions over vast distances and in hostile environments. The system's combination of precision, reliability, and all-weather capability made it a revolutionary technology in its time. Michael Rutchland #Habubrats

I need to add one of my Dad’s Richard “Butch”Sheffield stories from his book about testing GPS parking lot of the Pentagon with some Generals.The Army and the Navy were very impressed by what the Air Force had….a new thing called GPS. ~Linda Sheffield Miller

Photo of the quartz glass was taken by Curt Mason

@Habubrats71 via X

[alaledigitalworld]

GetResponse the best email marketing software. Review: Features, Pros, and How It Stands Out

GetResponse is a comprehensive marketing automation platform that caters to businesses looking to streamline their marketing efforts. Known for its email marketing tools, GetResponse also offers a suite of other features that help businesses attract, engage, and convert customers. Here’s a detailed look at the features GetResponse offers and what sets it apart from competitors.

Minding Blowing Features:

1. Email Marketing

Drag-and-Drop Email Editor: GetResponse’s email editor allows users to create professional-looking emails without any coding knowledge. With a simple drag-and-drop interface, users can customize email templates to match their brand’s look and feel.

Personalized Email Content: Dynamic content features enable users to personalize emails for each recipient, boosting engagement rates and customer satisfaction.

Automation Features: With GetResponse’s automation tools, users can create workflows to automatically send emails based on triggers such as subscriber actions or specific dates.

2. Marketing Automation

Workflow Builder: This visual editor allows users to design workflows that automate repetitive tasks. For example, businesses can set up automated welcome emails, cart abandonment emails, or re-engagement campaigns.

Behavior Tracking: GetResponse’s automation system can track user actions and segment contacts based on behaviors, like which links they click or how long they spend on a landing page.

Lead Scoring: This feature helps businesses identify potential customers by assigning scores based on engagement, making it easier to target the most interested leads.

3. Landing Pages and Conversion Funnels

Landing Page Builder: With a library of customizable templates, the landing page builder makes it easy to create effective, high-converting pages. It includes features like split testing and SEO optimization to help improve performance.

Conversion Funnels: GetResponse offers pre-designed sales funnels that guide leads through each stage of the buyer’s journey, from lead capture to purchase. It’s a valuable tool for e-commerce businesses looking to maximize conversions.

Webinar Funnels: This feature is ideal for businesses that rely on webinars for lead generation. The webinar funnel helps users set up registration pages, send reminders, and automate follow-ups, making the entire process seamless.

4. Webinars

Built-In Webinar Tool: GetResponse is one of the few platforms that includes webinars as part of its marketing toolkit. Users can host live webinars, share files, and engage attendees with polls and Q&A sessions.

Webinar Analytics: After each session, GetResponse provides detailed analytics that help businesses understand engagement levels, attendee drop-off rates, and overall webinar success.

Follow-Up Automation: Automatically follow up with webinar attendees based on their participation. For example, you could send a thank-you email to those who attended and an on-demand recording link to those who missed it.

5. E-Commerce Features

Product Recommendation Engine: GetResponse integrates with e-commerce platforms to help businesses recommend products to customers based on past purchases.

Abandoned Cart Recovery: This feature allows businesses to reach out to customers who abandoned their carts, helping to recover potentially lost sales.

Integrated Payment Gateways: Users can set up product pages and directly integrate payment options, making it easy to sell products or services directly through GetResponse.

6. Advanced Analytics and Reporting

Email Analytics: GetResponse’s email analytics provide in-depth data on open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates. Users can use this data to fine-tune their campaigns.

Conversion Funnel Analytics: Users can track every stage of their sales funnels to understand where leads drop off and make adjustments to improve conversion rates.

Customizable Reports: The platform offers customizable reports for different metrics, enabling businesses to get insights tailored to their specific goals.

Pros of Using GetResponse

All-in-One Platform: GetResponse offers a full suite of marketing tools, from email marketing to webinars and sales funnels, so users don’t have to juggle multiple tools.

User-Friendly Interface: Even for beginners, GetResponse’s interface is intuitive and easy to navigate.

Webinar Hosting: With built-in webinar capabilities, GetResponse stands out among other email marketing platforms, making it ideal for educational content, product demos, and more.

Advanced Segmentation and Targeting: The platform offers robust segmentation and automation tools, allowing for highly personalized and targeted marketing campaigns.

Excellent Customer Support: GetResponse is known for providing reliable customer support through live chat, email, and extensive online resources.

Cons of Using GetResponse

Pricing: Compared to some email-only platforms, GetResponse can be pricier due to its comprehensive feature set.

Complexity for Basic Users: For those who only need basic email marketing, GetResponse’s extensive features may feel overwhelming.

Learning Curve for Automation: While powerful, the automation builder can take some time to learn and optimize fully.

Who Should Use GetResponse?

GetResponse is ideal for:

Small to Medium Businesses: With its range of features, GetResponse is suitable for businesses looking to streamline and automate various aspects of their marketing efforts.

E-Commerce Businesses: With its e-commerce tools, abandoned cart recovery, and product recommendation engine, GetResponse provides essential features for online stores.

Content Creators and Educators: The built-in webinar tool makes it perfect for educators, coaches, and content creators who need to host virtual sessions and automate follow-ups.

Digital Marketers: GetResponse’s advanced segmentation and automation make it a valuable tool for digital marketers running multi-channel campaigns.

Conclusion: Is GetResponse Worth It?

For businesses looking for an all-in-one marketing solution that includes email marketing, automation, webinars, and e-commerce support, GetResponse is a strong contender. While it may have a learning curve, particularly in automation, its depth of features allows businesses to centralize their marketing activities in a single platform. Though slightly pricier than simpler email tools, its versatility and powerful capabilities justify the investment for businesses that need a comprehensive marketing solution.

[finrays]

SO! Here is my lair;

Sockeye, on the right, is a Bambu Lab P1P, and Coho, on the left, is a Bambu Lab A1 with AMS Lite system! It allows me to print in up to four colors on the same print, which is radical! They needed designations in the app-and-program system I use to control them, so salmon species it is, haha! The foam-and-paver setup is to dampen vibrations, which makes for neater prints and cuts the print noise down; these guys can get LOUD, which is why they're banished to the basement.

Basically, the printer heats these strands of filament up until they're molten, then lays them down on the bed in tiny slices, cooling them with fans as it goes so the plastic doesn't run between layers. I usually print at 0.2 mm layer height, so that gives you an idea of how tiny these slices really are and why it takes a LONG time to print things, haha!

The A1 is a Cartesian printer, or "bed-slinger", which means the toolhead moves on the X axis, the printbed moves on the Y axis, and the Z axis is basically the toolhead rail which moves up and down... lots of moving parts! The P1P in comparison is a CoreXY printer, which has a toolhead that moves in the X and Y axes, and a bed that moves on the Z axis. There are trade-offs to each system, but I like them both for what I use them for!

There's a video of them in action.

I store my less-used tools on the teal cart, and my filament in those big tubs, which are absolutely JAM-PACKED with silica gel packets, haha. Gotta keep that stuff dry! PLA filament absorbs moisture really easily, and that messes up the print quality, so you wanna keep it as dry as possible.

Over here are my more commonly used tools and doodads! Clippers for removing supports from prints that need them, a bunch of little Allen keys, a bed-scraper and some cleaning tools I printed, a wire brush for cleaning the nozzles, and some spa day tools! Once a month, I use that canned air to clean out the nooks and crannies, clean off the rods and rails that everything moves on and re-grease them, check the belt tensions on everything and clean out my nozzles. It's a lot of work but it's better to do preventative maintenance than to have it break down on ya.

I also have a filament dryer (the round boi,) which can bake moisture out of wet filaments, and a heat gun, which I use to clean up prints that have gotten stringy. Wet filament CAN cause a print to look like a spider webbed it up, in which case, the heat gun will melt the little stringies back into the body of the print, which neatens it. Spare spools in the back corner in case I get an atrocious order that needs to be re-spooled onto something better (I printed a device called a Pastamatic that lets you re-spool filament, haha) and some spare beds!

The beds themselves are PEI, which is a material that has a MAGICAL interaction with the plastics used in printers; at certain temperatures, there's a reaction between the two materials that results in adhesion. But move away from that temp, and the adhesion fails. So I heat the beds to about 60 C for my PLA filament, and it sticks, but once it cools, I can just slide it off the bed. RADICAL. But having grease or debris on the bed will mess with the adhesion, so I scrub them down with dish soap and keep them clean with the IPA to maintain adhesion!

Software-wise, you manipulate models in a program called a slicer, which allows you to resize, designate colors to certain parts of the model, and generally just set up the print the way you like it before it's converted to a file format the printer can actually read.

CinderWing dragons are the BEST.

The cool thing about Bambu is that there's also a mobile device app that allows you to control and check on your printer from your phone! Very handy.

The hobby itself is front-loaded cost-wise; each of these systems was about $600 and I saved up for a bit to obtain them! But once you get things together, the filament isn't THAT expensive (unless you buy too much of it like I do.) The premium stuff is about $35/kg roll, and it's all downward from there. Typically, I pay around $22-25 for nice filament, and I can get like four full-sized dragons out of a roll.

If you're looking to get into the hobby, though, I'd say now is the time to start looking at printers; the Black Friday sales are revving up, and you can get a very nice single-color A1 Mini, the little brother of Coho, for about $200.

I don't print in resin because there's... a lot of prep work, mess, toxic materials safety, and the need for ventilation, which I don't have. Maybe someday!!!

Anyway... that's the printer shop!

[wirewitchviolet]

Wire Witch Hex - Wearing Many Hats (Font Design)

Lately most of the traffic I'm getting on this blog has been people stumbling onto my multipart series on how a computer works. Glad people are enjoying that as much as they seem to be. My reason for teaching myself all of that (besides just the joy of learning) is I'm very slowly working on designing a new video game console that anyone sufficiently motivated can build for themselves as a neat little DIY project. There are so many moving parts to this project that for now I'm focusing mainly on just the controller and its unique features. To avoid having to make a whole working console, with software, to test it, and make sure I have something to show for all this if the rest doesn't pan out, I'm designing the controller to also be more or less compatible with the NES and SNES (which secretly use the same input standard, just differently shaped plugs at the end of the cord).

This means all I'll need to test and demo my controller is an SNES ROM that knows what to do with my scroll-wheel outputs, a setup where an emulator accurately handles those signals, and later a cart I can slap a couple EEPROMs into and test on real hardware. Oh and I also need to teach myself enough about SNES development to actually create every demo I want to run, do all the art, code it up, and compile it. This is a big job, and I'm not getting paid, so maybe consider throwing me a little money before we dig into this?

Since... really the last time I reported in on this, I've been studying away trying to learn all this, and hey, have a compiled ROM image that'll display a blank screen in any color I want, and a third party program that IN THEORY with a bit of massaging will convert a 256x256 image into an SNES character ROM image. AKA the file with all the graphics. My ultimate goal for this demo cart is to cycle through several very simple games, showcasing how my controller works with each. So I need to cram every image any of these are going to need into my one big image file, which I'm slowly picking away at, but the one thing I knew from the start that I'd definitely need is to throw some text on screen explaining the controls for each demo. And since it's not like there's a built in font in in the system, I had to make my own.

This is not my first font-making rodeo. For this one, my thinking was, I'm going to be in a fixed 16x16 resolution per character (because I forgot the specifics of how the SNES actually tiles graphics), some built in spacing so I can slap them all right up against each other or some border and still be readable, and I wanted a nice little shadow built into every character in case they end up on a low contrast background. Let's zoom in on what I have here so far, in case you don't feel like downloading the file and blowing it up to something more readable.

The first thing I want to note is that after finishing the first 4 rows of characters here, I double checked, and while the SNES CAN break backgrounds into 16x16 tiles, the absolute minimum is 8x8. If I were really trying to be space efficient, I should have designed around that. Several of these characters would easily fit into a 16x8 space, that level of compression would also let me have just the period and comma and be able to build a colon, semicolon, or apostrophe from those, and most importantly, I rendered this with all of the lowercase letters exactly 1 pixel too tall to fit into a 16x8 space and let me double up there. Since I'm rather happy with this font so far and I'd eventually like to make some version of it available for, if nothing else, other people writing software for my eventual console here, I will likely, at some point, make a more space-optimized variation. I'd also like to cover a wider range of characters. At the very least, have some accent marks, wouldn't be too hard to add support for Cyrillic. Pretty sure I can get Japanese and Korean text in keeping with this look. Maybe some other languages. Anyway though, let's talk about what I've got.

My general design rule here was, where possible, make lines 2 pixels thick, and have each white pixel cast a black pixel shadow immediately below, to the right, and the diagonal between them. This gives a pretty convincing relief effect in my opinion, and keeping the shadows this thick keeps a nice firm edge there so it's even generally readable on a pure white background. Within each 16x16 tile, I was extremely strict about keeping a 1 pixel margin clear at the top and bottom of each image, and 2 or 3 on the sides (often 3 on the left, 2 on the right. With capital letters, I went with a generally rigid and blocky style, trying to stretch things to my arbitrary margins. Lowercase letters I restricted to just 8 pixels tall, and those featuring tails are given special permission to drop down an extra pixel, leaving the shadow right on the edge of their true bounding box.

While it wasn't an intentional move at first, several lowercase letters ended up with a decidedly rounded, squashed look, particularly g and q. I found that to be both kind of cute, giving the whole font a real unique character, and eventually started to actively lean into it (which may not be super obvious, I started with W as it's kinda the letter than needs the most breathing room and worked outward from there), and did my best to distort all the rounder shapes and in particular the highly mirrorable b d p q set, as I seem to recall once reading the more you avoid identical shapes with those, the more legible the font becomes for people with dyslexia. Similarly, I made a point of distinguishing the shapes of the Ms and Ws, and added a little whimsy to the numerals. Overall I'm super happy with all the lowercase letters (except for e and s being too thin, but that was an inevitable compromise), and if I ever have the time to kill it's very likely I'll revisit this someday and apply this squishy rounded aesthetic to the capitals too.

Your eyes were probably drawn really quickly to the parentheses here, where for at least the moment I'm breaking my rules about blank space and shifting them inward quite a bit rather than centering them. That's going to look really bad if I use them in a sentence (like this), but the main reason I'm including them right now is so I can list button prompts with both the icons representing what's actually going to be on my controller, and the SNES buttons sharing the same signals. So something like: "GO (A) Jump" and I think the half-spacing and closeness to what they enclose will look pretty nice in this one specific case.

As a final note, the particular hardware I'm working with absolutely supports the ability to mirror any image horizontally or vertically, as well as change the palette. If I truly wanted to cram letters in as efficiently as possible at this font size, I could, for instance, have an 8x8 right-angle segment, build a whole H just from mirroring that, also use it for the legs of the A, P, F, the left side of the D, etc. This however is incompatible with the shadows I'm using for extra readability. And of course for other projects I HAVE made a perfectly legible 8x8 font before.

I'm pointing this out because hey, if you do the math, JUST these characters I've set aside for having arbitrary on-screen text, as is, are consuming 5/16ths of my total graphical memory, and I'm probably never even going to display most of these anywhere. Again, not a huge problem for the simple demo pack I'm making, and that 256x256 drawing space isn't a hard limit. Spending an extra processor cycle to change an index value and access a whole other page of image data is a pretty common practice on the hardware, but especially with older computers and racing to get things ready to draw before a screen refreshes, it's good to at least be mindful of the tradeoffs with that sort of thing.

And again, my sole source of income at the moment is patreon donations, so if you're excited about seeing updates to this weird project of mine or you're learning useful things from any of it, maybe consider throwing me a little support?

[elephantbitterhead]

Att'n fellow haters of small-fabric-sales increments: @biscuitfortune has brought it to my attention that the vendors themselves may not be to blame for this & may instead be trying to cope with an unhelpful online shopping/cart system that isn't made to accommodate fractions of a meter (and thus they're forced to choose the smallest possible unit they sell as the basic sales unit for the fabric). So unless we have data that the shop itself is trying to fake us out with their partial-unit price, we should probably be hating the software sellers & developers and not the fabric merchants themselves.

[lunarsilkscreen]

A new cartridge game design

So, old cartridge games actually allowed for memory and size expansions, along with different upgrades that it could give the hardware itself.

Like a built in graphics card.

These days; cartridges are little more than glorified SD-Cards or USB Flash Drives.

The reason is that it's more expensive to include these kinds of hardware upgrades. And it's harder to develop for when your custom hardware is something you're shipping with your game product.

It also makes it harder to cross-platform.

For the longest time, consoles included expansion slots that rarely went used. Like the N64 expansion Bay, which increased the systems memory but was only needed for four games, and one of those games was only because there was a memory leak the devs couldn't figure out how to fix.

What can we use cartridges for though... It's literally one of the fastest storage types, and even though there's nothing that really sets it apart from standard media, there must be something we can use them for ... Right?

Re-Introducing; read-only memory.

When you load software or media from a source, harddrive, or disc, or card... It goes to RAM. This is because RAM is faster, but more "volatile". Meaning it can be overwritten.

Why not skip that step entirely?

A cartridge already has the benefit of ordered data storage, doesn't need to be loaded into RAM, and this frees up RAM and processing time for generated data instead of re-loading ROM data.

Annihilating load times nearly completely because the data is *already loaded*.

The reason for this is because ROM storage used to be cheap and slow, while RAM was fast but expensive and quicker to degrade with reuse.

But now the types of memory used for RAM has become cheap, and ubiquitous, and by using it for ROM applications, becomes cheaper and longer lasting than typical storage devices.

And it keeps its speed boost over traditional storage devices.

By using a design that changes how we think of traditional RAM and ROM applications, we can decrease load times, because it doesn't need to be loaded into RAM, AND save device RAM for on-the-fly content.

The drawback is, of course; customers will still want downloadable games and content.. And because the downloads won't have the same capacity as your purchasable carts, because they require loading into RAM, it will introduce stress on the hardware itself.

Re-Introducing; Data Storage Cards.

Whether or not you use proprietary carts, or SD-brand brand cards, or USB devices or whatever... You can use these cards *in the same way* as your console branded cards.

The difference is that you can also download to these cards. Or rather, the data stored in them can be read from as quickly as it does from your system's memory.

The downside is of course faster degradation, but you're going to have that with these storage devices anyway.

[texasdreamer01]

Atlantis Expedition: Science Division Departments - Field Sciences Department

With the original post outlining the departments getting further away in the rearview mirror, as I've already finished the medical and life sciences departments, on to the field sciences.

Below are the original notes, with - tada! - no revisions:

Field Sciences Department

> Head: OC > Contains: Linguistics, historical geography, cartography, ethnography, sociology, oceanography, hydrology, atmospheric physics, planetary physics > Function: Research pool for gate teams and any assigned missions > Examples of function: Preservation of refugee cultures, scouting for trade planets, analysis of back-up sites for establishment > Personnel quantity: 1 (Head) + 3 (linguistics) + 1 (histgeo) + 1 (cart) + 1 (ethno) + 1 (socio) + 1 (oceano) + 1 (hydro) + 1 (atmophys) + 1 (planphys) = 12 > A/N: SGC duplicate all shoved into one department, mostly ignored in-house but their brains are picked for background dossiers when it comes to mission planning. Linguists trained in xenolinguistics, from the SGC, can cover the various anthro fields if necessary, also various training in structural linguistics. Main scientist pulls for gate team assignments, if something critical isn't needed (i.e. Ancient technology).

There's about three loose groupings here: the linguists, the anthropologists, and the non-anthropological scientists. The last of these are more pure science, so while they may do technical work, they're not engineering based, and thus well-suited to this department for a few reasons.

Here's the breakdown, commentary included:

> Linguistics  » 3x of these  » SGC imports   ⇛ How many linguists to a Daniel Jackson  » Specialties?   ⇛ Linguistics Typology    ⟹ Does the analytical work of structuring languages   ⇛ Sociolinguistics/Linguistic Anthropology    ⟹ Does the sociological work of relevance in languages   ⇛ Computational Linguistics    ⟹ Does the computer work to categorize languages    ⟹ AKA Database creation   ⇛ Outline of linguistics   ⇛ Linguistics in science fiction > Historical Geography  » Collects first-hand accounts, as well as reference material, to construct location data  » Can contain work from botany and archaeology > Cartography  » Uses GIS-type software for creating reference materials  » Leverages historical geographer's work to make maps of different types > Ethnography  » SGC import  » Collates relevant information about found societies  » Contributes to database work > Sociology  » SGC import  » Specialties?   ⇛ Analytical sociology    ⟹ Studies the mechanisms contributing to the creation of social facts   ⇛ Sociocultural evolution    ⟹ Studies how societies and cultures change over time   ⇛ Outline of sociology > Oceanography  » Assists cartographer in mapping oceanic and other water body areas > Hydrology  » Analyzes water systems and their management  » Assists historical geographer, ethnographer, and sociologist > Atmospheric Physics  » AKA meteorology and climate physics  » Assists everyone but linguists unless otherwise requested > Planetary Physics  » Not astrophysics   ⇛ Works with the astrophysicists  » Studies composition of planets  » Assists and leads oceanographer, hydrologist, and atmospheric physicist in research

Insert Daniel's caterwauling about not being allowed to go with the expedition. I imagine he was very grumpy in picking out some of his staff to go instead of him, but they are, at least, quite likely to be well-trained.

At any rate, these are the people that contribute to pre-mission dossiers, analyze data brought back from missions, and are the general group of people that might be pulled into gate missions themselves based on their expertise in various facets of culture and cultural analysis.

Given the fact that the Atlantis expedition was launched years after the SGC was formed, and also years after they ironed out the kinks in developing gate teams and mission parameters, the expedition has a bit of a leg up in terms of pre-populating their experts. Having Elizabeth Weir as the head of the expedition helps, as she had at one point been the head of the SGC, so had the opportunity to learn how the SGC runs, and why it makes the decisions it does.

Because of this, the Field Sciences department is going to be heavy on the SGC imports, and not just given a quick training on Goa'uld-adapted technology like the Medical and Life Sciences department would be.

The linguists are going to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting, and likely already know Ancient from the Milky Way extant samples the SGC was able to get from their own missions. (Do I think Ancient really is a Latin analogue? Nope, but narratively that's what it is.) After having been trained on Goa'uld as a lingua franca of the Milky Way, these people are going to be more specialized in being thrown feet-first into a new language group and learning it without any preexisting framework.

The anthropologists - geographer, cartographer, ethnographer, and sociologist - are going to be the ones to gather, analyze, and provide context for not only the languages the expedition and gate teams will encounter (such as dialects of Ancient and other common trading languages in the Pegasus galaxy), but also to record and articulate historical and contemporary information of the peoples the expedition meets. This is useful for not only establishing back-up installations (i.e. alpha site, beta site, etc), but also for assisting in refugee work and tracking population migrations that they'll eventually figure out is caused by Wraith cullings.

The pure sciences do what pure sciences do: collect information. While linguists may find a group of people with fifty words for different shades of green, pure scientists will track down what those words are used for (i.e. locating different types of forests). They'll work closely with the Life Sciences department, in case a botanist needs to find a particular plant, or a zoologist needs to find a particular animal, by cross-referencing geographical data and likely working in concert with the local societies that provided them with that information.

Of all departments, it's the Field Sciences department that people like Teyla and Ronon will be most likely to interact with on a regular basis, given their roles of cultural experts and cultural liaisons.

Total Field Sciences Department Personnel

Head of Department: 1

Linguists: 3

Anthropologists: 4

Pure Sciences: 4

Total total: 12

Any canonical characters that happen to fit the bill of a role in this department will have their own post, but for now this is a general accounting of the expedition's field sciences department.

[holofoiltowercard]

The Journey of The Tarot Haiku

III: The Empress - Creativity

I had previously talked about what art software I used to create my digital illustrations for the book, and now I would like to share my actual process of creating the illustrations.

Even in the early stages, when I was contemplating the fact that writing two poems for all 78 Tarot cards would mean a minimum of 156 poems, I thought to myself, I don't necessarily want to limit myself to just the cards. Why not round it out and include a poem about each of the Suits as I introduce them? Why not include the number system that had been so beneficial to my own understanding in general? However, at that point I realized that it might not be best to represent these concepts with the cards themselves. I could have, of course, used the cards for the numbers - it might have been interesting to line up all the aces, twos, threes, etc. to show how the numbers are expressed in the Minor Arcana. But for poems representing the individual Suits, what card should I pick? And what card would best represent the Major Arcana? Or reversals, or the matter of context? The idea of using cards for all of these and having them repeat throughout didn't feel quite right to me.

At any rate, I would have to design a cover for the book, so if I was going to do that, why not see if I can make some simple but effective illustrations for some of the content as well?

This was my first time doing vector art, which was a bit of a challenge, but I was surprised to discover that it wasn't really difficult so much as a little fiddly. It was crucial that it be vector art, because it is based on mathematical calculation of the curvatures, and no matter what size you enlarge it to, it will stay crisp and clean. I had no idea what size the final product might be, and so I wanted to ensure that even when resized, the images would look nice.

I very quickly settled on a color scheme: there is something elegant and magical to me about a deep ocher gold accented by black and white. I wanted to keep the cover simple to begin with: my resources were limited (not stunning photography and editing for me), and it is self-published, so why not allow it to look like a single person made it with everything they had? It's true! So I set out to create some vector illustrations with my color palette all set.

The number system was discussed in a previous post, and it was a no-brainer to use dots and lines to construct the shapes. I made a new file, used the same dimensions and fitted all of them carefully within the same sized space. Some of them look larger than others, which is the price you pay when you are drawing shapes that are less bulky than a square.

Then came the Court Personalities, which were all modeled after individual Court Carts (the Page of Swords, Knight of Cups, Queen of Wands and King of Pentacles, respectively), and to keep the illustrations mostly a lighter color, I made the clothes golden and the faces black to show that the rank is what stays consistent, and the individuals themselves may be any of the Suits. I then designed the Suits and drew their symbols, mostly free style, keeping them simple.

By far my favorite was the illustration I did for the Major Arcana, and had I not settled on the cover looking like a simple card back, I might have used this as the cover illustration:

That is all for now! I hope you enjoyed these, and thank you for reading!

Buy the ebook

Buy the paperback

Buy the hardcover

[tyo-mimt]

32/36. @tmnt-event-blog

What was he if not what he was good at?

He asked himself the same question often: what was he good for if not for his tech? Even when the answer was repeated to him, it wasn't something he could fully internalise.

Blaring music on full volume with his headphones, tinkering away on the motherboard during a non-brain fog night. Just another one of those nights where he could finally be productive and work on some repairs.

Just recalling the laundry list of things he had to do, there was fixing the alarm system (which had been broken for weeks, but no one seemed to notice), software updates on his code (which applied to all contingencies and failsafes in his battle shells), and... Hmm, he was forgetting something after all.

For now though, he had to focus on goggle repairs. He slipped on ice and damaged the motherboard on it. It was but a minor setback... He could handle it. His fingers started tapping to the beat of the music as he attempted to mentally recall what needed to be soldered where.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

He fiddled with the instrument, the butt of it hitting the desk as the chaos of the music only grew with his work.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Huh, did one of the wires burn out? Maybe he should've readjusted the voltage on that part of the circuit.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

He was really struggling to properly track each wire. He really should've coloured them...

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Oh, right. He had to install proper doors on the train carts. They'd just substituted them for curtains, but those didn't offer good privacy...

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap...

As much as he wanted to stave his thoughts away, they remained stubbornly intrusive. If he couldn't even fix the thing that would help him with the rest of repairs, how could he expect to fix everything else? Did he even deserve the aide? When his brilliance was tanking and deteriorating, did anything he did afterward matter?

Yes, he was the tech guy, but did that mean he could like other things?

He liked to dance, liked to learn about plants and the various ways to utilise them to benefit everyone, liked skateboarding and pizza the same way his brothers did, loved scrapyard diving... He loved his family... But did it really matter when he couldn't be of any use to them?

He tried to recall April's words in Witch Town, but they were still hard to internalise. They weren't even retrievable, replaced with the many failures of his past. How his tech had almost failed his family before. How each and every mistake now could easily spell doom for his family in the future.

Oh.

Never mind, it was one of those brain fog nights.

(Quietly, hopefully) slamming the device onto the desk and huffing in mild frustration, Donnie leaned back on the rolling chair he sat on and groaned. Inertia pushed the chair away, eventually bumping into the bunk bed in his lab.

It was late enough, and exhaustion and frustration was a good mix of emotions to fall asleep to. Probably.

Clambering onto the bed and sparing one final glance at the desk, he pulled the bedsheets over his head and closed his eyes.

He chanted the same thing, because he knew it'd come true eventually... It'd be better tomorrow.

[gothicprep]

the ADL published this about substack and misinformation and i think it's putting the cart before the horse.

to get the obvious out of the way, it's sort of poorly written. if you want to establish a persuasive case that substack is an exceptionally bad vector for misinfo and antisemitism, it's probably best to exclude things like a random newsletter by a guy known only by "josh" who doesn't have a checkmark. substack's checkmark system goes by the amount of paid subscriptions you have to your newsletter, so if there's no checkmark, it means that a very marginal amount of people are patronizing him financially, if any are at all. Some Guy Named Josh does not belong in the final cut.

generally, there seems to be a misunderstanding here about how substack works. it's useful platform software for publishing newsletters, but it's not super conducive to networking or brand expansion. the only time a newsletter is going to be promoted is if it's recommended by writers you subscribe to, or if a writer does a guest column on a newsletter you're already subscribed to. it doesn't have an analog to a "for you" page or suggested content. if someone has a popular substack, they've probably imported that following from elsewhere. libsoftiktok being included buttresses my point.

what i'm walking away with here is that this is more a symptom than a problem in and of itself. the sort of people who are seeking out kook-brained substacks about, i don't know, vaccine denialism, aren't being radicalized, they were already radical in the first place. this seems like a different issue to me than your conspiracy addled uncle linking to infowars on facebook.

[usafphantom2]

French Navy tests the new Rafale Marine standard F4.1

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 04/26/2023 - 13:00 in Military

The "Hunting" detachment of CEPA/10S (center of practical experiments and reception of naval aeronautics) of the French Navy has been conducting Rafale experiments for the new F4.1 standard since February 2023.

This new standard introduces "collaborative combat" through improvements to the SPECTRA self-protection system and the air-to-air firing control of the METEOR missile.

The F4.1 standard also brings many capacity gains, with emphasis on the arrival of the SCORPION helmet aim, the new 1,000kg AASM air-to-ground weaponry, the "NAVWAR" evolution of inertial units, as well as a new software version of the Talios pod laser designation.

CEPA/10S has already flown almost 100 hours on Rafale Marine F4.1. The experimental campaign began aboard the aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle from March 21 to 30, mobilizing no less than 3 Rafale Marine for the F4.1 standard, a team of more than 60 airborne sailors, DGA experts and manufacturers of the Rafale program.

Almost 40 experimental flights of the new standard were carried out on board, to confirm its suitability for the environment on board, to ensure that the capabilities did not regress compared to the F3R standard and to test the many new features. These flights served in particular to evaluate the specificities inherent in air-to-sea missions: air/sea threats, aging of specific equipment for catapult launches In addition, the opportunities for interaction of the F4.1 standard with the on-board air group and the surface forces at sea allowed to evaluate this new standard in complex conditions representative of the operating conditions of the Rafale (radar jamming by a FREMM DA, GPS blocking by DGA/MI). These complex evaluations, in interaction with the operational units, are in full harmony with the desire to prepare for the high-intensity conflicts and threats present in contemporary theaters.

New SCORPION helmet designating a target by the orientation of the head. (Photo: Dassault Aviation / C.Cosmao)

This campaign aboard the Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier was also an opportunity to test new features on the ground: reference alignment of the aircraft carrier, F4.1 version of the Harpagon information system (reading of malfunctions), evaluation of the SEFIAM electric cart for displaying all types of ammunition and weapons.

CEPA/10S is now working to finalize the work that will allow the next operational commissioning of the F4.1 standard in naval aeronautics.

Tags: Military AviationDassault Rafale MMarine Nationale / French Navy

Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work throughout the world of aviation.

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[alo-piss-trancy]

PSA for all my cheap gamer bitches: Capcom is holding a kickass sale on the 3ds USA eshop right now until it closes later this month!!! GO GET YOUR GAMES 👏👏👏

Highlights:

Ace Attorney Phoenix Wright Trilogy, Spirit of Justice, Dual Destinies, and Apollo Justice are ALL $2.99 each!!!

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, 3 Ultimate, and Generations are $2.99 each! (Note: I believe 3 Ultimate is also on wiiu, and Generations has an Ultimate version on Switch that is $11.99 right now)

Resident Evil Revelations and Mercenaries 3D are $2.99 each!

Reminder that you cannot use cards besides eshop cards anymore through the console store. Instead, you must log into your account on their website and either purchase through your card or add funds in set amounts there (if your funds are merged across systems). If you're making multiple purchases, I HIGHLY suggest adding as many funds as you can/are going to use first, so your card is only charged once or twice (and then your actual purchases will go through your eshop funds), instead of MANY small purchases on your card and getting locked by your bank for fraud protection. Remember that there is no cart option, so you must purchase each game individually!

You can redownload software after the eshop closes, but you will need storage for the initial purchase/download. So depending on file size/how many you're getting, you may have to do multiple shopping trips, buying 1-3 at a time, downloading and then deleting them on your 3ds, then repeating the process for the next.

[digitalmarketinginrudrapur]

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