#i barely even remember all of basic one variable integration

[dykrophone]

I'm going to fucking kill myself

[libermachinae]

Notes: baby robot

—

“602 RPS. Fuel pressure 124 over 75. Circuits holding—”

“Prowl, come.”

Prowl glanced up from the monitor for just an astrosec. Mesothulas was standing in front of the CR chamber, leaned so close he was nearly touching the casing, well beyond the limits of safety protocols. Even from up here in the observation deck, Prowl could see the way he quivered, fingers flexing as though he really intended to brush them over the freezing pod. He’d spoken without looking away from it, optics fixed on the narrow porthole, its view blocked from Prowl’s gaze by the glare of the lab’s lighting.

When he looked back, RPS had dropped to 598.

“I can observe plenty from up here,” he said, logging the change along with the rest of the readout flashing across his display. The system would do it automatically, but keeping his own logs allowed him to feed the data directly into his risk analysis programs, their last safeguard against any unexpected chain reactions. Reversal and shutdown commands remained queued and at the ready.

“But he can’t see you,” Mesothulas insisted, still with his gaze on the pod. There was a mechanical growl deep within the machine, systems warming to protect them against the coming temperature snap.

“I’ll introduce myself later,” Prowl promised. He had a script prepared, easily integrated into the standard basic function tests he’d plucked from the ruins of Petrex’s last construction center. It would serve to demonstrate the construct’s ability to differentiate itself from other people and recognize when it was being addressed, provided current readings held steady and they actually made it that far. “I need to keep monitoring in case of—”

“In case of what, Prowl? Our design is without flaw. He’s perfect.” Mesothulas did touch the pod then, yanking away and shaking out his hand when the cold bit back. “We’ve already run every test, accounted for every variable. You said yourself, nothing will go wrong.”

“Because I’m up here, making sure it doesn’t.” There was a hiss as the internal ventilations started to draw out the freezing gasses, and a fog appeared over the porthole as moisture in the air responded to the change in temperature. Mesothulas leaned close again, and this time Prowl decided not to bother worrying about it. “I don’t understand why this is an issue. We haven’t installed its datalogging software yet; it won’t remember any of this.”

There was a lot he didn’t understand about Mesothulas, but most of the time that worked to his benefit, their different priorities allowing them to easily collaborate by taking over parts of each project the other had no interest in. It was rare for them to clash, and if it caused him to add a few extra lines to his spreadsheets as he accelerated his tracking speed, the construct certainly wouldn’t suffer for it.

“He, Prowl. He has his own spark.”

And going by the standards Prowl had grown up with, that put it in the animate category, a step above mechanized but not yet in the autonomous phase that signified life. But that was for spliced sparks, borrowed identities who only became individuals once introduced to a unique processor sequence. He and Mesothulas had gone back and forth on what this meant for the construct, whose spark had been struck from as close to nothing as one could, and Prowl was smart enough to know it was not a discussion worth bringing up now.

“And it’s important because we’re not just introducing ourselves: we’re introducing the entire universe to him. We’re his first impression of everything. I’m not letting you waste that opportunity.”

There was a hiccup in Prowl’s momentum as Mesothulas’ sentiments caused his processor to pick up a memory. Its low priority weighed against the negligible file size meant that despite considering deleting it as it lost relevance with each new change to his life, he’d kept it buried in his archive. The auditory component had become uncoupled during one of his early processor crashes, so all he had left was the visual, grainy with the degradation of multiple transfers and processor upgrades. The file played and his optical feed came online to two Cybertronians, one standing back with a datapad while the other stood closer, his optics fixed on Prowl. They were both talking, but Prowl hadn’t bothered to watch their lips: all his focus had been on their plating, his first thoughts a string of hexidecimal codes as he tried to track all the ways their paint reacted to light and shadow.

It was not a long memory. He’d dropped offline almost immediately, having overwhelmed his processor before his temperature controls had finished booting up, and after that he’d had a specialist team to finish his construction. Though he’d had access to the database, he’d never bothered to go looking up the names of the first two bots he’d seen. Their role in his life had been all but inconsequential, compared to the engineers who spent decacycles making sure his spark and frame could maintain the advanced tactical suite he’d been built for.

“I’ll make sure the construct functions long enough to see any of it,” he said, returning his focus to the monitors. 608 RPS.

He thought he caught a glint of yellow from where Mesothulas stood.

“P—”

“Vacuum seal releasing.”

There was a louder hiss as a plume of white mist escaped the seams of the pod door. Mesothulas jumped away from it, then moved back in as soon as it had dissipated, hands up like he wanted to help the door along as it pushed out and then slid aside on a silent track. More mist spilled out, blanketing the floor around Mesothulas’ pedes, but it was hard to tell whether his slight hop step was from pain or eagerness.

“Surge guards holding,” Prowl reported. “Autonomics steady. Entering second stage bootup.”

Mesothulas gasped and Prowl looked up, concerned, but found himself just as startled. Bioillumination was a hallmark of stage two and not in itself surprising. Even the brilliant intensity, light stretching beyond the confines of the pod, was to be expected, given that they hadn’t installed any code to regulate it yet. Mesothulas just hadn’t told him the optics would be blue.

“Sys-systems disconnecting from external fuel supply,” he stammered, feeling a rush of embarrassment before he composed himself. “Fuel pressure 121 over 74.”

Mesothulas made no indication he heard, and a moment later Prowl realized he wasn’t listening at all: he was talking to the construct, his voice a low murmur Prowl couldn’t hear from his place on the observation deck.

“Entering third stage. Somatic systems coming online.”

The construct turned to look at Mesothulas. Even turned away, Prowl somehow knew the scientist was beaming, his lesson from earlier the only thing keeping him from reaching into the pod and wrapping himself around his creation like he was wont to do with Prowl.

And then Mesothulas stepped back and to the side, pointing up at the platform still without his optics leaving the construct.

“And that’s Prowl,” he said, finally loud enough for his voice to carry. “He’s worked just as hard.”

Those blue optics turned to him. Prowl knew it was only the most basic coding compelling the construct to follow the movement of Mesothulas’ finger, its bare processor unable to even register him as a separate element from his environment, let alone a fellow Cybertronian. But there was something about being caught in that gaze, watching the lenses attempt to focus when there wasn’t enough data yet to tell them what to focus on, that caused him to raise his hand in an uncertain wave.

“You’ll get the chance to meet him later, I promise,” Mesothulas said, drawing the construct’s attention back to him. “Ostaros, we have so much more to show you. You can’t imagine.”

It couldn’t, Prowl mused, watching Mesothulas attempt to link his fingers with those of his creation and pulling away with a hiss at the subsequent reminder. But this period of emptiness would not last forever. Like the science that had formed its impossible spark, the construct—Ostaros—would come into being, something pulled from nothing, a person just as much as himself or Mesothulas. Prowl would introduce himself then, to whoever it was that Ostaros became.

[jobsystem-blog]

possibilities for pc agency in choice of games romances

long post under the cut about my feelings about romance in games, particularly choice of games (along with stuff like genderflipping characters based on the pc’s gender and sexuality), basically just wanna vent + organize my thoughts on this! [cw for sex mentions + a single assault mention]

i’ve been playing and thinking about a lot of choice of games recently. i’ve always been drawn to them because nearly every one features lgbt characters and romances, but as much fun as i’ve had with the format, as well as the individual settings and characters, that romance aspect that had me so drawn always fell just a little bit flat. a lack of individuality and character in romantic options. they generally weren’t defined, and were customizable to the point of being boring. even now, even when they have their own personalities to some degree, none of the intimate moments between your characters ever feel real or special, because they are either the same across different romance options (choice of the deathless is a sore spot for me lol), or the moments aren’t integrated into the plot and don’t have any sort of emotional basis (i.e. they’re just tacked on)

i remember my first cog that wasn’t just the basic choice of dragons, romance, etc., heroes rise. you only got one love interest, who looked just like a specific celebrity you chose at the beginning of the game. in the next game, you literally choose another love interest’s name for them. of course, genderflipped chars tend to have this issue worse than characters with established genders, not because of that inherently, but because the lack of characterization and high customizability shows even more blatantly. that being said, even non-genderflipped characters can feel cookie cutter and boring after the first playthrough (again....choice of the deathless*)

over the course of the heroes rise series, you do actually get the chance to have romances with established characters, which really intrigued me. i never actually finished those romances (particularly not jury, which REQUIRED you to nonconsensually kiss him to begin the romance, but that’s a whole nother thing), but i remember being really excited realizing you actually could have a relationship with jenny, jury, and prodigal. especially since they felt like they each had their own sexualities, rather than just being bi for convenience, or straight/gay based on your sexuality**

there was something about those romances that felt, to me, much more integrated in the plot. like i was actually having a real romantic subplot in some superhero movie, instead of it just being tacked on and empty the way some of the romances felt***

over time, choice of games have definitely focused more on character development than their predecessors, with a much higher volume of characters with set genders and sexualities. the problem is....it hasn’t been nearly enough

i get that not every game is going to have romance be a big deal. my issue with this is that if you’re going to include romance, it should feel like it’s part of the story, not just some random aside. if writers aren’t going to give as much attention to romance as other parts of their story, why even bother including it? i think cog authors need to start understanding that there doesn’t need to be romance in their games for people to enjoy them, and boring romances don’t do anything for the quality of their stories

i’ve been quietly frustrated about this for a while now, but after playing heart of the house, with its relatively well-developed romances (and surprisingly detailed sex scenes lmao), my issues with how choice of games typically handle romance have become clearer in my head. i’m realizing now that the level with which heart of the house incorporated romance into the story should be the bare minimum that a game that markets itself as having a romance element should. even the one genderflipped character had a fleshed out personality, and good romantic/intimate scenes.

that being said

heart of the house still falls into some of the same traps that virtually all other choice of games do:

1. “pick this one specific flirty option to begin the romance”

this isn’t specific to choice of games, pretty much any game with romance that’s not a dating sim does this. it’s frustrating, because it only really works with certain pc’s personalities. i wanted to romance bastian in heart of the house with a weird occult nerd who doesn’t quite understand social conventions, but finds himself falling for bastian over time. i eventually had to break character if i wanted anything to happen, because apparently in the world of choice of games, characters can only understand love/flirting if it’s in the form of a saucy pickup line, which again, works for some characters (like the one i romanced dev with in another playthrough), but not for others.

the solution: give players multiple ways of starting a romance that can suit a variety of personality types. allow multiple ways to flirt, allow ways to subtly indicate your interest to your prospective love interest for people who wanna make shy, passive characters, and give multiple points at which a romance can start throughout the story so that people can experience their characters gradually falling in love instead of having to miss out on their chance to romance a character because they didn’t imply they wanted to fuck within the first five minutes of meeting them

2. linear romance

despite giving you a bunch of other personality stats and traits for every other part of the game, romances generally tend to play out in the same linear ways across playthroughs. somehow all these things affect every other part of the story....except for romantic + intimate scenes. it really breaks me out any immersion, especially when my character has to act out of character to even access any romances in the first place.

the solution: give players more agency during romantic + intimate scenes. let them take the lead, or allow the love interest to. let them direct the flow of the scene, just like any other non-romantic scene in the game.

3. genderflipping and perspective

genderflipping is controversial among the cog player base, with the majority of people relaying a single criticism of it: accusing the author of writing a character as a specific gender (male or female), and then just switching pronouns. another related complaint, is that of authors writing love interests for specific genders of pc (for instance, the way the sex scene with dev is written makes me think it was primarily written for a female pc, particularly with the way your male pc’s sexual preferences are basically decided for him). it’s true that many games do give off this vibe. however, many of the complaints strike me as strangely essentialist, as if a character should have a completely different personality if they’re male than if they were female, it’s true, gender has a huge impact on people, but this essentialism denies the reality that we are all human, we are all suggestible and influenced by our environments (which imo, largely account for gender differences in personality trends), and there is no one personality trait that every woman has that every man does not, and vice versa. i think we can criticize heteronormativity, homophobia, and misogyny without reifying the concept that men and women are intrinsically different on an emotional and personal level. imo, this very essentialism, where characters whose genders are variable across playthroughs (both love interests and the pc) are written from a specific gendered perspective, is what causes people to be alienated during romances, one way or another

the solution: again, this is where player agency comes in. allowing players to define their own narrative based on their own idea of their character will help players feel connected to their character. additionally, having a strong idea of what a character is like is key. rather than defaulting to heteronormative assumptions of how romance and sex must play out for male love interests vs. female love interests, take a minute to actually think through the personality of your character and what their preferences would be like. this is what i loved about bastian in heart of the house, because though he was a genderflipped character, what he was doing in the sex scene felt very in line with who he was, regardless of gender. meanwhile, dev’s sex scene was...well-written, but didn’t really speak much to dev’s character, in my opinion. in some ways, it almost felt out of character, and it was certainly very ooc for my pc, who was an outgoing flirt who liked to take charge. if you have a strong handle on what kind of person your characters are, they’ll seem genuine regardless of anything else.

4. integrating romance with the story

oftentimes, you can tell right away when a romance scene is going to be happening in a cog. the story suddenly gets diverted from w/e you’ve been focusing on until now, onto either some circumstance that has very little plot relevance, but is contrived to bring you and another character together, or a circumstance that does have plot relevance, usually with a brief diversion focusing on your chosen romance, followed up by the consummation of your relationship shortly after. even when you’re romancing a major character, during plot-important scenes, their dialogue with you often does not change, regardless of the level of relationship they have with you (enemies, friends, lovers, etc., it’s often all the same). the fact that you’re in a relationship with any given person generally doesn’t affect the overarching plot (except for choice of romance, ofc), and romances often feel tacked on for extra flavor. i don’t think i’ve seen a game that combines all these issues in one (except like....choice of the dragon but i dont think that counts lol), but most games have at least one element of this. in heart of the house, the first and only intimate/sex scene you have with your love interest always happens during the ball, and at no other time. in dinoknights, you may as well not have had a romance at all, except during a few brief asides.

the solution: this one is more complicated than the others, but even if you don’t want the player’s relationships to directly affect the main story, romantic + intimate scenes often feel much more integrated when they aren’t mainly segregated to defined “romance portions” of the game. a better way of approaching it is letting the story happen as it will, making sure love interests are interesting, well-defined, and relevant to the story, and considering how a romance might affect events as they play out. in my own game concept, there is a choice you can make that determines whether a certain character lives or dies. if that character lives, the aftermath of the danger that threatened them results in a vulnerable moment for them, and is the first point at which you can start a romance with them. this event would happen in the story regardless, but the way it proceeds would change based on your relationship with and reaction to them and the event, making a pivotal part of the story a similarly pivotal part of the development of your relationship.

i don’t know if this is all i want to say on the subject, but i wanted to get my thoughts out and down, for reference and also to help me think through the subject

congrats if you managed to read and stay interested in all of this lol

*ironically, the genderflipped character in deathless was the most interesting romance, iirc **i don’t actually think this is inherently a bad thing, but having characters with a variety of sexualities makes every other character’s sexuality feel more fleshed out, imo ***that being said.....i really did love lucky when the hero project first came out djshkjhs ****i’m referring to bastian with he pronouns, because that’s what he was in my playthroughs, and i don’t actually know what the female version of his character is named

[phooll123]

Intel Hades Canyon NUC (NUC8i7HVK) review

Intel’s Hades Canyon is more than a simple successor to its Skull Canyon predecessor, an extreme version of Intel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC). When Skull Canyon launched in 2016, it bucked the mini-PC trend of modest specs designed for general computing, instead boasting the absolute latest in hardware for its size: a 45W quad-core processor, integrated graphics capable of 1080p gaming, and a port that supported external graphics. At the time, that ultra-compact mini-PC was unrivaled. The Hades Canyon NUC brings its own first: a single, Intel-produced chip (code-named Kaby Lake-G) that marries an Intel mobile CPU with an AMD Radeon RX Vega M mobile GPU. It’s silicon that can handle heavy-duty tasks without breaking much of a sweat.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

Clockwise from top left: Gigabyte Brix GB-BXA8-5557, Intel NUC5i7RYH, Intel NUC6i7KYK (Skull Canyon), Intel NUC8i7HVK (Hades Canyon)

Price, specs, and ports

Hades Canyon comes in two configurations—one marketed as an overclockable gaming machine (the NUC8i7HVK), and the other as a content-creation system (the NUC8i7HNK). We received the gaming version for review, which is the higher-end option and costs $1,000 for just the bare-bones kit. Adding storage, memory, and an operating system will raise the price by at least a few hundred dollars, given today’s inflated prices for SSDs and RAM. Our review unit, which came pre-equipped with a 118GB Intel Optane 800P-series SSD, 512GB Intel 545s-series SSD, 16GB of Kingston HyperX DDR4/3200 RAM, and a Windows 10 Pro license, would set us back by almost $1,550 in total. Each configuration comes equipped with a different combination of Intel processor and AMD GPU. (To get a thorough rundown on Kaby Lake-G, you can read our primer that followed the CES announcement of the chips.) Inside the NUC8i7HVK is the 100W Core i7-8809G, which houses a quad-core, eight-thread mobile CPU and Radeon RX Vega M GH graphics.

Alaina Yee / IDG

Getting inside this NUC requires removing the top lid and a metal plate. Intel includes a hex wrench and spare screws for the top lid, but you’ll still need a Phillips screwdriver for the metal plate.

The processor is equivalent to Intel’s 45W H-series mobile CPUs (complete with active integrated graphics that can handle video playback and other basic tasks), though its power requirements differ slightly. The actual power consumed varies depending on CPU and GPU loads, as Intel designed the package with a shared power budget and uses what it calls dynamic tuning to allow each component a greater ability to reach its max boost. As mentioned previously, it’s overclockable, with stock settings of a 3.1GHz base clock and 4.2GHz Turbo. Intel says that it’s gotten up to 4.7GHz when overclocking. Linked to the processor by eight PCIe lanes is the Vega M GH, which runs at a 1,063MHz base clock and 1,190MHz boost clock. The GH variant of Vega M comes with 24 compute units and 4GB of HBM2 memory, along with a slightly faster memory bandwidth of 204.8GB per second. It also supports output to six 4K displays simultaneously, with up to five at 60Hz and the sixth at 30Hz. Like the CPU, you can overclock the Vega M GH and the HBM2 memory. Backing this star CPU-GPU pairing is a whole array of equally powerhouse technology. Two M.2 slots can take SATA 6Gbps or x4 PCIe Gen 3 (AHCI or NVMe) drives in either a 42mm or 80mm length, with the option to run two drives in RAID 0 or RAID 1. An Intel Wireless-AC 8265 card handles both 802.11ac 2x2 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2. Two SO-DIMM sockets accept up to 32GB of DDR4/2,400MHz RAM at 1.2V, and support overclocked DDR4 RAM. There’s even a beam-forming, far-field, quad-mic array included this time around.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

For ports, Intel’s crammed even more of them into Hades Canyon. Because this NUC is larger than Skull Canyon—at 8.70 x 5.59 x 1.54 inches (1.2L), it’s roughly the size of a VHS tape��you get multiples of almost everything. On the front you’ll find an SDXC slot, USB 3.0 charging port, USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type A, HDMI 2.0a, USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type C, and a 3.5mm stereo headset jack. On the back side there’s a 3.5mm speaker/TOSLINK jack, the connector for the 230W power supply, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, two Mini DisplayPort 1.2, two gigabit ethernet, four USB 3.0 Type A, and HDMI 2.0a. The two Thunderbolt 3 ports each support 4 PCIe lanes, but they’re connected to the same controller. As a result, bandwidth may be shared if both ports run simultaneously using a x4 configuration. As with the Skull Canyon NUC, you may run external graphics over the Thunderbolt 3 ports.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

You can expand the number of USB ports if you utilize the I/O header, which carries signals for two USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, CEC, and the front panel. The chassis once again features a replaceable top lid, though this time it’s been upgraded to feature customizable RGB LED lights that illuminate the shape of a skull. The default is a red-and-blue color scheme, but it’s easily changed through included software to other hues and with different glow patterns. You also have the option to change the color of the status LEDs on the front panel, which are also RGB.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

Our review unit didn’t include a spare lid, but if you don’t like the skull you can simply turn off the lights. The box did come with a hex wrench, some spare screws, and a VESA mounting plate.

Performance

By and large, the NUC8i7HVK's Intel-AMD combination delivers a solid experience. Let’s dig into the gaming performance first.

3DMark Fire Strike

We’ll start with 3DMark’s Fire Strike test, a synthetic benchmark that simulates gaming at 1080p on Medium settings. Because this is the first time we’ve seen the Radeon RX Vega M in the wild, I chose to isolate just the graphics score in order to see where it ranked among other mobile GPUs. This way, the potential influence of the CPU on the ranking is minimized.

PCWorld

As you can see, performance roughly falls between that of an Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti and an Nvidia GTX 1060 Max-Q part. That’s about where I estimated, especially given the fairly notable jump in performance between a 1050 Ti and a full 1060. The Vega M GH seems to skew closer to the 1060 Max-Q (which is a stepped-down version of the 1060) than the 1050 Ti, though. Note: As you may have already figured out, all of the comparison systems in these charts are laptops—that’s where the bulk of our testing of mobile parts lies. It’s not a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, given that laptops have a different set of demands for cooling versus mini-PCs, but it still provides a decent representation of standing.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

PCWorld

In actual games, the NUC8i7HVK largely maintains that position just below systems with the GTX 1060 Max-Q. In Rise of the Tomb Raider, which is a semi-recent blockbuster game that can still push budget-range GPUs, we got an average of 51 fps on the Very High preset. That should be smooth enough for many folks, but if not, the problem’s easily solved in one of two ways. The more exciting option: Hooking up the NUC8i7HVK to a FreeSync monitor. Like other AMD GPUs, the Vega M GH supports those variable-refresh displays. (It supports features like Radeon Chill as well.) You can also drop the graphics setting down to High, which will then bump up the frame rate to about 63 fps.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War and PUBG

But what about today’s games? To answer that question, I fired up FRAPS in two contemporary games: last fall’s Middle-earth: Shadow of War and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

PCWorld

I wasn’t able to benchmark these same games on other systems we had in the office in the time available. These standalone results do show, however, that this version of Hades Canyon can hold its own in contemporary games. Note that the PUBG experience may not be quite as good during hairier, frenzied moments: As a complete noob, I ended up largely wandering maps on the empty outer edges during those solo matches.

Mentioned in this article

LG 24MP59G-P 24-Inch Gaming Monitor with FreeSync

Again, remember that FreeSync is an option. As the NUC8i7HVK ages, FreeSync will be the cheaper option to keep games feeling buttery-smooth. (You can also get an external graphics card setup, but that’d demand a much greater cash outlay compared to the $100 to $150 you'd pay these days for an entry-level, 24-inch FreeSync monitor.)

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Tomb Raider

PCWorld

As you’d expect by this point, the NUC8i7HVK readily handles older AAA games. In 2014’s Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, it held steady at 64 fps on the Ultra preset (and with the 4K texture pack in use). It did about as well in 2013’s Tomb Raider on the Ultimate preset, with a result of 61 fps. If you have a backlog of games to chew through, they shouldn’t threaten this tiny PC.

PCWorld

(Incidentally, if you’re wondering why the Tomb Raider result skewed closer to GTX 1050 Ti performance instead of GTX 1060 Max-Q: My best guess is that it relates to the greater role CPU performance has on Tomb Raider. It’s possible that the given the shared power management between the CPU and GPU components within the Core i7-8809G, CPU performance is throttled enough that it affects this particular game.)

Cinebench

PCWorld

Turning our examination to pure CPU performance reveals zero surprises. To see how the processor manages short bursts of full utilization, we ran Maxon’s Cinebench rendering benchmark. It takes just a few minutes for most systems to generate the 3D scene. The 8th-generation processor inside the Core i7-8809G performed just as we expected: With its healthy clock speed bump over 7th-generation Kaby Lake Core H-series parts, it trails closer to the socketed CPUs in older, compact desktop PCs. Everyday tasks should be no sweat on this NUC.

HandBrake

PCWorld

Because Intel bills the lower-end variant of Hades Canyon as a content creation machine, we also turned to HandBrake, a popular encoding program, to put this NUC through its paces. Our real-world test involves converting a 30GB MKV file into a smaller MP4 using the Android Tablet preset, and it hammers hard on a CPU. Systems designed with poor or limited cooling will take a very long time to complete the benchmark, while PCs with beefier CPUs and better cooling will zip right through it. As in Cinebench, the Core i7-8809G nips at the heels of older 91W parts. In concrete terms, this portable PC can complete CPU-intensive tasks in about the same amount of time as a two-year-old full-sized system. To see how the i7-8809G handles thermals under a full CPU load, I ran HandBrake separately with Intel’s Extreme Tuning Utility open in the background. According to XTU’s monitoring tools, the CPU reached a max of 84 degrees Celsius while dashing along at an absolutely rock-solid 3.9GHz the whole time (just 0.3GHz below the maximum Turbo speed).

Power draw and acoustics

During testing, I recorded the various maximums for power draw using a Watts Up Pro. At idle, the NUC8i7HVK averaged about 13.8 watts. That’s just a hair under Skull Canyon's average of about 14.6W at idle. Power draw was highest when playing certain games (174.7W in Rise of the Tomb Raider), followed by 165.9W for a pure GPU load as simulated by running Furmark for an hour, and 115.0W for a pure CPU load as simulated by running Prime95 for an hour. As for acoustics, the NUC8i7HVK was impressively quiet in our temperature-regulated office. That was particularly the case during pure CPU loads—I barely heard the fans at all during our Handbrake benchmark. Fan noise became audible only when the GPU was active, and even then, it was a rather mellow hum.

Final thoughts

The NUC8i7HVK is capable of much more than I initially tested. Intel also touts this machine as an overclockable gaming and virtual reality machine. One idea that got bandied about was rolling your own VR backpack system: Pair it with a battery pack and your preferred VR headset, and off you go. I would have loved to discover what we drew in the silicon lottery, as well as seeing how easily I could dive into 3D virtual worlds.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

Hades Canyon (left), side by side with Skull Canyon (right).

That said, I still find the NUC8i7HVK to be a very solid PC—not just a mini-PC—and I believe that’s more important than VR and overclocking when evaluating it. VR still has relatively small traction, and Intel cautions that overclocking the Core i7-8809G requires careful consideration and patience due to its power design. Based on performance at stock settings, Hades Canyon is already an extremely worthy successor to Skull Canyon and gives other mini-PCs a run for their money. What keeps the NUC8i7HVK from being a grand slam like its predecessor is the competition. While many who gravitate toward this NUC will do so because of its size, enough people will care more about performance than form factor and be better served by a different mini-PC. Zotac, in particular, blurs the line between mini-PCs and mini-ITX systems with its Magnus PCs, which come with a choice of GTX 1060, GTX 1070, and GTX 1080 flavors. For those who care about the most raw power available in the smallest possible form factor, they’re more appealing options. Hades Canyon is a strong mini-PC that offers other possibilities as well. Consider that at just under three pounds, it weighs less than some ultrabooks—most people won’t even notice it in a backpack. If you don’t need a laptop’s included screen, mouse, and keyboard, it’s nigh impossible to beat Hades Canyon as an on-the-go PC, amply powered by its Intel CPU and discrete AMD GPU.

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[awfully-sadistic]

Monday

“So, this is where you work?” Liam “Bonelayer” Johansen whistled lowly; an impressed sound coming from the dark-haired man never came easy.

The past couple of days have been eventful, more than he thought he could handle but things kept on surprising him. First was the word from the main Family house: was it something regarding their roles in the Syndicate? Lord help the rest of the prospects if they weren’t holding up to their jobs and making them look bad. But Liam had one hell of a hard time believing that anything that could have happened between the Clubhouse and the Syndicate could not have been fixed by his husband’s ability to smooth things over. He was the business man, it was why he was President, and he was more than confident that whatever was broken could have been fixed… by Vaughn. So, it was annoying to hear that this wasn’t the case this time. He had to put in an appearance himself considering this was his own Family he was dealing with and Vaughn used reason to convince Liam that it would be best for him to deal with his family himself, that it was stronger to hear from family. It was one hell of a ride to hop on a plane with nothing but his suitcase and a head swirling with bad thoughts about why the hell he had to make this appearance and be torn away from everything and everyone he knew back home. But what turned out to be an annoyance quickly turned into pleasantries—it was like time never lapsed between him and his cousins when he arrived. He got along best with the elder twins, always had, and there was the outrageous rivalry between him and Ripley. Of course, Felina was always the snot-nosed brat she always was and never hesitated on making him forget about the rank she pulled on him.

           The family reunion had been …. alright, at best. It was nothing serious even though he was told it was an emergency. It was just to get him on the plane ride over and apparently Vaughn was in on it. If he would have asked, Liam would have told him to forget it. And the only emergency he might have considered worth coming over was the fact that he heard on Saturday that the Clubhouse would have to be moved across the country in order to participate in this… merging between Families. Saturday night saw that he understood what this merging had meant… though he was not exactly quite clear on everything. Just the bare basics. There was something about an upcoming meeting and all that, but right now, everyone was still in the process of moving from their homes and into what Liam thought would be a home base sometime soon; from what he was told, it wasn’t ready yet and neither was this supposed penthaus. Again, he had no idea what the hell that meant or what was going on except that among the familiar faces of his Frenzy ties, there were also familiar faces from the opposite family too.

           Two faces he did not think he would be seeing as soon as he had. When Cavon and Luvon Dreadful put in their time at the Clubhouse and took their leave citing Family emergencies back home… he expected he wouldn’t have heard back from them until perhaps years later down the road. Though the emergency bit explained a lot now that he understood what they meant. He was in the same boat now too. Was that how they were “got” too? It had been nearly a year or so since he saw the Dreadful twins only to be surprised with their identical smug-looking smirks walking through the door to that strange pizza parlor.

           Oh yeah, he didn’t think he was going to ever forgive Cav and Lu for holding out on what a prize their little sister was and for that matter, everyone at the Clubhouse was also going to feel his wrath. Of course, he didn’t know the extent of who knew what, but he knew that at least Vaughn, Ewan, Mark, and Malachai knew. Those guys for sure were the ones with the need to know clearance for anything big happening with the Clubhouse …and this was big. Perhaps Voyd and the boys at the Parlor Shop too if Gramp’s words were correct—that they’d be joining the Family at New Senzannini as well. That was great news but holy fuck, it was a lot of change in a day as well as trying to swallow the fact that someone really special happened to enter his life right when he thought that everything was as content as could be.

           All of this information he took in overwhelmed Liam to the point where he almost skipped his pills for the past two nights into his visit until Diesel would remind him—each time; a favor from Vaughn, no doubt. And perhaps the fact that Diesel knew everyone’s health and mental conditions. It annoyed him, peeved him, that he’d be reminded but Diesel cited he didn’t want to have to put a rabid dog down especially if they were rabid enough to hurt someone close to him. He didn’t have to wonder who that person was and why it was important that Liam be on his best behavior. But seeing how everyone functioned in this Family…. best behavior was variable, at best. With Ripley running around the grounds and threatening to beat this and that’s face in or running amok with whom he discovered was related to the Dreadful’s, he could see a lot of the Clubhouse come through and knew that it was a home the boys would no doubt fit right in because it was the same in a sense. He had no idea how the fuck the Dreadful’s helped the Frenzy’s lighten up but they did; he’s seeing sides of the Frenzy’s he had never seen before. Diesel actually enjoys taking breaks. Alessio fucking laughs. Ripley’s …well, she was the same. But most importantly, he could see that they weren’t just frigid know-it-alls, annoying smartasses who thought they were above everyone else. It was like the Dreadful’s might have knocked ‘em down a peg, this elitist group, and actually made it function more like a family.

           Cavon and Luvon did the same with the Clubhouse too, Liam could fondly remember. Walked right in and turned that shit upside down making people laugh who didn’t normally laugh. Everyone back home miss ‘em like hell. But Liam could see that they wouldn’t have to wait too long to be reunited with them. And meet some more Dreadful’s in the process. Liam’s grin the moment he realized what a force they’d be with bolstered numbers and if they were Dreadful’s, it’d be even better. He went to sleep on Sunday with that good feeling that carried well into Monday (and the fact that he helped with Dot’s bedtime routine), anxious to tell everyone back home the good news about moving.

Monday was the day he was supposed to be heading back to the Clubhouse but Vaughn skyped that morning as he was packing and they had a conversation whether it would be beneficial that he should try staying there the whole week… just to see if the Clubhouse could really integrate with the Families. Liam saw no problem with that—especially since there was a chance he could spend the day with Dot and ….”get to know her better.” If it really was his job to see how well they would integrate with the rest of the Family, Dot Dreadful would be the best bet… or at least, no one was going to tell Liam otherwise from what he stubbornly already believed. But who was he kidding? There was something about her that was pulling his attention to her in a dangerous way. He was constantly staring at her, it was reminiscent of the way he and Vaughn first met. And he certainly ignored Vaughn’s wide grin as he voiced his thoughts.

           “Aw, shut up! And make sure no one’s slackin’ over there!” he had told his husband before ending the call by slamming his laptop’s lid down. He could hear Vaughn’s laughter cut off but couldn’t help but smirk himself.

           It was his cousins who actually helped set up the day for him. He was going to stay by Dot’s side today, helping her with her work. He didn’t know what the hell went on in a Mortuary but that was why Dot was going to teach him. It was where he was now; it wasn’t quite early but it was early enough that Dot looked like she didn’t want to greet a single customer today. She had her coffee in a monochrome-spider theme thermos in one hand and was jamming her intricately detailed Mortuary key in a keyhole with the other. When she finally got the door unlocked, she kicked it open wide enough for both her and Liam to step inside. Tod was already minding the connected shop and she could hear some music faintly playing which was no doubt coming from one of his playlists.

           “Hey Toddles!” She called from Mortuary, standing at the front desk to drop off her purse and put down her coffee. She heard Tod reply and turned to Liam… without realizing he was shadowing her today. While she was acutely aware of his presence… because she felt his gaze never leave her… it messed with her concentration. Being too overly conscious of oneself does account for slip-ups and she felt so preoccupied with NOT messing up in front of him, that she kind of spaced that he was going to be helping her thus… she kind of forgot how close he had been standing. He was gazing around the Mortuary and made that comment, feeling the praise in his voice. He really did sound impressed and it made her all the more flustered. She nodded and watched him drink from his own coffee cup, eyes intently boring into hers. She turned her head and cleared her throat, hand absently reaching for her own cup… just to do something.

           “What do I need to do?” he asked. It wasn’t like he was trying to make things hard for her. It was more along the lines he was oblivious towards how he was making her feel. He was only human, after all, with a touch of psychic abilities that allowed him to mask his emotions and thoughts from prying eyes—and that was solely because of Ripley. He had not accounted or still did not realize that the Dreadful’s were “special” in their own way. If he was keeping himself guarded, it was only because he was used to doing it and Dot was having a hard time trying to read him, herself.

           “Nothing too strenuous!” she chirped, trying to brush off the fact that he made her nervous as all hell. But the lie was in the way her fingers trembled as they wrapped around the cool exterior of her thermos, and the way her eyes darted to avoid looking at him when she took a sip. It was a welcomed warm rush that filled her as she drank her coffee that it relaxed her shoulders and fill her with the confidence to take on the day. Or at least, try.

           “I’m actually meeting with clients today…” she muttered, suddenly remembering her booked schedule. It was perhaps bad planning and she had done it without really giving it much thought until she counted that she’d be seeing people all day, flipping through her calendar with a heavy sigh. She hadn’t been in the mood to take new clients all month and pushed all of those waiting people into this cursed day. ”I need a secretary…”

           “I know a good secretary… except he hates it when I call him that,” Liam chuckled.

           Dot looked up with a smile; her cheeks were tinted just the faintest color of red though she couldn’t understand why she was feeling so shy around him. It almost held her back from speaking but she stuttered her way through, “…I-Is it Malachai?”

           “If you remember that much about him, then I’ve been talking about him way too much.” Liam chuckled deeply, slightly teasing her.

           “W-Well, I would like to hear about everyone you work with.” She confessed, unable to help steer that curiosity away. She had been hearing stories for the past two days about whom her older brothers had been hanging around with during that strange in-between time when family was not quite family yet. She also heard a few stories from Felina when she had worked up the courage to ask about them. She had quickly learned that the Frenzy’s keep a detailed profiling system in their database computer—thanks to Gia’s design—that houses all of the people that work for them. That includes Family members and Family member’s businesses. She’s in the database too! Felina had pulled up her profile and showed it to her numerous times… especially since Family members (with the right clearance) can go in there and update information. Dot has had to ask Felina to erase comments about her all the time… mainly because her heart cannot handle what the Frenzy’s think of her. So, it was also easy enough to ask Felina to pull up profiles on people that seem to catch her eye… and nearly everyone has. She knew who the Rock and Rollers were but not enough about the business across from them. Felina was telling her that Vaughn (Liam’s husband, she made doubly sure to remember who that was) was sending the Rockers’ applications over for her to input into their database and had not gotten around to asking the Parlor for theirs…. Whatever that meant. She knew who the more influential members were by name and picture but not what they did or anything about their personalities. Felina finally gave up and allowed Dot to log into the Syndicate’s system with her login information whenever she wanted just to get acquainted with the Rockers from afar. While she learned a lot on paper, she still wanted more. And Liam was there now—but whew, buddy. It was one thing to be staring at a piece of paper with his date of birth and given name than staring at him face to face… his picture did not do him justice and his presence was incredibly scary. And to think, she hadn’t seen him “serious” yet.

           “That’ll take a long damn time,” Liam told her, looking deep in thought for a moment. “There are a lot of guys back home. I think it’ll be better for ‘em to come over and you can meet them yourself.”

           Well, Dot was not counting on doing that… well, she was but not… alone. As much as the Fatheads tease her like a little sister, they were still useful for some things. If Cavon and Luvon happened to go to the Clubhouse and stuff… well, she could just follow and if they say anything about it, she can tell them that Liam said it was okay.

           “I will definitely take you up on that,” she said which surprised her because she sounded a lot more confident than how she was feeling. Liam didn’t notice however, just seemed pleased that she wanted to visit and get to know them.

           “So when is your first appointment?”

           “Any minute now,” Dot groaned and placed a hand over her eyes because she was brought back into reality so fast, the room started to spin. Liam chuckled and she moved her hand to glance up at him.

           “Did ya want me to help with that, in any way?”

           Dot had the image of Liam sitting in all his leathers and that scary, intimidating and grouchy face of his behind the desk, staring a someone who had lost someone dear and was trying to put them to rest. She suddenly laughed.

           “Yeah, why not? Let’s see what happens.” She grinned because at the end of the day, she was still the boss. And she’d be able to kick someone out if they didn’t like the way that Liam provided service. Liam seemed reared up for it as well, looking a little too eager for what they did at the Mortuary.

           “Great. I offer great fuckin’ service with this killer smile,” he said, gesturing at his cheesy looking grin that didn’t quite look right on that scary looking face of his. But Dot thought it was entirely adorable, endearing really, and she giggled.

           “I’ll be sitting with you so you know what to do,” she told him while leading them into her office. Liam whistled again, impressed with how professional everything looked. Back home, the Clubhouse was the most casual fucking place… but then again, it was a fucking bar with a smelly fart shed in the backyard property. Dot had a ornately decorated but serious looking high-backed chair with the deepest of purple that matched the rest of her interior. It felt warm for being such a cold and scary place… to normies anyway. While Liam didn’t notice any of this, what he did notice was that Dot was serious business. Just as serious as he was with their business. He was just glad he wasn’t all greased up from working at the Chop Shop to sully her place. The chair he had noticed before, she was scooting it over and pulling a spare one out of the closet. When Liam looked confused, Dot smiled bashfully and explained.

           “Um, a lot of the Frenzy’s accompany me to work sometimes. So, I figured it would be best to get another chair so they can sit with me whenever we work together. Mainly for um, Celeste or Felina…” Dot trailed off because she didn’t want to admit that the other Frenzy’s made her sit in their laps. While that might not have been a problem usually, she saw that a lot of people that come in for appointments find it weird when she was sitting on someone’s lap… trying to talk to them about arrangements. Especially when some of those Frenzy’s look as intimidating as Alessio and don’t talk at all.

           Liam only nodded and when Dot sat down, Liam followed. He twisted around in his seat for a bit before stating, “These are the most comfortable seats I ever laid my ass on.”

           Dot laughed immediately.

           “Alright, I think I’m ready, lil sis. …That’s alright to call ya, right? Diesel said I should start off small as to not make you uncomfortable or some shit like that.”

           Dot tried her best not to grow too red in the face, rubbing her cheeks as she turned her face, pretending to get something out of her purse. “Y-Yeah! That’s perfectly fine!”

           “And you get to call me Big Brother, right?”

           Dot paused in “rummaging” only because she hadn’t expected him to realize that… unless he was told.

           “Diesel said.”

           …And so he had been told.

           “Um…yes.” Dot laughed nervously, “B-Big Brother.”

           “I think I like the sound of that.”

           Dot nodded, too red in the face now to pull herself away from her purse. At least, until she felt the heat gradually fade from her face, she revealed her calendar and placed it down. As she had thought, the next appointment was scheduled as soon as she had opened the doors to the Mortuary. Why the fuck did she schedule it this early? She must not have been paying attention…or she had been preoccupied because there was no way she would have done this to herself. Liam was already gaze down, following her little finger as she was reading.

           “So, what do I do? Just ask them what the fuck they want?”

           “Basically,” Dot laughed.

           “But be more business-like, right?”

           Dot nodded.

           “Okay, this should be a piece of cake. Chai tells us all the time to be on our best behavior so it’ll be somethin’ like that. What should I ask ‘em first?”

           Dot listened fondly as Liam spoke, smiling as he referred back to his brothers at the Clubhouse. It was a good thing her memory was like a vault; she could place a face to Malachai’s name and felt her tummy flip at whenever he was mentioned. But to answer Liam’s question, she began to coach him on how to greet the clients and more or less, deal with them.

           “And I’ll be right here, too! To help you out and take care of anything that goes wrong… not that I think it will go wrong! You caught on quick when we role played a little while ago,” she chirped, smiling with encouragement that Liam never really seen from anyone else but Vaughn before. As she spoke, he was staring and thinking; it didn’t take looks alone for Liam to be attached to Dot as he wasn’t attracted to women but the first thing he did notice was that she had something that made him stop and stare… to get to notice her, and that was when he took in her looks. Yet that was only the beginning. When he first entered that pizza parlor and stepped into that dumb little trap Felina had laid out for him, he never once in his life imagined it would have changed his life. Sure, Dot was attractive but what he really liked was her warmth and he got to experience what kind of person she was in just two days; was that crazy? Was that too fast? It might have been for some people but Liam lived a rough and fast life. He knew that it was a warmth like Vaughn’s and a sweet and caring personality that could rival Mother Teresa that made him pay attention to Dot; it was still too early to tell whether those emotions were something other than interest or lust, but Liam was a sucker for that Mama Bear mentality… hell, it was what Vaughn embodied sometimes. And it was like that, he was hooked to who was known as Dot Dreadful.

           Vaughn would be right, as always, that it would take a while to get to know whether the Clubhouse could merge seamlessly with the rest of the Family. Between the two families, at that. But he wondered if the real reason was so that Liam could get used to the idea of falling in love with someone that wasn’t another male… that wasn’t his husband. Love might have been too strong of a word for just two days but… there was definitely interest there and it was growing. Little sister did seem like a good place to start… but Liam would only realize that later on, it just wouldn’t be enough anymore.

[impurelight]

Notes On Notes

I’m graduating from University soon so I’ll likely not be using my note taking skills as rigorously as before. So to document my note taking and studying habits for future generations I thought I’d write this.

First of all let me set the record straight by saying I’m not a good student. Never was and never will be. I’m definitely not that guy that has to be like ‘I did so bad in that course, I only got an 81’.

Actually I am like that sometimes. But only for easy courses. Like those first year ‘bird’ courses. And that computer security course that had like a million bonus marks and the average was like 80.

For most courses I do about average. If you minimized the squared error between a percentile of grades and my grades I’d expect to get about the mean. So I don’t like working hard. In fact most of these techniques I developed just because I’m lazy.

The first technique that I developed I call the Quora Note Taking Method. So named because it was inspired by Quora answers. Basically the top answer on Quora always looked like this:

Point 1 some comments on point 1

Point 2 some comments on point 2

…

Point n some comments about point n

Hmm… that’s odd. If it was only one or two quora answers that did that I wouldn’t really care. But all of them? Maybe there’s something to this.

And at the time I had this problem. When I wrote notes I’d sometimes forget what the notes meant. I write the most bare of barest essentials in my notes so this isn’t unreasonable.

For example here’s a note in my first year course:

Global/Static variables: Any variable not in a function is global

This needs a lot of context to understand. This was not my first programming course, I already knew what global variables were. This note was specifically about Python.

Here’s another one:

Integrals Notation find area [a,b] cross [c,d] integral is a,b Y integral is c,d

OK, this is not impossible to understand but it takes a while and you need context. And at the time I knew this was a problem.

Over the years I tried many things like taking notes on physical paper. I heard it may help. But I just couldn’t commit.

Gretchen Rubin writes about the four central tendencies. There’s a quiz to tell which one you are. Fantastic quiz, highly recommend it. I’m a rebel. And at first I thought, “I thought everyone was like this”. And then after taking the test, “Guess not, just me and a small portion of the population.”

So anyways one of the things I tried was a modified version of the Cornell note taking system. Apparently it helps. Basically you have three sections for notes. I’m not exactly sure how it works, the descriptions seem a bit ambiguous.

I was working in OneNote at the time, now I use plain text + markdown (a far superior method relative to closed source solutions if I do say so myself), and one of the things OneNote allows you to do is write anywhere on the page.

So the way I implemented the Cornell system is I’d have a left column just for notes and then I summarized everything in a column on the right. It was a really nice system. Only a few problems.

I was too lazy to do it. I found myself writing the summaries in the 10 minute blocks before class starts or, worse, not writing them at all.

I call this problem the independent task problem. This came from looking at the brain. One of my profs commented on how it was weird the brain had two hemispheres.

I thought about this and came up with a perfectly logical explanation. When you have two independent tasks that are meant to help each other, say taking notes and studying, it may be possible for these tasks to get out of sync.

That is you only do one, like notes, while neglecting the other, summaries. The brain is split, I theorized, to overcome the independent task problem. And likewise anything I do that involves two mutually beneficial independent tasks must solve this problem as well. Note taking is just one example.

And my notes were really long too. If I only write like a few words every line I needed a lot of lines to fully summarize the material. If you look at my current notes I’d sometimes only have 3 or 4 notes for an incredibly info dense lecture.

Thirdly, and most alarmingly, the Cornell method didn’t really help with the problem. Now I had to read a confusing note and a wall of text? No thank you.

And also at this time I wondered why it was I even wrote notes. Well, obviously, it’s for tests. Because I never read any of my notes until right before a test. So they must be short, to the point, and easy to read.

Enter the Quora note taking method. The method works much like how Quora comments are structured

Point 1 some notes on Point 1

Here’s an example:

We add an 'enable' input to the CPU this is anded with the clock (clock = enable and clock) in the register so now we need both the enable and clock for the CPU to actually do anything.`

See, much more clear. You can read it at a glance and it carries a lot of information. Plus now I don’t have to worry about writing those silly summaries because the note is the summary! It’s brilliant.

This is how I take notes now. Actually a few more little changes. First Quora Note Taking Method v1.1.

There are times when you really, really need to remember something precisely. Like when a TA or prof gives example questions similar to what will be on the test. You want to remember the question, answer, and the explanation on why the answer is correct.

Anything less will lead to… bad stuff. So I made a minor adjustment to the Quora Method to take this into account. Now it supports maximum redundancy. By that I mean I decided in some of the notes the bolded part and unbolded part say the exact same thing. But, and this is important they are worded differently both conceptually and linguistically. Here’s an example

2: For AS diagram from A to B draw diagram like normal but path goes out of AS somewhere in the middle so the path is entirely in the AS except for one node that goes into another AS network.

An interesting side effect of this is you will need to come up with something interesting for the non-bolded part and this may mean thinking about the problem differently. For instance:

Forwarding table is table of which port goes where so the set of everything you can get to using each port. Routing is the process of creating this table. This is used for datagram method. Also virtual circuit which sets up connection first and uses this primarily.

As you can see the bolded section could be word for word what the prof said. But the unbolded text both reiterates and expands on the original note. In fact multiple notes can be combined into a single note this way for maximum encapsulation.

I guess you could say this is Quora 1.2. But now I use Quora 2.0. I guess 2.0 is a bit misleading. Usually when the version number goes up the thing gets better.

I thought it was a regression but looking at my more recent notes it’s more of an amalgamation. Quora 2.0 combines all forms of note taking. Sometimes you just need to draw a diagram. It supports that. And sometimes you need a detailed Quora note. It does that too.

But the most significant change is support for brief notes. When a prof is lecturing about a very factual concept with few interconnected topics it just doesn’t make sense to make a full Quora note. So I just make partial notes. Usually just:

Term definition

Sometimes is a bit ambiguous where the bolded part ends and the non-bolded part begins. I’m still working on that. But as I’m graduating soon it looks like I’ll be unable to make Quora 2.1.

So that’s my note taking method in a nutshell. It’s been a wild ride from the craziness of barely intelligible scribbles to a highly refined system.

So now I’d like to end with a note. I don’t usually like to do this, but I just thought of this and it feels incredibly apt given the subject of this post:

The human condition it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place.