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mentalisttraceur-software · 3 years ago

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Cooperative Multitasking

An almost stream-of-consciousness ramble of something I was thinking about today.

By Default, Maybe Even Mandatory

The more I think about writing correct code, the more I feel like preemptive multitasking as the norm was a mistake. That operating systems should have been written from the ground up to assume that all good and correct software yields execution back to the scheduler every once in a while. That computer science education and software development tradecraft should teach and presume that cooperative multitasking is the only multitasking available or acceptable.

Preemption for the Uncooperative

Obviously robust systems must have preemption capability, in order to avoid denial-of-service from code which never yields control. So systems would still need the foundation of preemptive multitasking, and processes which do not cooperatively multitask would need to be preempted. The temptation which many operating systems followed is to just make this the norm - anything can be preempted at any time, thus your guarantees against race conditions are weak at best and every piece of the system has to do more work just to keep things sane in the face of multitasking.

But I'm almost ready to say that programs which don't yield control for too long should probably just get killed, ignored, presumed dead or compromised, timed out, invalidated, be stripped of any resources and locks they hold, and so on. At the operating system level, at higher levels of how you design your multiprocessing and distributed systems, in your business logic, at all levels.

Given enough time, all conceivable execution delays and communication partitions which could cause things to not get back to you soon enough to not be a problem will happen. We can either

write code on systems which force us to deal with it thoroughly and from the ground up, across our entire trade and industry and culture, which is cumulatively easier to get right once everyone knows and follows the patterns, or

we can keep living in a sea of code and systems overwhelmingly saturated with an incomprehensibly inconceivably large number of concurrency and latency problems just waiting to happen.

All You Need (Probably... I Just Make Shit Up On The Internet)

Obviously almost everything is in place already, we're just not using it to build systems which are consistently honest, helpfully explicit, and manageably controlled about where concurrency can happen.

In a typical modern operating system, when you call a system call, or at least certain system calls which tend to inherently entail delays and thus are natural points for scheduling or cancellation, you are yielding execution to the kernel. Now the kernel has an opportunity to go do something else, schedule another program, deliver a signal to your program or kill your program with a signal, and so on. The kernel only preempts your process if you don't call into a system call for long enough. Otherwise you're being cooperative. And in the real world, this is how lots of programs actually play. They don't have to be written to cooperatively multitask to do it, they just have to do operations which are natural scheduling or cancellation points, which most program do often enough on their own, because most programs are interacting with the outside world, not slamming the CPU with raw self-contained computation long enough to use up their time slot.

So what about the program that do want to hog the CPU longer than their time slot?

Well, we have the ability to trivially implement a "yield control if something else is waiting" operation which would have effectively zero overhead if it's not time to yield (at most a handful of machine instructions with one branch, and if you're pipelined and branch prediction matters, that branch can be predicted as taking the "no need to yield" path for hot loops and other pure computing logic, which is the only situation where the overhead of that check and branch prediction is actually a problem).

To me that seems like the only remaining primitive the OS kernel needs to provide to user-space to make this work. And it's trivial! Let's assume we're using a memory location for generality, though this could be optimized all the way to the hardware, with a dedicated CPU flag or register and exposed in the instruction set. Anyway, in the in-memory version, the simplest form is a fixed address on systems with an MMU and virtual memory, or perhaps it is provided by the kernel to the process during initialization, to be compatible with ASLR and hardware without an MMU. When the process starts up, the kernel sets the value at that address to zero. When it's getting close to the time when the scheduler would want to preempt the process, the kernel writes one at that address.

(Internally, on modern hardware with all cores busy, flipping the value at this address from zero to one might have to be implemented as a momentary preemption of user-space by kernel-space code. So you can see where the temptation comes from! A working multitasking kernel which does not depend on cooperative multitasking must have all the building blocks necessary for preemptive multitasking, and it is so natural to just let user-space processes partake in concurrency seemingly "for free" - it took humanity half a century of experience to get to this point where we're starting to realize that this is actually detrimental on the whole.)

Now, whenever the process wants to know if it should yield, it reads the value at this address. Is it still zero? You got enough time left to do some work before checking again. Is it anything else? Time to yield - if you checked reasonably often, you've still got ample time to go directly to yielding execution to the scheduler. Did you overwrite it, or take too long to check? That sounds like a you problem, if you don't yield often enough, your process gets preempted, but then it's just killed.

Notice that you're not being asked to gracefully shut down or pause or clean up anything. This isn't some situation where you gotta scramble to flush buffers, save state to disk, commit transactions, or anything like that. You're just being told its time to yield to the scheduler, and if you obey it is exactly the same situation that in a normal preemptive multitasking system would just happen automatically, without warning, unpredictably, possibly between literally any two machine instructions. But incidentally, in a lot of situations, this would probably make it easier to set up systems where you can have enough time to do those things, and fewer possible ways for those things to be interrupted or delayed or half-finished.

So we all gain the profound benefit of being able to pick or at least see where in our code concurrency can slide in and change the state of the world out from under us or give us an out-of-band signal like a cancellation.

And the price is that those of us who write low-level code which does nothing but raw CPU operations for longer than the time slot our process gets have to add an explicit `yield_to_the_scheduler()` call - and if it really really doesn't matter, then just spam it in enough places to be safe. Which is fine because we just established that it's going to be nearly zero-overhead unless you actually have to yield to the scheduler anyway.

Notably, some operating systems already have everything in place to do this. Linux, for example, writes the current time into an address which the process can read and knows about, so the process doesn't need to pay system call context-switching overhead every time it needs the time. In fact, one possible idea to explore for improving my extremely minimal suggestion is that instead of having the memory location work as a boolean, have it contain a deadline.

Beyond that, the structured concurrency people have basically figured out the big picture of how most of this looks for most code - you have operations which are explicitly points where something else could be scheduled or you could be cancelled. For simplicity and human friendliness you probably combine those two concepts together. When we restrict ourselves to languages and primitives where each operation is either explicitly a place where multitasking can be relevant to or intrude on our logic, or a place where there are definitely no relevant concurrency concerns, we can deal with concurrency better.

Exhausting Nuance

There is only one tricky part here. The reason that preemptive multitasking is so useful is that not all concurrency is equally relevant to whatever you're doing. Most of the time, there are specific changes to the state of the world which matter to our logic, and all other changes which might happen don't matter.

Preemptive multitasking kinda takes the gamble that most systems are heavily concurrent but most parts have no reason to care about what the other parts are doing. They are not obviously harmed by the fact that anything could happen between or during any operation they do, because nothing that could happen matters, and so those programs strictly benefit from magical invasive multitasking permeating them with an infinity of possible preemptions.

For example, a typical `sed` invocation which reads from standard input and writes to standard output doesn't care about anything. In between a bunch of pure CPU operations on memory, it will read and it will write, and either those operations succeed, or one of those operations fails and it tries to call another write to standard error with an error message, and then no matter what happens, it will try to exit. Files on the system can change and it doesn't care. If the file it was reading from is truncated while `sed` was reading it, to `sed` it's no different than as if that file always ended there. It could get frozen with a SIGSTOP and eternities could pass, the file it was reading from could get overwritten, and when resumed it would just read from the offset it left off, no different than as if that file always had those contents back when `sed` started. The file it is writing to could be overwritten many times, and `sed` doesn't care - it just writes, and either it's writing in ”append" mode, or it's writing at whatever offset it is currently pointing at and maybe it wins because it's the last write or maybe it gets overwritten and it doesn't notice. `sed` could be started on Linux, have a debugger attached to it, its entire memory could be dynamically copied into another dummy process frozen with a debugger attached, possibly on another computer running a different OS with a compatibility layer for Linux, and then it can be resumed, and it doesn't care.

Notably, in some of those cases, the program which called `sed` to do a specific job probably does care a lot about some of those possibilities.

I, and to some extent structured concurrency, takes a somewhat reductionistic view that conflates all concurrency together. You do an operation and it's either asynchronous or not. You run an asynchronous operation, and anything else that's asynchronous might happen. And in structured concurrency you are never ever allowed to ignore that something is concurrent. You have no choice but to write code which is aware of all scheduling and cancellation points which it is subject to.

Maybe that's fine. Maybe...

everyone should be forced to be aware when they are doing an operation during which anything could asynchronously change,

all code which does too much should be forced to do an asynchronous yield to the scheduler every once in a while,

because these two requirements together would pressure code to cleanly split its pure logic from it impure logic, and to split its pure logic into small chunks of work which the caller can call individually.

This feels onerous to me, but I also suspect that for most problems, the best solution probably naturally meets these requirements. Possibly for all problems. At least for a sufficiently thorough definition of "best", which includes things like "made up of piece of code which are small, composable, reusable, and easy to test, easy to validate and audit, easy to understand in isolation, easy to combine, and easy to change" and "robust against all sorts of real-world problems, including edge cases".

But,

notably my definition of "best" does not include practical things like "could be created or maybe even fully appreciated or maybe even used correctly by a typical fungible software developer, or maybe even by any minds who can actually reliably get things done instead of getting stuck for entire days thinking about the design of everything", and

this design space is at least slightly too big for my thinking limits - I don't think I can yet simultaneously weigh all the tradeoffs in my head against each other, or even see far enough to find all the tradeoffs or feel their full weights.

#software #software design #operating system design #structured concurrency #thinking limits

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irarelypostanything · 4 years ago

Conversation

Unnecessary Arguments - The Boys

*Spoilers*

Person #1: Before we have this argument, I want you to know I haven’t watched season two yet

Person #2: Spoiler - this is a show produced by Amazon about horrible, evil corporations like Amazon

Person #1: Why is that everyone’s opening argument? I don’t care who produced it

Person #2: Honest Trailers called it a show about “a horrifying, bleak world that’s almost as bad as Amazon warehouses.” Tech companies control the world now, and they’re playing this insane, 5-dimensional Chess because they already know their only threat is other tech companies. Everyone loved that Netflix documentary about how addicting Facebook and Instagram are. Guess who they didn’t roast? You guessed it, Netflix

Person #1: If my package doesn’t arrive in two days, I get a refund. If I find a cheaper option on Ebay, either I don’t get it or the fking cops knock on my door and inform me that the $200 laptop I purchased was stolen. This isn’t even what we’re arguing, though…

Person #2: Right, we’re arguing whether or not this is a good show. It is not

Person #1: Why not?

Person #2: Why was The Avengers so successful? The special effects? The acting? No, it was so successful because the writers made heroes we could relate to and care about. Every time they did something, like collateral damage, heroes like Stark had to deal with the serious consequences. Now, here’s an Amazon series opening in season 2 with a superhero filling a cup of water with a civilian’s own blood, getting partially burned alive, then taking a young child’s father’s head to him. It’s sooooo edgy

Person #1: I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU NOT TO SPOIL SEASON 2

Person #2: Oh, next spoiler. Someone has the ability to make heads explode. Next spoiler, that person is actually-

Person #1: STOP

Person #2: So in this show, the bad guys are the heroes and the superheroes are the bad guys. I could work with that, but they just kill people left and right without any sort of regard for who they’re hurting

Person #1: Yeah. Little dose of reality for you

Person #2: Nothing about this show is real. They have all these crazy superpowers that make absolutely no sense, and that’s not even the worst of it. The worst of it is that even though I can suspend my disbelief with the superpowers, the NON-superpowered characters keep doing things that no one can do. Like pick a lock to get out of prison with a retainer. Or completely nonsensical hacking scenes

Person #1: Yes, because no one has ever successfully run Linux commands on a computer they had access to or used a lock pick to pick a lock

Person #2: I get what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to make a TV series that subverts expectations of superheroes and makes us consider that maybe it’s all a show. Great. Want a good show about the reality behind Hollywood? Watch Bojack. Want a show with morally ambiguous superheroes? Watch Watchmen, or the other various stories thoroughly examining this trope

Person #1: They successfully deconstruct everything wrong with The Avengers with cold realism

Person #2: If so, they also deconstruct everything good about The Avengers in the process

Person #1: My favorite thing is how they challenge all of our ideas. What if Superman...it’s actually DC, mind you...were real? He’d be terrifying, especially if you eliminated his heartwarming backstory of getting raised by benevolent common people in a farm. Aquaman? He’d be a sexual predator

Person #2: Yeah. For sure. Aquaman would be a sexual predator, QED

Person #1: They draw a mirror to reality. They make us question our own obsession with superheroes. Also, they brilliantly highlight all the implications of bringing them into the defense industry. Few superhero stories do a good job of portraying the military and defense industry

Person #2: Iron Man really did it all already. Stark Industry was doing more harm than good because its own weapons were being used against our allies...true. But at least they were competent, the other defense contractors weren’t even producing useful weapons. Also check. That’s really all there is to say about the defense industry

Person #1: That they’re incompetent? Tell that to the brave men and women who risked their lives flying our jets and wielding our guns

Person #2: Courtesy of Stark Industries. If Stark Industries were real, they’d be the highest rated defense contractor by far. Iron man suits for all. The United States would dominate every country until Thanos arrived, and they’d seriously pad everyone’s 401K

Person #1: I feel like we kind of lost our points here

Person #2: No more to make. Avengers is great, this is edgy shit that seems like it was written by two teenage boys who just learned their first swear words

Person #1: No matter what I say next, you’re just going to close with how its dumb because it was produced by Amazon

Person #2: ...and this can now be streamed for FREE. All you need is an Amazon Prime account. All your goods, many of which are MANUFACTURED by Amazon, will arrive in two days!

Person #1: This isn’t about-

Person #2: Hell, while you’re at it, why not purchase the Amazon Prime credit card? 5% cashback! All you have to do is remain an Amazon Prime member for the rest of your life. What could go wrong?

Person #1: STOP!

Person #2: ...And now that you’ve effectively outsourced all your banking and entertainment to Amazon, why not subscribe to Whole Foods to get all your groceries? Amazon controls our products, our deliveries, and now our entertainment. Who will check this godlike power? No one, of course. So let’s just keep watching this show and thinking we’re “woke” because it’s not just a poorly disguised attempt to use the very system it’s pretending to criticize to keep us under corporate control

Person #1: It’s just a good show. Watch it. Great acting, great writing

Person #2: READ THE COMIC INSTEAD

Person #1: Oh hey, you can buy the comic on Amazon

Person #2: THIS IS THE END OF CIVILIZATION. AMAZON WILL RULE THE WORLD AND THERE’S NOTHING WE CAN DO TO STOP IT.

#the boys #the boys amazon #amazon

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ufc257news · 4 years ago

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years ago

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ARE REALLY LIKE WORK

This proves something a lot of overlap between the two—mean comments are disproportionately likely also to be dumb—but the strategies for dealing with detail. I use with an external monitor and keyboard in my office, and by itself when traveling. Typefaces to be cut in metal were initially designed with a brush on paper. The graphic design is as plain as possible, and the result is a free for all. A program, like a branch snapping back in his face. Bottom-Up The third big lesson we can learn from open source is not about Linux or Firefox, but about the forces that produced them. A program, like a branch snapping back in his face. Either the company is still theirs. Like Jane Austen, Lisp looks hard. Take the first. That spirit is exactly what you want. Avoid distractions.

The third big lesson we can learn from open source: that people working on projects of his own. I remember going through this realization myself. But you don't need that when the audience can communicate with one another. I once thought I'd have to fight word-by-word to save it from being mangled by some twenty five year old copy editor. Nothing shows more clearly that employment is not an ordinary economic relationship than companies being sued for firing people. The worst stuff in this respect may be stuff you don't use much because it's too good. But we didn't propose that to save money. Instead of asking what problem should I solve?

You can do this if you want, really in the blink of an eye. I claiming that no one is going to be an employee anymore—that good design has to be under the control of a single person to be any good. I do actually typing. I believe that they think their approval process helps users by ensuring quality. What difference does it make if they alienate a small minority of their users? They're competing against the best writing online. What you're doing is business creation. And it's only now that you can see the two side by side that you notice how little overlap there is. No one knows who said never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence, but it seems so foreign.

The answer to the Greeks: Don't see purpose where there isn't. 5%. You can change anything about a house except where it is. It works in everyday life, too. I've learned never to say never about technology. You're going to have to declare variables before using them, for example, you can make the search results useless, because the links do. Would that mean too much due diligence?

Thanks to Qasar Younis, Patrick Collison, Yuri Sagalov, Harj Taggar, Trevor Blackwell, Jessica Livingston, and Geoff Ralston for the lulz.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #users #side #program #person #business #Firefox #Geoff #house #branch #Thanks

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goose1083 · 5 years ago

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These are my notes for the second episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’m so sorry these are so long this time. I had a lot of questions and long comments. Also, if you haven’t checked out the first one of these, go do that. I explain some basic things that would seem weird otherwise.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Notes

First | Previous | Next

Season 1, Episode 2: “The Harvest”

There goes the narrator again

Great teamwork, guys

Oh, RIP Jesse. F’s in chat for him, guys

Title still hasn’t changed to the iconic look we know

Quick question: everyone headbands to the theme song as much as I do, right? Cause like, this time, I feared I’d hit my head against the wall when I did it, so I just need to validate my actions

I feel that instead of having that depressed gothic teen, they just have Giles instead

Buffy, was that suppose to make them feel better, cause it didn’t really seem like it

Also, Buffy stole the words out of my brain, Willow you are sitting

Thanks Giles, that made complete sense

So I talked to my dad about Darla and he said that it seemed like they wanted Darla to be a teenager but then made her an adult instead unless that came from group chat I can’t remember

I totally thought the Master was going to say House of Mouse

Okay, but cutting back and forth for info dumps are really effective, especially for me, an adhd person who can lose focus fairly quickly

That right, Xander, don’t be stereotypical. Don’t assume vampires turn to bats. Dracula’s the exception, not the norm

Look at everyone contributing a little to finding the vampires location. See, Xander’s not all dumb, just somewhat

If Scooby-Doo taught me anything, it’s that being bait is just as bad as being food

Also, what’s this advanced technology in the 1990s

Also, thanks Joss for saying mentally challenged. There are so many worse words you could’ve put in but you didn’t👏👏👏👏

Now there’s the reality of public schools

But seriously, who’s he kidding? I bet kids leave campus all the time, they did at my high school

Also, why is the gate open if it’s a closed campus? Why was it left open? Is it so close to the beginning of the day that the custodians hadn’t quite gotten around to closing it yet, and if it’s not, then that raises so many more questions

I thinks it’s cool how Xander’s character develops over time. Like, I can see him struggling with the idea that a man is supposed to be doing the hard work and saving, but later, he’s very content with staying on the sideline for the most part and letting Buffy do all the work

Hi Angel

They already set up the tension between the two, don’t they?

Again, Buffy, do you really think no one is going to notice the door?

I think Angel had friends once but once he got turned, he lost them through fear and time

Ah, of course, the harvest is going to start right under the school

Awww, he already cares so much about her

Wait, did Xander hear the conversation between Buffy and Angel, including his good luck?

Also, how was Xander able to leave but not Buffy? I smell sexism in this thing....and also the fact that Xander has been to the school for a year or two at this point

Also, what was the interaction between Angel and Xander like if Xander followed her?

Xander, don’t you dare disrespect chem class! Chem is the best science out of all of them, excluding computer science. Chem and computer are tied for the sciences

Interesting bonding moment between Buffy and Xander

Hi me

Omg they’re programming and in Linux no less!! Which makes sense cause they didn’t have much in the 90s

Okay, but she wasn’t screaming, the only one who screamed was me

I love how the guy just randomly joined in

Weren’t you just asking your friend to find out what Willow was doing, also she wasn’t talking at all???

Why is other me the complete opposite of actual me. She can’t code, doesn’t know what keys mean versus I can code kind of complicated things, knows how to do basic things like save, etc.

Also, my soul hurt so much watching her hit that delete key smh😔

That’s morbid, Buffy

Round of applause to my boy Jesse who feigned death to get a surprise attack on future attacker, though it didn’t quite work

Yes, I sure someone heard that

Why do their eyes and claws grow in the dark?

Oh, Jesse, you did suck her blood

Why is closing the door so hard for her? She’s supposed to be super strong

Don’t leave the door, Xander, you wait till the escape is ready

Of course, they end up at the power plant

Tbh that whole tunnel segment was pretty underwhelming. You’d think there would be a big fight but no, just some vent crawling

I know that Colin wasn’t gonna go by unscathed but damn, finger to the eye and no response to it. That a strong vampire. Also, thanks for sparing us the image of a finger to the eye. I can handle some gore but it still unsettles me, and many other people are more sensitive than I, so yeah

Only Giles would think murder is great

I rather wish it wasn’t coming together, either

🎵I can see what’s happening, and they don’t have a clue🎵

I’m sorry but isn’t that kind of cannibalism

Hey look, it’s Rafiki putting the blood on simba’s forehead, right? That’s how it goes in the movie?

Xander, don’t take it out on the recycling bin next to the copier/printer(?)

Also, Willow seems pretty non-phased hearing Jesse’s gone. Guess she didn’t really see him as a friend

Really, we’re already doing the end-of-the-world thing?

He has a fidget spinner on his head that or a bad ninja star, seeing as those have 4 points

Of course, the one good place in town, just where I’m gonna be, and all the action and drama is going to take place there, perfect

Oh look, it’s the leather jacket or at least a leather jacket. I mean with her lifestyle, I’m sure she went through multiple of those

But Joyce, it’s literally the end of the world

Is the word I’m looking for “je ne sais quoi–” oh no, it’s cars

Hey, this is kind of a good song

I love how vampirism give you an ultimate swag, even if you didn’t have it before

Hey, this song is also really good

Oh god, the slow mo walk

Apparently, vampirism also gives you the desire for theatratics

See, you can not tell me that was overly dramatic

Why is he groping her while he feeds

Come on, let him have me

How did no one hear the glass?

Buffy’s so cool with those backflips and roundhouses and all of it

Giles, how could you lose that easily to a girl? Granted, he didn’t know she was there but still

Shouldn’t Darla be dead and like not look as pretty in the future cause of that holy water?

Wow, they really just gave Jesse the accidental death, huh?

Nice deception, Buffy

Nice power shot, Buffy

Aww, Angel’s impressed

Is it just me, or is the wrap up of the fight lacking something? maybe singing

You’re right, Xander, nothing’s ever gonna be the– oh okay just cut to a perfectly normal day at school. That’s fine

Why does Willow sound kind of off here? Like, it’s not her voice or they had to redub her lines cause it didn’t pick up right when they recorded I don’t know it’s just seems weird to me

Yup, Giles is the gothic depressed teen

I love these ways of getting kicked out

Omg the mummy! Did they not have that in the first one or is it just me

No, they did. I went back. I guess I just missed it or just didn’t react to it the first time

Taglist:

@highonbandcandy @calraisin @really-really-slowly @towersofsong @morespinach @therealmadblonde @bothersome-bitch

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lonesomealley · 5 years ago

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Borderlands 3 Review

*Writer’s Note: I played this game when it came out and have based my review on the version of the game that I played then. Some of this information may become outdated with time.

DISCLAIMER: This review is going to contain a lot of spoilers for Borderlands 3, if you don’t want that then this is not the review for you. My overall opinion of this game is that it’s… okay. It entirely depends on what you value out of a video game. Borderlands 3 is, at heart, just another Borderlands that’s been somewhat dumbed down, and if you don’t like the Borderlands series’ base mechanics (i.e. farming, constantly throwing away weak gear, getting stomped on for being underleveled) then this is not the game for you. If you value storytelling in your video games, this game is absolutely not the game for you. However if you’re someone who just wants to shoot some guys and already like, or think you’ll like, Borderlands’ looting systems then this game is going to range anywhere from okay to good. It should be kept in mind that this review is meant to take into account many of the different aspects of the game, hence why this review is going to have a far lower score than many other reviewers/media publications seem to be rewarding it.

I don’t really know if Borderlands 3 is worth the $60 asking price, and I would ultimately say to either wait for the game to go on sale or at least wait for it to go up on Steam. This is because the game really is just a dumbed down Borderlands entry, you could easily just go buy the Handsome Collection for $60 (if you haven’t already) and have just as good, even better, of a time. Also that Steam has more laid back refund policies than the Epic Store (which can be blamed for this review existing in the first place). But this is where the spoiler free section ends, anything past this point will contain heavy spoilers for the sake of in depth discussion. You have been warned.

When the Borderlands 3 reveal trailer came out back in March I was entirely skeptical that the game would be anything good. The story looked like a mess, the guns looked like complete shit, and overall it appeared that a lot of the things they were promising on were too good to be true or would end up simplified. Also, at the time I had just played through the entirety of the existing Borderlands series (excluding Tales From the Borderlands), so this new game was going to have to spike a certain chord with me. This definitely wasn’t helped by the “additions” that they tried to make to those games such as second game’s graphics enhancements, and the Borderlands 1 remaster. The former, while making the game look prettier, had the problem of cutting off cross platform play (across PC, Mac, Linux, etc.) which left a small crowd of people very disappointed. And the latter had the issue of being a complete load of garbage with many of the same bugs, new performance issues, clunkier menus, new menus not working, and of course Gearbox’s patented golden chest. They pulled a BL2 and just gave you OP guns at the beginning of the game as to make the beginning area more trivial than it already was. And if that wasn’t bad enough, they suited you out with 75 golden keys for connecting your shift account, meaning that you could destroy any sense of value the guns originally had.

There was also the new BL2 dlc that was meant to tie the game into BL3’s story. However I can safely say that after having played through BL3, this dlc’s campaign in no way whatsoever connects these two games together. I guess at best it explains how Sanctuary fell, but that in of itself has a lot of problems. You get attacked by some Dahl commander (who has never been brought up in the story before) where he infects Sanctuary, and by further extension Pandora, with this plant virus. Your job is to kill this guy and stop the plant virus. There is no motivation established for this guy besides that he wants to make Pandora into some paradise, and the story has absolutely no effect on BL3 at all. The crew was already set on going to outer space, this invasion only served to speed up this process. To further this claim, there is no mention of this dlc’s events in BL3 and Pandora is still the same sandy hell scape that it normally is.

Which finally brings us to Borderlands 3. A game that feels surprisingly devoid of passion and love despite how much effort went into it. A game that feels like there wasn’t enough time to flesh out ideas. A game owned by a company who sold out to Epic for money- let’s get a couple of things out of the way first. 1. Borderlands 3 isn’t an entirely bad game per se. 2. I have relatively no issue with the game being an Epic exclusive and my opinion is not biased or soured due to Randy Pitchford’s constant fuck ups.

However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t outright despise Gearbox and 2K for their actions. They take an exclusivity deal with Epic which actively disrupts consumer convenience and confidence in purchasing their product (not a big deal). But then they have the audacity to push this game out in the buggy, unpolished, and unoptimized state that its currently in (kind of a big deal). The menus are buggy on a basic, functional level, the performance tanks constantly, and items would quite literally disappear out of thin air from my inventory. All of these made Borderlands 3 just that much more of a painstaking experience to play through.

It was the unpolished game and the Borderlands’ trademark shitty introductory area that made me want to refund the game. And believe me, I tried to refund the game. Unfortunately I got denied my refund because I had accidentally played over 2 hours of the game, when the Epic client doesn’t even show your playtime. So ultimately I had no choice but to play this game in order to get my 60 dollars worth. In that time I learned that this game is exactly like the other Borderlands games. Right down to the pacing and the disappointing endings. The beginning of Borderlands 3 is a complete slog. You’re just slapped down on Pandora and have to suffer through Clap Trap’s “hilarious” writing and get formally introduced to the mechanics of a Borderlands game for the 4th time now. Gearbox has apparently never figured out that people really hate playing through the beginning of their games because it refuses to give the players a skip tutorial option or a way to just outright bypass the introduction. Now I will say that this introduction isn’t as bad as BL2 or The Presequel, but it's certainly nowhere near good either.

The problem with these introduction areas is that they aren’t engaging or really even play into the story in any meaningful way. In BL3, you arrive out of thin air on Pandora and are forcefully met up with Lilith and the Crimson Raiders so that you can prepare to take off into space. Between meeting up and going into space you’ll be doing menial tasks such as fixing Marcus’ shops, getting a basic vehicle, and doing some really boring boss fights. Your motive for killing these bosses is because Lilith is on the hunt for the vault map. That thing that they had in BL2, how did they lose it? Nevermind that because it’s just sitting with Mouthpiece, a painfully easy boss that expects no brain power out of you other than just avoid the giant speakers that go boom. Apparently it was in Vaughn’s possession before he was betrayed by his Sun Smasher clan in return for good boy points from the Calypsos. Why the Crimson Raiders thought it would be a good idea to leave the map with Vaughn beats me, but I can safely say that this theme of Vaughn being a complete fuck up is consistent throughout the entirety of BL3.

Vaughn at best feels like a comedic relief character, and at worst feels like padding. This character has no important role throughout the story, just plainly isn’t a funny character, and comes across as a complete waste of space. He could literally just disappear from the entire game and nothing would change. You (luckily) don’t even see him for most of the game because his ass is left back on Pandora to do… something. I’ve heard that Vaughn is a far better character in Tales from the Borderlands, however as I haven’t played that game I cannot say for certain whether or not Gearbox really just dropped the ball on this one. Vaughn also isn’t the only character I have this opinion of, however as I am still discussing the game’s intro I feel that I should hold off until later.

So after you acquire the vault map and experience a “high stakes” encounter with the Calysos, Lilith loses her siren powers. I feel like this was supposed to be some big, “Oh shit,” moment but I have to express that I simply don’t care for Lilith’s character and people who are new to the Borderlands series won’t care either. Lilith is not necessarily a “good guy” in Borderlands. She has done some fucked up things that have drastically changed the overarching plotline and a lot of people’s perception of her both in the story and by players experiencing it. In The Pre-Sequel, she is framed as being the reason for Handsome Jack’s insanity as Lilith literally branded a vault symbol onto his face. In the epilogue of TPS she actively commands a firing squad to gun down Athena after she tells her story in its entirety, completely against the judgement of her colleagues. And she makes incredibly rash decisions in BL2 that causes detrimental results for the crimson raiders such as being captured by Handsome Jack after being explicitly told not to come to Angel’s prison that greatly changes the dynamic of the story. These are only a couple examples, and I could keep going, but the point is that I don’t value Lilith as an entirely productive or a beneficially proactive member of the Crimson Raiders. And new players who have never played Borderlands before literally won’t even know who Lilith is or why she is even important. Hence when Lilith loses her siren powers after a pretty pathetic fight with the Calypsos, I can really only roll my eyes and just go with it.

From here the story relatively picks up and becomes a bit more bearable (but not really), however I don’t want a couple thousand words of this review to be about the story. Overall it’s trash, and I’m going to try my best to summarize just why it’s trash. Firstly is that the Borderlands writers might be writing for way too many characters. Seriously you have: ProZ-oh I mean Flak, Amara, Zane, Moze, Vaughn, Lilith, Brick, Mordecai, Tiny Tina, Ellie, Tannis, Marcus, Zero, Rhys, Lorelei, Aurelia, Hammerlock, Typhon Deleon, The Calypsos, Katagawa, Bosses also have some writing with them, Ava, Rhys, holy shit I could just keep going. This isn’t to mention that the the only returning vault hunters from BL2 are Zero and Maya. And then factor in that the writers had to write up a ton of audio logs, some Typhon logs, Eridian logs, side quest dialogue for meaningless bosses, etc. and you have just this disaster of a story that churns everyone out to be really shallow characters. There aren’t any truly good characters in this game. Some of them are passable but that’s because they either aren't main characters or they have some somewhat funny writing and redeeming qualities.

Characters like Ava and Maya (and Vaughn) are completely devoid of any purpose within Borderlands outside of being fuel to the drama fire or just outright being an obnoxious brat. It’s pretty obvious that Ava is just a spoiled teenager who has no idea what she’s getting into, but even in the context of Borderlands her character doesn’t fit at all. For example, after the player kills the first vault monster (Rampager) and returns from the vault, you’re suited to a cutscene where Ava and Maya go pants on head retarded. Ava, a defenseless, tiny, teenager with no powers whatsoever, tries to tell Maya that, “We should be kicking [the Calypsos’] asses!” after the Calypso twins show up to absorb the powers of the vault monster. Mind you, this is after her and Maya debate about how Ava is a piece of shit that’ll get herself killed if she sneaks off to more vaults. Ava then has the audacity to tell the vampire sirens that eventually she’s going to be a siren and she’s going to, “Mop the floor with assholes like you.” These actions ultimately gets her put in her place, and Maya killed. Bottom line: She’s an obnoxious character that makes playing through the story of BL3 worse the more you’re exposed to her. And speaking of Maya, her character in Borderlands is completely useless. She introduces Ava, and then gets killed so that the players can go grrr at the big baddies. Her only significance to the story is that Maya is a siren so that the Calypso twins can steal her powers. Otherwise she is an absolutely useless character that now we’ll never get to see again without Gearbox pussying out on their own writing.

I’ll be completely honest here in saying that Typhon Deleon was the best written character in the game, and you hardly get to hear anything from him outside of backstory and the final couple hours of the game. If Typhon Deleon was a main star of BL3 I think the story would’ve went in a much more favorable direction. However I can’t discount the good writing moments within the story. Even though I absolutely hate Flak’s character even down to his voice, he does have some lines that made me chuckle. Rhys’ entire gag about Rhys ball had me laughing for that entire section, especially the line, “Suck on my big ball, Katagawa.” In fact I think most of the jokes that I laughed at were sexual jokes. I frankly don’t think a lot of these sexual jokes make the cut in a lot of games nowadays outside of obvious fanfare or really out there stuff like Grand Theft Auto 5. This was really unexpected and pulled off well in BL3 as weird as a compliment this is.

I also just want to express my disappointment for how the old vault hunters were treated in this writing: Axton, Gaige, Krieg, and Salvadore aren’t present in this game outside of some echo logs. It could be plausible that Axton and Gaige will come back for a future dlc, but I’m not holding my breath. We ultimately got Maya and Zero, and oh god these characters are bad. Maya dies only a couple hours after you meet her and Zero is comparable to a boomer dad trying to be hip with the kids. Maybe that’s the joke, in which case all I can say is, “Wow, they pulled it off really well and I’m not laughing.”

And finally, the Watcher. What the hell happened to this dude and why isn’t he in BL3? He appears at the end of TPS and is like, “You’re gonna need all of the vault hunters you can get,” however, not only do we have a very restricted roster of vault hunters, the Watcher is literally never mentioned again. Unless the Watcher is the Eridian that left all of the audio logs laying around, but what a disappointment.

I could keep going a good while if I wanted to, but that’s reserved for my videos. The next part of the game that should be brought up is the world design. Most of the world design is okay, I wish Pandora wasn’t just set in desert hell ala BL1, but other than that they seem to have enough content and discoverable areas to make them interesting to explore. My ultimate problem with the world building comes in when considering the planetary system in the game. Now this point can be entirely perceived as me just being an ass but when I think “planets” I expect a lot more than the world hubs in BL3. The planet’s levels are relatively small scale for being on, you know, a planet. And this isn’t just a problem with BL3, many other games that have incorporated planets like this, such as Destiny and Warframe, ultimately fail at capturing the scale of planets. A planet is often scaled down to a simple level within a video game, and it’s somewhat shameful to see a game boasting, “tens of planets to travel to” and then those planets have the same (and even less) scale as their previous title entries that were based on a singular world. Now I perfectly understand that this is a hard request to answer to, and having to build and construct one world is difficult on its own. Despite this, if a development/marketing team wants to promote their usage of a planetary system in their video game, it’s implied that the levels are going to be gigantic. It’s not at all impressive to see planets being used in BL3 because BL2 had the same, if not more, level variety and the same, if not more, amount of levels without the pseudo use of large scale.

This isn’t to say that the levels contained in the game are bad, just that I wish they weren’t pushed into a planetary system. Generally speaking, the levels aren’t bad. I hadn’t ever reached a part of the game where I thought, “Wow this level is trash,” or found levels that were broken. In fact, the gameplay and level design seem to be the real highlights of this game. Gameplay this time around has been modernized and sped up. Players are suited with a slide, ledge grabbing, barrel throwing, and melee slams. Sliding in of itself is important because of how non-committal it is as you can cancel a slide instantly by jumping. These additions ultimately make combat faster and more varied in how you approach the game. See Borderlands 1, 2, and TPS (while it tried) suffered from each fight encounter being basically the same shootout with basic cover systems. This time around, while you can still use the basic playstyle from the older games, you’re provided the methods to really make your gameplay interesting. Personally I never used the melee slam or the barrel throwing, and the new ledge grabbing system only serves to add verticality in map exploring from my experience. However I did use a lot of the slide, and given the right gun (especially shotguns) it became very satisfying to slide into an enemy and pop them into the air with a shotgun.

On this note, I feel like I have to express how much I disliked the feel of the guns. And clearly I am on the contrary opinion here because I have heard everyone on the planet say that, “Wow the gunplay is soooo good omg!!!” but I’ll be honest in saying that I didn’t see it here. Sure, the gunplay now feels more weighty and the new animations and stuff are nice to making the player character good gameplay feel. But the guns themselves, despite apparently having tons of funding behind making the guns sound good and being completely reworked, still have the chronic floaty-ness issues of the previous games. Some guns (primarily early game Hyperion SMGs, Maliwan guns, and some shotguns) just felt so awful to play with that I put them down and never touched them again. I’m not too sure what I was expected as I slid into an opponent and shot them in the face with my shotgun, only for them to fly away a couple feet and just get right back up only having lost about half or less of their health. Jakobs guns were consistently the best weapon, feel wise, despite me always wishing they had a bit more of a kick to them.

One of my major issues with the guns is that they are way too sci-fi and not enough like guns on wastelands and battle driven hell hole. Seriously for how terrible a place Pandora is, you don’t get weapons that reflect this attribute, Instead you get these futuristic Hyperion smgs that will project a shield out in front of you or a Torgue gun that will home into your target when thrown. This is a consistent theme throughout the game where guns won’t aesthetically match the environment. I could understand if you found futuristic guns on Promethea, or even that you find technologically advanced weaponry in the form of Hyperion leftovers on Pandora(given that they’re consistent with the styling of BL2). This would 1. Appease me, because I am the only person worth pleasing, and 2. Would allow the Gearbox developers to create more variety with their weapons so that the game actually feels like it’s hitting its promise of, “Billions of guns.”

Another issue I have is the sound design for these guns, which is probably the point I’ll get absolutely grilled for but: Using actual sampled gun sounds apparently does not work for video games. Seriously every time a game tries to improve the sound of its guns, the new sounds somehow turn out to be worse. This can easily be explained off as having a bias against change, but let's talk about it. Firstly, the guns are way too quiet in Borderlands. And they seem extra quiet in BL3, like worse than BL1 quiet. Maybe it’s a difference in subtlety, because let’s face it: It’s not like a microphone was stuck right next to an actual gun. In reality the sound designers probably had the microphone a good many feet away. This gives the gunshot more of a subtle popping sound rather than the huge blast that the person holding the gun actually experiences (hence why you wear earplugs when shooting guns in real life). But I’m going to put in my take on this matter: Guns need to have an impact in their noise. Now this doesn’t mean that guns sounds even need to be based on real guns or realistic in any shape or fashion. Borderlands is a game with a unique artstyle, so why can’t Borderlands have unique sound design?

It seems that every game nowadays wants the best sounding or most realistic guns to boot, however what happened to all that stylistic choice? Some of the best examples I can think of are Counter Strike’s western inspired whiff sounds for its older titles, Enter the Gungeon’s wide arrangement of different gun sounds, the cartoony gun shot effects for Wasted, and even Borderlands unique sound designs such as The Bane and the beam guns from TPS. These unique sound designs are missing for BL3’s guns and, despite Gearbox making an algorithm to suit one gun sound to thousands of guns, they all really sound the same. Not like you can’t tell the difference between what you’re shooting but in that all snipers sound like a generic sniper, all pistols sound like pistols. Of course you have to discount certain weapons like the Occultist that don’t even shoot the bullets respective of its weapon type. But the point is: this is a missed part of the game. I don’t necessarily like or dislike the realistic approach to the sound design of weaponry, but in a game that feels anything but realistic, the sounds aren’t doing it for me here.

But let’s reel it back to the game again, and get into the basic looting mechanics for this game. Upfront: It’s dumbed down, and takes little effort to get good gear. This is the part of the game where I fall out of my element (if I haven’t already), because I don’t really appreciate Borderlands for its RPG mechanics. It feels nice, and the act of finally getting something you grind out for hours if exhilarating (4 times magic missile), but it is far from how I prefer to play my games. Given this though, even I feel that legendaries drop way too often. Over my playthrough of just the main game content (I did 6 side quests on my first playthrough, and we’ll get to this) I collected tens of legendaries. When I was finished with the game I had 10 legendaries just sitting in my inventory that I was either actively using or keeping as a memorial item. This isn’t to mention that you literally get a chest at the end of the game that contain 4 legendaries in it. The loot dropping system is no longer satisfying at this point. And this isn’t just a matter of, “Oh they buffed the loot drops a little bit,” it’s a matter of the looting system becomes a complete joke when bosses can literally drop multiple legendaries without Mayhem, and will consistently drop multiple legendaries with Mayhem.

Assemble this with a forgiving leveling system, and now it’s just a dumbed down Borderlands experience. In previous Borderlands games, you couldn’t just do the main quest from start to finish. At some point you would eventually become underleveled, and paired with Borderlands’ trademark unforgiving and shitty rpg mechanics, meant that being 3 levels beneath an enemy granted you 10% damage reduction. This is no longer a worry, you can now play the main quests from start to finish with zero leveling hiccups. Or at least from my experience. Some reviews that I indulged in have said that they did have troubles with the leveling system, to which I rolled my eyes and had to immediately question what the hell they had done wrong. On normal mode I finished the campaign having only completed 6 side quests in total. One of these, to tie back to the looting system real quick, gave me a legendary elemental pistol that melted enemies for the next couple of zones. I also asked someone about their experience playing Borderlands 3 so far, only to learn that he had been doing every single quest that he was given and was massively overleveled come time for the first vault boss (he was level 21).

The bosses of Borderlands, this time around, were the best and the worst that the series has ever gotten. They’ve been massively revamped from the older system of AOE insta-kill moves to having actual attack patterns that you can skillfully avoid. To compensate for this, the bosses have been relatively tuned up to be more aggressive, throwing out more attacks. These new bosses range from very good to very, very bad. Some of my favorites were the Graveward, the Penn and Teller styled boss (Pain and Terror), and Troy Calypso. The bosses that I ultimately ended up hating were Katagawa, the Rampager, the Warden, and the Anointed. These bosses either suffered from boring attack patterns, bullet spongy-ness, or a lack of direction on what you’re supposed to be doing to beat the boss. Katagawa and the Warden fit into this last category. For Katagawa I was confused by him taking inconsistent damage (he loses a ton of health on shield break) and the Warden I couldn’t figure out whether or not I was allowed to kill him early. This is because the Warden is styled around the Goliath from BL2, so whenever he kills one of his teammates he gains all of his health back and then levels up. It turns out that you can kill this boss early, I just had garbage guns for this fight. So to answer your question, yes I did get the Warden to max level, and what pursued was a 20-something minute boss fight where you run the boss around in circles and turn around to deal damage when you can, and then he would kill a minion and level up. The only way I managed to kill him was that when he did eventually hit max level, he would stop focusing his minions when on low health.

The bosses that were truly good were the ones that kept the player busy, while not being too spongy or time consuming. It should be noted that the spongy factor of a boss can be easily biased by what type of weapons you enter a boss fight with. Some of the bosses I thought were easier may have actually been harder for you or another player, and vice versa. However, I will speak more of a general design philosophy and less of a, “This guy had too much health,” philosophy. I loved the Graveward (while admittedly being underwhelming for a vault monster) because of his unique battle area and clear attacks that would make his weak point exposed. Having the entire floor tilted to the side while you’re spamming jump to save your life was a fun mechanic to work with, especially when you factor in dodgeable acid balls. This was a simple boss fight that had a unique spin on an FPS boss. Terror and Pain I loved for stylistic reasons and the meta-humor around putting characters themed around Penn and Teller in a game made by a company with a CEO who is super into magic. This boss is comparable to Mouthpiece, but actually just a straight upgrade. The arena you fight Terror and Pain in is far more interesting, the boss itself looks cool, and while I have honestly forgotten the attacks that the boss had, it was still a fun encounter. One of the attacks I do remember though is the floor lighting up to indicate that fire was going to shoot up to incinerate you, and felt far more fitting than getting blasted by a speaker turned up too loud.

Something that I disliked across the board with these bosses, and this is a massive opinion piece, is that the bosses were too easy. Sometimes I honestly wished I was playing Borderlands: The Bullet Hell. I really wanted a boss that wasn’t just going to engage my attention, but make me feel like, “Holy shit, holy shit, oh my god, I am going to die.” Actually, the entire game was pretty damn easy. Although this can come down to a lot of reasons such as ally NPCs now being able to revive you, and the upped pacing of the game causing players to need to rely less on cover.

And I mean, it’s not like the game stays easy forever right? After you complete the campaign on normal mode you then unlock True Vault Hunter Mode (TVHM) and the brand new, super cool, “Badass-,” oh whoops I mean, “Guardian Ranks.” The end game is perhaps the most disappointing thing is this game for hardcore veterans of the Borderlands series. Firstly, that “reworked” end game comes in the form of the new badass ranking system, only this time you can’t disable it (This pieceo of information has become outdated with time, a future update has included the option to turn off these gaurdian perks and the passive bonuses). I mean, this time you get some rewards for using the guardian ranks? Meh. Otherwise the game still revolves around making you play it multiple times in order to get to the level cap. The only real reworked thing here is the new mayhem difficulties, annnnd they’re bad. So what the mayhem system is supposed to do is make the game more difficult while incentivizing you to play it by giving you consistently better loot rewards (more blues, purples, and legendaries). This system would otherwise be okay if not for just one problem: Mayhem 2 added no difficulty to the game, while Mayhem 3 felt typical to Borderlands end game difficulty (It should be noted that the Mayhem system has been revamped to include 10 Mayhem levels). Again, this may be because of my own personal experience with the game, see apparently Flak is outright broken when it comes to crits (Future updates have severely nerfed Flak). So this could be influencing my opinion greatly on this difficulty switch. But I’ll say that I had no reason not to play Mayhem 2, because for essentially no difficulty increase, the game started commonly dropping me blues, purples, and legendaries, while rarely spitting out a green.

At this point I had essentially had enough with the game, as my terrible, clunky inventory was constantly filling with valuables, and I had to make constant stops to dump stuff out of my inventory. Given this, the fact that Mayhem gave you a ludicrous amount of XP for very little difficulty on Mayhem 2, and a quick Google search about the raid bosses in the game, I’ve ultimately put the game down. I went from level 39 to 44 in the span of an hour, was being drowned in good loot, and the biggest sting of all: There are no raid bosses in the base game of Borderlands 3.

This is a massive review for a game that probably doesn’t deserve it. Borderlands 3 has a lot of ups and downs. It’s not a game that many people will enjoy for the story. Veteran players may have a distaste for the lack of an interesting end game. All in all, if you’re playing Borderlands 3, you’re probably playing it for the gunplay and the loot, which still, somewhat, hold up. I didn’t see how the game had a billion guns, but you know what, that’s alright. And after all of the controversy, and now that Gearbox is releasing patches, performance fixes, and balancing to the game, it’s not that bad of a game. The game just doesn’t strike me as the godlike triple A, return to Borderlands that many had hoped for. Overall, I would give the game a 6/10.

EDITOR'S NOTE: There used to be a video here demonstrating a supposed XP glitch that had occurred to me while playing through True Vault Hunter Mode while using Mayhem. It turns out that, at the time, this was an intentional mechanic for Mayhem to give you massive XP gains. To correct for this error, the video has been pulled from Youtube and this paragraph has been written, as well as all mentions of the XP glitch being pulled from this article.

-Count_

#borderlands #borderlands 3 #critique #review

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aidenmasad-blog · 5 years ago

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An empty nester brushes up on cooking for 2

Proprietor Mary Ann likes to stay out of the way she does most of her sales online and doesn't keep a strict schedule. You give 'em hell, in the hope of helping make the path easier for those coming up behind you.. The blog acts as an initiation for a long term relationship with the consumer, and by maintaining business from these consumers the benefits can extend to vital word of mouth marketing.. Encouragingly, Australia morale boosting win was achieved without NBA stars Patty Mills (general soreness) and Andrew Bogut (rest).Canada were also weakened without guard Kevin Pangos, who starred in game one with 18 points.Australia were boosted by the inclusion of Phoenix Suns centre Aron Baynes but the hosts struggled for much of the first half.After a recording an abysmal six of 34 from fake yeezys for kidsthree point range on Friday, the Boomers again were wayward from long range, 10 of their first 11 attempts before heating up in the third quarter.Much like in the opener, a cohesive Canada marshalled by Toronto Raptors championship coach Nick Nurse were potent from beyond the arc but faded against Australia physical defence.Canada original squad of training camp invitees for the World Cup featured 17 NBA players but they have been decimated by withdrawals from their big guns and Birch was their lone NBA player in Perth.Sacramento Kings guard Cory Joseph might link up with the squad in time for the World Cup, but doubts are growing as to whether he will turn up.The Boomers now travel to Melbourne for games against the USA next Thursday and Saturday before they head to China, where they meet Canada again in their opening group match on September 1.. 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harrywu-blog · 5 years ago

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Week6 5G letter

Dear President Donald Trump: There are all kinds of rumours and opinions out there. Huawei has lots of small controversies over the decades. In early 2007 George W Bush’s administration warned against Huawei participating in buying 3Com because they have shadowy ties to the Chinese army and intelligence services. No evidence was given beyond that vague and strange accusation. Do you know which companies directly connect to the US military and intelligence services? Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, AT&T, Verizon, and many more. I know the US military has to buy equipment from these big companies. When the world mostly forgot these concerns, until 2012, Australia banned Huawei from NBN, citing “security concerns”. Then, claimed that Huawei was involved in cyber-war. Meanwhile the head of Huawei’s Australian board, Alexander Downer said “The whole concept of Huawei being involved in cyber-war is based on the company being Chinese” and said the whole things was ridiculous. The US warned of potential "state influence threats" from HUAWEI and advised business owner not to use Huawei products, following a 60-pages conclusion from an 11-month investigation. There conclusion overall came from Huawei not providing them with sufficient information about the role of the Chinese government offices in their company. However, China is not like western countries. In China, governments place their power over the corporations as opposed to capitalist countries. It’s very inappropriate and strange to go to the government and demand to see all their paperwork in China. Providing information about the government might actually be illegal. Apparently, a company not having power over the government is somehow evidenced that is dangerous.

In 2012, the White House finished an 18-month review of Huawei and concluded there was “no evidence of spying by Huawei”. Actually, so far, no one offered any evidence that Huawei is spying or had ever spied. In 2015, the UK’s Intelligence and Security Committee finished reviewing all the Huawei’s source code and concluded there is no evidence that Huawei has presented any risk to the UK’s national security. In 2016, Huawei was ranked remarkably well when it comes to security patching with 77% of phones running the most recent patches VS only 15% for Samsung. Huawei’s code has nothing malicious and phones are remarkably secure. While, How extensively the US spying on Americans and other countries? They are only spying on automatic-cars, iPhones, smart TVs, Sony PSP, MacOS, Linux, Office, iPads or Google, or Telegram or WhatsApp.It’s 100% proven America is spying on these brands. All these blame towards Huawei are just because the competitors are using political ways to try and kick Huawei out of the US market. The US can’t compete Huawei on technology and innovation, so the US compete Huawei on politics. What on earth has Huawei done wrong so far? Don’t you feel shocked that actually the US government was caught red-handed doing spying and even much more things, but no one present evidence that Huawei has done any of it? Huawei’s product was trusted in more than 170 countries and regions. Not a single operator has experienced a security issue with Huawei’s equipment, including US operators. Huawei is not from western countries, so you claim Huawei is not secure.

After Canada investigated Huawei and said their anti-cyber warfare program is good enough that they should be confident about Huawei technology and found no reason for a ban, the US warned Canada and said their program still won’t be enough and Canada should anyway ban Huawei. Huawei is somehow like the most dangerous company in the world. Huawei opens their code to German analysts for inspection but German found Huawei seems to have nothing to hide. This time, the US started to give pressure to their allies to ban Huawei from 5G networks, and even consider to provide money to these countries who refuse to sign up with Huawei. Why? Why America spend time and money on blocking Huawei? Because Huawei has 5G technology. The US was exposed for having one of the most thorough hacking enterprise ever seen on Earth which depends on exploiting bug on software. Because of the strange accusations, the public was getting a little uneasy. What coming next? The CEO of Huawei, Wanzhou Meng got arrested suddenly in Canada because Huawei violated US sanctions against Iran. How did Huawei violate US sanctions? People always just read the headlines, do they actually do some search on this? America started to ban all the companies from buying Huawei phones. Why? Huawei hide nothing and welcome anyone concerned to inspect the company’s laboratories in China. Huawei welcome people to inspect and open the source code. Can any firms be more transparent like Huawei? What else can Huawei do? Are the US consider truly about cyber security and privacy protection of the people in other regions? Or are there any possible motives? Are you concern about if Huawei equipment was used in those countries, US agencies would find it difficult to gain access information of these countries? Even though many security teams have cleared Huawei is safe, the US tell the world Huawei is hacking anyone. Then you arrest Huawei CEO and try to convince other countries to ban Huawei. All the drama is based on literally NO EVIDENCE at all. Maybe you just want Huawei acts as leverage in the trade war. Huawei is being persecuted unjustly. They have done nothing wrong, and shouldn’t be blackballed by countries in the west. They need justice.

In Australia, giving up Huawei means 2-3x expense on building the 5G network infrastructure. This will have a roll-on effect on the prices of mobile subscriptions, the blame for which will be directed at me.

I think we don’t have to aim at Huawei. Banning Huawei will have nothing beneficial for our country.

If you get angry with my decision and believe my action will threaten the relationship between Australia and the US, you just go ahead. I will not risk my country’s future and local companies just because of the so-called fake relationship between you and me.

Regards,

Prime Minister of Australia.

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jaspreetsingh001 · 5 years ago

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Utopia - A Privacy Focused Decentralized P2P Ecosystem & Blockchain

Are you one of those individuals who believe they don’t need online privacy because there is nothing to hide? That is an argument but protecting your data will help limit the power of advertisers and companies who influence you every day. “Why should I care? What services guarantee web-privacy and how?” That’s what I will uncover in this review.

Utopia is a decentralized peer-to-peer network, With Utopia you can send instant text and voice messages, transfer files, create group chats and channels, send emails and conduct a private discussion. Currently Utopia is an application for Windows, iOS and Linux which offers all the features within one application. Utopia users get on their ‘Utopia ecosystem‘ as the application also provides a built-in Idyll browser to view websites within Utopia peer-to-peer network . Utopia comes with a Cryptocurrency which is called ‘Crypton‘ and is Proof-of-Stake. uWallet allows you to store,transfer your Crypton(CRP) or even create vouchers and credit cards, Utopia Network includes Utopia Name System (UNS) which is a decentralized registry of names that are impossible to expropriate, freeze or corrupt by 3rd-party as no one has control over the system rather its self-governed by rules set in place which are applicable to everyone. After you join Utopia you may wanna drop by our Hackology channel, which you can search in the Channel Manager

I came across Utopia ecosystem two months ago; it has been available for the last five years though. What do I like the most about this product?

Self-enclosed Ecosystem: This means that third-parties never use the data you use for communication, how I express my thoughts.

Enhanced encryption: Developers employed sophisticated mechanisms to guarantee web-privacy. Even if you are not a tech geek, you can Google what elliptic curves and unique p2p architecture are. These tools are proven solutions against interception and data leakage.

All-in-one: Utopia is not only a messenger but users can mine cryptocurrency, send emails, design websites, and use maps within one ecosystem. For now, I tested a messenger and created a blog with Utopia after signing as a beta-tester.

Decentralized: Thanks to blockchain technology, anyone can enjoy security online. Decentralization means that my email, text messages, and files are not stored on one server and third-party companies are never involved in the data transmission process.

Anonymous: It was a sigh of relief when I noted that I didn’t need to mention phone number, personal data when registering on Utopia. Each User has a key which never changes and enables p2p communication as the only recipient can decrypt and see the message.

Humane: Utopia is the only Ecosystem of this kind that applies technology to protect online privacy and complete freedom of speech with no censorship. One can feel free for self-expression without being tracked while IP, location, and files are never stored or shared with anyone.

All these checkpoints in combine make Utopia one of the most interesting tools for online privacy

UTOPIA PRODUCT AND ITS FEATURES

Let’s Explore Utopia and all the features in detail. Please note as this is a beta application many of the features might change in future or some even get removed.

Utopia Encryption

Each user participates in transmission of network data but only the recipient can decrypt the data. Advanced encryption ensures interception-proof communication channel to all Utopia users. All communication is secure and protected by Curve25519 high-speed elliptic curve cryptographywhile local storage is encrypted by 256-bit AES. Big Brother is no longer watching you!

Installing Utopia

Once you register on the Beta Portal you have to download Utopia Application. After installing the application you will be given a Hardware ID and a Private Key, these keys are required to activate your beta license which can be done from the Activation Page. Please keep in mind that your beta portal website login credentials are not linked with Utopia Application and you can have a different username for the app and the website. Once you activate the license your utopia account will be tied with your beta portal account. A step by step procedure for easy understanding of the activation procedure:

Download Utopia software

Install the program by following simple instructions on installation wizard

Run Utopia and create your account. You will be provided with Public Key and Hardware ID. Those are needed to activate your Utopia software

Click on JOIN BETA

Agree to the Rules and click SUBMIT

Click on NEW ACTIVATION and Enter Public Key and Hardware ID

Click ADD

Now your Utopia is activated and you are ready to test it

Utopia Dashboard

Utopia is a feature-rich platform that is specifically designed to protect privacy of communication, confidentiality and security of personal data. It was created for privacy-conscious public who believe that privacy is paramount. Utopia is a decentralized network, with no central server involved in data transmission or storage. The network is supported by people who use its many high quality features.

The first glimpse we get of the application is at the Dashboard which has navigational menu for easy access to all of its many features for us to explore, use and report bugs while it is in beta testing phase.

uMail (Utopia Mail)

uMail is a secure alternative to classic e-mail. uMail can be sent to Utopia users that are in your contact list for now. uMail has all functionality of email localized to Utopia ecosystem. No servers are used for mail transmission or storage. uMail account, that is created by default when you join the Utopia network, enables unlimited messaging and attachment storage. Utopia ecosystem encryption guarantees the security of mail transmission and storage. Your uMail, as an internal part of Utopia, cannot be blocked or seized.

All those who value their data privacy would find this useful including activists and journalists knowing that their data is going straight to the designated user and no 3rd party can intercept their data. Currently the limit set for the attachments is 100 MB but as per the team it may be increased in future.

uWallet (Utopia Wallet)

All financial functionality can be found in Utopia built-in uWallet. uWallet allows you to make and accept payments denominated in Utopia cryptocurrency ‘Crypton‘, accept payments at your website, pay by Crypto Cards without revealing your Identity or bill fellow Utopia users for your services. With uWallet you can store value in Cryptons, receive mining rewards, use uVouchers, request payments and accept payments using the built-in API.

All of this while you remain anonymous. All payments are instant and cannot be reversed. Decentralized nature of Utopia ensures that your balance cannot be expropriated.

Utopia Mining — Crypton

Utopia has an inbuilt cryptocurrency called Crypton (CRP), which is proof-of-stake therefore a modest machine can also be used to mine cryptons through the GUI based Utopia application or with terminal based Mining bot which comes with the application.

Utopia rewards users that support the ecosystem through Mining by emission of new Cryptons. When you run your Utopia software or bot you will receive your share of collective reward. Mining does not slow your computer down and is environmentally friendly. You may also run a number of bots at several servers or computers to multiply the Crypton mining speed.

uNS (Utopia Naming System)

Utopia has introduced uNS (Utopia Naming System) which is a unique naming system and independent from the conventional Domain Naming System. DNS is subject to pressure and censorship from less than prefect international laws. Domains can be revoked or suspended due to multiple reasons, such as non-response to WhoIS inquiry or other register policies, non-payment, government actions and so on.

uNS, in contrast, is a truly decentralized non-censored registry hosted by Utopia Network participants with no expiration dates, renewal fees, suspensions and revocations. There is only one rule: First come, First served.

uNS registered name should be unique. You may register as many uNS registered names as you want while registration is not free and costs are paid in crypton:

Single letter uNS costs 1000 CRP

Two letter uNS costs 500 CRP

Three letter uNS costs 5 CRP

Four letter or more costs 0.1 CRP

Miscellaneous Features

Making Groups, Adding users, Chatting and Emailing, Sending Mails and Mining Cryptons might be the highlights but Utopia claims to be an ecosystem therefore they had to incorporate many more features so that users of Utopia ecosystem do not feel the need to go out of the system. List of other useful features within the Utopia Application are listed

Packet Forwarding : uNS Manager lists option of ‘Packet Forwarding’ which is an internal system allowing any utopian user to host a website which can be accessed by the Idyll browser, the naming system of the website is explained above, if you register hackology uNS you can make a website and it will open when you visit http://hackology/ and that is it. This option allows to tunnel any kind of data between users in ecosystem, making possible to host different types of resources including websites inside Utopia Network. At the time of writing few fellow Utopia users made Utopia sites which can be accessed at http://trade/ and at http://crystalforest

File Manager : All files which are sent or received in Utopia can be accessed from the builtin file manager which also includes an image viewer. As of now the file transfers are limited to 100MB.

Voice Notes : Utopia also supports sending and receiving of Voice messages which you can send to those who are added with you.

Dark Theme : The program comes in standard theme but how can they miss out a Dark Theme for the privacy savvy ? Users can opt for dark theme by going to Tools > Settings > Interface and selecting the ‘Dark Space‘ theme

Utopia API : Utopia comes with a comprehensive API for users to incorporate in their own projects. For instance, using API you can accept payments denominated in Crypton at your website, automatically manage your channels, send instant messages and much more. To get started once you enable the API you can also access the API documentation.

Network Fee Structure : Utopia provides us with an option to view all the network enforced fee and they are updated live on the network as the fee structure changes, thus one can stay updated with the current fee structure. You can access the Network Fee from uWallet > Treasury Data > Network Fee

Game : Utopia also supports in-app games which can be played in multiplayer, as of writing there is a working Chess game.

Utopia Reward System

Utopia is providing a very lucrative reward system, where Beta Testers, Contributors & Promoters all can join the beta portal and help test and find bugs which in return gets you ‘pts‘ where 1 pt equals to 1 USD which are paid in BTC.

We truly believe that your participation has to be exciting and mutually beneficial. Utopia Beta Program rewards your enthusiasm, commitment and dedication. No matter what is your skill set you will find an opportunity to contribute to Utopia P2P Project development

At the time of writing I have already cashed out $560 and transferred them to my own bitcoin wallet. I can vouch that if you have the eye to spot bugs it is a good place to help them and in return get paid. Uptil now Utopia team has paid out $3583 to beta testers which is a decent figure keeping in view that they launched 7 days back and still 3 months of beta testing period is left.

If you are not a bug finding sort you can still help and give them suggestions and ideas on how to improve their application or go ahead and share this on social media pages and get paid for being a ‘promoter’. Withdrawals are done manually and as per the rule it can take up-to 48 hours, but I have noticed that within an hour or so they release the funds.

Do Earn but DONT SPAM they have mentioned categorically that have zero spam tolerance

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