#there are very valid concerns about a lot of AI tools but some people on here act like anything AI touches is poison

[smol-blue-bird]

not to sound like an obnoxious ChatGPT shill, but the way some people talk about AI on this website is absolutely ridiculous. AI technology helping researchers discover how proteins fold is not the same as freshmen using chatbots to cheat on their homework. C'mon, guys

[radley-writes]

A lot of the criticism of Nano is getting very Piss On The Poor.... they flat-out did not say a lot of what they are being accused of saying. They said that categorical damnation of generative AI has some classist and ableist undertones, which I agree with only because we live in an ableist and classist society, and therefore, those undertones will be present in damn near any large debate.

But.

This is about the context. For Nanowrimo to try to shut down:

criticisms of generative AI in creative spaces

writers' very real and valid concerns for their future livelihoods (we've already seen the massive negative impact generative AI is having on indie writers, cover designers, etc.!)

larger environmental concerns (generating text doesn't use too much energy, but generating a single image with AI takes as much power as fully charging your smartphone... and if you support one sort of generative AI in creative spaces without explicitly condemning others, of course it's going to be taken as a general promotion!)

with accusations of classism and ableism...

Especially when so many writers are disabled, poor, and have specifically created communities and adjusted their goals because of this lack of privilege... Especially when those writers are now worried about the impact AI will have on these support networks... Especially when Nano is being sponsored by an AI writing company....

To say nothing of them trying to tone-police criticism and demanding that people obey their site rules on other sites such as Tumblr...

It smacks of using the language of social justice to hurt the very people who they are claiming to support.

To address the ableism accusation: Yes, some people cannot write. That's okay. I am disabled and could not ever hope to run 100m, let alone a marathon. This is a thing I Cannot Do Due To Disability - y'know, on account of disabilities being disabling and all. Still, I wouldn't dream of saying that me being driven 100m in a car is the same as running a sprint, and insist on being included in a sprinting competition? It's an entirely different thing - and that is okay to acknowledge. Pretending that driving 100m is the exact same as running just because the person in the car is disabled, is really fucking patronizing. And I honestly don't believe any of the disabled people Nano is talking about are claiming that having AI write your novel is the same as writing it yourself - so let's not make this about any such accusations. This is about disabled people being used, once again, as a feel-good marketing tool, rather than groups like NaNo actually giving a shit about us, lmao.

Nanowrimo is placing themselves on a side in a far larger cultural argument, whether this was their original intention or otherwise. And I think the vast, vast majority of creative people will agree that they're on the wrong one.

[simlicious]

Use of AI in my patterns

I've got a comment on my latest post that I want to address properly:

"Please dont use image generators. They use a lot of water and power and just. Its disrespectful to us artists who had our works scraped and thrown into the sludge maker."

Thank you @cats-n-witchcraft for voicing your concerns in a friendly and respectful way.

I've thought about this a lot and also had a long talk with a friend to dive into the topic a bit more and mull everything over. Since it is a long answer, it's under the cut! There is also a poll at the end of the text.

The use of AI-generated images is a very divisive topic with extreme opinions on both ends, some pleading against and some for the use of AI. I do not have an extreme opinion but I am somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Maybe it has to do something with my age or my personality type in that I always try to see things from different perspectives and like to find a middle ground in a lot of things. I understand both sides and think that both sides have some valid arguments pro and contra AI.

I definitely think AI use should be regulated and artist's work should be protected. But I also see merit in AI as a tool and in a way to enable creativity in people who aren't artists in the traditional sense with talent, years of practice, or formal training.

What I find horrible is people abusing AI to make fast money, image resource sites getting flooded with the stuff, people not disclosing the use of AI and just showing general scammy behavior. That's just not acceptable. I also think that AI companies have a huge responsibility to reinvest money in environmental projects to make up for the large use of resources. If this is not viable, then the whole business model should definitely be thought over.

Governments should step in and make clear rules regarding AI.

I will happily lend my signature to any ongoing petitions regarding this (feel free to link some in the comments if you have some).

I have always been a curious person and I like to try out new technologies. But I will now stop more often and think "do I need to use AI for this?" I might occasionally use it but I am by no means a power user. AI images are bad quality-wise and it takes work to make them usable or presentable and it does clash with my sense of perfectionism anyway. I only use two different AI image generators, the free Chatgpt with Dall-E 3 that comes integrated into Bing Copilot, and Photoshop's Firefly AI which Adobe claims was not trained on copyrighted materials (hopefully it's true). So far there are only a few occasions I've used them for. They include generating an avatar for a website, a few plumbob images, and a few bizarre Sims 4 caricatures because I was surprised that the AI knew the concept of Sims. I also thought that experiencing that and knowing how such images tend to look helps to spot them "in the wild" so you know what's AI and what isn't.

When I first tried AI, I was enticed by the novelty of making these unique images that I had not seen before anywhere else and was enveloped by the "wonder" of it (that has since worn off).

TBH it is super frustrating to have ideas but not to be able to execute them. I love making patterns for the Sims 3 but I really suck at making them from scratch, I tried a lot but I dislike the outcome of the majority of them and I do not seem to have the skills nor the patience to get to the level of surface pattern design skill required that would be acceptable quality for my perfectionistic brain. So figuring out this way of creating patterns without having to fear copyright strikes because I modified some assets (which is a really big thing in Germany where I live and people get made to pay a shitton of money for copyright infringement) was like a drug for my brain. It is hard to resist its satisfying pull.

I will try harder to find other ways that do not involve AI before considering AI as an option.

I'm sure lots of people try out something they are curious about and that is not really good for you, and we do not make good choices in our lives all the time. Maybe your personal questionable choice is in another department, but there are and will always be people who have different opinions and condemn our way of life in favor of another. I try to make choices that benefit the planet and environment and do not hurt people, but I am not 100% consistent, just like 99,9% of people on this planet, but I try and I care. Generally, I feel sad that we tend to accuse individuals of their behavior instead of accusing the big corporations and governments that are the real cause of the problems.

It can lower our self-esteem and make us feel inadequate because We can see so many areas in which we are not living up to someone else's standard. We have to choose our battles. Generally, I think we should not shame others for picking different battles or having different opinions. We never know the whole picture or reasons for other's opinions and behavior, especially of people we interact with online. We can engage in dialogue to foster understanding though and this is the way to go, and it is why I wrote this long wall of text. Thank you for reading my wall of text!

I want to close with a poll about what you think about the use of AI-generated images in my patterns.

Whenever I may use AI-generated assets/images in my patterns or other CCI will disclose this in the pattern download (if I know they are made by AI). In any case, I would only sporadically make use of AI!

[meruz]

im gonna reply to some asks but not that many bc the last time i tried to type up one of these posts i accidentally closed the tab and lost like several paragraphs so now im scared

lots of heavypaint questions

@porch-gremlin

its the fan tool on heavypaint!! which is a free drawing app that i love a lot. and the fan tool is my fave its kind of a crutch actually im trying to use other tools gkfdhgsdg but its so fun i can do a whole painting using it exclusively. heres a video of it in action while i mess w the configuration options. u can slide the noise jitter up and down so its more or less streaky hehe ^^

thank you!!! heavypaint ROCKS!!!!! I love it... its like the only art program ill be a shameless shill for lol

also im flattered you think of my art while playing splat...i should draw more splat i feel like i havent done enough.

my phone!! I have a samsung galaxy note 20 that I am still not done paying off LMAO.... but I've been a galaxy note user for years. combined with heavypaint its a shockingly good mobile sketchbook.

I'm sorry it's crashing on your tablet... I don't have a tablet so I don't really have an advice. Unfortunately because HP is a small dev app it can be kind of finicky... especially in between updates. I think if you reached out to vaughn ling/heavypoly he'd probably respond though! he seems to keep up with the community pretty well.

@hellisrealsign nice nice.. I'm glad our tastes match up a little! hopefully that means you don't mind my frequent fandom jumping LOL. I promise to always be true to my homestuck-loving infinity-train-loving self.

LMAOOOOOO I HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD TIME? (covered in blood)

idk is it worth it to read any shounen manga for female side characters?????? (??) HEAVILY DEBATABLE. on one hand the casual observer would say no but on the other hand femslash shippers are the strongest people on god's green earth and will endure great tortures for paltry table scraps.

I think mha is a good manga but it's still a shounen, some of the tropes they squeeze the girls into kind of suck. I can kind of put my annoyance aside because regardless im still a big fan of cool fight scenes and the power of friendship but I think your mileage will vary depending on how much tolerance you have for that kind of story...? There's an awful lot of chapters afterall. I will say this: though toga and ochako aren't the main characters they're not in the background either. the path of their relationship spans multiple arcs across the entire manga and is both plot relevant and relevant to the greater themes/thesis of the story. it's pretty clear that the mangaka and editorial team are dedicated to giving these characters the time and page space to play out. it's not perfect but thats better than a decent amount of big shounen femslash in my opinion? shrugs

Thank you! for both the compliments and the concern. but I want to assure you that... to be perfectly honest I don't think I'll ever stop posting my art regardless of AI. I don't want to make this into a hot take like this is an entirely personal opinion and I don't expect any other artists to share my position but: Everything about my art that I consider valuable is inherently impossible for AI to replicate and everything about my art that is replicable and monetizable is not something I'm interested in owning or protecting. (this is also why at the end of the day i dont really care that much about art theft, tracing etc. and i think 90% of the time style theft is just silly)

I believe art should be freely shared and to restrict that is to make art into a product which is morally despicable and moreover uninteresting... to me. lol. I DO RECOGNIZE HOWEVER I'm very lucky to have both more of an online audience than I even want + a fulltime job that takes the pressure off any of my other art to make money. it's totally valid for other artists to have differing opinions on this especially depending on personal circumstances. AND also I make art that is primarily a product above all else for work everyday so im a hypocrite but. yeah thats my two cents.

I love posting art online LOL. I do it because its fun for me.

HAPPY NEAR YEAR!!!!!!!!!11111111

[reasoningdaily]

Bias in AI. Examples how artificial intelligence discriminates aganst humans. | ArtInUX

The paradigm of (un)ethical futures.

Ask anyone what they think artificial intelligence is and they’ll have different opinions. Some, like Jeff Bezos, will sing its praises for humanity’s digital future, while others, like Elon Musk, will see it as a harbinger of doom. And those that have spent the last 5–10 years under a rock might dismiss it as a fad and yet another buzzword.

Indeed, some valid questions are stemming from concerns arising out of AI technology. For instance, is Elon right? Will AI pose a threat to the human race? The answer, as of writing this article, is “no”. Experts believe that this won’t change much for at least another 50 years or so as AI has yet to rise above human intellect. In her book “Hello World” Dr Hanna Fry compares the modern AI intelligence to a hedgehog.

Since we are growing ever dependent on AI systems, we also need to ask a very compelling question: Can we trust AI judgment? The answer is, — not yet, and certainly not blindly. AI technology suffers from something called bias, that has its foundation in human prejudices introduced in training data.

Bias?

Bias can be defined as “a disproportionate weight in favour of or against an idea or thing. In science and engineering, a bias is a systematic error.” Whether we like to admit it or not, we all have biases. It is a lack of awareness (or willful ignorance?) of these biases that often introduces issues when it comes to designing AI solutions and selecting training data.

“Yes, but that’s human. AI is not human” I hear you proclaim. That is true. To understand how this affects the models, lets briefly unpack how human bias creeps into your otherwise friendly AI. To illustrate this at a high level, I drew a comic.

As I hope I have been able to illustrate, the bias in AI is the covert prejudice in the data used to train algorithms (a set of instructions formulated so that a task can be performed). This can result in discrimination and have other social reactions when an AI tool is used. This can be demonstrated with a simple example. Supposing an algorithm has to be created to decide whether an applicant gets accepted into a university or not. Let's imagine that one input is location. Now let’s speculate that the location may correspond to ethnicity. In this case, the algorithm would favour, even though indirectly, certain ethnicities over others, which would lead to bias for one ethnic group over another.

Now. Back to humans and bias.

Cognitive Bias

Cognitive bias is an area of the human psyche that has been extensively studied to explain the prejudicial nature of human behaviour. A cognitive bias is a lack of objective thinking, and for a human brain, it’s a shortcut in information processing. This is because the human brain tends to perceive and process information based on personal experiences and preferences. The information received goes through a kind of filtration, and only that which is familiar or personally relevant gets processed.

There are types of cognitive bias, such as the “bandwagon effect”, selective perception, priming and confirmation bias, that all play a role in bias in AI.

The Bandwagon Effect- This is how the brain concludes that something/someone is valuable because others (or a majority) value it.

Confirmation bias — This is the brain’s tendency to use new information that matches or confirms/validates existing notions.

There is a lot to be said about the social media sites and giants like google.com reinforcing people’s confirmation bias through their algorithms, but more on that later. If we acknowledge and understand that this exists and is a large part of the way we humans think, we can get a grip on AI bias.

Data analysis uses objective tools for machine learning and making purely data-driven decisions. Nonetheless, it is humans who select the data to be analysed. Here is where the bias creeps into the final product.

These biases are unintentional (one would hope!) and can be called “human error” in some cases. Regardless, the presence of bias in machine learning systems can be quite significant, depending on the use of such systems. Biases can often lead to lower quality of customer service, reduced revenue and sales, illegal actions, and dangerous conditions. In industry and commerce, especially, such scenarios should be prevented. Organisations are required to keep a close eye on the data used to teach algorithms for cognitive bias as well as for (rigorous!) validation. Bias in AI can only be limited in this way.

The efficacy of data scientists, analysts and designers

Artificial intelligence can only be rid of inherent bias provided data scientists act in an efficacious, ethical and objective way, alerting themselves to possible bias. Data should represent a range of races, backgrounds, genders and cultures that could be adversely affected by prejudicial issues. Data scientists, analysts and, in some rare but increasingly more popular cases, UX designers play a part in developing these models. It’s the responsibility of this team to mould data samples in a way that deliberately decreases bias from faulty machine learning models. Decision-makers must evaluate the appropriateness of applying machine learning technology in all aspects of AI before it is in production. Have you (in)validated your algorithm with large enough dataset that you are absolutely sure it is bias-free?

The danger of bias in AI

Any discrimination is derogatory and undermines equal opportunity. As a result of this, often unintended outcomes may lead to oppression. This has been proven many times in real life, throughout history, and, as you will see in some examples I have collected, continues to be the case in everyday life. Wiping out this prejudice in humanity has been a Herculean task, let alone in machine learning. In AI, the task has to be simpler, but it means eliminating the prejudice at the root of when algorithms and models are written. Anomalies that result in bias occur when algorithms produce results that arise out of faulty assumptions in the process of data analytics and machine learning.

Examples of bias in AI

Making non-biased algorithms is hard. Here are a few real-life examples of instances of bias:

Bias in American healthcare

In 2019, an algorithm was used on more than 200 million Americans in US hospitals, as a predictor of patients who would need specially trained nursing staff and extra medical attention. The algorithm was not directly related to racial factors, but historical data on spending on healthcare was used as a proxy for medical needs. The rationale behind the algorithm was that cost indicated how much healthcare a person required — the more someone spent — the more care they needed. Since, on average, white patients incurred more costs, it was concluded they needed more care. Given the known factors of income inequality amongst minority groups in America, this data was already biased towards the wealthier groups. In addition, the dataset used to train the algorithm was not balanced — with white patients’ documents outnumbering those of black patients by a ratio of 7:1. This resulted in clear-cut healthcare discrimination.

Bias in America’s criminal justice system

Data in the criminal justice system has been gathered and used for making decisions for nearly 100 years. So it’s no surprise that an AI would be used in this sphere to assist judges in making consistent and just sentencing decisions. A criminal risk assessment algorithm was used to predict the likelihood of a defendant becoming a recidivist. The model predicted that there were twice as many false positives for recidivism in black offenders and twice as many false negatives in white offenders. This means that the algorithm would predict (and therefore likely to influence the judges’ decision) that the person before them are twice as likely to re-offend if they were black than if they were white. The flip-side of this coin is that the white offenders that are likely to re-offend were twice as likely to be marked as ‘low risk’ and receive lighter sentencing as their black counterparts.

These algorithms use statistics to find patterns and correlations in data. But correlation ≠ causation. When the algorithm is trained on historical data, especially if this data is loaded with stereotypical bias, what gets designed is a stereotype reinforcement machine that replicates errors of the past.

Gender bias in recruitment

In 2016 LinkedIn got hot under the collar as it was discovered to be suggesting male variations of female names in search queries, but not vice versa. For example, “Stephanie” would bring up a prompt asking if users meant “Stephen”, but queries for “Stephen” did not suggest “Stephanie”. The company said this was the result of an analysis of users’ interactions with the site.

Bias in biometric data sets

Rather embarrassing for Nikon back in 2010, Nikon’s cameras used image-recognition algorithms biased towards (read that as “trained on”) Caucasian faces consistently asked Asian users if they were blinking. Nikon was not the only giant who found themselves red-faces. A few years later, in 2015, Google received complaints about Google Photos image-recognition algorithm when users with darker skin tones were being identified as gorillas.

Bias in artistic expressions

AI-based art generation is programmed in a number of apps that let you repaint pictures in styles of the great masters to reproducing wood engravings. In an obvious example of bias, researchers found flaws in an app called “Abacus”. Young men with long hairstyles were mistaken for women in paintings by Raphael and Piero di Cosimo. Researchers who called out the bias decisively believed that the output was influenced by data analysts’ preferences and usage of Renaissance paintings of primarily white, female subjects as training data. (And if you want to explore more on AI in art, we’ve covered it here.)

Bias and Social Media Platforms

There are several examples of AI bias we see in today’s social media platforms. Data from tech platforms is used to train machine learning systems, so biases lead to machine learning models’ prejudice.

In 2019 Facebook permitted advertisers to match ads according to race, religion and gender intentionally. For example, women were displayed employment ads for nursing roles or secretarial jobs. On the other hand, men were being steered in the direction of job ads for janitors and taxi drivers. Particularly, men from minority backgrounds were shown these. This is a bias on more than one level. Since this was brought to light, Facebook doesn’t permit employers to specify gender, age or race priming in its ads anymore.

Bias Fixes

I won’t offer you a silver bullet. If I had it, I’d probably fix this problem myself. But what I would like to share is some ideas that emerged in my research, some of them are more obvious than others.

Ensure your follow the 4V’s of data. Volume & Variety — ensure you have a large enough sample size the brings with it enough variety, from a variety of sources and in a variety of formats. Volume and Variety ensure you represent your population as close to the real picture as you’re able. Velocity & Veracity — These refer to both data quality and availability. Velocity is the measure of how fast the data is coming in, whereas data veracity represents data accuracy and precision, informing you to what degree it can be trusted.

The efficacy of data should be controlled by an official authority, someone who has skin in the game. Social responsibility rests with companies as well as with individuals. Regulations must be in place to see that machine learning processes are ethically managed. For instance, internal compliance teams may need to be tasked to oversee an audit of each developed algorithm.

Ensure your data is current and timely. Training your algorithm on the reality of 70s will not help you solve the problems of today. Data should be developed with the future outcome in mind, and if it must challenge the status quo, then that needs to be given enough thought. It can be expected that some biases will creep into data that is randomly sampled. Bias is a fact of life. Nonetheless, there is a need to proactively ensure that the data used to train algorithms of tomorrow represents people equally and without prejudice.

Have a strategy to check for your biases within the team. If a team working on training the algorithm comes from a homogenous background, have different team assess your training data and outputs, have different people contribute their views to ensure your blindspots are checked.

Any AI tool that is put into production needs to be continuously monitored to ensure it is continuously bias-free, fair and representative.

In conclusion

Garbage in, garbage out

In isolation, AI is not inherently biased or evil. But AI is built by people, and people, as well as the data they use, can be implicitly or explicitly biased. Responsibility is, therefore, with the humans, not the machines.

Machine learning — a sub-area of artificial intelligence — is dependent on the objectivity, quality and quantity of training data set used to teach it, and validation data set used to validate or, more importantly, invalidate the model. Erroneous, incomplete or inadequate data will invariably lead to inaccurate predictions.

There is no doubt that the people responsible for creating these and other algorithms that unintentionally discriminated against some groups of people, were made in good faith and with good intentions. But these are just a few examples that highlight just how badly we need a regulatory body and independent experts to police the algorithm-driven future. There needs to be adequate training on bias and ethics for people responsible for designing these algorithms, to ensure that these algorithms are appropriate and minimise the harm they can cause to the society at large.

[lobautumny]

Ultimately, once again, the name of the game with the AI art movement is the commodification of art, whether people within said movement realize that or not. The idea that AI "democratizes art" and that AI art is just as valid as real art is borne from the mentality that the only thing that matters in art is the end product and how "good" it is based, essentially, on how mass-marketable it hypothetically is, how valuable it is in a capitalist sense.

And like, yes, this mentality is also an issue within a lot of people who criticize the AI art movement and leads to a lot of weak/incoherent/otherwise uncompelling arguments.

This toy thinks that this view of art is extremely gross and shallow. If you start actually engaging with art and thinking about it on a deeper level and really appreciating it for what it is, you are eventually going to arrive at a fundamental conclusion: Art is not just about what is being depicted. It is also about how it is depicted, and why it is depicted in the way it is.

Naturally, the more you involve AI in the creation of art, the less decisions you're making about the art. You have very little control over the finer details of how things are depicted, only the broad strokes of what is depicted, and you must settle for "good enough."

This isn't to say that AI can never be used in an artistically valid or interesting way, of course, but rather that the use of AI needs to be understood as an intentional decision by the author, and that the reason for the use of AI (as well as the nature of the AI tool being used, but that's its own can of worms and for the sake of this argument, this toy will just assume unquestionably ethical software) is the important part to look at.

While the use of AI is capable of being a very interesting decision, it is often a very boring one (particularly when used as the sole tool to make something), the motivation usually being either "this is a low-effort way to make money" or "this is a low-effort way to make images that look pretty and appeal to conventional standards of artistic beauty" because once again, most people view art as a commodity where the only thing that matters is the end result and how "valuable" it is.

This toy also feels like people may see its argument here and assume it is trying to make the claim that "looking good" is not a factor to how much it values art at all, which is obviously false. Rather, its definition of looking good comes not from the aforementioned signifiers of technical skill, but rather from the decisions the artist makes in their style.

Realism is impressive and all, but it isn't interesting. Same goes for that really popular, like, "trending on ArtStation" style that AI image generation has gone all-in on. When this toy looks at a piece of art, it wants to see the artist's unique voice, what inspires them, what they value and find beautiful and interesting. And it's not like more realistic artstyles can't convey these things, but rather that when someone uses these styles, conveying such things needs to be done entirely with very intentional decisions with things like composition and framing, or writing/sound design/game mechanics/etc., depending on your chosen medium, and once again, the more you involve AI within the process of creating art, the less intentional it becomes.

Ultimately, as far as this toy is concerned, valuable art is created when someone executes interesting ideas in an interesting way, and this doesn't require the end product to reach some kind of "objective quality" threshold. Those "quality" signifiers are nice and all, but it's just a garnish, not the actual substance of the art.

People get so hung up on making something "good" that they forget to ask the much more important question of whether what they're making is actually interesting, and it's depressing to watch happen.

ultimately i think that "you can make art it came free with your humanity" as a rejoinder to "AI is democratizing art!" is very silly, right, it's purposefully talking past what the AI people are saying. the people who say "AI is democratizing art" didn't, like, not know that babies can finger paint if theywant. they mean something very specific by "art" in that sentence, they don't mean "any creative endeavor", they (very clearly) mean "visual art with several attributes that are considered prestigious markers of technical proficiency"

and of course i think that valorizing those markers in that way does in fact indicate what i think is a narrow and tedious view of art. but the puropsefully-missing-the-point answer i think also implicitly valorizes those markers by doing this clumsy rhetorical sleight-of-hand to avoid ceding them and diluting their perceived value! they're just two sides of the same coin.

ultimately "AI means a lot of traditional visual indicators of technical proficiency in digital art no longer really hold water as such because they can be achieved effortlessly by amateurs with a midjourney account" is the uncomplicatedly true version of the "democratizing" claim, but saying that neither sells midjourney subscriptions nor protects the status of the indie artist as skilled professional and so none of the most people who are most vocal about generative AI ever say it.

[cumulohimbus]

My two-cents on AI-generated art as someone with a college degree in studio art, and as a library technician who frequently deals with matters of copyright:

No one-- not you, not me, not even someone considered a master-- can objectively define what it means for something to be "art". Everyone is going to view different things as art. There is no possible way to concretely say "this is art" and "this isn't art"; this is an argument that has spanned time immemorial. If someone says the AI images they generated are intended to be art, then that should be validated**. If someone says that they don't consider AI-generated media to be art, then that should be validated. If someone states AI-generated media objectively is or is not art, well, they simply do not have the authority to decide that-- no one does!

**Whether or not something is intended to be art, does not negate that there are certain ethics surrounding art-making that are objectively crucial in each individual artist's reputation, and sometimes even beyond. If a piece of AI-generated media is used unethically (ex. made from stolen work and then sold for a profit), then (reasonable) negative consequences for those actions are also valid and necessary. What artists should be concerned about is "what are reasonable consequences for these circumstances?".

As someone who is wildly passionate about open access to things, I still think art theft is usually harmful (some exceptions apply). And, much like art, what constitutes as theft and what constitutes as fair use, is also a very blurry and subjective topic. There is a great example of this that I learned about in college of a photographer (I don't remember their name) who had/had access to the original photographs of another, now-deceased photographer. They took photos of this other photographer's photos, printed them, and put them in a gallery with their original titles but included the word "revisited" or something similar, and claimed them as original. These new photographs were technically the work of this newer photographer, but the content of their photos were entirely the work of someone else. I don't remember what resulted from any controversy that might have followed this situation.

There are plenty of things besides copyright that have an impact on an artist's reputation and sometimes these extend into the art world as a whole. Certain works have historically, and will continue to cause the entire art community to lose support, funding, and sponsorship. Sometimes it's an issue of copyright, other times it's subject matter that's considered obscene or pornographic, other times still it's content that draws the ire of others for being seemingly effortless in creation, or absurd and meaningless in content. Do I think the banana nailed to the gallery wall is "art"? I can't say for sure. I have a lot of questions about it. I don't personally find it an anathema, but I'm sure there were/are plenty of people, both the artistically inclined and the non-artistically inclined, that hate it and think it makes a mockery of "art".

Almost everything I've been seeing lately is someone taking a stance for or vehemently against AI-generated media, and while I find the topic to be one of great significance, I do think it's being approached very divisively, which is unnecessary. Instead of having conversations about whether AI-generated media is "real" or "fake", "bad" or "good", etc., etc., I propose we instead start discussing things like:

"How do we use AI-generated media as an art tool ethically?"

"What things should we require AI-generation software/programmers/creators/users to be fully transparent about?"

"What rules can be put in place to ensure that the needs of those who don't want their work used to teach AI are met?"

"How do we make AI-generated media accessible to those who want to use it while ensuring that creators maintain the rights to their own work, both AI-generated and non-AI-generated?"

"What are reasonable consequences for those who unethically use/profit off of AI-generated media?"

I've seen posts cross my dash of people vilifying AI-generated media, and then a day or two later seen those same people reblogging AI-generated images they seemed to think were neat. Like it or not, AI-generated media is here now, and it's not going to disappear easily, if ever. I don't think it helps anyone to get upset at artists using or liking AI for art-making, and I think it's way too soon to brand all AI-generated media as inherently theft, even some of the things created using programs that pull from non-public domain images, but that's just my opinion. And, I also think that AI-generated media will inevitably, and unfortunately result in making art theft easier, especially while it is still in its beginning stages, when there isn't as much wide spread knowledge about what it does and how it works.

Like every other art medium, there are going to be different ways to use AI, and some of them will go against what is intended/accepted/ethical, like the example I gave of the photographers above. I think individual creators should be held accountable for how they use AI in their art-making instead of people instantly frothing at the mouth if someone happens to say "hey, I think AI-generated images are cool, they give me lots of inspiration" or "hey, I don't really like AI-generated images, it's not for me, and I don't want my work being used to teach AI."

[iam93percentstardust]

hey alle, so for the prompts i'd love some cute and funny winteriron with bucky wanting to impress tony with his cooking, but tony being a very picky eater. which leads to a lot of frustration on bucky's side, and obliviousness on what is even going on from tony's. if you feel like it. thank you! <3

Here it is! The long-awaited His Girl FRIDAY remix! I hope you love this as much as I do!

As always, everything I write is on ao3 too

~

The first time Bucky left food in Tony’s workshop and come back to find it untouched, he’d figured it was a fluke. Tony had probably been caught up in a zone—like Steve had warned him about when Bucky had decided he was going to woo Tony with food—and hadn’t noticed the food was even there.

The second time, he made sure to catch Tony’s attention as he was dropping off the plate—lasagna because Natalia had said Tony’s mother was Italian and Bucky made a pretty decent lasagna if he did say so. Tony had glanced at him and then at the plate before turning away with a slightly bewildered frown. Bucky had taken the frown to mean that no one else had ever bothered before to take care of Tony, which was a fact that had just about broken his heart, and left the plate there. He’d gone back later that night to find the lasagna untouched. That had been a little harder to explain away, but he’d eventually decided that maybe Tony was one of those food snobs who only liked Italian food made by actual Italians.

The third time he made oatmeal with a little bit of honey and cream, perfect for someone with as much of a sweet tooth as Tony had, and brought it into the workshop for Tony, who had spent the entire night working on new arrows for Clint.

“Tony?” he called softly, not wanting to startle him. Tony was uncomfortable enough with all the new people moving into the tower after everything with SHIELD and Hydra; being Hydra’s pet assassin, he didn’t want to make it worse by sneaking up on him. “I brought you some breakfast.”

Tony popped up from underneath a table, visibly brightening. “Oh good,” he said cheerfully, making grabby hands at the bowl. “I was just starting to get hungry.” His hair was mussed, two perfect rings of black smeared around his eyes, likely where the goggles currently perched on top of his head had been resting earlier.

Bucky smiled at the adorable display and held out the bowl. Tony eagerly grabbed it, only to blink at it as soon as he saw what was in it.

“Oatmeal?” he asked delicately.

“I thought you’d appreciate having something a little more delicate after not eating for a while,” Bucky explained.

“…Oh.” After another awkward moment, Tony said carefully, “Thanks.”

Satisfied, Bucky left him to his work. This time—this time—Tony would eat it all and then he’d see what an amazing cook Bucky was and how he would absolutely be able to provide for Tony and then he’d swoon into Bucky’s arms and demand that Bucky take him right there.

Okay maybe not right there—the workshop didn’t seem like the best location for amorous activities—but that was why they called it a fantasy, right?

Too bad Tony punctured that fantasy like a balloon.

Bucky went back downstairs long to pick up the bowl after Tony had come up to the common areas, yawning widely and telling everyone he was heading to bed for the next twenty-four hours so don’t bother him unless New York was on fire. It had been a bit of a disappointment that he’d just nodded at Bucky without saying anything about the breakfast or about his everlasting feelings for him, but not nearly as much of a disappointment to walk into the workshop to find the bowl as untouched as all the other meals he’d so painstakingly prepared.

~

“I don’t get it,” he whined to Sam later that day. “I’m a good cook.”

Sam gave him an unimpressed look. “Are you sure? It’s been, what, seventy years since the last time you made anything. Maybe you’re not as good as you used to be.”

Bucky gasped dramatically. “You take that back!”

“No. You promised me you’d offer dating advice with Natasha and instead you’re sitting here mooning over Tony’s ass again so I’ll say whatever I like about your cooking.”

“Sorry,” he muttered guiltily. Sam was right. He had promised that. Or, rather, Steve had promised advice and Bucky had taken one look at him still pining over Peggy and feeling weird about his current interest being Peggy’s niece (a valid way to feel) and declared him hopeless before telling Sam that he would help him out instead. After all, he remembered Natalia from the years she’d spent training with him during her childhood. Who else would be more qualified to teach Sam how to woo her? Well, besides Clint obviously, but he was taking some personal time away from the team.

“She likes the ballet,” he said. “She wanted to be a ballerina when she was younger, said they were as graceful as any Widow only they didn’t have to kill.”

“And you’re sure that won’t just make her sad?” Sam asked dubiously.

Bucky glared at him. “I might not like you very much—” Sam rolled his eyes—"But I like Natalia a whole lot. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. Take her to the ballet and take Steve and Sharon while you’re at it. A double date will help her feel less trapped and maybe Steve will stop moping and ask Sharon out.”

“It’s a little weird, you know.”

“Sure, but he kissed Peggy once and it’s not like he’s ever gonna go back to the war and live out the rest of his time there, so he might as well move on.”

Sam laughed. “Guess that’s true.” He sighed, smile fading away. “I don’t know why Tony’s ignoring your meals. Sorry about that though. It sucks.”

“If I may,” JARVIS cut in. Both of them jumped, though Bucky would deny to his dying day that he yelped. Sam, on the other hand, shrieked like a kid and Bucky reminded himself to go back and access the audio footage so he would have blackmail.

“Sorry, JARVIS,” he apologized. “Keep forgetting you’re up there. Didn’t exactly have AI back during the war.”

“Or even in other houses,” Sam added.

“My apologies,” JARVIS said, and he’ll be damned if JARVIS didn’t sound extremely apologetic. It was incredible, really, how much life Tony imbued in his creations. “I only wanted to offer my advice about Sergeant Barnes’ attempts at wooing Sir.”

“Oh yeah?” Bucky asked. “Go right ahead. Can’t be any worse than any of the other advice I’ve gotten.” Seriously, Clint had even suggested truth serum, like that wasn’t the worst idea ever suggested.

“Sir is an extremely picky eater,” JARVIS explained. “He does not enjoy cooked tomatoes, ricotta cheese, or the texture of oatmeal.”

…All of which had been in at least one of the meals he’d prepared for Tony.

“Fuck.”

JARVIS wryly said, “Indeed.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

“You requested that I remain inactive on your floor while you were recovering. But you’re in Sergeant Wilson’s quarters at the moment so I may share my expertise.”

He had said that, hadn’t he? It had been in the early days when he was still having trouble remembering what he’d said moments earlier, but he had a vague recollection of being overwhelmed by the idea of constant monitoring and asking if JARVIS could be turned off.

“Wow, way to go, Barnes,” Sam commented, hiding a grin behind his hand.

“Fuck,” he said again, more emphatically. “Best tool at my disposal and I’m not even using it. JARVIS, I bet you could tell me all sorts of things about Tony.”

He got the impression that if the AI could sniff, he would have. “I would not dare to air Sir’s ‘dirty laundry’ so to speak.”

“No, no,” Bucky said, waving his metal hand. The hand made a concerning grinding sound and he frowned. That wasn’t supposed to happen. He’d probably need to ask someone to take a look at it. Sam was capable of performing basic maintenance, and Bucky trusted him not to sabotage the arm, but anything worse and he’d have to go ask Tony about it.

“Not what I meant,” he continued. “Just that you could tell me what Tony likes and doesn’t like. Uh, how do I turn you back on in my floor?”

“Your request is sufficient,” JARVIS said.

“Great. I’ll meet you up there in a bit. We’re gonna make something so incredible Tony will have to fall in love with me.”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Sam said, kicking his feet up onto the newly vacated spot on the couch now that Bucky was standing. “I’m going to see if I can find reasonably priced tickets to the ballet.”

Bucky blinked. “I think you’re gonna have worse luck than me.”

Sam threw a shoe at him.

~

On JARVIS’ advice, he baked blueberry muffins because those were apparently Tony’s favorite fruit. Bucky didn’t really understand it. Frankly, he thought blueberries were almost as bad as bananas—nasty, taste-changing fruit that they were—but if Tony loved them, then he would be willing to have them in his kitchen for as long as it took to bake the muffins. Fortunately, he was just as good a baker as he was a cook, so it was a breeze to whip up a delicious batch that had him grateful he couldn’t get salmonella from the mix.

Unfortunately, Tony hated the muffins. Or that’s what Bucky gathered when he went to pick the plate up, hoping that it would be empty for the first time, and found it just as untouched as everything else had been.

“What the fuck, JARVIS?” he complained. “You said he liked blueberries.”

“I don’t know, Sergeant Barnes,” JARVIS said, sounding as baffled as Bucky felt. “Sir has always appreciated them.”

That, Bucky reflected later that night, was possibly to be expected. For all that JARVIS had the inhuman ability to remember literally everything he’d ever seen or heard, he was still just a program. He couldn’t necessarily extrapolate about preferences or tastes. For all either of them knew, Tony did like blueberries but didn’t like muffins or something. It didn’t really explain why JARVIS knew that Tony didn’t like cooked tomatoes, but maybe that could be explained by Tony mentioning it out loud and the other stuff, JARVIS had had to figure out on his own.

He sat up in bed, thinking about it. Maybe that was it: Tony didn’t like muffins. But there had to be other recipes out there that used blueberries that Tony would like. In fact, he was pretty sure he’d come across a blueberry cupcake with brown butter frosting recipe earlier that day. And Bucky didn’t know anyone who could say no to his brown butter. He was incredible at it, and that was being modest. Just the other day, Thor had declared the brown butter sauce he’d made for their chicken to be worthy of an Asgardian feast. Thor was a god. He probably knew things like that.

“JARVIS, you up?” he asked into the dark room.

“Always, Sergeant Barnes.”

“You don’t gotta keep callin’ me that. Bucky’s my name. I’d rather answer to that.”

“Very well, Bucky.”

“Could you pull up some other recipes with blueberries in the flavor profile please? Filter out anything that has something Tony doesn’t like and recipes similar enough to each other that they could be repeats, uh, let’s say anything with a higher than 85% similarity.”

When JARVIS was finished compiling his list, there was a lot less than what Bucky had hoped for, but it was still something he could work with. He looked through the list: cupcakes, pancakes, cookies, more than a few salads, something called a Panzanella. He starred the ones he thought would catch Tony’s interest the most, putting the others aside to possibly try later down the road. Content with his plan, he laid back down, falling asleep within seconds of his head hitting the pillow.

~

None of it worked. Despite his supposed love for blueberries, Tony continued to turn away everything Bucky made for him. So he branched out, trying other foods that JARVIS said Tony was fond of. Nothing came back with more than a couple bites taken out of it and Tony had taken to giving him worried looks every time he appeared at the workshop door with another plate. Bucky was starting to lose hope that he was ever going to woo Tony with food and that was… not great.

Traditional dates were pretty close to impossible. Despite his rapid recovery in the tower, going outside was still too frightening with the crowds of New York, the inability to pick out threats around him, and the lack of sightlines all driving Bucky back inside and to the highest floors of the tower where he could look out over everything.

And as for anything else, well, Bucky was an ex-brainwashed assassin with no money to his name and only half the social skills he used to have (Sam said he had more than he thought but arguing with Sam wasn’t like trying to get someone to like him). He didn’t have much else to offer other than making food and giving Tony a project to work on. The first wasn’t going well and the second made Bucky feel too much like he was taking advantage of Tony to use more than once or twice.

Disheartened, he made his way up to Natalia’s floor to ask her for advice. She and Tony got along almost as well as she got along with Clint. Maybe she would have insights that JARVIS wasn’t able to offer. As he neared her room, though, he realized that she wasn’t alone.

“—to kill me,” someone—Tony, Bucky realized almost immediately—was saying. He stiffened. Who was trying to kill Tony? Bucky would kill them first! Was murder a good way to woo Tony?

“котенок,” Natalia said patiently, “he’s not trying to kill you.”

“You don’t know that!” Tony exclaimed wildly. He sounded like he was pacing. “He could be! He keeps bringing me things everyone knows I won’t eat.”

And now Natalia sounded amused as she said, “Antoshka, I don’t think he’d be trying to feed you if he wanted to kill you. It’s more likely an honest mistake.”

“It could be poison.”

“It’s not poison.”

“You don’t know that. You haven’t tried any of it.”

“It’s not poison because that’s more my style than it is James’.”

Oh, they were talking about him. Tony thought Bucky was trying to kill him. “Fuck,” he said mournfully, leaning up against the wall. No wonder Tony wouldn’t touch any of the food he made for him.

“Well, I don’t see why else he’s bringing me food!” Tony said.

“Really? Not a single reason?”

“It’s food I won’t eat! He clearly doesn’t like me or he’d be bringing me actual food I like.”

“Does he know why you won’t eat it?”

“No, but why does that matter?”

“Tony, darling, have you ever once informed him that you have a sensory processing disorder and you won’t eat a lot of cooked foods because you can’t handle the texture?”

Bucky straightened back up. Tony has a what? He’d never even heard of that before. Why didn’t JARVIS say something? He thought back to when he’d been building the list of blueberry foods and how he’d wondered if JARVIS didn’t necessarily know about the pattern for Tony’s likes and dislikes in his food. Maybe JARVIS hadn’t known about Tony’s disorder, so he hadn’t known to tell Bucky about it. That made the most amount of sense to him though he couldn’t imagine why Tony had never told his AI about his disorder.

“Why would I tell him that?” Tony asks, sounding confused.

He could just picture Natalia shaking her head as she said, “Oh, Antoshka.”

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Armed with his new knowledge, Bucky crept away from the door, already planning out new meals to bring to Tony.

~

That very night, he went downstairs with a bowl of salad. It had nuts to provide a small amount of protein, though he’d also put some baked chicken in a Tupperware as well, in case that was something Tony could eat. Tony’s music was playing at a manageable volume by the time he got to the workshop, likely because he was drafting plans for some sort of irrigation system, rather than any sort of consideration for Bucky.

Tony caught sight of him before he got the doors open. Bucky watched as his face fell for a moment before he plastered on a bright, fake smile. Hydra’s programming was still too ingrained in him to do anything as obvious as wince, but he still felt a twinge of shame. Why hadn’t he thought to ask Tony what he would like to eat instead of relying on his own preferences?

“Uh,” he said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. In his other hand, he held up the Tupperware with the salad bowl on top of it. “I brought you some dinner. It’s just a salad, but I included some baked chicken on the side if you want that. I hope it’s something you like.”

Tony blinked at him. “What?”

“I—okay, I’m just gonna come right out and say it. I overheard you and Natalia earlier. I didn’t know you couldn’t eat anything I was making for you. I wasn’t trying to poison you or anything, just thought you might like some food since you’re down here all the time. Sorry for, you know, eavesdropping and making you think I didn’t like you.”

A cautious smile spread across Tony’s face. “You could have asked JARVIS,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, I did, but I guess he didn’t know you don’t like cooked foods.”

“What?” Tony cocked his head to the side. “No, he should know that.” He spun around in his chair, waving the glowing blue drafts of the irrigation system aside in favor of pulling up JARVIS’ bright golden code. It was a beautiful display, and Bucky found himself moving closer, mesmerized by the sight. He had no idea JARVIS’ code was so complex.

“J, buddy, what happened to your code?” Tony murmured. He reached out a hand, groping for Bucky’s shirt to tug him closer. “Gimme food.”

“So you like salad?” Bucky asked, relieved that he’d finally found something.

“And baked chicken,” Tony added. “But it has to be baked. Otherwise, the texture’s too rubbery for me.”

“I can do that,” he promised. “Do you like breading or marinade with the baked chicken?”

“Marinade, yes. Breading, no.”

“Okay. I’ll remember that.”

Tony paused in tearing through JARVIS’ code to give him a small, genuine smile that made Bucky’s heart light up. He returned the smile, which grew bigger when Tony’s gaze darted down to his lips, snagging there as though caught by the sight. He knew he had a nice mouth; he’d been told that plenty of times back in the forties.

“I have another confession to make,” he said once Tony’s attention returned to the code.

“Uh-huh,” Tony said distractedly.

“I was—”

“There you are!” Tony exclaimed. “J, who made those changes to lines 894 through 1036 in your code?”

JARVIS immediately said, “The last time those lines were accessed was in 2008 by Obadiah Stane.”

Tony’s face fell. “Oh.”

It took Bucky a moment remember who Obadiah Stane was. He’d appeared in one of Bucky’s mission files as the Winter Soldier. Back during the nineties, following Tony’s parents deaths, Tony had been planning on shutting down SI’s weapons manufacturing division. Hydra, who’d been buying black market weapons from Stane for years by that time, had ordered the Winter Soldier to assassinate Tony to give Stane complete control of the company. But before he’d been able to complete his mission, Stane had convinced Tony to see “reason” and Bucky had been put back in cryo. That unfulfilled mission had been one of the reasons he’d been so hesitant to move into the tower before his programming had been completely removed. Steve had tried to push for the move anyway, but before either of them could successfully argue the point, Tony had put out a call to the world’s top experts on brainwashing and three whirlwind weeks later, Bucky’s mind was programming-free. And just like that, without even meeting the guy, Bucky had developed a crush on one Tony Stark.

“Sorry, doll,” he said, dropping a hand to Tony’s shoulder and squeezing it gently.

Tony sighed frustratedly. “Every time I think I’ve taken care of everything Obie fucked up, I find something else he’s done. He was probably hoping I’d starve to death or something without anyone making food to my exacting specifications, that asshole.”

“He sounds pretty terrible,” Bucky agreed.

“J, are you able to access the last backup on those lines to restore them?” Tony asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay, let’s get those fixed, and uh—”

“And we’ll go out for dinner,” Bucky interrupted.

“Huh?” Tony asked, turning to look at him.

“Seems I owe you an apology and I figure taking you out for dinner is a little nicer than a salad. ‘Sides, if I take you out, I’ll have a better understanding of what you like to eat.”

“Careful there, Buckaroo, or I’ll start thinking this is supposed to be a date.”

Bucky would probably never know what possessed him to firmly say, “Yeah, that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be.” He certainly hadn’t planned to. He really had been planning on their dinner being a way to figure out what Tony liked so he could make it himself and continue with his wooing process from there, hopefully slowly easing Tony into believing that Bucky really did like him and wasn’t trying to poison him.

“Sorry,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “That wasn’t supposed to come out like that.”

Tony stared at him, then abruptly said, “Did you mean it?”

“Mean what?”

“That this is supposed to be a date.”

He could deny it and go back to his original plan. He’d probably even be able to pull off a lie like that. But there was a hopeful look in Tony’s eyes that stopped him from denying anything.

“You didn’t even know that I liked you until five minutes ago,” he pointed out cautiously.

Tony scoffed. “What, like you’ve never liked someone who hated you.”

“Uh, no. I’ve never done that.”

“Really?”

“Never.”

“Huh.”

“Are you… are you saying that you do like me?” Bucky asked.

“Well, yeah. You never mind that half of my engineering babble goes over your head and you bring me food even if you didn’t know it wasn’t something I could eat and you’re really fucking gorgeous when you’ve showered and your hair isn’t falling in greasy clumps around your face.”

“Look who’s talking,” Bucky said amusedly, reaching out to run his fingers through Tony’s hair, matted down with machine oil. Even filthy, he could feel how soft it would be when it was clean. Tony leaned into his hand, humming happily.

“So is that a yes on this being a date, Bucky babe?” Tony asked. “Cause I’ll be honest, I’m not usually left hanging.”

“Yeah,” Bucky said, nodding. “It’s a date.”

Tony grinned and turned his head just enough to kiss the inside of Bucky’s wrist, making Bucky shiver. “Let me get cleaned up.”

“You want me to join you?”

Tony winked at him. “Next time, honey.”

[transgamerthoughts]

Idle Thoughts On Games During Pandemic Times

I’m in an interesting position as I write this. Since I’ve written here I have moved out of journalism and towards the dev side of games. Good news! I’m happier! Bad news! It can feel weird to have public opinions.  That said, I miss writing and I’ve had some thoughts about games I’ve played (mostly major titles) that I want to share. I’m keeping them loose and I hope folks will allow me the indulgence. Here we are!

Ghost of Tsushima 

I’ve been surprised by how playable Ghost of Tsushima is. Which is to say that the world is very enjoyable to explore. There’s something about ambling between marker to marker, or stumbling upon a few hidden items, that fundamentally works. I’ve seen some folks imply that this is simply the result of overproduced open-world design philosophies. A sort of focus-tested gaming drug-world that it’s easy to slide into. There’s probably some truth to that, and there’s a discussion to be had about the dangers of pastoralism, but I think that the open-world itself is designed well. Sure, there’s collectables and outposts to conquer and all the things you would expect but those are not the appeal. In fact, in many cases, engaging with those things feels worse than wandering. In the early game particularly, combat is not enjoyable. But there’s a sensibility to the world, a sort of stubborn antiquatedness that calls back to an open-world structure—one where space existed for its own sake—that we don’t see in as many games now. That’s curious to me because Tsushima has been criticized for feeling old-fashioned but I think this approach to world design isn’t so far removed from Breath of the Wild. It is certain littered with more *stuff* that you can stumble on but despite the fact that I can set markers or unlock bonuses that make these things easier to find, I don’t feel an overwhelming push to engage with them.

That good because combat is a decidedly mixed affair. I’m not eager to slide into difficulty discussions but if Tsushima’s closest cousin is Assassin’s Creed, it’s no surprise that I’ve instantly found the game more playable at a lower difficulty setting. If the goal is to emulate film—and there can be discussion about how well that’s actually done; black and white filters don’t suffice to make something comparable to Kurosawa—then Tsushima’s normally cluttered and gamey combat rubs against that impulse. It’s a game with sub-weapons, ninja-like tools, multiple stances for breaking the guards of certain enemies, and a wealth of skill trees. The beauty of the action (which you can frame at the push of a button thanks to a respectable photo mode) can get lost in the shuffle.  Lowering the difficulty has led to speedier and more dramatic encounters where a few sword strokes can slay a handful of men. It’s a curious thing, as I tend to play games on higher difficulties, but this is one of the few times where I felt it might have served a game better to streamline combat down to the most basic of interactions. Tsushima’s combat can get very busy and I did not enjoy tackling challenges or outpost conquest until I progressed to unlock more abilities while also lowering the difficulty. Even then, those are the moments I care for the least.

I feel unable to comment on critical discussions about Tsushima’s story and politics but as an observer to the input of Japanese-American writers and Japanese devs/players, one thing that’s struck me is how the broader gamer culture has reacted to the dialogue. There have been moments where gamers have minimized the voices of some critics with the exultations of certain Japanese writers, which eliminates valid concerns from people who have every right to look close at a game connected to their heritage. The lens through which Tsushima was made was at the end of the day a Western one and that’s worth discussing. I am grateful for the writing of critics like Kazuma Hashimoto at Polygon that dig into these tensions.  I will say that I feel like Tsushima sometimes wants to do the proper thematic thing where it will say that entrenched nobility and cultural notions of honor can be inherently damaging but because that’s mostly expressed, at least in the main plot, as “the outside invaders are besting us because of our traditions” it falls flat. Tsushima works best in side quests where the stakes are smaller. It’s thematic aspirations are best when things are personal and on a more humble scale. I like the version of Tsushima I get to play in those moments more than I like the grand gestures towards honor or combat challenges. Which is to say I mostly want Way of the Samurai with multiple zones and a more connective tissue. Tsushima teases that possibility without ever really getting there. In those teasing moment, the game makes a lot more sense to me.

I’ve enjoyed myself and intend to finish soon. That enjoyment comes with a lingering question: what other game could this have been? It’s inspired an image in my mind of a different sort of open-world ronin game where there is a smatter of villages with sub-stories and perhaps the smallest A-plot. A game with Mongol invaders, dramatic family conflict, or shogunate decrees.  Tsushima has capture my attention but I do wonder more about what might have been that what is right in front of my eyes.

The Last of Us: Part II

I have struggled with this game in ways I did not know were possible. When I play it, I find myself taken in by the raw skill of the actors. There’s a mood and tone I enjoy, a somber twinge to the infected escapades that lingers from the first game. I like The Last of Us. I think there’s small moments of character interaction that express core things about the cast’s shifting relationships. James Howell embarked on a video essay series about this very thing and while it will remain unfinished perhaps forever, I suggest engaging with it. Suffice it to say, the changing language of Joel and Ellie’s mechanical interactions does a lot to underscore the narrative. I think players often think of the The Last of Us in terms of pure narrative but these smaller considerations reveal a game with a very natural approach to story telling. The Last of Us 2 has these moments and often hides them within combat. When multiple factions of humans and infected interact, their clash and the behavior of the AI tells something fundamental about the game world. 

The Last of Us: Part II is a cynical game with an unflattering view of humanity, a view that (in spite of Joel’s selfishness in the first game’s climax) feels somewhat at odds with what came before. It is, in fact, possibly the most cynical game I’ve ever played. That’s hard to talk about but it’s best expressed in the various dying barks of enemies or moments where the player is forced into violent, dehumanizing slaughter. In the former case, it feels like a magic trick. The first time you hear someone cry out their dog’s name, it can be tragic. The next five times you hear it, it feels forced. Like any trick, it’s never as powerful as the first time. You might argue that’s the point: that as you follow Ellie’s journey, the player also stripes enemies of their humanity and agency but the player’s culpability is secondary to the writer’s in some ways.

Players did not contrive to have Ellie rob Nora, one of the game’s major black characters, of her fundamental dignity before murdering her. Nor are players the ones who shove a knife into Mel’s pregnant stomach. Those are scenarios crafted by designers and writers, and much like how retroactively guilting the player for killing a doctor in the first game (An unavoidable action, mind you! Joel will do this regardless of what the player wants.) feels manipulative, calling a player’s culpability into question as Ellie fails to act like any sort of reasonable human being also rings hollow. There is a perpetual push and pull between players and controllable actors, best expressed in the verbs that we are allowed to perform. It is telling the more often than not, Ellie’s most egregious acts of violence happen outside of the player’s control. 

And yet there are moments where I buy deeply into the story. Notably, it happens when Abby is on screen more than Ellie. (Tangent: Abby has more interesting gameplay scenarios that lean closer to horror game vibes like what you’d find in The Evil Within. TLOU is way more interesting working in that mode than HUMAN vs. HUMAN drama.) Abby is also allowed more growth and agency than the script ever gives Ellie. At the core of this is Abby’s relationship with Lev. It is here that I’ve had my largest struggle with the game. 

Discussion about Lev has often bowled over transgender commentators.  For many people, Lev resonates regardless of anything the plot says about his gender. Lev captures people’s attention because Lev is eminently likable. That’s a testament to Naughty Dog’s writing. Still, there is a sense that Lev’s wider resonance has left some folks (particularly queer folks) without as much space to talk among themselves and hash out sentiments without the discussion getting overpowered. This is complicated by an environment where creators seem more empowered to directly speak to criticisms.

Which is to say that as a trans critic (perhaps ex-critic) watching from the sidelines, I was very hurt and dismayed to watch people who do not share in the transgender experience comment quickly about Lev. And while the discussions about Lev are varied—the trans community, like any community, is not a monolith—it’s sometimes felt like trans voices were made the quietest when talking about this character.

Many things are true about art at the same time. Lev can act, as is the case for some players, as a token figure whose struggles are appropriated and turned into spice adding flavor to the apocalypse.  Spice that allows us to be seen as we are usually seen: in pain and defined by that pain, and which displays that pain voyueristically for cis players. Lev can also be a kind-hearted and respectable hero, and ray of light within a dark story. Neither feeling is in competition. Some will find strength and inspiration in the character, others will see the machinations of corporate powers and award-chasing writers. Both can be true.

Enthusiastic fans and players are quick—not in a malicious sense; merely in their excitement—to defend the things they enjoy. If they found a thing good it stands to reason the thing must be good. They empathized and that is taken as proof that a thing is good irrespective of other concerns. This is a kind impulse but one that robs people of their concerns, or at the very least close off conversations quickly. I cannot properly diagnose this except to suggest that there’s a growing force of cultural positivism that’s encircled games of a certain scale. One which shuts down a lot of valuable engagement. The bigness of the moment, of the object, demands the moment be the Best Possible Moment For Games regardless of the qualities of the object itself. That’s worrisome to me.

The Last of Us: Part II has become nearly impossible to talk about even now because we are dealing with an object so large as to have a gravity that weighs everything down. A game with sublime moments that intoxicate deeply but one where voices of critique or caution are buried away largely because of the potency of that intoxication. I deeply wish that wasn’t the case because the breadth of discussions that might’ve happened would have been really valuable.

Aim Lab

I’ve gotten really into Valorant. It’s scratched an itch for a type of multiplayer shooter that I haven’t had scratched in a long time. My experience with the game itself has been good but the surrounding experience has been decidedly mixed. Suffice it to say I’m mostly living the solo-queue life and it’s a miserable existence even with the occasional highs. Yet, there’s a mechanical crunchiness to Valorant that deeply compels me and I’ve enough competitive drive that (in spite of the fact that the most of beloved social aspects of the game seem generally out of reach for me) I’ve really devoted myself to improving as player. Enter Aim Lab. It’s a totally free aim trainer that anyone can download off Steam. It has a variety of drills and exercises that can be used to improve a variety of first-person shooter skills. In one case, you might be flicking from target to target with the express goal of training your aiming speed. In another you might need to look at a group of colored balls, which will then disappear with one of them changed. You’ll then need to shoot at the different one as quickly as possible. You earn a score for each drill, which is tracked and compared to global records and folded into a ranking system. I’ve placed in the “Ruby” range for my rank, which is mostly in the middle of the road. (It’s a weird rank above gold but I think before Plat?) Mechanically sound with sloppy spots. I’m able to identify these thanks to Aim Labs. For instance, I know that I am fast and relatively accurate but that tracking moving targets is a difficulty for me. I know that I am quicker at things on the right side of my screen but also that I’m thankfully able to read changes in the environment quickly. This might sounds like a dry and rote way to approach video games but Aim Labs’ suite of repeatable and trackable challenges means that it is very easy to trace gradual improvements.

As a result, what might have been dull work becomes something akin to going to the gym. I can feel the ways in which my control over a mouse have changed. I understand which muscles need more flexing. Importantly, for all my weakness I also know strengths. Playing Aim Labs—and yes, this is play—becomes a semi-automatic and meditative experience like swinging at a batting cage. 

As a player (again, I hesitate to use the word critic anymore) who tends to engage with games on thematic levels even when it comes to mechanics, it’s been surprisingly gratifying. Part personal ritual, part labor. Bubblegum for the brain. Chew chew chew. Shoot shoot shoot. Take some notes and chew some more. Not much more to say except Aim Labs has surprised me with how enjoyable and relaxing it can be.

Necrobarista

Necrobarista was not what I expected. That’s because I started playing it with what felt like a safe-assumption: it would be comparable to some of my favorite indie “drink” games like Va-11 Hall-A or Coffee Talk. It’s hard for me to break down those games and how their structure—insightful conversations punctuated by drink-mixing and the occasional memory puzzle or story choice—works for me. I know folks who have played those games and bounced off for entirely understandable reasons but I love them. They call to mind some of the personal experience I had as both someone who worked at a bar and coffee shop. In spite of their fantasy settings, they evoke a highly specific and idiosyncratic part of my brain. Necrobarista doesn’t quite do that because it is strictly a visual novel. Repetitive work such as drink making is entirely absence. As a result, I initially found Necrobarista harder to engage with. It lacked the percussive but comfortable rhythm I was craving in quarantine. 

That highly specific preferential quirk/personal need might place the game lower on my list then the other two (the game’s certainly in conversation with them to a degree; it’s got plenty of shout-outs and references that make it clear the designers know the ballpark they’re playing in) but it doesn’t mean it is a “lesser” game in terms of the world it is presenting or the character you’re watching. Necrobarista has, if nothing else, some of the most naturally flowing dialog I’ve experienced in a while. That is partly because I’ve been sampling so much AAA stuff, where the writing tends to eschew the evocative for clean, crisp (and corporate!) staccato, but even in comparison to other VNs or drink games, it finds some more integrated and interesting ways to handle lore dumps. That’s helped by the core conceit. The lead character Maddy Xiāo runs a coffee shop alongside her wise former boss Chay that just so happens to serve drinks to the recent deceased. That makes it really easy to introduce a character, as the plot soon does, fresh off the mortal coil and eager to learn about life after death. It’s a common writer’s trick to place a clueless character in a plot so world-building can happen but because the stakes are high—the freshly-deceased have only 24 hours before they pass into the afterlife—there’s an urgency in the explanations that feels warranted. I could probably spend a lot of time breaking down the ways in which Necrobarista successful builds the world around the player. From a well-framed scenario and properly placed characters (an inquisitive child-genius, for instance) to the ability to click highlighted words for snarky but never crass footnotes, you never want for necessary knowledge but also never feel like your hand is being held. You’re not digging for meaning or piecing together arcane lore concepts. You know what you need to know, it feels fun to learn it, and the characters all make sense. They’re also incredibly likable. Necrobarista’s largest strength isn’t that the details are handled well; it’s that the core cast is deeply relatable. That’s important because the story moves from coffee to magic and death within a clipped 4 hour playtime. Relationships are clear, motivations clearer, and while some of the standout story-telling pieces are in optionally readable side-chapters, the main story lifted up by how eminently fun it is to eavesdrop of these character’s lives. The only glaring exception is a Greek chorus of robots that seem out of place and overly-chatty. Necrobarista sometimes feels eager to impress structurally, and that’s no more clearer than when these fellas are on screen. The difficult thing about Necrobarista’s literary approach is that the pandemic’s completely shot my attention span. It took my two weeks of on and off play to finish what is a very short game. That said, given the enormity of some world events I found it edifying and cathartic to engage with a piece of media explicitly concerned with death and dying. It wasn’t what I thought and I kinda wish it had a bit more happening mechanically but I’m really happy for the time I spent with this one.

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

Shadowbringers and Final Fantasy XIV in general is a difficult thing talk about. Not because of the accumulated history of a long-running game and storyline but because my feelings are ultimately swayed by a host of personal and specific emotions. I am a social player on a social server. I’ve spent just as much time coming up with roleplaying plotline and casually taking in taverns as I have tackling difficult bosses. I have made dear friends through FFXIV and even more than that. Those relationships, their energy and gravity, mixed into everything like an errand paint drop. You can hardly see it in the mixture but it’s unavoidably there. For many, this is a game of heroes and anime plots. For me, it has been a doorway to some of the most fruitful, edifying, and occasional painful experiences of my life.  I say this because I want it understood that in spite of this sentiment, Final Fantasy XIV is a good game and Shadowbringers is easily one of the most confident pieces of video-game storytelling that I’ve ever experienced. Which isn’t to say it’s not sometimes trite or predictable. It’s not to suggest there is something groundbreaking here. For all of the craftsmanship, Shadowbringers often succeeds by embracing the conventional. It sticks to more well-worn plot structures, it simplified job gameplay and streamlined a variety of features whose strange and un-sanded bumps brought charm to the game. Yet, in the streamlining comes something more refined. Like running a soup through a fine mesh sieve to create something creamier and more rich. When you look at Shadowbringers high level plot: travel to the corners of the world to fight monsters, all while unraveling cosmic secrets.. it’s familiar. Even as the patches following the launch experience did, as all FFXIV patches do, focus on the fallout of the main story’s event, it kept to a strict content release pattern. If you’re digging for a revolutionary experience, Shadowbringers cannot offer it by virtue of structure. But what has been releases is foundational. The writing is of such quality and battle scenarios increasingly playful that everyone should be taking notes. A core component of Shadowbringers success is how deeply the story is concerned with genuinely exploring the richness of the scenario. It would be easy to craft a story about evil mages destroying the world. FFXIV’s done the more straightforward version of that at launch and it proved stiff. Instead, Shadowbringers’ has a deep concern with motivations and takes unprecedented time to explore the interior of the cast. This allows old characters to grow into bright new versions of themselves, and it has (two for two now!) turned villains into more than just monsters. The writing exhibits a delicious empathy for the world, and it takes time to give everyone a perspective. In MMOs, this is not always afforded. Characters act as quest-barkers and clumsy plot chess pieces. Shadowbringers strength rests in avoiding this in favor of clear stakes both personal and cosmic.  There’s plenty to be said for other aspects. Masayoshi Soken’s music remains an incredibly powerful trump card, and the latest patch (which concludes the Shadowbringers story and sets up for next expansion) shows an increased willingness to employ fight mechanics that trick and test players in new ways. The content is challenging and full of tiny subversive moments that actually rob players of power they’ve taken for granted over the course of hundreds of hours. In finding its stride, Final Fantasy XIV doesn’t just craft sweeping narrative moments, it better integrates those stakes into individual boss encounters. There’s a cohesiveness, an interlocking of parts where each piece (music, narrative, gameplay, et all) are in clear conversation with the other and often in conversation with not only other expansions but other games within the franchise. 

Recently, a piece dropped on Polygon with the title “Games need to return to black-and-white morality.” It was, if I can be honest, a poor title for the article and one which left a freelancer unduly exposed to harsh feedback. But there is a core kernel to the article. To quote the writer: “Watching our heroes stick to their convictions, even against insurmountable odds, ratchets up drama, rather than destroying it. The concept that good can ultimately triumph over evil is a timeless one, and stories that rally around this trope — around unadulterated hope — can help guide us through the year’s ceaseless onslaught of calamities.“ Shadowbringers’s conclusion brought this piece of writing to mind. I’m ironing pretty much all of that piece’s argumentation but the notion that games about heroes have great efficacy in times of uncertainty shouldn’t be a controversial one. The crux of my favorite game, Skies of Arcadia, is that heroism is hardly a choice at all. It is a compulsion, it is a duty that we all must accept when the moment comes. Shadowbringers is not quite as simple but it is ultimately a story about hero defeating the baddies, and I would be lying deeply to say that there wasn’t something incredibly, nearly word-defyingly beautiful about the feeling of hope I felt in its concluding moments. The sweeping power of epic fantasy and heroism holds true and, like a genuine panacea, held a curative power for my soul that was not just enjoyable once consumed but frankly necessary for my well-being.  I’ve no clean conclusion here (and I don’t have to! ha!) other than to say that Shadowbringers has consistently proven a delight in a sea of rocky games media. It is affirming, exciting, and empathetic in ways that I was not expecting. That, along with the friendships I’ve made while playing, have secured its place as one of my favorite video game experiences ever. From start to finish, it really was a delight. 

------------------ And that’s that! I was gonna write about Blaseball but I need to let my Blaseball feelings settle before even trying that. Anyway, if you read this.. uh thanks!

[screwsoda8]

Can you predict which mutual funds will do better than others?

Can you anticipate which mutual funds will do better than others?

It turns out you can. The number of financial investment items readily available for purchase increases every year. Large item choice might produce issues, both for the client and the consultant. At Junxure, we've decided to construct an algorithm to deal with that concern. What we sought We wanted to supply necessary help for advisors and customers, presuming that some mutual funds can bring organized returns in given market conditions. Depending upon a fund's method, approaches of management and item specifics, it may be a better fit for purchase today, or remain more promising for the conditions of tomorrow-- in a various environment. In this vein, we chose to check whether AI-based algorithm can discover the best mutual funds using affiliations hidden in item costs, macro indications, market indexes, FX rates and commodities. The twist was-- we did not try to translate these reliances however rather put them to work and see the real results in product ranking. How we did that We collected macro indications of significant worldwide economies (US, EU, China, Japan, LatAm, India), commodities prices, FX rates and significant indexes quotes. Then, we used cost history for over 4000 mutual funds traded on NASDAQ. Our goal was to create a ranking of the funds and figure out which ones would score the highest rate of return in the next quarter. To produce optimum environment for the algorithm, we required to prepare the information we had accumulated and run a lot of additional analyses (e.g. return and threat ratios, fund performance signs). The last thing to be done before the training begun was to effectively decrease data dimensions using Principal Part Analysis (PCA). What carried the most guarantee The most appealing results came from the ensemble machine discovering technique. It utilizes several discovering algorithms (lots best performing AI models in our case) to obtain a much better predictive performance. For the results measurement, we created a Top-Bottom Analysis. In the analyzed group, we created a ranking of mutual funds, arranged by the probability of achieving the greatest rate of return in the next quarter. Then, we moved 3 months in the future and examined whether we were right, specifically whether the leading 10% was significantly better than the bottom 10% from our ranking. To produce the most sensible environment, we measured our outcomes utilizing so called test data, which is a dataset which the algorithm has actually never ever "seen" prior to. It ensured that such outcomes can be obtainable in daily operations. In order to assess a mutual fund capability to outperform its peer groups, our design took various specifications into account: fund threat and previous efficiency in different market conditions, return persistence and repeatability, risk-adjusted efficiency ratios as well as methodical risk related to main market elements. The last one, in particular, is somewhat vague: information-driven market movements which are quite unforeseeable, human behavior which is uncertain, adaptive and sometimes repeatable, finally the basic financial laws that should discuss reliances between economic cycles and possession prices in a long term but not constantly do. We anticipated device learning to tell us more where the fact was-- comments Grzegorz Prosowicz, Consulting Director for Capital Markets at Advisor Engine. What the outcomes were The actual results for the test dataset surpassed our expectations. The very best results we have achieved were 78% in Top-Bottom Analysis. It means that in 4 out of 5 cases we can predict which funds would score a greater rate of return. Additionally, the difference in rate of return between bottom and leading funds totaled up to 2,99 percentage points quarterly (12,51 p.p. CAGR). In other words, advisor picking products for their customer from readily available item universe for one-year period, could rely on 12,51 percentage points better returns with the algorithm-- no matter how the markets perform. What's next? Think of having a service of that kind in your institution. Your consultants would lastly get a reliable assistance with choosing the ideal items and become more productive. Is the service going to reach a similar success in every country or scenarios? Is the service all set to launch as cloud API in your organization or get checked by you in kind of proof of concept? --------------------------------------------- Wealth management techniques in the digital age The service digitization procedure which might be observed for more than a dozen (if not more than twenty) years does not skirt the financial sector. Both business and banks providing investment advisory services place significance on innovative software targeted at assisting in the customers' wealth management. What should the wealth management service appear like in the digital improvement age and what strategies can be adopted by the institutions using them? Digital wealth management technique-- challenges Both the banks and business offering the wealth management service deal with a number of difficulties connected with the digital transformation. According to the "Swim or sink: Why Wealth Management Can't Afford to Miss the Digital Wave" report prepared by Advisor Engine, the wealth management service is presently one of the least sophisticated ones in terms of technology. age structure-- a high share of clients classified into HNWI and UHNWI (Ultra High Net Worth People) groups are seniors who do not demand any cutting edge services from banks or advisory companies and who depend on direct contacts with the advisors, aversion to developments-- the wealthiest clients think the validated wealth management methods must be used and it is needless to introduce new options, innovation limitations-- lots of banks keep using older software, the extension of which with brand-new functionalities is made complex and costly. Despite the challenges which need to be overcome by banks and advisory companies, the wealth management digital method might produce quantifiable advantages. The authors of the report by McKinsey advisory company called "Secret Trends in Digital Wealth Management-- and What to Do about Them" observe the clients having access to the software helping with wealth management report the 5 to 10 times higher satisfaction level than customers communicating with the consultants in a conventional way. The costs are not irrelevant for the banks and advisory companies. Utilizing the robo-advisory channel allows to lessen them. Thanks to the algorithms, it is possible to use prompt help to the consumers when making investment choices without significant expenses-- such advisory services are more affordable than the support supplied by a human, experienced advisor and work even in negative market conditions. Junxure Wealth Management software Wealth management digital methods The banks and advisory companies alike know that they can just get using the digital technology potential. Entities with a long market existence buy the innovative options more and more frequently. There are many examples: Perpetual is a company using the wealth management service with a more than 140 years' existence on the Australian market. It decided to make instantaneous insight into financial investment portfolios and reports delivered by means of the chosen social media offered to its consumers, Swiss UBS bank opened a robo-advisory channel for consumers with the wealth listed below 2 million pounds required to open a personal banking account, a Singapore branch of Citi offered their customers the chance to utilize a bank chatbot via Facebook. It offers details e.g. about balances and transactions on the savings account. Carrying out brand-new options suggests advantages not just for consumers (who may acquire a quick insight into their investment portfolio), but likewise for financial institutions. The strategic wealth management might be mostly automated. Some activities may be performed without the consultant's participation. What is more, the specialized software application makes it possible for to gather information which can be examined then to change the embraced wealth management strategies. Advisors having access to the tools assisting in some daily tasks gotten in touch with wealth management gain also more time for discovering clients' needs. According to the research study performed by the advisory business Ernst & Young, one of wealth management parts of particular value for wealthy customers is comprehending their financial objectives and offering a broad access to investment products and tools to them. Strategic wealth management-- how to get ahead of rivals? Lots of financial institutions and banks think about the wealth management digital technique to be the key to obtain competitive advantage and customers who do not wish to base exclusively on their instinct and knowledge when it comes to wealth management. To ensure the provided services correspond to the requirements of their recipients, the business and banks using the wealth management service must: 1. Look at CRM for financial advisors implemented software application from the clients' perspective It is of specific significance the client's frontend operation is user-friendly, allows to set investment goals, is geared up with a monetary preparation application and makes it possible for to interact with specialists and consultants. Multi-modular Junxure Wealth Management software provides a multi-channel client's frontend. Individuals using this service have access to info on various gadgets, consisting of tablets, pcs and smart devices. Customers might use both the assistance of consultants and location orders themselves by means of the robo-advisory channels. 2. Define the target group of clients Strategic wealth management is various for the affluent ones and for HNWI customers. The software ought to be adjusted to the needs of the target client group. The picked option needs to support building the relationship in between the advisor and the consumer. Those Junxure Wealth Management system allows to offer both full and simplified advisory services. What is more, the customers might transfer the orders to the advisors quickly or perform them themselves. Junxure Wealth Management provides likewise monetary and investment advisory services. Customers can be profiled and the consultant might carry out customized tactical wealth management for each of them. 3. Improve (expand) their offering The wealth management digital method is viewed from the perspective of benefits as it e.g. enables to focus on the consumer and their requirements more than in the past. Automating some activities helps with the whole advisory procedure. This, in turn, makes it possible for to expand the offer with brand-new financial investment items which may be of interest for a wider group of consumers. Utilizing Junxure Wealth Management, banks and advisory companies may perform different analyses, including the efficiency and danger ones, for their consumers. Thanks to the control and systematic reporting, the consumer may rely on comprehensive support and likewise execute the most profitable wealth management methods. What are the identifying functions of Junxure Wealth Management? Junxure Wealth Management option was designed to cater for the requirements of the wealth management clients and their consultants. This is a multi-modular wealth management system created for the private banking consumers. It supports the work of all staff members having contacts with the capital transferred by the clients and establishing wealth management strategies, i.e.: consultants-- they might generate a risk profile for every single client and make additional advisory choices based upon it, consisting of offering strategic wealth management, managers-- they take part in the investment process, managing the clients' financial investment portfolios, analysts-- they are responsible for preparing analyses based on the collected information and obtained financial outcomes. The system likewise supports the aftersales services of tremendous importance for more cooperation of the bank (or the advisory business) and the consumer. The customer may count on e.g. consistent insight into their financial investment portfolio and receive reports. They enable the investor to learn the results on various levels, including the classes of assets or currencies. The software application developed by Junxure is adapted likewise to the regulative requirements, consisting of e.g. MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Instruction) which imposes info responsibilities on banks and business using investment items. Thanks to that, the consumers get info about the danger connected with investing in chosen financial instruments and expenses they will incur in relation to utilizing the advisor's assistance.

[poojad123]

No-code tools have particularly started gaining a lot of traction since 2019. Many no-code platforms to choose from, whether you want to build an application or a website or just want a simple tool to manage data. With no code tools, the ability to build amazing applications no longer depends on high-priced developers and huge wait times.

 Long gone are the days when you wrote every single line of code manually, for building business IT Applications, digitizing processes or setting automations. That was slow, error-prone, complicated, and not worth the time investment, given the disruptive/continually evolving world we live in that strives for agile delivery.

 At first it might seem like a hyped term that your business doesn't really need. That is not true anymore. Today you get a new set of no-code tools almost every month. The no-code movement is booming with innovative applications and websites coming out more frequently than ever before.

 Whether these tools are being used to erect new businesses or startups or to automate enterprise workflows and connect disparate systems by customizations, you will want a tool that is designed specifically for your requirements. If you are building a data collection app, you will need a solution where teams can submit data, capture GPS location, images, and signatures on the go, even if they are offline. Next you would want to direct that information somewhere; maybe to a database, a spreadsheet, receive an alert, send out an email or sync with your CRM software.

 What is a No-Code Platform?

 A no-code development platform is one that uses a visual development environment to create apps using drag and drop and point and click methods to create applications.

 Business users without any prior coding experience/knowledge can use no-code platforms to create full-fledged applications. Professional developers can use no-code platforms to speed up their work.

 It might sound like a fancy, marketing gimmick right? What if you hit a ceiling with no-code? The truth is, the no-code revolution is here, no-code technology is here, and it is growing bigger every week!

 From providing better agility by cutting down on time spent to develop to reducing the money spent on talented, yet expensive developers, no-code platforms free the IT staff from bottlenecks, enable project heads and LoB leaders to innovate solutions without depending on tech support, and empower non-technical founders to have their business up and running faster than ever before.

 No-code development tools are hosted on world-class cloud services like Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services. With such big names hosting these services, you can expect enterprise grade security, regardless of the tools you choose to buy. So, in addition to high speed and agility, no-code platforms make for a secure environment to build apps without concerning the IT teams about keeping data confidential and secured.

 Reasons to choose No code platform for app development

 Empower Citizen Developers- One of the key reasons businesses are choosing a No-code platform is the lack of organisations IT skills or internal capabilities and the associated costs. Organizations with no in-house developers usually outsource application development which inturn is time consuming and usually involves hidden costs. With a no-code platform, businesses enable citizen developers to create software applications easily tailored to their needs without requiring extra resources; applications can be created by any user or citizen developer with a sound knowledge of business requirements and some technical skills.

 Easy Change Management- Business requirements are highly dynamic making it very difficult for developers to modify code to incorporate any changes. No-code platforms make it easier to make changes in apps or improve their functionality unlike traditional application development methods. No-code platforms help organizations to reduce their IT backlogs by optimizing the application development process. Users can quickly iterate, modify and test the prototypes in real time and can automate business processes to increase productivity and efficiency.

 Faster time-to-market- No-code platforms have the ability to develop and deploy business applications within a few minutes or a few hours. Compared to conventional ways of app development, no code considerably reduces application development time, and delivers apps faster. In traditional methods of app development, developers write code in some programming language to build an application. On the other hand no code platforms provide intuitive drag and drop builder to build or customize business applications.

  We have curated the best 5 no-code tools for you to evaluate and get more done in less time

  Quickbase

DronaHQ

Salesforce Lightning

Zoho Creator

Mendix

 Quickbase - one for the IT teams

 Targeted towards coders and developers, quickbase is a no-code platform focused on building databases used in business applications that reduces the use of manual spreadsheet/data collection work through automation. While it ranks among the best no-code builders to create apps without coding, Quickbase empowers [requires] the IT users with easy monitoring capabilities to keep a watch on the apps built on the platform for auditing and validation.

 As the platform is relatively a new entrant in the no-code space, it is still maturing towards a refined state, the learning curve is rather steep and there may be a few runs to the IT department. Nevertheless, the platform is highly flexible to build apps rapidly with easy point and click customizations.

DronaHQ - Build [production-grade] Business Apps at Rapid Speed || DronaHQ - all about building business applications at rapid speed

 DronaHQ is a robust no-code platform to build custom business applications at speed. With a 12 year legacy of enterprise mobility solutions, DronaHQ is a secure platform for business developers, citizen developers and professional developers to build, deploy and manage custom applications.

 In addition to a cloud-based drag and drop builder, the platform comes with a spreadsheet-like database to give business developers an easy-to-interact-with tool to build their apps. Customers say the platform is ideal for a fast time-to-market and then scaling the app as per changing requirements or adding additional features and capabilities.

 Salesforce Lightning- The future of Sales and CRM

 Salesforce Lightning provides a platform for the IT and business users to create mobile applications using no-code builders and pro-code tools. It offers a rich library of easily customizable components and allows you to drag and drop modules to build responsive applications.

It enables users to apply custom themes and branding to create personalised applications. It offers features like adding analytics, AI & IoT, and integration with Salesforce & third-parties to build smarter and more scalable business applications

 If you want to create stunning CRM applications backed by AI and IoT abilities then salesforce lightning could be an answer for you.

  Zoho Creator - All about Workflows  & Business Process Automation

 A preferred choice of small and mid-sized companies, Zoho Creator is one of the few no-code platforms that offers a huge array of features for business developers to digitize simple workflows. Zoho Creator offers a lot of ready application templates to use along with reliable data security, a feature Zoho Creator prides itself on - extensive features for sharing and protecting your data.  Zoho Creator will have a different, more stripped down feel as compared to others on the list.

 Zoho Creator is a cost-effective platform if you have to build simple applications that do not involve complex workflows.

 Mendix - Speeding up development with a team

 Low code platform Mendix is a powerful platform for large enterprise businesses to build applications faster as a service tool. Mendix aims not only at people without tech skills, but at the professional developers as well with its Studio IDE. Designed to accelerate enterprise app delivery across the application development’s entire lifecycle, Mendix offers both no-code web-based studio for business domain experts and low-code desktop-based studio for professional developers.

 The Mendix App Platform enables companies to quickly build web and mobile apps, integrate them seamlessly, deploy them instantly, manage them centrally, and maintain them effortlessly on an ongoing basis.

 Bubble: a code-free programming language that lets you build and host web applications without software engineers.

Glide: a no-code tool to create a mobile app from a Google Sheet in five minutes, for free.

Adalo: a platform to create apps the same way you would create a slide deck.

Voiceflow: a tool to create voice apps for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, without code.

Thunkable: an easy way to build mobile applications by dragging and dropping elements.

 Bubble gives aspiring app developers a visual set of components to assemble and launch fully functioning end products. A lot of options for functional customization makes Bubble a powerful tool for software development and building apps.

 Bubble allows anyone who has an idea to build, prototype, and launch it into the world. No code opens the gateway for creatives to make their dreams happen, no matter what their skill sets may be.

[glerupritter03-blog]

Holochain Wallet

Holochain is being installed instead of the blockchain, giving coders a framework with regard to generating decentralized applications (dApps). A single huge change to be able to help this is the switch via the data dependent blockchain to an agent-centric system. Holochain�s method avoids trying to keep a global opinion, making use of an adviser method within which each broker keeping a private fork, and that is certainly stored and managed throughout a limited manner on the blockchain with a spread hash table. This stays away from scalability problems that have plagued blockchain solutions. It also will allow any dApps hosted about Holochain in order to do far more using less resource than necessary for blockchains. In this Holochain review, we will have an specific look at the project, technology together with token prospects. So why Holochain is Different The regular blockchain functions by way of holding data via cryptographic hashes on a spread networking. Each node in that network maintains the full copy of the blockchain and the international comprehensive agreement to help verify the market and maintain it has the integrity undamaged. It is one feature regarding blockchain technology that features been a new durability connected with the emerging technology. Holochain Benefits Holochain Benefits. Origin: Holochain Website There are weak spots that come having the blockchain methodology. A single that has been destroying blockchain builders is scalability issues that are created simply by demanding each and every node inside the network in order to check the entire network. Because the amount of data boosts around the blockchain, the idea gets to be more and more restrictive for financial transaction throughput on the blockchain. This is why many cryptocurrencies have experienced this kind of long transaction times, and so on high network fees. Title came up about because typically the program used by Holochain appears like the construction of some sort of hologram. In the hologram a coherent 3D pattern is usually created by a particular interaction of light beams, and in the Holochain the machine produces a coherent entire in a similar manner, putting individual parts together to form some sort of whole. In addition , the technology uses all natural patterns while part of its usefulness. The Public Portion Blockchain Typically the Holochain system really does away with scalability concerns by not needing every node or broker in the network to retain a new continually updated document of the entire public blockchain. Alternatively, each node keeps its blockchain which interacts with typically the node�s special cryptographic major. Picture this entire public blockchain since a river, and every single client is comparable for you to a smaller stream of which feeds in the river. In case a node goes traditional it generates a hand of the public company, but the public company carries on forward, without staying impacted by way of the reduction of one of their nodes. Node Data Used by the People Area Instead of making each one node keeps its personal clone of all this data in the entire blockchain, the Holochain central chain keeps a set of policies to check the files on each and every node�s blockchain. That confirmation occurs arises over a distributed hash table. Holochain Node Structure Node Design in Holochain This means the fact that when a node goes off-line it is data is definitely not missing to the people blockchain. Alternatively a constrained copy is managed and verified according to the particular list of rules. As an individual can read from the FAQ section of the Holochain website, the developers compare the process to often the approach that a lifestyle organism merchants information within DNA or even the means that different languages are stored by multitude of people. �Where is the The english language language kept? � the Holochain designers ask around the GUIDELINES. �Every speaker carries the idea. People have distinct places of expertise or maybe coverage to different slang or specialized vocabularies. No person has a complete copy, not is any persons version accurately the same as anybody, If you disappeared half of the English loudspeakers, it would certainly not degrade the language much. � How Scalable is Holochain? Problem of how numerous transactions per second Holochain can handle needs to be seemed at differently than the way we look at scalability in traditional blockchains. The particular easy answer to the particular question is that scalability is unlimited on Holochain. That�s somewhat simplified, plus honestly the thought regarding transactions per second does not apply to Holochain as a consequence to its purely natural mother nature. Rather than keeping a worldwide consensus of data about the blockchain, Holochain uses a distributed hash desk to keep a record of the type plus abilities of data that each one individual node leads to. Typically Holochain Wallet have used a good analogy of a move floor to better make clear. A person can look from the dance floor and instantly know who is moving interlude and which can be dancing hip-hop. How a lot of dancers might be dancing on the same time? Since many as will fit on the dance floors. It is apparent that there�s no reason to use a respected centralized third-party to keep track of the ballet dancers and exactly what style of move they are undertaking. �So, Holochain as an iphone app framework does not really create any limit connected with transactions per second as there is virtually no place where all orders have to go via, � the particular developers published. He / she continued to claim It is like asking, �How many words might humanity speak per secondary? � It�s an irrelevant question. With every human being being blessed, that variety increases. Same for Holochain. What Dapp�s Work together with Holochain? Holochain would be the very good fit for any kind of dApps that need a great number of individual plugs where each individual features access to a small clone of all the plugs. Instant use case set forth simply by Holochain is definitely social media tools, nonetheless they�ve also recommended that will Holochain will work well at peer-to-peer systems, supply company management, reputational cryptocurrencies or even loyalty programs, collective brains projects and more. These kind of projects make a great fit to get Holochain due to the fact of the agent-centric mother nature. You can also see a detailed overview of the particular types of apps you could develop on the holohackers road. Holochain Apps Many Applications on Holochain Github Presently Holochain would certainly not work efficiently with any kind of private or maybe private datasets however, since every single individual node posts a shared distributed hash kitchen table. Holochain is also definitely not suited for any use that hosts large data, or even for running info positivist-oriented dApps, like almost all cryptocurrencies. The particular perspective adopted by Holograph postulates the fact that there are no total truths on the open public blockchain, only the specific perspective organised simply by every single node that may be brought together to form a much larger picture. This has recently been in comparison to a blockchain perspective of the theory regarding relativity. Holochain Vocabulary Assistance Holochain was written at Go, and that certain programming language was muscle development for its similarity to help C and its reduce of use. The program code base is fully open source and can be evaluated at the Holochain GitHub. When developing dApps for Holochain developers have time to be able to use both Lisp and JavaScript and there will be also help for front end languages for instance CSS, HTML CODE and JavaScript. The Holochain developers have got stated the fact that Holochain will be flexible at regards to handling brand new different languages, so there will be some sort of good possibility of which help for additional dialects will be added in in the future. Holochain is the Green Solution By means of now everyone should know how much energy is required simply by Proof of Work blockchains including Bitcoin. Holochain promises to be the environment friendly solution to environmentally destructive blockchains. Because systems about Holochain don�t store plus validate the entire blockchain there is only a good small portion of band width used in contrast using traditional blockchains.

Furthermore, there�s no mining element in order to Holochain, so the energy used is minimal, genuinely no more than would be used by this node computers in their standard operations. With the electricity requirements of PoW blockchains constantly on the go up, this enviroment friendly approach seems much better. The Holochain Team The particular developers right behind Holochain possess a vast level of experience. The particular co-founders both have 34 yrs of programming experience. Arthur Brock, who is this Chief You behind Holochain has been a contract coder since 1984, working with AI systems and while an online alternative currency process developer since 2001. Holochain Team Holochain Team Martin Harris-Braun is the Management Engineer powering Holochain. They has in addition already been some sort of contract coder since 1984, a full time coder given that 1988, a artist associated with peer-to-peer communication programs (glassbead. com) for many years, a full-stack website developer, as well as obtaining experience in method design, structure design, etc. Holochain Wallet (HOT) Holochain accomplished a month drawn out ICO on April 35, 2018 during which these people raised the bit over 30, 500 ETH worthy of roughly 20 dollars million on the time. There had been 133, 214, 575, one hundred and fifty six HOT tokens minted regarding the ICO. As associated with late July 2018 the price of HOT is up to $0. 000825, giving it a market increased involving nearly $110 , 000, 000, in addition to making it the 86th largest coin by markets cap. Immediately following the particular ICO the token got exchanged as high while $0. 002 with regard to a new more than 1, 000% gain in a 1 week. Holochain Wallet deflated around the adhering to two several weeks, but in the history a few days (July 24 ~ July 25, 2018) cost roughly doubled soon after the WARM token has been listed on the Binance exchange. Binanace POPULAR Register at Binance and Purchase WARM Tokens The VERY HOT token is usually an ERC-20 token that can be stored within any ERC-20 suitable wallet, such as MetaMask, MyEtherWallet, or one of this components billfolds. Eventually often the ERC-20 as well will become in a position to be changed for Holofuel. Those considering acquiring some HOT should be aware of that it can�t end up being purchased using fusca currencies, so very first you would likely need to get many BTC or ETH. After getting the BTC or ETH you can purchase SIZZLING at Binance, Fatbtc, Hotbit, IDEX or LATOKEN. Conclusion We�ve been told that will Bitcoin in addition to blockchain usually are the future technology, yet this might not be completely true. Blockchain engineering is definitely nearly 10 many years aged already, and top cryptocurrencies do little a great deal more than imitate our existing corrupt financial system in a good quasi-decentralized fashion. Bitcoin is usually meant for storing cost, and has in addition become a little something of some sort of gambling establishment with regard to traders. Holochain will be a system regarding value creation and neighborhood engagement that is made to help you get to a post-monetary culture based on local community, particular efforts, merit, and assistance to others. This has been designed to grant the two data and personal sincerity. It isn�t really selected if Holochain will likely be successful, but that is ready to be taken, and developers can already begin building the purposes they feel can assist change all of our society plus our world. Quite a few illustrations of Holochain dApps may be found here and if you are interested around developing your own dApp with Holochain you can certainly get started here. Option traders have done very well by now with the token looking at a 500% increase from the ICO, and that seemed to be through a bear marketplace throughout crpytocurrencies. Once Bitcoin and even other cryptocurrencies start off soaring again the SIZZLING token may see significant upside.

[kaoarika]

As some may know, I still use DeviantArt for archival purposes. It was a pain to reupload EVERYTHING I uploaded to Tumblr between 2015-2018 there, and sometimes I think if it was worth enough considering all that has happened there since.

I am also very aware that DA is a cesspool of content and it has been that way since pretty much the mid-to-late 2000s. And especially it went to WORSE after it was bought out by another company, the Eclipse UI redesign being one of the results from this.

In fact, with the light of those godawful enefities and bad faith actors stealing art from left to right for their profit, and them making a small step forward in “protecting” their users from them, I thought it was kinda good? Like I said, a small step forward... but there was also this small lingering feeling that they could have done so much more than just releasing a tool that would alert you about scammers.

So, to my surprise, I found out someone in their staff wrote what I interpret as a very positive article post about w3/b3 and I’m... baffled on the direction they might be going with this... if this means what it is implying it is meaning.

DA is also notorious in the artist community because they never listen their vocal userbase, hence why the site is still a mess in the first place. And why, with Eclipse, many others decided to explore other venues. Tbh, there’s still not a social site that is openly oriented for artists and normal people alike to share art with and provide comments (and I believe Tumblr is still top on that... but lbr, even with the pr0n ban in late 2018, many people also went to other venues, and this site might not be doing hot these days either) that are not relegated to a goddamn algorhythm and don’t offer a proper organized archive for the users’ art pieces (or proper search options, you know the drill).

What is quite BAFFLING about that article though? I have seen people claiming it appeared on their notifications (it was uploaded 2 days ago), and somewhat I haven’t seen it announced on mine. I found it on a twitter thread about artists expressing VERY VALID concerns about AI-produced art posted in art sites, and just a few hours ago it has been gaining traction around DA’s former and present userbase.

SURE, the article doesn’t say much about them officially moving into this direction, and are (still, valid) asking the community of their thoughts on the topic, but... you know. *exaggerated hands motions*, and most comments (by now) are negative because it doesn’t explain much about what they are going to do... but it might be implying what they ARE going to do next.

I know, I know, I KNOW, “corps. aren’t your friends”, etc, etc, etc. That site is over 20 years old, I started to use it in late 2004, it was not too bad at the time, etc. I have been disappointed in it since the early 2010s... and Eclipse didn’t help. But I still feel a little disappointed?, even if there are no official words on what they will do.

“Rebuilding” after an exodus of sorts is... difficult, and even more as a small user. A LOT of the people I used to follow there don’t even use DA anymore, and the few that still do, maybe some of them still use it as an archive and because their stuff gains some traffic traction compared to social media, despite the frequent art theft still plaguing INSIDE the same website since ye olde’ days.

I’m... this is more than a step backwards, and I still believe that all these buzzwords related w3/b3 thanks to those freaking techleeches made this oh SO MUCH worse.

[darknetmarkets]

How to Safely Access and Buy from Dream Market

Our Ultimate Dream Market Tutorial

So you are interested in Dream Market, the world’s currently largest and most popular darknet market. In this tutorial we will cover everything you need to know about creating a Dream Market, Setting up your Dream Market 2FA to protect from hackers, and the steps needed to easily and safely make a purchase on Dream Market.

The first step is to make sure you have a secure connection and the only way to do that is by investing in a reliable, and trusted VPN service.  While it’s true that Tor will mask your internet connection, having a solid VPN is a secondary and important security measure that should always be used, and for the security provided, the low monthly cost is easily justifiable.

There are numerous options for a VPN, literally hundreds of choices. But not all VPN services provide the level of security you want when navigating Darknet Markets such as Dream Market.

One major issue is a lot of VPN services keep logs or records on their customers. We have already done research into various VPN services and we personally recommend checking out NordVPN.

NordVPN provides dual-layer, military-grade encryption, they do not keep any records on their customers, they accept bitcoin as a form of payment, and they have a free 3-day trial which does not require a credit card.  You can check them out here. Yes it’s a referral link, and no a VPN is not required, but we highly suggest it.

Don’t worry, we are not some shady spam site that’s going to try and scare you into spending money on our affiliates, and we sure the heck are not going to hide the affiliate factor by masking our links…unlike some shady ass sites that are out there.

Dream Market Tutorial | Darknet Tools

Outside of the VPN, we suggested above, there are a few tools you are going to need in order to even access Dream Market.

The Tor Browser | Dream Market Tutorial

The Tor Browser is basically a modified version of Mozilla Firefox, and it’s required if you ever plan on surfing the dark web.

Tor is available on a few different platforms in order to work on nearly any device from the basic Windows computer to Android Phones (however, we discourage using a mobile device due to OPSEC issues.)

What Tor does, it encrypts your internet connection by relaying it through several different connections across the world.

But since you want to learn how to access Dream Market rather than the technical aspects of an internet browser, we won’t waste your time on that for the pure reason of ranking. We will detail that elsewhere, so let’s cut to the chase.

Head over to the website run by the good people of Tor Project and grab yourself a copy of the Tor Browser, and install it on your computer.  https://www.torproject.org/download/download.html.en

  PGP Key | Dream Market Tutorial

Using PGP Encryption is an absolute must.  You need it in order to communicate with vendors on Dream Market, it’s required.  You also need PGP in order to protect you Dream Market account with  2-Factor Authentication.

YOU MUST PROTECT YOUR ACCOUNT WITH 2-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION OR YOU WILL BE HACKED AND LOSE YOUR BITCOIN.

Is it required by Dream Market? No…but you are a F&CKING IDIOT if you don’t use 2FA. Even seasoned Darknet Market vendors have had their accounts phished and lost thousands for skipping this step, don’t ever think it won’t happen to you.

So head over to the following website and grab a copy of GPG4WIN and if you want instructions on how to setup and use PGP you can find our AWESOME Noob friendly PGP guide here. https://www.darknetmarkets.com/pgp-encryption/

  Bitcoin Wallet | Dream Market Tutorial

If you plan on buying anything from Dream Market, you are going to need bitcoin. If you plan on grabbing bitcoin, you will first need a place to store it on your computer.  That’s why we need a bitcoin wallet.

While we actually recommend using Bitcoin Armory for storing your bitcoin on a personal computer, it’s an absolute nightmare to configure for a novice, and for that reason, we recommend our second choice Bitcoin wallet called Electrum.

Electrum is easy to setup, free, open source, and one of the most popular bitcoin wallets available.  Go ahead and download and install Electrum on your device. https://electrum.org/

  Bitcoin | Dream Market Tutorial

Lastly in your must-have toolkit is a form of cryptocurrency.  While there are a few options of cryptocurrency accepted by Dream Market, the most popular is Bitcoin. So for our Ultimate Dream Market Tutorial, we suggest using the default, Bitcoin. If you are interested in a more secure or secondary option, Dream Market also offers support for Monero and Bitcoin Cash.

The easiest way to acquire bitcoin is through local bitcoin.  Local Bitcoin is fast, does not require a bunch of verification like Coinbase or similar, and you can purchase bitcoin with a bank transfer or even locally via an in-person cash trade.

Another great option for grabbing bitcoin is by purchasing through a bitcoin ATM if they are available in your area.

You can check out localbitcoins here and yes this is a shameless affiliate link to their site (using our links helps support us and keep our site online) https://localbitcoins.com/?ch=6xu0

  Dream Market Tutorial | The Ultimate Guide

Dream Market URL | Dream Market Tutorial

The first step is to acquire a safe Dream Market URL. Over recent years phishing has become a major concern and problem in the darknet markets community. There only two very important steps you need to take in order to reduce the chance of falling prey to a phishing hack on your account.

Safe Links – Always make sure you get your Dream Market or other darknet market links from a reputable website. While we would love it if you use our links (we verify and update them daily), you can also find links at DeepDotWeb.com.  We do not recommend getting your links from anywhere else other than us, or them.

2-FA Security – Enable 2-Factor Authentication on all of your darknet market accounts.  This way, your account will remain safe, even if you accidentally fall prey to a shady phishing site by accident.

Verified Dream Market invite URL: http://lchudifyeqm4ldjj.onion/?ai=2502947670/

Once in a while Dream Market may go offline due to a variety of reasons.  Mostly this issue is caused when they are updating a feature on their website, or if they are being attacked by a DDoS.  If any case the above, main Dream Market URL is not working, you can try one of these verified Dream Market Alternative Links 

7ep7acrkunzdcw3l.onion/?ai=2502947670 jirdqewsia3p2prz.onion/?ai=2502947670 5gc3hz66uifzzgwu.onion/?ai=2502947670 35m64vdolpx24pif.onion/?ai=2502947670 4ujzpcnwvp37pevz.onion/?ai=2502947670 t3e6ly3uoif4zcw2.onion/?ai=2502947670 4mtu5pl6yp3fmvny.onion/?ai=2502947670 4buzlb3uhrjby2sb.onion/?ai=2502947670 f6sfqkun24oteipd.onion/?ai=2502947670 xsuee6v24g2q6phb.onion/?ai=2502947670 ecleg2gwe2edwiuf.onion/?ai=2502947670 t5kqoucj5kbboheh.onion/?ai=2502947670 hdx7ftyfbopx3tep.onion/?ai=2502947670

If you are already using Tor you can click directly on the links above. If not, copy and paste the link into your Tor browser to navigate to the Dream Market account creation page to begin creating a Dream Market account.

Create a Dream Market Account | Dream Market Tutorial

Once the Dream Market account creation page loads, you can go ahead and fill in the required information.

When creating a Dream Market username, or a username on any Darknet Market, make sure the name is different than anything you have used in the past. You don’t want to ever be connected to your darknet accounts, and by using a unique name it will better guarantee your anonymity.

Also, choose a password that you will remember, and that is secure. Our personal recommendation for creating a strong password is to choose 3 regular words, 1 made up word, one symbol, and one number.

This makes it highly unlikely it will ever get cracked via a dictionary attack, and it can still be easy to memorize.

Example: DoggyChasesBallsDooogles!8

Also, make sure that you choose a pin number that you won’t forget. If you need to write it down, keep it somewhere secure without any indication that it’s related to a darknet market account.

For example, write it on a piece of paper and label it Outhouse number or something irrelevant. The pin number is required whenever you want to withdraw funds from your Dream Market wallet, or if you ever forget your password for some reason.

If you lose your pin number, you can kiss any bitcoin you have in your account goodbye. Don’t Lose Your Pin Number!

Once that is all set, and you have all the information filled out you can go ahead and click the “Register” button to move on to the next step.

Setting Up PGP Key | Dream Market Tutorial

Now you need to setup your PGP key in your account. This is mandatory as it’s the only way you will be able to contact a vendor to relay them information about your order, including your delivery address.  You also need your PGP setup in Dream Market to protect your account with 2-Factor authentication.

If you don’t already have a PGP key created, go over to our PGP Tutorial and follow the instructions to set one up.  If you already have a PGP Key ready to go, click on your username at the top of the page to navigate to your account settings.

Once you get to your settings page, scroll down to the section that says PGP Key and copy and paste your PGP key into that field and clicks the “update” button to save your key in your Dream Market account.

Now, Dream Market may or may not have you verify that your PGP key is valid. If not, no problem. If it does, just follow the steps they give you to verify the key.

Setting Up 2-FA Login | Dream Market Tutorial

Do Not Skip This Step. Do Not Skip This Step. DO NOT SKIP THIS F#CKING STEP!

Sorry, but I still find it absolutely embarrassing that people fall prey by phishing links ALL THE TIME when everyone should know better by now.

All it takes is a couple minute to set up and includes one quick extra step when logging in…and it can save you a LOT of money, time, and frustration.  We are going to enable 2-Factor Authentication on your account.

If the concept of it makes you nervous, let me break it down so you understand it better.

All it means is this. Nobody can access your account unless they have access to your PGP. So once it’s enabled you will have to decrypt a message with your PGP key and enter the decrypted code whenever you log into Dream Market…thats it. Simple. Worth it.

To enable 2-FA on your Dream Market account, make sure you are still on your account settings pages and located the section labeled “Login Method” and select 2-FA (Password + PGP) from the drop-down menu. Once that is done click “Update”.

Now Dream Market will log you out of your account to verify your 2-FA.  So go ahead and wait for the Dream Market login page to load.

Once it’s finished loading, it should show a field that asks for only a username and captcha code. If it does not, click the link labeled “2-FA Login” in the top corner of the screen.

Enter your username and complete the captcha code. Now you will see the 2-FA login screen which asks you to decrypt a message with your PGP key.

Copy and paste the message into your PGP clipboard and decrypt the message with your key. Then copy the decrypted message into Dream Market, enter your account password and login.

Now your account is secure with 2-FA which means you’re already smarter than hundreds of seasoned Dream Market users. Sleep soundly tonight.

Finding a Product | Dream Market Tutorial

PGP is set up, the account is secured, let’s go shopping. Navigate over to the Dream Market homepage by clicking the “Shop” link in the top menu.

Dream Market has a fairly straightforward form of navigation, with a standard filter that can help us easily locate the product we are looking for.  In this tutorial, let’s say we are theoretically looking to buy weed.

First, click the “ship to” drop-down in the filter and choose the country you reside in.  Followed by the “ship from” drop-down and choosing a country you wish your product to come from.

It’s always best to choose a product that is shipped from your own country so opt for doing that. This filtering arrangement will make sure we are only seeing offers from domestic vendors.

If you only want to see an option for a specific category you can also use the “category” drop-down in the filter. Feel free to use any of the other options to narrow down your search.

Once you spot a product that interests you, go ahead and click on it to navigate to the product page.

Vetting the Vendor | Dream Market Tutorial

Now you might want to jump right in and smash that order button, but noooot so quick. Let’s play this outsmart to limit any chance of being scammed or worst… Anyways, here are some steps you should always follow when considering a vendor on Dream Market.

Product Description – Read the description on the product page thoroughly.  See if the vendor has any specific requirements for ordering with them, such as address format and if they require FE.

Product Reviews – Scroll down to the reviews section to see reviews for that product. Sometimes the reviews will contain recent ones, often not. It’s uncertain if Dream Market hides negative reviews, but we have more safety protocols to protect us.

Vendor Information – Click on the vendor’s account name at the top of the listing to navigate to the vendor’s information page.  This will usually contain a description that includes a wealth of important information. Such as Ordering protocol, and if the vendor is on vacation or not.

Last Active – This section on the Vendor page tells you when they were last logged into their Dream Market account.  If it says they have not logged in for a day or longer, we suggest moving on to a different vendor who has been active in the last 24 hours.

Feedback – You can also check recent buyer feedback compiled from all the recent purchases from that vendor. Pay mind to the most recently dated ones, and their overall feedback score to see if there is a high number of low scores for the past 30 days. If so, find another vendor.

Once you have found a vendor who has a trusted reputation, and that has been recently active in their Dream Market account you can move to the next step.

Safely Adding Funds | Dream Market Tutorial

So now you have decided upon the product you would like, and you need to add bitcoin to pay for the product.  Now, you could just send bitcoin to your Dream Market wallet address directly, but we suggest not doing that and here is why.

Over the years new technology has been released which makes tracing bitcoin transaction relatively simple, this is especially true for law enforcement. The last thing you want is to have a dirty Dream Market wallet address that traces back your personal wallet in a simple to view straight line.

We can fix this issue by taking advantage of a thing called a bitcoin mixer, or a bitcoin tumbler. Bitcoin mixing is a service provided by a few different websites. You send your bitcoin to the service, and they mix them with other peoples bitcoin and send them to a wallet address of your choice. This better masks your bitcoin transactions and makes it very difficult to track. We have a great tutorial, which includes a video, that details how to mix your bitcoin using the tumbling service CoinMixer.

You find our bitcoin mixing tutorial here

You can visit our recommended mixing service here:  

Follow the instructions in our Bitcoin mixing tutorial, but set the deposit address as the bitcoin address for your Dream Market account which can be found by clicking the money sign in the Dream Market main menu. This will send all the mixed, and harder to trace bitcoin directly to your Dream Market account.

Don’t send any more bitcoin to your market wallet then you plan on spending. You should store bitcoin on your personal bitcoin wallet at all times.

Placing an Order | Dream Market Tutorial

Now that you have found a reliable vendor who is offering the product you would like to purchase, and mixed our bitcoin with a bitcoin tumbler before sending them to our market wallet, we can finally place the order.

Scroll to the bottom of the product listing page and select a shipping option, enter the quantity you want to purchase and click the “add to cart” button.

Now you should automatically be directed to the shopping cart to finalize the purchase and if not you can go to your cart by clicking the shopping cart option in the main menu.

Now all that’s usually needed at this point is entering your shipping information.  While you can enter the shipping information and request Dream Market to encrypt your message for you, we recommend not doing this and choosing to encrypt the message yourself.

Copy the Vendor’s PGP key and import it into your GPA keyring. Type your delivery address into the GPA clipboard and encrypt it using the vendor’s PGP key then copy and paste the encrypted shipping information into Dream Market and click the order button.

Watch your Order Status | Dream Market Tutorial

Now that your order has finally been placed just monitor the order status.  In 1 or 2 days you should receive a message in your inbox when the vendor accepts your order, and another message when the vendor has marked your order as “shipped”.

If you placed the order on a Friday, the vendor might not see it until after the weekend, so don’t worry if you don’t receive a message for a couple days.

Once the order is marked as shipped, you just need to wait for your order to arrive. Be vigilant when checking the mail as orders are often disguised for better security.

If you are using escrow instead of FE, which you always should, the vendor has 16 days to make sure the order is delivered before the money that is held in Dream Market’s escrow is automatically deposited into the vendor’s account.

If it is getting close to the 16 days mark and you have not received the order, or if you have any issues with the order you can request an extension through the order page.

If the order has not arrived after the extension or if you have complications with the order that has yet to be resolved, you must open a dispute with Dream Market.

If you have received your order, and are 100% satisfied with your purchase. Log in to your Dream Market account and finalize the order, then leave appropriate feedback about your overall experience.

Now you know how to safely, securely, and properly access and place an order on the world’s largest Darknet Market, Dream Market.

      The post How to Safely Access and Buy from Dream Market appeared first on Darknet Markets.

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[poweredbycoffeeandwine]

All I See Are Stars

Hello Lovelies!!! I wrote this based on some in game dialogue. I wasn’t irrationally jealous....trust me. It was all Camille. ;-) So here are these dorks, the same two from my Kissing Day Fics (here) and (here), but pre-relationship because that’s my jam. Hope you enjoy this little bit of silliness. 

Camille Ryder x Liam Kosta - Mass Effect Andromeda - Pre-Relationship

"I've heard about HUS-T1."

"Good things I hope?"

"Impossible things. And about "goddamn Hammond."

"He made up for everything twice over."

"He'd have to. So what made you join? I bet you were very good at responding."

Camille couldn't help how hard her eyes rolled; her surprise that they hadn't detached was genuine. At least she managed to hold back a loud and unladylike snort. She seriously didn't need everyone in Nexus Security thinking she'd lost her mind. Standing at the console reviewing strike team missions was absolutely the reason she was here. It had nothing to do with the fake-blonde standing scant inches away from Kosta,laughing at his jokes, and reaching out to touch his forearm or bicep. She certainly hadn't been glancing over her shoulder checking to see the distance between them shrink. Camille was positive Kosta hadn't budged and Security Guard Barbie made all of the advances. Not that that should make any difference.

"Ugh. Get a grip," she mumbled to herself. She shook her head attempting to fight the unpleasant turn her thoughts had taken. Sleep, that was the problem; she needed to get more than a handful of hours in between missions. Obviously that is why she had turned into a shrew, hating a woman she knew nothing about. Normally levelheaded, she couldn't pin down why the conversation behind her was so distracting. She shouldn’t begrudge Kosta searching for companionship on the station. Goodness knows they were always so busy once they departed. Everyone on the team had ways of blowing steam. Gil had poker, Vetra worked her contacts to purchase everything she thought might come in handy, Peebee had her weird alien tech, maybe Kosta just needed a friend. An attractive woman friend, willing to listen to his every word with baited breath.

Camille had hoped she would be able to catch him and convince him to grab something to eat. Maybe even spend some time together not saving the galaxy. Just be regular people. However, seeing him with another woman had given her pause. She wasn’t about to interrupt if he was hoping to ask the Nexus employee out. They were both in security, and obviously had a lot in common. She was just a researcher, a self proclaimed nerd without exciting tales to tell. Ryder stared at the screen, planning the load-out and mission parameters for the teams Kandros had permitted her to use in the fight against the Kett. Nothing made sense. What's worse was that deep down she knew that she could do this from the comfort of the Tempest in her comfy clothes that nobody judged her for wearing.

Another high nasal laugh followed by Kosta's own rich, deep one, had her shaking. Maybe she could slink off without him noticing she was there. Of course, instead of simply leaving as quietly as she came, she chanced a glance at him only to make eye contact. He gave her a warm smile and waved her over. She had no choice now, it was wave and leave, possibly leaving him to feel slighted, or join the pair for a brief conversation and try not to make a fool of herself. Somewhere in the back of her mind that rational part of her was screaming for her to stop. For some reason she just couldn’t seem to heed the sound advice. "Hey Liam, we need to go. You ready to head out?" The look on his face spoke volumes. Did her voice always sound so breathless? Did she ever call him by his first name aloud?

Lips slightly parted, Liam continued to stare at her. "Yeah, yeah. Course Pathfinder. Following you?"

"Um..yes, well if you have things to wrap up," her voice wavered a bit, "you don't have to come with me. We'll ship out in an hour. So... right." She stalked away not quite understanding what just happened. There was no reason at all for that reaction. Her twin, Scott, was forever teasing her for being awkward, and right now was the first time his medically induced coma was a blessing. She would have never heard the end of it if he had been around to witness that mess.

She could hear Kosta's loud footfall catching up to her. He could never claim stealth; something she teased him about endlessly. Camille struggled not to pick up the pace. “Just be normal, just be normal,” she chanted under her breath. They boarded the tram together. Was it always this small?  "Pathfinder. Ryder. Sorry, my mistake," Liam shrugged. "Could've sworn you said we had the day. Just checking in. Building more bridges. All of that."

Ryder's face flushed, she felt like squirming. She had given the crew the day. Tann had called her to his office, and she had wanted to check in with Kesh, but she saw Liam from a distance and her feet had taken her to him. The rest of her team wouldn't be expected until the next morning. Clearing her throat she replied, "I got an urgent message from Bradley on Padromos. We're needed to investigate a situation." As the doors to the docking station slid open slowly, she turned sideways to squeeze out.

Not paying attention to her impatience he nearly shouted, "What! We better get a move on. Need me to round up the crew?" Camille winced. She really should have supplied a different excuse. People were going to take a situation on Eos seriously. The outpost was new, and fragile at the moment. Nobody expected the scientists she stationed there to last long considering the first two failed attempts to settle the planet. Not to mention Suvi and Kallo never received a similar message and would be able to call her bluff the second they crossed the threshold.

"No!" She squeaked. "I've already taken care of it. Didn't send you a message since you were nearby. Figured I would grab you and explain along the way." That sounded valid, right?

"Grab me, huh?" Liam smirked. "If you wanted me alone, you could've asked." He winked at her. Actually winked! She couldn't fight the blush spreading across her cheeks. She usually accepted his rapid adjustment from business to fun, but when she was the focus of his sass she became tongue tied. Ryder kept her rapid pace, practically running past those she would normally stop to touch base with. If only she had kept her cool. That woman just upset her. Throwing herself at Kosta like that. What did he have to do to get her to respect his personal space? All of that touching! The fluttering in her stomach stopped her dead in her tracks. Liam slammed into her from behind not expecting the sudden halt in momentum

They sprawled to the floor, limbs tangling as he attempted to swap their bodies positions. The air left her lungs in a hurry, tears in her eyes. "Shit, Cami. Ugh, Ryder. Pathfinder, are you ok?" Kosta lifted her from the floor, one hand on her waist the other swiping at invisible dirt, his eyes scanning for injuries. Camille stared at him, voiceless. The butterflies,the irrational and unjustified annoyance at a woman she didn't know, and the husky octave her voice took when she asked him to leave with her. She hadn't acted this way since she was a teenager with her first crush. She was jealous. Oh, no. Did he know? Did everyone know? Was she that transparent? "Andromeda to Pathfinder. You there? Shit, did I give you a concussion? I'm not explaining this to Lexi, Liam rambled, gripping her carefully around the arm, and pulling her towards the Tempest his other arm encircling around her back. "Don't worry. I've got you. We'll get you looked at proper."

"Yeah, it's ok. Just clumsy. You know. We can't tell Lexi. Then there will have to be and exam, and reports to be filed. Let's just keep this to ourselves," Ryder suggested, trying to ignore the pointed look he gave. Her skin burned where his hands were touching her. Skin to skin contact didn't do that, she just needed to get herself under control. She wasn't an angsty teen, she was technically over 600 years old. Her embarrassment was compounded by the crowd that had collected. Nexus employees hovering around them attempting to assist their only Pathfinder. Others gawking or attempting to hide laughter. If she wasn't trying to be a professional she would definitely facepalm or cry. "Nothing to see here. I'm fine. Thank you for your concern." She waved people off, hoping they would take the hint and get back to work. "Kosta, get your gear ready and make sure the Nomad is prepped. I'll get the rest of the team gathered."

He blinked and after a moment slowly asked, "Thought you said you did that already?" He crossed his arms over his chest and grinned, waiting for a response.

"I, ugh, yeah. I did. I meant...I was...I will wait for them. You know, to get here. Brief them on the development." Camille fought the urge to look down at her feet. Hands clasped behind her back slightly bouncing on her feet.

"Gotcha, no need." Liam smiled and casually tapped her in the arm. "I'll let you get to it." He turned and walked into the Tempest whistling a song as he did so. Ryder rubbed her arm, telling herself she wasn't watching his shapely rear as he departed.

"Seriously, Me. Get it together. Nobody will take the Human Pathfinder seriously if she is swooning." She opened her Omni-tool, and alerted Suvi and Kallo to their situation, then fired off a message to Bradley. What kind of Pathfinder hopes her first settlement is in trouble?

"Pathfinder, I am detecting an elevation of your blood pressure, and would like to ask you a question, if I may," SAM's smooth AI voice broke over her private channel. She jumped, forgetting that he would have been a silent witness to the entire exchange.

"Thank you universe, I needed salt in that particular wound," she muttered. "No, SAM. Not this time. Get back to me when the mortification wears off." Then a terrible thought crossed her mind and she added nervously, "Also, please don't mention this to Liam, or anyone. I just... Is it too much to ask that you just forget this ever happened?" She really wasn't looking forward to explaining to SAM what was amuck with her emotions.

It was certainly nothing she wanted to examine too closely herself. However, now that it was up front-and-center she realized she spent an inordinate amount of time wondering what Liam thought about decisions she made. Hoping it would please him when she helped a civilian in need. How often she found herself seeking him out at night when she couldn't sleep. Her mind full of missing her family, and regrets she could do nothing about. She thought it was because he understood her. He lost more than she had venturing across dark space. He took the risk, knowing his parents would only be alive in his memories, for the sake of adventure. In that moment she felt so foolish, of course she had feelings for Liam. It would be impossible for her to deny developing an attachment to him. How the lilting sound of his voice called to her. How easy it was to smile at the lame jokes he told just to ease tension with the crew.

The night he told her of his family, she was sure they had a moment. Waking up in his arms, safe and protected was something she hadn’t had in a very long time. If she was being honest all of her feelings scared her.  Being around him made her giddy and lightheaded, so much she saw stars. He entered a room, and the imaginary orchestra played cliche love songs while she tried not to stare. She realized that she subconsciously fought to keep him at a distance. But, that woman flirting with Liam forced her to see that she wasn’t ready to close the door on whatever was going on between them. But that side of her brain that steered her clear from trouble had her thinking having a crush on a teammate was a terrible idea. Wasn't it?

[cophoenixseo]

Get more website traffic in Queen Creek

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It’s a reality that even if you rank higher than your competitor if they have more stars revealing outstanding evaluations, this can make all the difference in your conversions. For numerous service based organisations, evaluations are essential.search engine optimization increases website traffic as the higher you rank, the more visitors you will have to your site and the more opportunity to drive awareness of your organisation. Traffic from organic search is totally free, developing exposure takes time and effort, as Google has actually slowed down ranking outcomes significantly over the last couple of years.As an outcome of the points above, organic search engine traffic by way of seo can offer an enhanced ROI over conventional types of paid media including Pay Per Click. While search engine optimization is initially not cheap or simple, it is in the long term a lot more cost-efficient than a lot of other marketing techniques and provides stronger brand name awareness and traffic to your service site. Unlike paid search marketing or Pay Per Click, free traffic from Google does moist up the moment you stop paying.There is a strategic advantage with optimizing your website for better discovery on Google because when you have actually developed yourself in the organic outcomes, your competitors will be not able to purchase their way in as they can do with PPC. A higher portion of users click on the natural outcomes as we formerly pointed out. This implies that SEO will generate more clicks from an organic search listing than from an extremely placed paid ad. But to optimize visibility and clicks, you will want listings in both paid and natural results. Keyword-level experimentation is needed to ensure that you are not paying for clicks that you might get free of charge, however to make the most of results and that is qualified leads, some services find that presence in both paid and organic listings are required.Due to the fact that of the always changing and vibrant nature of the web, many business owners and marketing executives discover that dealing with a specialist digital marketing and SEO consultant is the very best way for them to make sure the very best outcomes. Organic traffic can take some time, and the proficiency had to beat those above you in the SERPs is considerable. Which is why, if you are simply starting, and the keywords you are targeting are currently “owned” by high authority sites, you might have to rethink your technique.A competent SEO professional must have the ability to help your group in establishing content possessions to search engine ranking domination. A top ranked search engine optimization company will prove their worth by assisting you develop safe, sustainable links so you can achieve the website rankings that will move your company to the next level.Click here to receive a 100% FREE seo audit and discover how search engine optimization can impact your business.Watch what local SEO in Queen Creek Arizona can do for your business site. Watch this video:

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