#this is objectively the correct configuration

[communistkenobi]

the thing that is endlessly frustrating when discussing transgender issues in public is that the people arguing against you - and in this case I am specifically referring to ‘progressives’ or otherwise self-identified leftists - are speaking from a place of hegemony, something that they do not acknowledge, and even more fundamentally, they mistake that hegemony for objective truth. to say “sex is biological” is to reflect the beliefs of those in power, to reflect the status of sex assignment in both domestic and international law, in administration, in medicine, in the labour market, in public space, in civil society, in virtually all aspects of social and political life. if you don’t like what a random transsexual is saying about gender on television, on a blog, or in a classroom you can - and I mean this unironically - simply go outside and be reassured your beliefs are correct by every facet of society that exists around you. You are granted the privilege of not requiring evidence for your beliefs; the current configuration of the social world acts as a replacement.

in contrast, the statement “sex is socially constructed” is treated as an immediate disqualifier from all public discourse on gender and sex; to announce such a belief in public as a trans person is to demonstrate your fundamental insanity and sexual perversion. If I want to articulate a theory of my own social position in the world I am called a deranged lunatic. this is not because society is constructed around scientific, objective facts that the transsexual is refusing to accept, but that the very fact of transgenderism as a social position is a challenge to the seemingly objective world that exists around us. My transgenderism is a site of truth that is irreconcilable with the present configuration of a deeply gendered society, and the only two conclusions to this problem are to either change society or to make life impossible for a transgender subject. To continue to argue that “sex is biological,” even from a progressive position, is to argue in service of the latter position, because it is the central organising principle of not just transphobic policy but all policy regarding sex and gender. I have yet to hear or see any sensitivity to this basic political fact whenever this argument goes around. Perhaps the reason transgender people are so emotionally invested in the answer of what sex “really is” is because the answer structures the possibility of our own existence.

But this is still somehow not enough for the progressive! Hegemony is insufficient; they are insecure with even that level of intellectual reaffirmation, and will only be satisfied until the very last insane transgender sjw also agrees with the hegemonic viewpoint. only then will the public square finally be a rational space where ideas can flourish

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

Photo Op

Summary: The Bad Batch takes a family photo. (That's it. That's the story.) Rating: G (Word Count: 1056)

Read on Ao3

Notes: This takes place a little after season 3, but pre-epilogue. Tech's alive, of course, and this time he has been back home with his family for a while (I'm going against my own headcanons here and having them reunited earlier than I usually imagine, because fanfiction!). Echo has just come back to visit Pabu for the first time since Tantiss. I'm loosely basing this story off my own experiences with family photos 😂

                Omega burst through the front door of the cabin with a wide grin. “Echo’s here!” she announced excitedly as the ARC trooper followed her into the house.

                Hunter might have retired, but he couldn’t help but fall back into some of his sergeant habits as he stood up from his chair. “Alright, everyone,” he commanded, “into the living room for pictures.”

By the time he finished his announcement, Tech had already started setting up his datapad in the large-view cam configuration; but the others were somewhat slower to respond. Wrecker was pulling the bread out of the oven, Omega was talking non-stop with Echo filling him in on what had happened on Pabu since he’d been away, and Crosshair was nowhere to be seen.

                “Let’s go,” Hunter urged them, prompting Omega to stop chatting and guide Echo into the living room. “We all agreed to this…”

                “We did NOT all agree to this,” Crosshair said, moseying out of his room and across the living room.

                “Hey,” Hunter protested, “this is the first full squad photo…”

                “Family photo,” Tech interjected, glancing at Omega.

                “… Okay, family photo we’ve taken in a while. We’re long overdue.”

                Wrecker, having ensured all the food was ready to go, finally came into the living room and plopped down on the couch. “Can we hurry this up? I’m getting hungry.”

                Omega looked at her brothers with mild curiosity. “I’ve always wondered: why is it the rule that group pictures have to get done before dinner?”

                Tech, finalizing his preparations, was the one who answered. “Crosshair in particular hates taking pictures, so doing this before we eat is the most powerful incentive we have to convince Crosshair to cooperate, especially since it motivates Wrecker, too.”

                Echo, patiently waiting for the equipment to get set up, snorted. “It’s the ONLY incentive we have,” he corrected, before calling out, “Crosshair, get out of the kitchen. You know the rules. Let's get this over with.”

                Crosshair, scowling as Wrecker got up from the couch and dragged him away from the food on the stove, complained, “I might be more cooperative if Hunter didn’t make us sit there while he takes a hundred photos and goes through every single one to make sure they’re perfect.”

                Hunter, heading into the backyard to get Batcher, objected over his shoulder, “I don’t do that!”

                “Yes, you do,” everyone called after him with one accord.

                “It takes forever!” Crosshair continued.

                Tech gave him a flat look. “Yes, well, don’t scowl for the first fifty photos and it might go faster.”

                Crosshair instantly stretched his lips into a toothy smile that more closely approximated a grimace, making Omega giggle. “Perfect, Crosshair,” she joked, “stay just like that.”

                “Don’t stay just like that,” Echo interceded. “Anyone who looks at the photo will have nightmares.”

                “Good,” Crosshair nodded.

                “Aw, come on, Crosshair, don’t make this worse,” Wrecker pleaded. “I’m starving!”

                Crosshair faltered for a moment, but then doubled down.

                “The soup’s going to get cold,” Tech, eyes still glued to the datapad, observed dryly.

                Crosshair immediately fixed his face.

                Everyone except Tech was lined up on the couch and ready to go by the time Hunter came back in with Batcher. Tech directed the two of them into place and took one last look at the positioning and alignment before nodding and taking his own place at the end of the couch.

                “Ready, everyone, smile!”

                Ten minutes later, everyone was holding their breath as Hunter silently studied the most recent batch of photos. The other pictures hadn’t passed muster for various reasons: Omega was blinking, Omega’s eyes were open too wide, Wrecker was looking away, Tech was rolling his eyes while Crosshair’s mouth was open (he was complaining about the repeated flashes blinding him), Batcher was drooling, Hunter couldn’t be seen because Batcher moved her head, Crosshair needed to smile more, Crosshair needed to stop smiling, Echo needed to sit up straighter, Hunter adjusted his position at the wrong moment…

                “This is good,” Wrecker now whispered hopefully. “When he’s quiet this long, it’s a good thing.”

                “Well, Hunter? Are we done?” Omega asked.

                Hunter hummed noncommittally. “Hmmm… Everyone’s good here…”

                “Yessss!!!!”

                “… except, well… Batcher’s eyes are kind of closed…”

                “That does it, we’re done,” Crosshair announced, launching himself over the back of the couch and making his way toward the kitchen.

                “Crosshair!” Hunter protested, but Tech cut him off while Wrecker discreetly slid off the couch to follow his brother, with Omega following suit.

                “It’s okay, Hunter,” Tech said. “I can use one of the other stills of Batcher and slice it into this one.”

                “Have you been able to do that all this time?” Echo asked with no small amount of exasperation, obviously thinking back to his other experiences taking group pictures with Clone Force 99, especially during the Clone Wars.

                Tech shrugged. “I never mentioned it because Hunter has never liked the idea, not even back on Kamino when we were cadets.”

                “Altering photos is cheating,” Hunter said flatly. “Photos are meant to capture the moment.”

                “Problem is, you don’t like any of the moments we capture,” Echo retorted.

                “Precisely,” Tech agreed, ignoring Hunter’s glower. “In this case, Hunter, for the sake of familial harmony and reducing the chances of Crosshair going on a rampage, alterations will have to be acceptable. It’s that, or displaying a photo with Batcher’s eyes closed.”

                “I think we should use the one where Wrecker is laughing at Crosshair complaining, Hunter is shushing both of them, Echo is facepalming, and Tech is the only one still looking at the cam,” Omega interjected brightly, coming over to join the conversation with a full plate of food.

                “The same one where Batcher jumped up on you?” Echo asked.

                “Uh huh.”

                “That one is a very accurate depiction of our usual dynamics,” Tech observed.

                Hunter sighed heavily and shook his head in defeat, before eyeing Omega’s plate. “Did you leave any food for us?”

                “I did, but you’d better hurry because Wrecker might not.”

                “Crosshair! Stop hogging all the soup!” Wrecker’s voice sounded from the kitchen.

                “Or Crosshair,” she added.

                Hunter sighed yet again before joining Tech in heading toward the kitchen. As Echo made to follow, Omega grabbed his hand. “Welcome back, Echo,” she smiled at him. “I’m glad we got more pictures together.”

                Echo couldn’t help but grin. “Me too, kid.”

[saintsenara]

thoughts on Crabbe/Goyle, Crabbe/Draco, and/or Goyle/Draco? also in terms of canon, what do you think happened to Goyle post-war?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

in canon, crabbe and goyle are only ever really viewed by harry through the lens of their relationship to draco. indeed, the reader would be forgiven for assuming that both of them spend any time that draco isn't with them staring at a blank wall, not talking to anyone else or doing anything draco doesn't permit them to do or going anywhere without him, while draco - who is shown socialising with other slytherins, like pansy parkinson and theodore nott - only pays them attention when he wants something.

but something i am absolutely committed to thinking is that this is a classic case of harry "lack of object permanence" potter both being unable to comprehend people he's not interested in having lives and thinking that since malfoy is the member of the trio he considers the most important to his own life he must be the most important of the three generally.

instead, i am always struck in canon by the heavy implication - even prior to half-blood prince, in which it's stated outright - that draco doesn't have any actual friends, that he's quite lonely, and that harry never notices this.

and so my preferred way of thinking about these three is to read crabbe and goyle as each other's ride-or-die bff, and draco as someone they think of as a yapping terrier who follows them around and whom they humour.

which is to say, when it comes to vincent crabbe/gregory goyle... it's canon. they're the slytherin equivalent of romione, falling in love in snape's remedial defence against the dark arts classes while breathing a sigh of relief that draco passed first time.

and then when it comes to vincent crabbe/draco malfoy... it's a flop. crabbe's pining over goyle, while draco's driven to ever greater heights of clinginess and being insufferable by the realisation that the boyfriend he thought would be grateful he'd even deigned to look in his direction actually thinks he's annoying and mid.

[it's giving won-won and lavender.]

while they're at school, gregory goyle/draco malfoy is going to have the same issue.

but after it?

i think there's an awful lot to be said for pairings in which the people involved only end up together because of mutual grief - it's my preferred configuration of lilypad or jeverus, for example, and it's also one of the only circumstances in which i could ever see harmony working. and i think it would slap with droyle.

after all, goyle's lost his other half - and not only that, has lost him because of a spell he cast. draco's seen everything he believed was correct and certain about his childhood torn to pieces - including the fact that crabbe and goyle were faithful minions who'd always be there when he wanted them.

they're both going to be completely adrift and terrified about the future - not least because, assuming goyle gets out of azkaban too [which i think he would; i find it inherently plausible that harry insists upon the ministry issuing a blanket pardon for anyone eighteen and under who fought for voldemort], he's not exactly going to have the pick of the job market.

and so why shouldn't they have a little codependent cuddle? as a treat.

[picknmixsims]

Sims2Tools - Major Updates Due

TL;DR; I'm going to have to recompile every one of my apps and I will no longer be supporting SimPe versions later than 75.69

Sims2Tools and Newer Versions of SimPe

Various sub-functions of my applications need to locate game files. To do this they need to know where the base, EP and SP files are located on disk. To find these, the applications use the information held within the simpe.xreg file (in the Data sub-folder) of your (hopefully) correctly configured SimPe install.

Unfortunately, versions of SimPe later than 75.69 do not have this file, or have moved it elsewhere.

In addition, versions of SimPe later than 75.69 have also relocated/renamed component .dll files and this means that I can no longer create my SimPe Primitive Wizards for these versions without a lot of effort on my part. (They are available for 77.69.7/9, but 77.69.11 has changed again and I have better things to do with my time.)

As I do not use any of the versions that are causing me problems, I have reluctantly decided to stop supporting them.

Fortunately, you can have multiple versions of SimPe installed, so you can pick-and-choose which version you use for the task at hand.

Currently, only the Repository Wizard and the SceneGraph Checker need to locate game files, although Outfit Organiser and Object Relocator will probably need to in the medium term. Edit: Object Relocator now needs to locate game files for the Hood View feature.

Users of versions of SimPe later than 75.69 will therefore need to do ONE of the following EITHER 1) Create a Data sub-folder under the newer SimPe install and copy the simpe.xreg file from the Data sub-folder of a previous version into it. Depending on how you upgrade SimPe, you may need to do this for every new release. OR 2) Configure my applications to read the simpe.xreg file from a previous version of SimPe, you need only do this once as the applications share this information. OR 3) Manually edit the UtilsLibrary.dll.config for every application (as they do not share this information) and enter the correct paths under the userSettings element.

On a positive note, it has highlighted a bug in the UtilsLibrary that was trying to access the DbpfLibrary's .config file, the upshot of which is that every one of my apps will need to be re-compiled and updated to support option 3 above.

Sims2Tools and Compressed Resources

A .package file contains one or more resources (BHAV, OBJD, TXMT, CRES, TTAB, etc).

Individual resources can be compressed. The act of compressing a resource causes two effects; 1) the resource is compressed, and 2) an entry is created in the CLST resource. The CLST lists all compressed resources in the .package file along with their decompressed size.

Compressing a .package file is the same as compressing each uncompressed resource it contains (except for the CLST) individually.

Contrary to popular belief, a (correctly) compressed .package file will never contain only compressed resources, as the CLST will always be uncompressed.

Decompressing a resource is the reverse process, that is, the resource is decompressed and the resource's entry in the CLST is removed.

Decompressing a .package file is the same as decompressing each compressed resource it contains individually.

Other than the non-trivial issue of decompressing a compressed resource, there are two problems faced by code trying to read resources from a .package file.

1) The resource is compressed but has no entry in the CLST - this results in using compressed data as if it was uncompressed data.

2) The resource has an entry in the CLST but is not actually compressed - this results in trying to decompress data that is not compressed.

Unfortunately it is very easy to create the first problem; 1) open the .package file with SimPe, 2) delete the CLST resource and. 3) save the .package file!

There also seems to be at least one 3rd party utility that writes decompressed resources back into a .package file without removing the associated CLST entry.

My DbpfLibrary has been able to handle the second problem for some time.

Weirdly, the incidence of the first problem has increased dramatically in the past six months - there's probably a video/tutorial out there that suggests it, possibly because the CLST resource is never compressed.

And as my apps then get blamed for "not working" due to other's errors, I've had to find a solution.

The upshot of all of this is every one of my apps will need to be re-compiled and updated to handle both of the incorrect CLST problems.

Huge thanks to bowedy, sgthebee and brattyful for helping me track the SimPe issue down.

[miloscat]

[Review] Sonic Heroes (GCN)

The Sonic series reinvents itself again, and I like it!

I just found out about Sonic Team USA, an America-based (but Japanese-staffed) division of Sonic Team set up at first to localise Sonic Adventure, who went on to develop Adventure 2 themselves. Heroes then is their second game, and marks a course correction that the fanbase seems unhappy with but which I reckon is a step in the right direction after the messy SA2.

Eggman is up to no good again, making threats about an ultimate weapon and even worse, kidnapping Froggy. Sonic and his pals Tails and Knuckles set out to see what's up; meanwhile Amy teams up with Big and new cute bunny character Cream (created for this game although she had an advance debut in Advance 2). Rouge, sporting a new armoured super-spy look with bigger wings, is surprised to find Shadow not dead after all but in stasis and amnesiac, as well as the other new character Omega the trigger-happy robot. Finally, the Chaotix (Vector, Espio, and Charmy) are dusted off from their 32X game to re-debut in the modern series and take on the role of detectives to get to the bottom of the scheme.

Ultimately Metal Sonic is revealed to be at the centre of things with a wicked cool new design; this is the only time he has a speaking voice and also the only time he ever really does anything important in the plot of any Sonic media, so it's good for him to get a moment in the sun. The other additions to the roster stick around as core cast members, and even though the plot is thin it has moments that satisfyingly follow up Shadow's story in SA2. Amy's still in her stalker phase but these bits are over quickly. Mainly I just like how it balances a large cast by splitting them up.

The four teams act as separate stories that can be tackled in any order, and whose events play out simultaneously before coming together in the Last Story. My biggest disappointment was that each team plays through the same levels with the same layouts, fighting the same bosses. It makes for a lot of repetition between stories and feels low-effort (and even within levels there are reused chunks). They do try to vary it by tweaking things; Team Rose is sort of an easy mode, with shorter truncated levels and fewer enemies. Team Sonic is the normal mode with full levels including some bombastic setpieces. Team Chaotix is also shorter but has different kinds of objectives, like scavenger hunts or stealth missions which is a more fun and creative way to remix the content. The "hard mode" Team Dark chucks in more enemies (a fun way of increasing difficulty) but I think reduces the number of checkpoints (an unfun way).

As with SA2 we have a linear sequence of levels with no hub in between, but this structure is a better match for the more balanced pace and action-oriented design here. The streamlining doesn't make it feel dumbed down though, as the team dynamic adds some complexity. Each team has a speed, power, and flight character, and swapping who you're directly controlling (the current "leader") changes your abilities, for example the flight character stacks up the others and carries them, or the power character picks up their buddies to throw them. Each configuration has uses in and out of combat, often telegraphed by obtrusive signage. I found controlling all three at once a fun novelty and it's a great way to integrate a wide array of characters in playable form.

The three team members feel distinct, and swapping between them is immediate with the push of a button (all four face buttons finally have a unique use as of this game). Between teams the characters who fill those roles play basically the same with a tweak here and there, which contributes more to the samey feeling of replaying levels. There's also a level up mechanic where beating enemies and finding orbs incrementally powers up one of the three for the duration of the level, or until you die. It feels harsh to reset this when it's still easy to die from a platforming slip, but oh well.

Speaking of the platforming, Heroes has a fast pace. I've been told it's built on the same framework from SA2 but at the last minute they doubled the acceleration value... while the deceleration is unchanged. I did like the zippiness of the speed, but it can feel very slippery and skittish to control. Some speed characters still have a kind of spin dash move but it's not useful at all. Grind rails have a larger role in this game and despite some jankiness at times they have a good showing, with an effective railhopping mechanic and Jet Set Radio Future-like tricking to increase your speed.

Between normal levels are boss fights. Some just throw waves of enemies at you, another low-effort solution but I didn't mind it in the sense of it stretching the game's combat system and forcing you to engage with it. Others are battles against the other playable teams, which are extremely chaotic; whether it was my foes constantly stunlocking me or flinging themselves out of the arena for an instant defeat, I never felt in purposeful control of the flow of these messy bouts. The "proper" boss fights are few in number (there's a hoverplane, an expanded rematch with the same, and then an Eggman mech, plus the final giant Metal Sonic fight) and janky, but in a fun way. They have multiple targets to hit and incorporate chase sequences that are preferable to the design of simply waiting for your turn to deal damage. The problem is it's easily possible to die in the pursuit by falling into the game's ever-present death pits, thus starting the fight over again.

To unlock the final story requires gathering the Chaos Emeralds between all the stories, which means the return of special stages to the series. Vaguely inspired by Sonic 2's example, these have you running through a tube collecting orbs to catch up to the gem. Except only Act 2 of each zone actually has a chance for an emerald, Act 1's stages are just for earning more lives. And specific emeralds are locked to specific zones. And for some reason the third one is way harder than the others. Hrm. The physics and controls in these are also quite clumsy, especially if you try to flip around the ceiling of the tube. I was playing this game on Dolphin, and made use of savestates to make sure I didn't have to replay whole levels to clear these. My advice is to ignore the suggestion of the orb formations and just use the speed characters. I do have to give the special stages credit though for essentially inventing the boost system. It's no surprise that Dimps has reused and riffed on this specific stage type over their games, as they built on this mechanic to bring boosting to the main games with Rush.

The aesthetics of the game are interesting; they go for a colourful chunky look that more or less set a standard for Sonic's world going forward, including the introduction of the goofy Egg Pawns as Eggman's standard footsoldiers. It generally looks good, although character models both in and out of cutscenes are excessively shiny for some reason. It looks like everyone is either made of plastic or smeared with oil! It's honestly distracting, and a very odd choice.

Aurally the game's tunes are upbeat and inoffensive. Each team gets a vocal theme song that only plays during the credits; Team Sonic's super lame track gives a poor first impression and there's some Crush 40 dreck in there too, but Teams Rose and Chaotix have standout songs that are well worth a listen. Character voice acting is a little better than previous efforts, but there's a lot of repeated barks during gameplay on top of which the team members essentially have replaced Omochao with an overabundance of intrusive advice. I must also mention that once again Tails is voiced by an actual child and is at his most stilted; the manual actually states that he's 8 years old and I guess they wanted to drive that home? Why did they feel the need to give these funny animal cartoon characters definitive ages anyway?? Why is Rouge a sultry spy at 17 and Charmy a detective at 6???

Maybe it was the use of savestates saving me from too much pain (I tried to be sparing), but I'm coming out of this game with positive feelings. I think they made some good decisions when course-correcting from SA2, making a streamlined and breezy platformer with propulsive gimmicks, a fun team dynamic, and decent combat mechanics. It's still a 3D Sonic game so it's got a hefty share of jank, but it seemed solid enough to me to not cause undue frustration. My main problem was the repetition of content between stories, but I love the attempt at integrating a large cast in playable roles, something which disappeared completely from the 3D games immediately after this (until Dream Team I guess?) and only sporadically featured in 2D instalments. Now I just need to play Shadow and I'm finally ready for the recent games!

[cauchesque]

Hi, can you tell me about btrfs? It was a default choice for the filesystem when I installed fedora on my laptop and I read little bit about how it is different from like ext4 and what cool stuff it supports etc. But I newer, like, utilised all that stuff in it. So, if you don't mind, can you tell me what am I missing and how do I utilise it potential?

btrfs! what is btrfs? btrfs is a copy-on-write journaling filesystem with various other goodies. my experience is mostly using it on one disk on my personal machine, which seems to be what you're doing with it also. you may have heard some bad things about btrfs eating your data silently and then the mailing list being really mean about it, and all that is true but it's only true if you're using btrfs raid4 or raid5, which you aren't. for our use case there's absolutely nothing to fear- btrfs is an absolutely rock solid filesystem and i wouldn't accept any other for my daily driver

i was planning on writing this whole long thing summarizing my notes because when i was learning all this stuff i couldn't find any source that had everything i needed in one place. but that was 4 years ago, and since then fedora switched to using it by default. nowadays there are a bunch of articles explaining all the fundamental concepts and commands and such. the two linked at the bottom ive read and can vouch for, and they cover basically all the intuition for the concepts and commands and such. so im going to focus on cool things you can do with a COW filesystem

basically all the cool things you can do are snapshots. snapshots, better explained in the links, are lightweight copies of entire file trees. you can, for instance, take a snapshot of your home directory and then be able to access all your files at the time of the snapshot whenever you want, even if you change them in the "real" version. but you can do better than this. if your subvolume layout is correct (and don't worry, fedora's is), you can rollback to a previous snapshot whenever you want. with a little configuration you can make all your root snapshots bootable, so you can select in grub or whatever which version of your filesystem you want to boot into. with a little bit of doing, which im not sure is easy on fedora but certainly might be, i got my computer set up so that my boot directory is just a btrfs subvolume on my regular filesystem. if an update breaks my setup, which does happen from time to time, i can go back to exactly the state i was in, files packages kernel and all

you can and should use btrfs for your backups also. not local snapshots, those aren't very good backups, but incremental backups to an external drive or over ssh to another machine. for this i use btrbk, which is a pretty simple script that just makes use of btrfs features to make safe, fast, and reliable backups to wherever you might want them. then, because it's using native features of the filesystem, recovering from just about anything is dead simple. you can send over the subvolumes and mount them wherever. the one thing is that for most of these you need a bootable drive with btrfs and enough drivers to work on your system. whatever you used to install fedora should work fine

and with that you basically need fear no file loss event, big or small. i mean i wouldn't give up git or anything, but now you can retrieve your desktop layout, your browser settings, your /etc, whatever you want. its absolutely magic. since doing an install with this btrfs setup 4 years ago i have had absolutely nothing break in a way i couldn't fix in under 15 minutes, even running arch objectively badly. imagining life without snapshots feels barbaric now. its one of a handful of things which are just objectively better on linux for any user at any skill level. data loss is a choice, and it has been for almost a decade. take my hand

additional notes:

APFS: yeah apple has this too. time machine is a brilliant piece of software and the apple ppl are lucky to have it. however! i have needed to actually go back and use my backup like 2 times ever. most of the time i just use the snapshots locally. plus afaik you don't have the same range of options to deal with snapshot size- i dont hang onto my steam directory for very long

ZFS: if you need raid id say zfs is definitely better (zpool is awesome). but a lot of the things you can do with snapshots and subvolumes on btrfs aren't actually possible on zfs. a rollback on zfs is a very specific action which invalidates everything that came after- it's not to be done lightly. with btrfs you just move subvolumes around and they're available whenever you need them

encryption: its annoying but you should put your filesystem inside of lvm inside of LUKS and it'll work fine. its the same as using LUKS normally, and once it's open it's the same as using btrfs normally. this would probably suck for multiple disks, in which case you should use zfs

hibernation: use LVM to have a swap partition and call it a day, storage is cheap these days. ive heard swap files are improved somehow (?) but i dont use one and there really isn't any reason to

compression: imo not a showstopper or anything but it comes in handy. i wouldn't expect huge gains in space usage (storage is cheap anyway) but a lot of modern cpus are good enough at compression that it's actually faster to store everything compressed bc the bottleneck is disk IO. you can test what algorithm and level works best for you, and tune it by subvolume. on my nvme i dont notice a difference, but my server has some hard drives and compression speeds things up

[freebooter4ever]

fun fact, after all those renders i did yesterday, this one of his hand is my favorite and it annoys me. its fucking perfect - the lighting is correct, the subsurface 'wax' is perfect, the shadows are correct. AND ITS HIS HAND. lmao ;_; not that it isnt great that i successfully got one bit working but its extremely frustrating that in the end i couldnt quite get the shadows to work with both the skin, and the rest of the darker sections of the object. if i had patience i could composite the shadow pass on top of a second render of the scene without shadows, but i was really hoping to find a configuration of the program that would let me render the scene as a whole -_-

ANYWAY. that, right there, the interplay of the lines of the sculpt combined with the lines in the texture combined with the lines of light/shadow....thats exactly what i was going for. i want to see that style of render but in like an animation. if i go absolutely insane over the summer and turn this gif into an animation, dont be surprised.

[govindhtech]

Entra ID Lateral Movement And Expanding Permission Usage

Abusing Intimate Permissions for Lateral Movement and Privilege Escalation in Entra ID Native Environments: (In)tune to Takeovers

Recently, a client received assistance from the Mandiant Red Team in visualizing the potential consequences of an advanced threat actor breach. In order to compromise the tenant’s installed Entra ID service principals, Mandiant migrated laterally from the customer’s on-premises environment to their Microsoft Entra ID tenant during the evaluation.

Using a popular security architecture that involves Intune-managed Privileged Access Workstations (PAWs), we will discuss in this blog post a new method by which adversaries can move laterally and elevate privileges within Microsoft Entra ID by abusing Intune permissions (DeviceManagementConfiguration.ReadWrite.All) granted to Entra ID service principals. We also offer suggestions and corrective actions to stop and identify this kind of attack.

A pretext

The client had a well-developed security architecture that adhered to the Enterprise Access model suggested by Microsoft, which included:

An Active Directory-based on-premises setting that adheres to the Tiered Model.

A Microsoft Entra Connect Sync-synchronized Entra ID environment that synchronizes on-premises identities and groups with Entra ID. PAWs, which were completely cloud-native and controlled by Intune Mobile Device Management (MDM), were used to administrate this environment. They were not connected to the on-premises Active Directory system. To access these systems, IT managers used a specific, cloud-native (non-synced) administrative account. These cloud-native administrative accounts were the only ones allocated Entra ID roles (Global Administrator, Privileged Role Administrator, etc.).

A robust security barrier was created by separating administrative accounts, devices, and privileges between the Entra ID environment and the on-premises environment:

Because Entra ID privileged roles are associated with unique, cloud-native identities, a compromise of the on-premises Active Directory cannot be utilized to compromise the Entra ID environment. This is an excellent practice for Microsoft.

An “air gap” between the administration planes of the two environments is successfully created by using distinct physical workstations for administrative access to cloud and on-premises resources. Attackers find it very challenging to get through air gaps.

Strong Conditional Access regulations imposed by Privileged Identity Management assigned roles to the administrative accounts in Entra ID, necessitating multi-factor authentication and a managed, compliant device. Additionally, Microsoft recommends these best practices.

Attack Path

One of the objectives of the evaluation was to assign the Mandiant Red Team the task of obtaining Global Administrator access to the Entra ID tenant. Mandiant was able to add credentials to Entra ID service principals (microsoft.directory/servicePrincipals/credentials/update) by using a variety of methods that are outside the purview of this blog post. This gave the Red Team the ability to compromise any preloaded service principal.

There are a number well-known methods for abusing service principal rights to get higher permissions, most notably through the usage of RoleManagement.See AppRoleAssignment and ReadWrite.Directory.Application and ReadWrite.All.ReadWrite.All rights for Microsoft Graph.

However, the Mandiant Red Team had to reconsider their approach because none of these rights were being used in the customer’s environment.

Mandiant found a service principle that was given the DeviceManagementConfiguration after using the superb ROADTools framework to learn more about the customer’s Entra ID system.Go ahead and write.Permission is granted.Image credit to Google Cloud

The service principal is able to “read and write Microsoft Intune device configuration and policies” with this authorization.

Clients running Windows 10 and later can execute the unique PowerShell scripts used by Intune for device management. Administrators have an alternative to configuring devices with settings not accessible through the configuration policies or the apps section of Intune by using the ability to run scripts on local devices. When the device boots up, management scripts with administrator rights (NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM) are run.

The configuration of Device Management.Go ahead and write.To list, read, create, and update management scripts via the Microsoft Graph API, all permissions are required.

The Microsoft Graph API makes it simple to write or edit the management script. An example HTTP request to alter an existing script is displayed in the accompanying figure.PATCH https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/deviceManagement/ deviceManagementScripts/<script id> { "@odata.type": "#microsoft.graph.deviceManagementScript", "displayName": "<display name>", "description": "<description>", "scriptContent": "<PowerShell script in base64 encoding>", "runAsAccount": "system", "enforceSignatureCheck": false, "fileName": "<filename>", "roleScopeTagIds": [ "<existing role scope tags>" ], "runAs32Bit": false }

The caller can provide a display name, file name, and description in addition to the Base64-encoded value of the PowerShell script content using the Graph API. Depending on which principle the script should be run as, the runAsAccount parameter can be set to either user or system. RoleScopeTagIds references Intune’s Scope Tags, which associate people and devices. The DeviceManagementConfiguration can likewise be used to construct and manage them.Go ahead and write. Permission is granted.

The configuration of Device Management.Go ahead and write.By changing an existing device management script to run a PowerShell script under Mandiant’s control, Mandiant was able to go laterally to the PAWs used for Entra ID administration with full authorization. The malicious script is run by the Intune management script when the device reboots as part of the user’s regular workday.

By implanting a command-and-control device, Mandiant could give the PAWs any instructions. The Red Team obtained privileged access to Entra ID by waiting for the victim to activate their privileged role through Azure Privileged Identity Management and then impersonating the privileged account (for example, by stealing cookies or tokens). By taking these actions, Mandiant was able to fulfill the assessment’s goal and gain Global Administrator rights in Entra ID.

Remediation and Recommendations

To avoid the attack scenario, Mandiant suggests the following hardening measures:

Review your organization’s security principals for the DeviceManagementConfiguration.ReadWrite.All permission:  DeviceManagementConfiguration should be handled by organizations that use Microsoft Intune for device management.Go ahead and write.Since it grants the trustee authority over the Intune-managed devices and, consequently, any identities connected to the devices, all permissions are considered sensitive.

Mandiant advises businesses to routinely check the authorizations given to Azure service principals, with a focus on the DeviceManagementConfiguration.Along with other sensitive permissions (like RoleManagement), there is the ReadWrite.All permission.See AppRoleAssignment and ReadWrite.Directory.Application and ReadWrite.All.ReadWrite.All.

Businesses that manage PAWs with Intune should exercise extra caution when assigning Intune privileges (either via DeviceManagementConfiguration).Use Entra roles like Intune Role Administrator or ReadWrite.All.

Enable Intune’s multiple admin approval: Intune allows you to use Access Policies to demand a second administrator’s approval before applying any changes. By doing this, an attacker would be unable to use a single compromised account to create or alter management scripts.

Think about turning on activity logs for the Microsoft Graph API: Graph API Activity logs, which provide comprehensive details about Graph API HTTP requests made to Microsoft Graph resources, can be enabled to aid in detection and response efforts.

Make use of the features that Workload ID Premium licenses offer: With a Workload-ID Premium license, Mandiant suggests using these features to:

Limit the use of privileged service principals to known, reliable places only. By guaranteeing that only trustworthy places are used, this reduces the possibility of unwanted access and improves security.

Enable risk detections in Microsoft Identity Protection to improve service principal security. When risk factors or questionable activity are found, this can proactively prohibit access.

Keep an eye on service principal sign-ins proactively: Monitoring service principal sign-ins proactively can aid in identifying irregularities and possible dangers. Incorporate this information into security procedures to set off notifications and facilitate quick action in the event of unwanted access attempts.

Mandiant has a thorough grasp of the various ways attackers may compromise their target’s cloud estate with some hostile emulation engagements, Red Team Assessments, and Purple Team Assessments.

Read more on Govindhtech.com

[fortunerobotic]

5 Arduino Courses for Beginners

Robotics, automation, and do-it-yourself electronics projects have all been transformed by Arduino, an open-source electronics platform. Entering the world of Arduino may seem intimidating to novices, but the correct course may make learning easier and more fun. 

Arduino Step-by-Step: Getting Started (Udemy)

This extensive Udemy course is designed for complete novices. It provides an overview of Arduino's fundamentals, describing how the platform functions and assisting students with easy tasks like using sensors and manipulating LEDs.

Key Highlights:

thorough explanations for novices.

practical projects with practical uses.

instructions for configuring and debugging your Arduino board.

Introduction to Arduino (Coursera)

The main objective of this course is to introduce Arduino programming with the Arduino IDE. It goes over the fundamentals of circuits, programming, and connecting various parts, such as motors and sensors.

Key Highlights:

instructed by academics from universities.

access to a certificate of completion and graded assignments.

Concepts are explained in length but in a beginner-friendly manner.

Arduino for Absolute Beginners (Skillshare)

For those who want a quick introduction to Arduino, this brief project-based course is perfect. You'll discover how to configure and program your Arduino board to produce interactive projects.

Key Highlights:

teachings in bite-sized chunks for speedy learning.

simple projects for beginners, such as sound sensors and traffic light simulations.

Peer support and community conversations.

Exploring Arduino: Tools and Techniques for Engineering Wizardry (LinkedIn Learning)

This course delves deeply into Arduino programming and hardware integration, drawing inspiration from Jeremy Blum's well-known book. It is intended to provide you with the skills and resources you need to produce complex projects.

Key Highlights:

advice on creating unique circuits.

combining displays, motors, and sensors.

Code optimization and debugging best practices.

Arduino Programming and Hardware Fundamentals with Hackster (EdX)

This course, which is being offered in partnership with Hackster.io, covers the basics of Arduino hardware and programming. You may experiment with real-world applications because it is project-based.

Key Highlights:

Course materials are freely accessible (certification is optional).

extensive robotics and Internet of Things projects.

interaction with teachers and other students in the community.

Arduino is a great place to start if you want to construct a robot, make a smart home gadget, or just pick up a new skill. The aforementioned courses accommodate a variety of learning preferences and speeds, so every novice can discover the ideal fit. Select a course, acquire an Arduino starter kit, and set out on an exciting adventure into programming and electronics!

To know more, click here.

[summeroffice]

Власть vs Влащенко

[Black and white] [Podolyak is sitting on top of the table, holding his phone, and Vlaschenko is standing. They have historic guns on display on the wall. He is wearing the ring.] 

0:09 Ukrainian history, like any other, is a complete mythology, the modern history. Well, and not modern as well. They say that the most influential person in the office is the one who goes to the president most often [he nods]. Who goes to the president most often at this stage [he smiles]? 

You know the answer perfectly well. Mr. Yermak goes most often and of course he, together with the president determines the aspects of internal and foreign policy. And in my opinion, this is a correctly constructed vertical. That is, when there is a person with strategy, well, that is, the one who determines the course and there is a person who is nearby all the time in the operational management.

Well, that is, he understands what verticals need to be built to solve problems and this is what he does. This configuration is understandable especially in the conditions of a total crisis. We are experiencing a total crisis. War is undoubtedly the collapse of certain of our old ideas about life. This is the formation of new ones. And at this moment a quick solution is needed to implement just as quickly.  

6:56 You are talking about columns of new young brilliant politicians who walk around there somewhere [he shakes head] and who even put on, so to speak, the clothes of a genius. They will be at the elections, it is clear. Do you see yourself in one of these columns? 

I have other ambitions.  

What kind? 

I... Ambitions... [Touches his ear] I honestly am not yet ready to say what needs to be done next in terms of forming the right... Well, what we will talk about later or talked about from the point of view of forming the correct elite perception of Ukraine so that our partners would understand us correctly.  

I still did not understand what kind of ambitions you have. Do you want to take part in this process, forming of the correct-- 

I think... Whether I don't want or want, it is an objective process, you're already participating, you are already forming the understanding... 

In the future, do you see yourself in these places? 

[Hesitantly] I think yes. Most likely so.  

[Coloured] [It seems to be the same place with a lot of plants as at the previous interview; however, there is no cozy yellow light but a cold white one instead. They are both sitting at a table.] 

11:25 [They're discussing Trump] When we speak about sentiment, you always count on an attachment to you. It is wrong for global behaviour. For global behaviour, it is correct to build everything on your competences, on how you can be useful. Partners.  

17:06 [Black and white] There is another mythology, the myth that [he blinks] Mr. Arestovych [blinks again] continues to work with the Office of the President. To what extent does this correspond to reality?  

[He touches his ear] It does not correspond to reality at all. But to be honest, I don't even understand why we mention him all the time [because of the attachment that you mentioned earlier]. 

That is, he has his own information field, he probably works within the framework of his future and has every right to do so, just like any other person has every right, but to be honest, as far as I understand, today his influence is completely absent on the processes that are taking place in Ukraine. But again, he has the right to think that he influences everything more than he does [he smiles; it's a toothy smile, he suddenly perks up] 

You don't communicate with him? 

No.  

No. That is, there is no one to tell him the truth. Whether he influences or not.  

You know, the truth is a very subjective parameter [touches his thigh and places his phone on the table]. For you and me the truth will be different because I generally believe that there are objective processes and there are processes that you think are objective that really precisely are elements of your personal truth. It's exactly the same with him.  

In a sense, this is true and, in some sense, this is not true because yes, there are processes on which you can have different views. But if you now or I put my hand in the door, the fact that it will hurt is an objective reality.  

[Touches his ear] These are different things. Look, you are talking about the physical, and I am talking about subjective perception, right, that is, about the emotional, about what you think about yourself. The problem of many people; the problem of many people is not that they are ready or not ready to put their hand in the door, right [smiles].  

The problem of many people is that they don't know themselves and they believe that... Well, they have a certain bubble in which they themselves immerse themselves, this is not a bad concept of the existence of people. And accordingly, they believe that this bubble is interesting to everyone. But it is not interesting to anyone. Or is interesting to someone or a certain audience and so on but this doesn't mean that... 

Well, knowing yourself is a hard work.  

Of course.  

Nobody wants to do hard work.  

Of course.  

29:05 [Black and white] The main problem of modern humanity is the desire for quick and easy income. It seems to you that you have done some small report and everybody already loves you, everyone knows you, you already influence everything, you determine global political processes.  

They are called fast carbohydrates.  

This is not so. Well, fast carbohydrates, by the way, sometimes they're useful. You can eat an apple at night, it's useful. But let's say in this situation we are talking about something else. We are talking about the fact that informationally many people perceive themselves extremely...

That is, they do not love their real selves, but they love their imaginary self. This is a problem of modern civilisation. Many people sell imaginary images. And when at some point it turns out that the imaginary image does not correspond to what you wanted to sell and they don't buy it. This is the tragedy that then leads people to psychoanalysis, to psychotherapy [he smiles] and so on. Therefore, many by the way... 

Do you have a psychotherapist? 

No. For what? 

You have never consulted a psychotherapist? 

No [shakes head].  

It's just that... 

I can conduct psychotherapy sessions myself, therefore [he laughs].

If you believe our wonderful psychiatrist [Олег] Чабан, he says that every other our person has PTSD, therefore I, it's a question without a catch.  

[Touches his ear] Oh, this is a more complex problem, this is a problem of a person's adaptive properties. That is, how much you tolerate correct or incorrect crisis, how do you form certain accents. There are very few people who can actually independently correctly experience even crisis situations. I mean individual crisis situations. But you have to work with this.  

Have you ever wanted to take revenge on someone? 

Why? 

No? 

Why [shakes head]? The principle of life is a little different. If you want to be successful, the very fact of success is essentially revenge on other people if there's some kind of need for that. That is, when you don't pay attention to it, then precisely not paying attention-- 

It is offensive, yes [he nods]. 

--winds people up. They start to get nervous and they start making mistakes. And then a very interesting situation turns out. You progress because you don't waste time on unnecessary things, you don't divert energy, resources and so on, and he is degrading because he spends time worrying about your success. 

36:08 Elite is not the realisation of your ambitions. It is not an argument with your own, who of them is more important and so on. It is not an insult to everyone around and so on. /.../ You can't force something to be done. I understand that the concepts of, let's say managerial authoritarianism, many people like them, right, and there is even the concept of the personality factor in history which can implement something.  

No, for successful projects there must be a general atmosphere that is different. That is, people must make their own decisions, yes, we want to have different principles of government management, we want to clearly understand whether we will build the government with a large socialist flair. /.../ People must decide it for themselves.  

39:21 [Black and white] Can there be a winner in such a bloody war? I don't even mean this war now, although it too. But in principle, in general, historically, if you look at the process.  

It's not even like that. You should have asked otherwise. Can the loser be the one who is right? No, never [shakes head]. You will always end up winning the war.  

39:54 Well, that is, even losses in such a war, it will still be a point of growth. Well, it doesn't matter, the loss of territories or the loss of something else.  

There are not going to be any losses. The only loss in any crisis is the time during which you will solve this problem. That is, it can be short, it can be longer. The correct decisions that unfortunately were not made in 2014, they would have been sharply reduced and you would have been a winner then. Correct decisions of the global community in 2008 would have sharply reduced the problems of today and the crisis would have been different. There would have been other crises, and so on.  

42:20 Nobody is ever interested in anyone’s success in any professional community.  

[He is fidgeting] You should not be angry at this. This is standard human behaviour. 

Of course. Standard human behaviour is the competition, the nature of it.  

The standard human behaviour is to reduce the aggressiveness of the environment by non-competitive methods. Again, by non-competitive methods. He doesn't want to compete with you. Any person doesn't want to compete with you in intelligence, efficiency, readiness to change depending on environmental conditions. As soon as he receives some kind of tool, for example some extremely aggressive community that can attack and hate you, he will use it. Don't expect quality competition in any direction [he's smiling]. For Ukraine, it's even harder.  

43:54 I even heard this version that this is also why they don't really want to take us to NATO because-- 

We will dominate, yes.  

Yes, we will dominate there.  

52:38 [Black and white] What is the name of your profession? Specifically, if a child asked you, Mykhailo, what do you do? 

Let's have a beautiful name. Consultant [he smiles]. I consult-- 

It immediately reminds me of Bulgakov. Remember, there was also a consultant there [working title of "The Master and Margarita" was "Consultant with a Hoof"] [Mykhailo is laughing].  

In fact, this is an interesting profession and it seems to be that it is very necessary and will always be needed. It won't die because you will always need something fresh in any business no matter what the community. Does your profession have red lines and what are they? 

It is not that consultations will be necessary. You will determine the direction, no matter whether informational, economic, strategic. That is, you will cut off the unnecessary if you correctly structure your profession, you will cut off the unnecessary from people, illusions. Illusions often create problems. This is the role of a consultant; to cut off illusions. Not just tell something-- 

Or to replace someone's illusions with your own. 

These are the red lines. The red lines, there are some. Narcissism that gives rise to these illusions that you perceive as objective reality. These are your illusions. /.../ This is the problem of consultation. That is, you need to clearly understand the objective process. It does not depend on what you think about yourself or what you want to offer someone. Your task is to cut off his illusions.

Show him real scenarios, show him that within the framework of these scenarios he will have to take such and such actions. And all these actions that he needs to take, you must build it so that these actions do not infringe on other people. This is the second red line. As soon as you start, first a little, later more, and more, to live at the expense of someone else, that's it, you're destroyed. 

Well, this is romanticism and not the real-- 

No, why? Cynicism.  

Romanticism, I said.  

No, you are hinting at the fact that a consultant needs to be-- Cynicism, yes. Certainly. Because you can achieve your goals if you're smart absolutely right without infringing on other people's rights.  

57:35 Well, let's not forget the state of the society. War is an extremely destructive psycho-emotional factor. It greatly stresses people out. There is uncertainty, broken social ties, it is not clear what to do next, leave the children in this country, send them somewhere because these conversations about negotiations on Russia's terms, they seem to clearly say, why then live here? Well, Russia won't leave Ukraine alone.  

This is all a different psycho-emotional background and against this background of course people perceive everything more aggressively and you need to understand this and you need not to be offended by the fact that you may sometimes be asked, that they unjustifiably ask a sore question.  

58:21 [Black and white] The success of one person always infringes on someone's interests, the interests of mediocre people, the interests of people who wanted to be in your place.

Let's go back to revenge and hate. This is the paradox. You do not infringe on the real interests of real people. You infringe on the ego of people who are without validity. But infringe-- 

But who's going to figure it out where is the ego and where there is something else? 

You will figure it out yourself. That is, you asked about the red lines. That is, you yourself will prioritise this for yourself, this is unacceptable. And accordingly, you will not move where it is unacceptable. Why? Because why? That is, the price of the issue. Then you are engaged in destruction itself.  

That is, if you get profitability by infringing on someone, by unfairly infringing on someone, we are not talking about ego, not about fair competition when you give ideas, they are better, when you give the implementation of these ideas, it is better, when you give a scenario which is much more effective, you do not infringe on anyone, you offer a competitive product.  

But as soon as you start to infringe on it at the expense of non-competitive-- And by the way, in Ukraine very many due to non-competitive opportunities, accordingly then you cross the red line. It's just a question of your profitability. Sooner or later your profitability, look, it's always depletion. If you live only at the expense of let's say wrong strategy, you are exhausted and you're not a competitor.  

1:00:59 Reputation does not play any role, unfortunately. This is on the one hand. But on the other hand, what is reputation in Ukraine when there is a lot of lying hate there? Well, when people just make things up, when they ascribe to you what you are not doing, when they attribute to you those motives that you don't have? When they even come up with a biography for you that has nothing to do with you at all. That is, there is no reputation. It has been forgotten. Unfortunately. If there were reputational component, it would look a little different. Everything would look a little different.  

1:08:04 I follow many [political processes] [they're talking about presidential elections] and I am sure that they have good chances, to put it mildly. Good chances for building a party, full-fledged parties. I'll say a little about something else. Look, the next political season will be unusual. Many fear that it will be full of violence, suffering, internal disputes, but it won't be like that. On the contrary, there will be a clearly structured political process, there will be very interesting political parties and they will quickly--  

Many who today think that they have leadership positions there will not be such. On the contrary, a very high-quality young generation of politicians will appear. That is, it will be the revolutionary process of renovation again. Not a bad process in my opinion, it will lead to the formation of what we spoke earlier.  

Even theoretically, I can't imagine high-quality young politicians who will appear tomorrow.  

1:12:00 [Black and white] Everything we do in this world, we want to be effective, successful, something else. Profitable, as you say. This is in order to feel, in short, so that the battery fills up and to feel happy. Therefore, in the end, the question is simple. What is happiness, Mykhailo? 

The answer is even simpler. Happiness in only those people who love you. Only. Books, career, I don't know, films, realisation - these are important elements so that you don't feel discriminated against and so that they really look at you sincerely and in love. But happiness is only those who love you. 

[llort]

I am just going to put the TLDR at the start of the post as realistically the only person who will read the whole thing is me. TLDR: All I am saying is that unless you have a clear and logical system to help you work towards reproducibly work towards sustainable levels of self actualization, it is just unlikely that most people will ever get to that part of Maslow's pyramid scheme in the same way that most people won't complete something of quality compared to an engineering project in their lifetime

There is unfortunately a high level of weaponized autism that went into developing Unsignificant Sentience and in particular a form of axiomatic practical philosophy and frame/existential/perspective/personal engineering. The amount of possible iterations of functional ME0000 configurations is essentially infinite and endlessly customizable and optimized.

Typically by the default grace that you are human and hopefully viable as a biological organism, you would typically be somewhere in the very top peak of that ^ diagram in your day life. US allows you to transcend your normal mental, cognitive, and physical limitations and push past the usual glass ceiling of geodisc possible EGC splines and potential states of excellence just due to the mathematical almost deductive certainty of having a cohesive, robust, and constantly adaptive/optimized re memetic and genetic algorithmic systems based on the cybernetic construct of an actualized cyberphysical viable system model which is the gold standard control and communication theory of self managing entities.

There are two sets of five axioms that I always have loaded no matter how badly I get mindfucked and destroyed by reoccurring depressive phases. They are,

Five: “Laws of Observation and Action”

1. There is always a bigger picture.

2. There is always another level of detail.

3. There is always another perspective.

4. There is always error.

5. There is always the unexpected.

Existential Consequences of Merely Existing

a) I exist

 b) I am alive and/or experiencing something

c) What I do or think matters or has consequences somehow

d) I have some level of agency

e) There is something other than me

Taken together these sets of axioms provide a robust outlook to adapt to external objective, subjective, and abstract reality. Given that I am blatantly an unashamed strong monist, the environment and I/you any VSM is one and the same internally and externally.

The AAMP is a heuristic that I developed to deal with my ADHD as it is a good metric for exactly what I am focusing on when I want to focus on something else in in another certain way. It is just a fact of reality and how our consciousness evolved that there are just different non-modal ways we can pay attention to ourselves and our environment

AAMP – Attentional Awareness Model Perception

Awareness of focus subjective substrate

Awareness of foci of focus

Awareness of circumstantial NWF correlates emergent in conscious awareness

IESOA splines are a good axiom to consider as typically you, and you know this, view yourself as the happy little subjective center of the universe. This is not correct, the center of the universe is where the point is and the point can be anywhere. In fact many people miss the point.

IESOA Splines

Allocentric

Exocentric

Egocentric In order to deal with the fact that I have to do so much shit to remain viable as a human, the BH, aka the behavioral hierarchy provides a default set of behavior and non finite endpoints to work towards when I just either don't know what to do nor do I have anything to do. Basically the pointless radiant quests in Skyrim. But applying the BH always means that my cognition and behavior always means I am acting in accordance my morals, ethics, and values

BH

a) JMC and PMC management

b) Active Attention/Focus

c) Mindmap/Meditation/MR/CBT/AE

d) Exercise and PMC Management

e) Projects and Autonomy

f) Study and HISE

g) Communication, Subvocalisation, Personas Systems

h) Contingencies, Preplanning, Prevention and IRS

i) Entertainment, Mindfulness/Mediation and Content Creation

j) Self Actualization

k) IO (Self Care)

l) OMA 7 (Offensive Meta Heuristics)

h) TPHU (Trans/Posthuman Undertaking)

There is my view of the totality of nature, which I am in perfect accordance with https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Baruch_Spinoza view that "god" is just the sum total of

Emergent Meta Awareness

1 EO - External Objective

2 IO - Internal Objective

3 ES - External Subjective

4 IS - Internal Subjective

5 IA - Internal Abstract

6 EA - External Abstract 

which is to say the entirety of existence. Unfortunately I just had to go a step further and define new ontological metaphysical categories which are

Gestalt Cognitive Perception

1 G-IS/EO

2 G-ES/IS-IA-IO

3 G-EA/IS-IA-IO

4 G-EO/IS-IA-IO

5 G-IS/IA-IO

6 EISOA/IS-3, 4

US just doesn't work out as logically and ontologically consistent if I don't establish fuzzy gestalt boundaries between certain "modes" of reality and conscious experience. I just simply don't believe that humans as we are currently in the process of biological and cultural evolution as well as technological developments, are fully conscious in the way that consciousness could be like if we took steps towards remedying issues such as how remembering things actually edits those memories in the form of a weird Mendalla effect. There are just so many things about the human mind that are just shit in their implementation and execution and I firmly believe that US can allow humanity to develop both cognitively and technologically towards just a plain better state of exitance and self awareness.

On a good day (which I admit are rare), it is possible for me to emulate mental reconstruction of the very biological anatomy and physiology that underlie the process of mental reconstruction and general perception/self awareness. I have encountered situations where I observe my conscious attention observing the peripheral neurological processes associated with perception suddenly perceive the perception of self perception of observing self observing self recursively. All I can say that it is fucking weird, and I assume it is something proponents of Buddhism experience all the time. No wonder most monks say that meditation is better than LSD.

Also look, the MM is color coded in a pretty way

And is able to accommodate basically any qualia, mathematical concept, and bullshit like this

and even more bullshit detail regarding fractal dimensions, morse code, information and music theory, haptic feedback, and general other mind-numbing inane shit which is essentially autistic crack for me.

Please help me I am so alone

[tup-ika-5385]

Summary:

Taking a nervous breath, Tup approached the hangar bay, gearbag slung over his shoulder, all packed for his new mission. Recently, Captain Rex recommended him as a potential ARC candidate, which had him nearly vibrating in excitement. However, he didn’t have as much experience as some of the other applicants, so he’s been assigned a mission, a trial run of sorts, to see how he’d do fighting alongside someone outside the 501st. All this to explain Tup’s anxious anticipation as he approached the Omicron-class shuttle currently parked in the Resolute’s main hangar.

Chapter 2 Summary:

After some stakeout bonding time between the Bad Batch and Tup, tensions rise when one member goes missing.

Chapter 2:

“So, Tech,” Tup asked, breaking the awkward silence that had settled since Hunter left a few minutes ago. “How do you guys typically organize in a standard attack formation? Most configurations I know start with five troopers, so I’m just trying to figure out where I should slot in if this comes down to a firefight.” He wisely didn’t ask about why they were a group of four, or even if they were from the same batch; he figured it’d be a touchy subject.

Wrecker interrupted with a laugh. “Ha, standard formation! Dunno if you noticed, but we’re not very standard ourselves!” He chuckled.

Rolling his eyes good-naturedly, Tup sent Wrecker a grin; the larger trooper reminded him a little bit of Hardcase. If he were here, they would’ve gotten along like a ship on fire.

Adjusting his goggles, Tech nodded at Wrecker’s statement. “Wrecker is correct; as a Commando squadron, our attack formations vary significantly from standard. Instead, we use a series of plans, numbered one through 99, having memorized our positions and responses… well, most of us, that is.”

At this, Wrecker gave a sheepish grin. “Was never really much for studying; but if I’ve done it once, I can do it again pretty easily, so Hunter’ll usually just say “Like that time on Felucia” or something. That, or I can just smash ‘em to pieces!” 

Tup nodded in understanding, making sure to keep an eye on their objective, “Makes sense. One of my brothers in the 501st is like that. Sometimes he has trouble paying attention during our mission briefings, so the Captain would usually send him a quick written comm afterwards, summarizing the main objectives. He’s saved my life more than a few times. A good vod, quick on his feet.” 

Wrecker grinned, “Sounds like my kind of Reg!”

“I’ve been meaning to ask, what is a “reg”?” Tup tilted his head questioningly. Earlier when Crosshair had called him that, he’d been sure he meant it as an insult, but he wasn’t getting the same vibe from Wrecker now.

“Means regular clone, ya know, without modifications and stuff.” Wrecker explained, shrugging.

Tup stifled a laugh, not wanting to come off as rude. “Heh. Most brothers I know would be hard-pressed to call anyone in the 501st regular.”  

“How come?” Wrecker asked.

Tup shrugged, “Probably partially because of our General. Skywalker’s a bit of a loose canon, compared to most jedi, and a lot of the larger battalions kinda imitate the styles of their generals. Plus, Captain Rex is always looking for free-thinkers when he recruits on Kamino, which gets us a pretty interesting mix of vode.” 

Humming in understanding, Tech spoke up. “Perhaps that is why Commander Cody suggested a joint mission. We don’t usually associate with other battalions, but GAR command has been looking to… adjust the leadership structures associated with Commando squads recently. It’s likely that he thought we’d have more luck finding cohesion with less… regular regs.” He considered, thinking to himself.

Giving another shrug, Tup looked back out the window. The Bad Batch was a little rough around the edges, but given what he’d seen so far, he wouldn’t mind working with them again. The group fell into silence again, this time a little more comfortably. Wrecker had taken’s Hunter’s place as the second lookout, aided somewhat by the infrared setting on his prosthetic eye, so Tup spent a few minutes listening to Tech as he explained a few of their more basic plans, sending them to Tup’s comm in case they became relevant.

Peering through his scopes again, Tup let out an excited noise. “There’s a lothcat!”

‘What? Where?!” Wrecker asked, sharing his excitement.

“Over there, on the edge of the supply field!”

Looking through his own pair of scopes, Wrecker grinned. “Aww, look at the little guy, takin’ a nap in the sun! Kinda looks like Crosshair on our mission to Ord Cestus.” 

Tup chuckled at the mental image, noticing the black and white coloring and permanent grumpy expression on its sleeping face.

All of a sudden, Tech’s comm chirped, like Crosshair had been summoned. Tech answered it with a look of confusion. “This is Tech, what’s your status, Crosshair?”

Crosshair’s gruff voice sounded annoyed as he asked, “When’s Hunter going to get his lazy shebs over here? I’ve been waiting for nearly 20 minutes.” 

Like a switch had been flipped, Tech’s form straightened nearly hard enough to snap. Tapping intently at his datapad, he scanned the security footage for his brother. “Hunter left right after we called you. He should have been there fifteen minutes ago.”

“Maybe he got lost?” Wrecker suggested, looking nervous.

Tech shook his head, “Unlikely. Hunter’s modifications give him awareness of a planet’s magnetic poles, meaning he is always aware of his cardinal directions.” 

“Well, let’s go looking for him!” Wrecker said, standing up, barely remembering his flimsy civvie disguise. The rest of the group quickly followed. Crosshair met them in the middle, taking the lead; without Hunter, his enhanced vision made him the best tracker they had. 

“There’s signs of a scuffle, here.” He pointed out disturbed dirt, noticing two pretty clear imprints where Hunter’s hands had been pressed into the ground, but they looked different, intentional. 

“Tech. What’s that symbol mean?” He asked their resident genius. Outside of ARC sign, Hunter and Tech had come up with their own shorthand for various status updates, and that’s likely what Hunter was trying to communicate when he got taken.

Tech leaned closer, adjusting his goggles to get a better look. “This one means ‘Enemy off radar,’ and this one… ‘Extreme caution, pursue objective at a distance.’” Of the three of them, Tech was usually the best at keeping his cool in stressful situations, Wrecker and Crosshair could be loose-cannons, but his forehead creased in worry as he tried to decipher the message. 

“Enemy off-radar? What’s that supposed to mean?” Tup asked, and Crosshair shrugged.

With a sudden intake of air, Tech had a realization. “He didn’t sense them coming." Tech's hands gestured wildly as he explained, becoming more animated. "Hunter’s enhancements grant him an awareness of everything within a kilometer of his surroundings, sometimes more. Sneaking up on him should not have been possible without some sort of experimental technology. Perhaps that’s how the medical supplies keep getting stolen!” 

“What about the second one then?” Crosshair asked, expression terse. 

“Well, objective could mean our mission objective, to discover who has been stealing the medical supplies. Hunter being taken implies that we were likely being watched, and if I am correct…” Tech paused, taking out his datapad again to look at the camera feed of the hangar where the supplies should be. “As I suspected, our opponent utilized our distraction to escape with the supplies once again.”

Wrecker let out a grunt of frustration, slamming a fist into a nearby wall. “So all this was for nothin’?”

“Hardly,” Tech said, glancing furtively around the alleyway. “But before I can say more, we should head back to the Marauder. It’s not far from here.”

_________________

Back at the Havoc Marauder, the Bad Batch plus Tup gathered around the holo-table. 

“Alright, what was so important that we had to wait until we were at the ship?” Crosshair griped, jaw tight with worry. 

“I just need to check the Marauder’s surveillance systems to confirm my hypothesis.” Tech said, not pausing to talk. After a moment, he made an affirmative noise before turning back to the rest of the group.

“I had noticed, when looking at the feed of the missing supplies, a strange anomaly that wasn’t visible before, that disappeared during the time that Hunter went missing. Using the Marauder’s systems, I was able to pinpoint the time the anomaly first started, as well as a general location. Using this information, as well as that from the locators Crosshair tagged the supplies approximately six hours ago, I was able to determine a likely location for Hunter. Thankfully, it appears they were not monitoring us when we first arrived, so only some of them were detected,” Tech said, adjusting his goggles.

“Locators?” Tup asked at the same time that Wrecker asked, “How do ya’ know that Hunter’s going to be there?” 

“The second symbol,” Tech brought up a holopic of the signs Hunter had left in the dirt. “‘Extreme Caution; Pursue objective at a distance.’ Hunter obviously had reason to believe that his pursuers were the ones who had taken the supplies, and that our methods to locate them would aid in our efforts to find him. I am a little concerned about this first part, though… especially given Hunter’s likely location.”

“Well, where is he, already?” Wrecker groaned. 

“Given what we know, this is the most likely location. Three of the trackers were likely discovered and removed in-transit, but the last one continued here.” He pointed to their map.

Crosshair jutted his chin proudly with a smirk, glad to finally have an objective. “They always stop looking after three.”

“Indeed,” Tech nodded. “However, I’m not able to pull up any surveillance camera for Hunter’s location, and from what I can tell, the warehouse has some unusual modifications, almost like it’s prepared for an incursion.”

“Let’s go then. We’ve wasted enough time.” Crosshair slid his rifle out from behind him, nearly out the door before Tup spoke. 

“Crosshair, wait. We have no idea what we’re up against. We should at least try and do some recon first.”

Crosshair’s nails dug into his palms; body screaming for action. They needed to save Hunter now! And instead of going where they were needed, he had to stand around and explain his reasoning to some stupid reg? The idea of anyone other than Hunter giving him orders already made Crosshair vehemently angry, let alone a kriffing adiik they’d only met a day ago!

Standing in the doorway to the main cabin of the marauder, Tup’s sympathetic tone felt like a patronizing slap in the face. “Crosshair, I know you want to help Hunter, but we need to make a plan. We can’t just go charging in there. You heard what Tech said; we have no idea what we’re walking into; it’d be jareor. Suicide.”

He pushed past Tup with more force than necessary, glaring ice-cold daggers at him. “If you disagree with it, shove off and go back to the 501st. We don’t need you dragging us down.” He snapped bitterly, smacking away Tup’s careful hand. 

Tup straightened defensively, refusing to take this lying down. Crosshair could get his whole team killed if they went in blindly. “Whether you need me or not, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m here, and I’m here to help. So if you’ve got a problem, di’kut, don’t take it out on me!”

Softer, he continued. “We’ll get Hunter back, but not like this… we’ll do some surveillance, maybe even call reinforcements, if we need them.”

Turning back around, Crosshair’s shoulders were tight as a cord as he adjusted the toothpick in his mouth, voice hardening to hide the shard of helplessness in his chest. “And why shouldn’t I take it out on you?” He asked casually. “Because it’ll hurt your feelings? Because it’s not fair? Because you think you’re worth something, you ARC wannabe?”

He faced Tup now, shoving him as he spat out a toothpick, broken in his anger. “Let me tell you something, reg ,” he sneered. “You and your opinions aren’t worth a kriff . You think you’re an individual? That you’ve got something to contribute? We’re clones, products, replaceable to the last gene; Even our squad, Clone Force 99, could be wiped clean on a whim if it suited the GAR. To anyone outside of this room, Hunter’s as good as worthless, just like the rest of us, and I’m not waiting for nat-borns to sift through their kriff while he bleeds out in some cell!” 

Crosshair knew better than to hope for reinforcements; Clone Force 99 was on their own, just like they always were. One friendly reg wasn’t going to change that.

As Crosshair hissed the word “product,” images of Umbara came up in Tup’s mind. Sense memory came unbidden, and something inside Tup snapped. “You think I don’t already know that?!” 

“I-If any of us were worth something, battles like Teth, Kamino, Umbara wouldn’t have turned into complete FUBAR’s, and my batcher wouldn’t still wake up screaming, thinking he’d been taken away for doing the right thing! I figured all that out long before you got here, but getting yourself killed isn’t going to help Hunter!” 

He refused to let his eyes tear up like they wanted to, focusing on his anger rather than the crushing helplessness he always felt when a brother was taken from him. 

A small warning bell went off in Crosshair’s mind, alerting him to the fact that he’d overstepped. He wanted to ignore it, kriff he really did, but at some point during their argument, Tup’s hair had come undone and seeing another flash of brokenness in a face so similar to Hunter’s was something he couldn’t do, not right now.

So with a put-upon sigh, Crosshair extended an olive branch in the only way he knew how. He turned to Tup, no longer angry and attacking, and asked, “What did you have in mind?”

Chapter 1 Link: Here

[lairofdragonagelore]

The Crossroads [DLC Trespasser]: Abandoned Chateau

One of the many eluvians in the crossroads allows us to reach an abandoned Chateau without name which location is unknown to us. It’s only hinted that the eluvian they had acquired used to be placed in Tevinter.

[This is part of the series “Playing DA like an archaeologist”]

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

We find an Andraste statue around the corner of the statue of the Sun-head creature which introduces us to a chamber decorated like an Orlesian Chateau. It has an active eluvian. Cole says that we are going to head to a place that “is not” anymore; this is Cole’s style to say “abandoned”. But it’s also curious to think that this eluvian used to give access somewhere in Tevinter. In that case, the decoration around the eluvian should have been more Tevinter, if this hypothesis of the reflection around the mirror is correct, of course. Unless it changed when the eluvian was transported to this abandoned Chateau. So, if all these hypothesis are correct, the Crosroads are not like the Fade in the sense that it reflects the waking world entirely, but maybe they do it around the eluvians.

The inside of this Chateu reminds me a lot to the Chateau D’Onterre, which library looked very similar [of course, this must be just a reuse of assets and configurations of environments]. In this place we have several codices: Book of Butterflies, which seems to be a present from Dutchess Lutetia to someone who liked butterflies.

In the corridor, there is A Faded Letter, unsent and written a month before the Breach, where we learn that Yoan, a collector, acquired an eluvian found in Tevinter after an earthshake uncovered an elven ruin. This explains why this eluvian sends us to an Orlesian Chateau. This also makes us aware that there are more elvhen ruins in Tevinter underground.

This place is now abandoned due to the War of the Lions. The author of the faded letter said he would recover the mirror once he was established in Val Royeaux, but since Trespasser occurs two years after the inquisition, it seems safe to assume this noble may have died along the road or simply forgot to recover it.

When we reach to the end of the corridor, we find this chamber with ancient andrastian statues, the stylised orlesian dog statues, and what tells us a bit of story: the symbol of the blind men. We know this symbol appears where smuggling is done. We find it in Hissing Wastes as well as Crestwood and Storm Coast, in places where smuggling by pirates has been done. So, it’s seems safe to assume this Chateau is now used by smugglers.

The room presents the typical over decorated style of Orlais: eluvian-esque doors and windows, patterns in gold on the wall, extremely decorated tables that have been used in elvhen ruins and Ferelden fortress too, so this is more a reusable asset.

In a corner, we see a lot of objects that may have belonged to the Chateau and they are being smuggled, or simply this is the activity of the smugglers who had piled up all the elements they have so far.

The patterns on the wall are quite interesting. We have the mask inspired in the  Dalish mask, and arabesques in gold, that, ironically, represent a thorny vine.

Close to the old andrastian statues, we find Illustrated Periodical, where some orlesian family will marry another family from Denerim, and therefore the heraldry and the fashion of the families and their chevaliers has to change. A lot of more orlesian boring stuff, lol. Lore-wise is telling us that the marriage between families modify the symbols and the heraldry of the original ones. This is not a minor detail.

When we open the chest, we fight arcane horrors and undead. At the end, we gather one of the parts of the codex Notes on Methods of Enchantment and an item of the set The Taken Shape. I analyse these items and codex in its corresponding post.

[leranindigital]

How will Digital Marketing Change in the Future ?

Digital marketing has the ability to push your Company to the next level.

Marketing trends are based on customer behavior, and these trends determine how various corporate organizations operate.

You're on the correct track whether you're already a digital marketer or want to get into the field.

For organizations, using digital marketing tools is no longer a choice. It's an essential must that should be at the top of everyone's bucket list. Technological developments, ease of access to the internet, and other factors all contribute to the digital marketing industry's enormous success.

Using various digital marketing methods, you may provide tailored experiences to your consumers. When it comes to providing a smooth and user-specific experience, digital marketers have a distinct advantage over their offline counterparts.

English (United Kingdom)

Governments can simply gather citizen data, distribute messages, and so forth through approved digital means. The public, who are wary about switching to digital forms, will gain trust as a result of this.

All you have to do now is be proactive and develop successful internet marketing tactics for small businesses by aligning yourself with the global mission to become global.

Measure ROI with SEO, Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics

Artificial intelligence (A.I.) has become digital marketing's greatest friend. It not only automates different procedures for you, but also assists you in making informed judgments. Programmatic advertising is a prime example of this.

With thorough data analysis, this intelligent technology determines the optimum audience segment for you and also configures the complete advertising area. According to research by Pubmatic, about 86 percent of all digital advertising will be delivered by automation in the near future.

Because of technical integrations that limit risks and decrease business costs, the ROI associated with digital marketing is always positive.

Track Your Results with KPIs and Cost-Effective Tools

In digital marketing, you may measure and assess your efforts on a variety of criteria. There are several generic KPIs that might assist you in this regard, and you can also establish specific KPIs to track your digital marketing plan.

Track Your Results with KPIs and Cost-Effective Tools

In digital marketing, you may measure and assess your efforts on a variety of criteria. There are several generic KPIs that might assist you in this regard, and you can also establish specific KPIs to track your digital marketing plan. I

These measurable objectives enable you to assess the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives and provide a clear "expectation vs. reality" comparison. By examining this data, you can continue to enhance your digital marketing tactics by bridging the gap between desired values and achieved outcomes.

To Conclude,

You have access to a huge audience pool of over 4.5 billion individuals when you use digital marketing for brand awareness, lead generation, conversion, and other purposes. Digital marketing has a bright future ahead of it, and you can expect to hear this word for decades to come.

[learnindigital23]

Digital marketing has the ability to push your company to the next level.

Marketing trends are based on the customer behavior,and these trends determine how various corporate organizations operate.

you are on the correct track whether you are already digital marketer. or want to get into the field.

For organizations,using digital marketing tools is no longer choice.Its an essential must that should be at the top of everyone's bucket list.Technological developments,ease of acess to the internet and other factors all contribute to the digital marketing industry enormous sucess.

Using various digital marketing methods,you may provide tailored experience digital forms ,will gain trust as a result of this.

All you have to do now is to be proactive and develop successful internet marketing tactics for email buisnesses by aligning yourself with the global mission to become global.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE REASONS WHY DIGITAL MARKETING IS THE FUCTURE

Monitor engagement and time spent

As a digital marketer,you must determine the location of your target audience.According to the survey by We are social ,people send more than six and half hours each day on the internet.

Mobile phones continue to dominate internet usage patternshaving already surpassed traffic generated by desktop computers.Your digital marketing strategy should like-wise take the mobile-first approach for the same reason.

Build brand awareness with global mission

While the developed countries such as the United States & United Kingdom have already adopted the digital system,emerging countries such as india & china are not far behind.From a government standpoint,digitization is essential since it streamlines process of providing public services.

Governments can simply gather citizen data,distribute messages,and so forth through approved digital means.The public who are wary about switching to digital forms,will gain trust as a result of this.

All you to do now is be proactive and develop successful digital marketing tactics for small businesses .

Measure ROI with SEO ,Artificial intelligence and Data Analytics

Artificial intelligence(A.I) has become digital marketings greatest friend.Programmatic advertising is a prime example for this.

With data analysis,this intelligent technology determines the optimum audience segment and configures complete advertising area.According to research by Pubmatic ,about 86 percent of all digital advertizing will be delivered by automation in the near fucture.

Because of technichal integrations that limit risks and decrease business costs,the ROI assosiated with digital marketing is always positive.

Track Your Results with KPIs and Cost-Effective Tools

In digital marketing,you may measure and assess your efforts on a variety of criteria.To track your digital marketing plan can establish specific KPIs.

These measurable objectives can assess effectiveness of your marketing initiatives and provide a clear "expectation vs reality"comparison.By examining this data,you can continue to enhance your digital marketing tactics by bridging the gap between desired values and achieved outcomes.

To Conclude,

You have acess to a huge audience pool over 4.5 billion individuals when you use digital marketing for brand awareness,lead generation,conversion and other purposes.Digital marketing has a bright fucture and you can expect to hear this word for decades to come.

[fracturedgodhead]

Happy New Year!! I missed a day again #24

Hope you all had a safe and fun new years/eve. I know I did. First one since turning 21, so also my first* time being drunk. It's pretty fun I think.

Like it says in the title, I missed a day again. I want to make not of it, but I don't really think it's too big of a deal. I was having fun. It's okay to have a day off y'know.

Anyways, into the meat.

Rust, and specifically the Rust toolchain is the best workflow I've ever experienced. Better than C++ by lightyears, and even better than Java. I haven't been entirely problem free, but every problem was clear and I could fix it in about 10 minutes or less. I don't fully know the language and it's features, so I'm relying a lot on the tutorial I'm following for correct syntax and whatnot, but it's intuitive enough that I can read it with my level of programming experience (not expert, not novice, idk exactly).

I need to do the usual tutorial pathway for any new language eventually, but for now, getting the OpenGL "hello, triangle" program written is technically done. In about 6 hours of programming across 2 days. Maybe less.

It took easily 20-30 hours across 2 weeks for me to get to this same point in the Vulkan with C++ "Hello, triangle" tutorial. And that's not counting my first attempt where I learned what I needed to know about the C++ toolchain, and how to set up my workspace, and all the little tiny details that break everything when they're wrong. That first attempt was probably over 100 hours over the course of a month.

AND I DIDN'T EVEN GET THE STUPID THING TO WORK.

If you want to make a game or application, and you are struggling to get your programs to compile or work or whatever bs, please look into Rust. It's beautiful.

Anyway, that said, this week is supposed to be the one where I make a multimedia project. I think I'll try and draw something and make a little guy in a room that can jump around once I get through the rest of the tutorial. I hope it covers loading textures and in-depth toolchain configuration and whatnot.

I don't think I can confidently animate anything, at least not in Krita. Who or whatever this character is is probably just gonna be a ball that rolls around or something.

Trying to handle collisions in a way that isn't incredibly hackey is an interesting problem I think. I think the technical term for it would be a "collision system", but that's gay, and I am gay, so I will be calling it that. The collision system will take an array of collision objects specified in some external file and parse them, then using some algorithm (probably just normal testing on some simple polygons, but possibly a path-traced collision detection approach could be feasible), calculate collisions on them.

That's a problem for either tomorrow or Friday though. For right now, I am incredibly exhausted, so I will be going to bed soon.

I'm so excited about Rust and OpenGL. I can't believe how much I've been hampering myself, and all because of a misinterpretation of my own goals.