[-] [email protected] 25 points 5 hours ago

I love how I went back to the first panel and the wizard was already there, of course.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 5 hours ago

(I don't identify as much with my body as some other people apparently do. It's the only flesh I have ever been incarnated in so it has a lot of sentimental value but it fundamentally isn't me. It's a thing that I have.)

Yeah, but what happens to you if that thing breaks? ☹️

[-] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I want an electric micro van so bad 😔 but I hate the look of the the buzz. And I've lived out of a VW before.

Then get an eqv / eVito? Or an e-spacetourer / e-traveller?

[-] [email protected] 4 points 15 hours ago

the UN gave them money to research ways the UN could use AI, so that is what they did.

That's kind of my point... They didn't. To research ways the un could use ai, you could have workshops and interviews with various groups, experts and non-experts alike. You don't just pick one, utterly insane use case (that is called out beforehand as such) and implement that. You do research on the options and pick either the best ones or, if there's no good one, none!

To come up with a research project, it has to go through various pitches, drafts and proposals. I can't imagine every single control instance failing so utterly that this kind of project with this high school level of arguing ("well, we could do this, so why wouldn't we?") passes each of them. There has to be a better reason why they did this. And if there really isn't, a lot of people should ask themselves what the fuck they're getting paid for if they let this happen - and some other people if they're the ones who should fire the former.

[-] [email protected] 20 points 16 hours ago

Europeans: "That has to be paid??"

[-] [email protected] 3 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Alfred J. Kwak was actually a co-production of VARA (NL), ZDF (DE), TV Tokyo (JP) and TVE (ES). Lots of people involved ;).

Didn't know those German series were popular across the border! Very interesting. And hey, learning a language is never a bad thing, I guess. Sometimes I wish the Germans wouldn't dub everything.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Those are kind of non-answers... "Why the fuck are you doing that?" and the answers are all "Well, somebody's probably doing it at some point, so why don't we do it now?" or "you gotta try stuff" as if that explains anything. Like, no, there are some things that don't need to be tested. This is arguing on the level of "Caaaaarl, that kills people!" You don't need to punch people in the face to know that's a dumb thing to do. You don't need to spill milk to know it's a dumb thing to do. And you sure as fuck don't need to date somebody you dislike to know that fucking them is a dumb thing to do or create ai refugees as the UN to know it's a dumb thing to do! Like, what argument is that? We're not talking to three-year-olds that have never touched a candle! The UN should be able to anticipate the consequences of their actions! ESPECIALLY IF THEY HAD WORKSHOPS WHERE PEOPLE TOLD THEM IT'S A FUCKING DUMB THING TO DO!! So, no, those aren't answers.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 19 hours ago

When it was released, Alfred J Kwak was wildly popular in Germany and I think the Netherlands, too. I still consider it to be one of the most beautifully produced European animated shows from that era. DVD releases were sparse and I don't think you can stream it anywhere (except some shady YouTube channels that probably are only left alone because the whole thing has pretty much disappeared into obscurity).

Something that I guess is only popular over here is Tatort, which is essentially your typical crime solving series. It's released every other Sunday and always plays in some German speaking city or town. Quality varies wildly, but that is also sort of what makes it nice to watch, Tatort just hits differently depending on whether it's the one from Münster or from Wien.

Wildly popular over here is also "die Sendung mit der Maus", "the mouse program", maybe. It's usually a set of entertaining animated or puppeteered shorts, educational segments and few-seconds-long animations of the mouse. It's been on air for decades.

[-] [email protected] 26 points 19 hours ago

In early tests at a workshop attended by humanitarian organizations, refugee aid groups, and nonprofits, Albrecht and Fournier-Tombs said the reactions were strong and that many were negative. “Why would we want to present refugees as AI creations when there are millions of refugees who can tell their stories as real human beings?” one person said

I love how the article then proceeds to not answer this question. What a dumb idea. What a waste of UN funds.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Demanding cars transition to clean fuel alternatives is not the same as demanding game manufacturers design and implement systems that must be fully functional in an offline state. This would be akin to demanding nuclear reactors be retrofitted to use fusion by 2035. Despite it not being sustainable or commercially possible.

Are you even listening to yourself? I'm pretty sure it's harder to redesign a car's engine and fuel system than it is to have counter strike call myshittyhomeserver.com instead of valvesmoneygenerator.com - and just the thought that you think it's about as complex to disable some stupid drm system (which has been done numerous times before by kids with too much time on their hands) as it is to design a fusion reactor is just insane.

But again: they do not have to be fully functional in an offline state. Just release the server if that's what's needed. You already sold me the game, you stopped providing the one part that you wanted to provide, now just give me that. Done.

How do you enforce that? Legally compel a company to publish the server binaries with every copy of the game?

No! No no no! It's after the game reached its eol! The idea is that the companies keep doing what they do, but once they're done they have some roadmap to leave the game in a functional state. Once they're done!

I'm talking in 9/10 cases you'd get a physical copy of a game and that was it.

Actual updates that were delivered over the internet came around the same time as Steam and DRM programs.

Bullshit. For games that ran from their ROMs (like snes-era) that was true because there was literally no way to modify them. But ever since they were used on media with write access, they got patched. You should just download a patch, point it to the directory where you installed the game and be done. If your connection sucked you'd buy a magazine that had patches on its CD or something.

Also, steam doesn't guarantee updates either. If a developer doesn't want to update their game, that's it. If a developer wants to update their game, great, that works without any such system as well. Can you force people to apply updates if the game isn't online? No. Does all of this have anything to do with the initiative? Not at all. This isn't about patching games that are still supported. This is about what happens long after the last patch was released.

Okay explain to me what happens when Final Fantasy XI reaches end of life and all services that authenticate and host player data shut down? Who hosts that?

That's not the question! If a developer decided to release server binaries after they shut down the service, at least I could host it. I could just run it locally, the community could come together to run an instance or whatever. This is about having such options, not about forcing publishers to keep hosting their stuff.

Are developers who want massive open worlds going to be expected, by law, to program a world that plays itself? Bots for NPCs, taking the roles of players, pushing events automatically? I am begging for answers because it keeps feeling like I'm the only one trying to figure out what's going to happen to the games I play regularly.

None of that is demanded! Nothing! And I have no idea where you're pulling those ideas from!

Massively multiplayer online worlds don't have to be populated by bots. Multiplayer games don't have to be redesigned. If a player opened a game to see a barren land, filled with no players and only dead npcs, that's fine. But hey, they could occasionally stroll through the forest that they met their spouse in or something. Just like looking at a painting in a museum with your friends is different from looking at it at home, this would be the case here, too. But at least you can still enjoy your painting, unlike the game that's been remotely disabled.

Most online only games are online only because they focus on players interacting with other players on a grand scale. They're a social experience. Demands that it be playable offline defeats the purpose of it existing and we went over the server binaries thing. Nobody is going to jump at the chance to reset their progress for most of these games just for the shot to play it for however long this specific server is alive.

This is true. Except it might not be nobody. We're talking about culture. Just like thousands of songs have been written to be forgotten, occasionally there are pieces that become culturally relevant. Sometimes even after the author dies. Imagine Franz Kafka writing his stories just to have Max Brod not publish them but lock them behind a shitty service that shut down after he wasn't profitable enough, immediately burning all copies that were sold so far.

This is not about keeping the original experience. This is about museums being able to show people works of art fifty years from now. This is about me showing my childhood memories to my kids. Would they see my old friend dragonhaxxor9999 run into battle with me? Certainly not. But would they get an idea and would I be nostalgic about it? Certainly. And why would the profitability of some stupid service be a reason not to have that? Just let me fucking run the software I paid money for! I own those bits! Have my processor execute them if I want to!

[-] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago

why would you bother with a jar? just leave the pan to cool then wipe it up with some paper and toss it in the ~~food waste bin~~ drain.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

That's not how laws work.

It literally is. You pass a law that states that from 2035, cars must not emit greenhouse gases. The law doesn't state how that's accomplished. You can sell battery electric cars, you can sell hydrogen powered cars, you can even sell combustion engine cars as long as you make sure that they only burn biomass-based or green-hydrogen-based fuels.

Great. So the company shuts down the same day, declares bankruptcy, and is immune to further legislation because it's dead.

Okay, valid point, but that's the same for everything. It's literally how capitalism wants it to work. If somebody builds a house for you, messes up the process and then declares bankruptcy, you're fucked. If you want to change the system, fine, but that's not what this is about.

However, if those companies have to have a roadmap to work through after they stop providing the service for their game, it might make it even easier for a judge to just tell them to go through with it after they filed for bankruptcy. If anything, your corner case is at least a bit improved.

Cite one.

Release Server binaries.

Traditionally, you'd get a game - then nothing. No update. No bug fixes. No dlc. THAT IS WHAT YOU'RE ADVOCATING FOR.

Are you insane? Patches and expansions have been around since forever. Certainly way earlier than saas infrastructure. The ability to patch games has nothing to do with shitty service based business models.

Internet matchmaking in general was a free service included with certain titles. It can't be provided perpetually and you expecting them to basically open source their net code is absurd.

Nobody demands that. You're again arguing against your own strawman.

We have games that cannot work on a LAN model but you're intent on forcing that model on every game, even if it means killing those games or forcing them to not be made in the first place. That's what happens when you don't clearly outline legislation.

Bullshit. If a game requires a server that manages the connection between players then that server software can run on any computer just as well as the publisher's. There's no law of physics that requires EA to run a server just to have some jerks lust over loot boxes.

19
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

"Maybe AI is a new sphere of existence?"

"No!"

18
Anspruch.webm (streamable.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Lars Klingbeil im heute journal

4
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

After replacing my TV, I can't get my blu ray player to properly play. It's driving me nuts and I'd really like to avoid buying new stuff.

Here's the setup that previously worked:

  • An old Samsung plasma TV to display stuff.
  • A fire tv stick to stream stuff.
  • A Teufel Impaq 3000 AV receiver with a 5.1 speaker system that unfortunately refuses to directly play back blu ray discs since it overheated brutally before I realised the fan was broken.
  • A Sony BDP-S370 that we use to play back blu rays and DVDs.
  • A Sonos connect box attached to the teufel as well, but that doesn't really matter.

I attached the blu ray disc player to one of the TV's HDMI inputs and the AV receiver's digital coax input. While the TV had an optical out, using that to get the audio channel to the receiver resulted in loss of quality (I know it's all digital, but the TV seemed to mess with the audio before sending it out), so the coax cable helped with that. That worked well. Until I replaced the TV.

Current setup is essentially the same as before, except the fire tv stick got removed and we replace the old Samsung plasma tv with a

All hate for smart devices aside, the primary use case of streaming from German public broadcast "mediathek" services, netflix and prime works well so far and we no longer have a messed up glass front, which is a big plus. However, I can't get the blu ray player to work properly. Essentially, I have tried two approaches to connect the devices.

  • As previously, bdp to TV via HDMI. That doesn't work. Like, at all. The TV doesn't show anything unless I force the bdp to only output SD signals, at which point the TV at least shows something, but the image then is an artifact-ridden mess of purple weirdness. Searching for that issue leads me nowhere, except some very old forums with replies that are 90% clueless and some indicating it might be an issue with the devices being unable to perform their HDCP handshake. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, but there are some websites that show similar issues (albeit usually at least at full resolution). I tried several different HDMI cables.
  • Connecting the bdp via HDMI to the AV receiver (which has two HDMI inputs), which connects to the TV. Oddly enough, this works - so the receiver must do more than just pipiing the signal through (remark here: I used the same cables for this, so the pink-image-issue really can't be a cable problem). However, after I briefly thought I had solved the problem, I realised that with this setup, the audio and video signals are out of sync. I hate it. Sometimes the video will stutter briefly and the audio will lag a full second or so behind afterwards, but even without that issue, audio and video are almost always slightly out of sync, which is just annoying as hell. I use physical media primarily to have better image and audio quality and this ruins the whole experience.

I'm kind of at a loss. My next step woul be to buy a new blu ray player, but it feels like overkill for something that should still work somehow. Any ideas what I could try?

9
submitted 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

When this song started I knew I was in for something special. Playing at pretty much the beginning of the game, it set the tone for a strategy game that was so emotional and story focused, it has imho since turned into a true classic.

Barber composed this piece for strings in the 1930s and turned it into the vocal "Agnus Dei" in the 1960s. The Homeworld version is iirc performed faster than originally written but works really well, especially within the game.

See a gameplay video here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xtoDkda9Aio

36
Analog AI slop? (feddit.org)
submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
1
submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Ich weiß, ich weiß... Die Winterreifen. Die Heizung. Die Batterie, die bei den Temperaturen ein wenig weniger aufnimmt. Alles in Summe. Vielleicht will ich bei dem miesen Wetter und der Dunkelheit auch schneller zu Hause sein.

Das dachte ich mir alles schon. Kennt man ja. Hab mir deswegen auch die letzten Wochen nichts dabei gedacht.

Und was war's tatsächlich? Bremse hinten fest. Und zum Schluss so arg, dass ich as erst gemerkt habe, als nach einer längeren Fahrt die Felge hinten so heiß war, dass man die kaum anfassen konnte. Schrauber hat hinten die komplette Bremse tauschen müssen weil die durch die Hitze komplett im Eimer war.

Yay.

Schön: während die Karre in der Werkstatt war gab's einen elektrischen als Leihwagen. Man stellt sich langsam auf uns ein. Daumen hoch dafür.

1
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

So, the core box has been shipped to known Star Wars Armada content creators, it seems, so the first gameplay reports are dropping, which is nice to see and should help to decide if the game's for you...

Tbh, especially the ship movement seems odd to me. Too many steps involved to get a ship to its next position. The emphasis on story and interaction beyond fighting on the other hand seems very star trek-ish and at first glance well done.

1
Link Collection for all Things X-Wing TMG (ffg-forum-archive.entropicdreams.com)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

So, there's a page with lots of links for various X-Wing TMG resources... But it's hosted on the FFG forums and with the game being discontinued and having been transferred from FFG to AMG literal years ago, I thought I'd just copy them here. This is, for now, just the copy-pasted link collection. I'll go through them to remove stuff that's no longer online and maybe add stuff I found elsewhere, but right now I'd just like to keep MidWestScrub's links alive in case FFG decides to finally pull the plug on the forum.

This is meant to be an addition to the excellent post @MajorJuggler has kept updated over the years. For that 1.0 thread, click here.

Podcasts:

Gold Squadron Podcast .

Mynock Squadron Podcast .

Radio TCX.

OCX Radio.

Birmingham Barons.

The Inland Empire Aces.

Scum and Villiany Podcast.

Carolina Krayts.

186th Squadron Podcast.

Sith Takers Snap Shots.

Thule Squadron Radio.

Evergreen Squadron Radio.

512 Squadron Podcast.

Liberty Squadron Podcast.

Stay on Target.

Back to Dials.

Hornet Squadron.

Renegade Squadron Podcast.

HitHitCrit Podcast.

Lack of Focus Podcast.

Cloud City Radio.

The Salt Mines Podcast.

Sea to Sky Squadron Podcast

Florida Man Plays X-Wing.

Turn Zero.

Tosche Station X-Wing Podcast.

The Midwest Scrubcast.

Millenium Condor. (French)

South Wookiees Squadron Podcast. (Portuguese)

These next two actually cater specifically to a more casual set of players.

**** of a Pilot.

Shuttle Tydirium.

YouTube and Twitch Streams:

Gold Squadron: YouTube. Twitch.

First Earth: YouTube. Twitch.

Back to Dials: YouTube. Twitch.

Birmingham Barons: YouTube. Twitch.

VTTV: YouTube. Twitch.

Sith Takers: YouTube. Twitch

**Echo Base X-Wing: **YouTube. Twitch.

X-Wing Selbsthilegruppe : Twitch. YouTube.

Firestorm Squadron: YouTube.

Weekend Warlords: YouTube. Twitch.

Game Chief: YouTube.

Fly Casual X-Wing: YouTube.

Purrfect-Blinky: YouTube **. **Twitch.

312 Squadron: YouTube **. **Twitch.

**Arch Alliance: **YouTube. Twitch.

X-Wing Battle Report Archive.

Non-stream Video Content:

Hairy Nick.

Crabbok.

Blogs:

Such an X-Wing Hipster.

Eruletho, Tales of the Silver Ace.

Deathrain's Blog.

Starfighter Mafia.

Blair Bunke's Blog.

Zombie Squadron.

Nathan's X-Wing Blog.

Friday Night X-Wing.

What the Actual Zuck?

D20 Radio.

Back to Dials.

Tantum Imperium.

Ramblings of a Wargamer.

Fishy Wargaming.

Space Owls.

X-Wing Tavern Wars.

Bloglette Generator.

Joust Me .

Stay on the Leader.

X-Wing Analytica.

Dylan-Jones

Confessions of a Midwest Scrub.

The following blogs have released Second Edition content, but it's been a while. (Note this article was released March 2019).

It's Getting Hoth in Here. Nothing since December 2018.

Taking the Sith. Nothing since December 2018.

X-Wing Puzzle Club. Nothing since December 2018.

Yes, More X-Wing. Nothing since early January 2019.

Squad Building Apps and Websites:

Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0.

Launch Bay Next.

X-Wing 2nd Ed. Squad Designer.

X-Squad.

FFG's Official Squad Builder.

Quick Build Squad Builder. For all your Quick Build needs.

Tournament Organization:

Tabletop T.O.

Best Coast Pairings.

Cryodex .

Tome.

Simulators:

Vassal. Gold Squadron has a tutorial video on how to download it here .

Fly Casual.

TTS.

X-Wing A.I.

Rules Reference:

Rules Documents and Tournament Regulations. At the bottom of the page under the Support heading, click the appropriate tab for either Rules or Tournament Regulations.

FAQ . On FFG's forums, under "X-Wing Rules Questions" you'll find this forum thread with their official rulings.

Community Rules Committee. This is a group of judges and other community members that have come together to get answers to questions that FFG hasn't yet taken the time to answer. Their document can be found here, and you can submit questions here.

Other:

List Fortress . An online repository of Second Edition tournament results. Everything from eight person kit tournaments to System Opens with hundreds of participants. It shows the format, the number of people, what lists they were flying, and the number of wins and MOV (Margin of Victory). All data is voluntarily submitted, so there may be some holes in the information depending on how in depth the submission was.

Pink Brain Matter. This is a recently released site that analyzes data from List Fortress. It can tell you the percentage of Rebel lists in major tournaments since the recent points change, and the percentage of those lists that took certain pilots, etc.

Probability Calculator. This will allow you to enter in a ton of variables for numerous different attacks to see expected damage under various circumstances. For those of us who are math impaired, it's a vital tool.

Infinite Arenas. This awesome site has a number of tools available, including an unofficial rules reference, a card browser, and printable maneuver reference cards for most Second Edition ships, among other things.

X-Wing Mapper. This fantastic tool will show you all the available final positions of any ship in any faction. Toggle variations for Afterburners, Advanced Sensors, Supernatural Reflexes, or any other possibilities, choose your maneuver and see all the different places your ship could end up.

We Tabletop . A searchable event locator.

X-Wing Second Edition Wiki.

Metawing. An analysis tool to quickly find out what has had success and what hasn't.

X-Wing Card Creator.

2.0 Buying Guide.

Highground: An X-Wing score keeping app. Android download. IOS download.

How to get into X-Wing. A beginner's guide to getting into the game.

X-Wing Battlereport. A searchable database of X-Wing related videos.

For a short review of most of the above links, check out: Before Setting Dials: A Guide to Community Resources.

1
2023 X-Wing Buying Guide - Introduction (stayontheleader.blogspot.com)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Yeah, this really helped me to even understand what different editions and factions were and how that's all supposed to work.

0
VWs Gewinn (feddit.org)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Keine Ahnung, ob das in die community hier passt, sonst gerne löschen...

Ich hab einfach mal die VW Finanzen angeschaut... 23 war ein Rekordjahr, sowohl was Umsatz (>322 milliarden Euro) als auch was Gewinn (>16 milliarden Euro) angeht. Überhaupt gab es in den letzten 10 Jahren nur ein Jahr in dem der Konzern Verluste gemacht hat - '15, als über 16 milliarden Euro für den Dieselskandal zurückgestellt wurden. Zahlen hier: https://eulerpool.com/aktie/Volkswagen-Aktie-DE0007664039/Umsatz

Kann mir mal einer erklären als ob ich 5 wäre, wo gerade diese Lesart herkommt, dass der Konzern den Bach runter geht und dringend Werke schließen und Löhne kürzen muss?

92
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
1
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
view more: next ›

Asetru

0 post score
0 comment score
joined 1 year ago
MODERATOR OF