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oortoo

145 karma · joined February 11, 2024

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oortoo··on Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates
Noita isn't really on the level that DF describes. Noita randomizes wands and allows you to make custom spells by leveraging different qualities, but its not procedurally generating the rules of magic themselves. The rules are locked in from the start.
oortoo··on Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates
They made a couple mil off the steam release. It wouldn't have happened without the massive cult following, which only happened because it was free.
oortoo··on Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates
IMO, the steam release is not very good. Especially if you had been used to using the top mods that existed before the steam release for ease of control.
oortoo··on Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates
Steam release was absolutely botched.

I didn't want to say it at around the time it came out, because I wanted it to succeed... but they dropped the ball in a big, big way.

Lazy Newb Pack and other fan mods are still the best way to play.

oortoo··on Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates
Steam version is much worse than the fan UI options that were already available, sadly. Its also why I explain why DF really failed to take off after the Steam release. It's nowhere near the best, or even best looking, way to play the game.
oortoo··on Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates
Dwarf Fortress's Steam UI is by far, my least favorite thing about the game. Does anyone else agree?

After playing with the Lazy Newb's Pack and other similar tools for years, I found the Steam version to be a maaaaasive downgrade. The mouse was tied to the framerate, everything felt sluggish and hard to control.

It really irks me because I had been telling everyone for years to play this game, and finally it gets an "official" release and I found it to be... the worst version of the game I'd tried yet.

Maybe its improved since I last tried it. But it would be hard to outdo what the fans had done with the UI, IMO. Even features like seasonal color schemes felt almost vital to me. Not to mention customizing your own preferred sprites...

I almost wish Tarn and Zach had kept to building core gameplay and let the fans handle the UI, with some sort of official team-up to bring it to Steam.

I'd recommended Lazy Newb Pack to almost anyone but I don't think I'd recommend the Steam version, at least the version I tried.

oortoo··on Autism should not be seen as single condition with one cause, say scientists
I agree. Of course genes are involved... but that doesn't make it Mendelian. Autism would be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

The fact exists that there is no singular autism gene. And there could never be a genetic test for autism. It could predict the likelihood, but it wouldn't be pass/fail. Because there are many autism-related genes but no single gene trigger like a light switch. And you could still have all of those genes turned on and not have autism due to environmental factors.

oortoo··on It seems like the AI crawlers learned how to solve the Anubis challenges
The time to regulate tech was like 15 years ago, and we didn't. Why would any tech company expect to have to start following "rules" now?
oortoo··on From: Steve Jobs. "Great idea, thank you."
On the one hand, an amusing anecdote about an interaction with someone that ended up becoming massively famous does come across as somewhat noteworthy, but on the other hand, the fact that Job's response basically translates to: "Um, ok." does make this kind of... sad?

Side effects of living in a world where wealth and power have become virtues. I think we subconsciously judge our own value based on how many degrees we came to stepping onto the world's "stage".

oortoo··on Finland Bans Smartphones in Schools
Can't "just take away" ie, there has to be a law prescribing the removal of the right. Lawful rights vs inalienable human rights. Same thing exists in US. You have a right to certain things, like the right to privacy, but that right can be lost in the right circumstances as determined by law.

The difference here is that in the US, children don't by default inherit the same legal rights as adults and instead have a different set of rights which often means they never had a legal right to, for example, privacy or ownership, in the first place.

oortoo··on Watching o3 guess a photo's location is surreal, dystopian and entertaining
No, the LLM can only "see" a lower res version of the uploaded photo. It has to crop to process finer details, and they are suggesting its silly this isn't a built in feature and instead relies on python to do this.
oortoo··on Handwriting activates broader brain networks than typing
And this is exactly why we need the metaverse! (kidding)
oortoo··on America Is Backsliding Toward Its Most Polluted Era
Depends what you mean by, "Best choice in front of you"

Most people in developed countries are not in a situation where if they do not eat the food in front of them now, they will starve. Nearly every grocery store should have things like tofu, lentil, beans, etc easily available. It may be most convenient, or most delicious, or something like that but vegetarianism and plant based are both very viable options for most of the developed world at this point.

Voting for a candidate in a 2 party system is not comparable, as there is literally not another viable choice in most cases.

oortoo··on America Is Backsliding Toward Its Most Polluted Era
If you think harming animals unnecessarily is wrong, but still eat meat, then yes thats cognitive dissonance. The meat industry is the single most prolific source of animal abuse in the world. Factory farms are basically auschwitz for animals. Buying meat and then getting upset at someone who kicked their dog etc. is a pretty clear cut example of dissonance because you are saying that animal abuse is wrong, but your actions indicate you have no problem with it.
oortoo··on 4o Image Generation
It was easy to fix though, I just said "all the way full" and it got it on the next try. Which makes sense, a full pour is actually "overfull" given normal standards.
oortoo··on 4o Image Generation
For starters, this completely blocks generation of anything remotely related to copy-protected IPs, which may actually be a saving grace for some creatives. There's a lot of demand for fanart of existing characters, so until this type of model can be run locally, the legal blocks in place actually give artists some space to play in where they don't have to compete with this. At least for a short while.
oortoo··on How one of the world’s major money laundering networks operates
Not sure if I fully agree on that. Using AI as a tool can usually reduce the total time it takes to complete an assignment or project by like 50%, not to mention it also reduces the amount of time spent pulling your hair out feeling stuck by like 80-90%. Of course, you lose out on most of the learning experience but it's not like the old days of smuggling in rolled up papers or writing inside a water bottle -- "cheating" (if you can even call it that) has basically never been easier.
oortoo··on Show HN: Time Portal – Get dropped into history, guess where you landed
"When're we dropping, boys?"
oortoo··on DiffRhythm: Fast End-to-End Full-Length Song Generation with Latent Diffusion
I don't think its at all extremist to look at that picture, realize it won't really have made any sense for the majority of the people on the planet well before it gets to that point, and that consequently some type of major global revolution will prevent that from happening.
oortoo··on Vibe Coding and the Future of Software Engineering
ChatGPT is better on average for sure than Google for arriving at a correct answer, but they fail in different ways. When Google fails, it's usually in the form of, "I cannot find an answer. Better ask someone smart for help." but when ChatGPT fails, it's often giving an incorrect answer.

Depending on your fault tolerance and timeline, one will be better than the other. If you have low tolerance for faults, ChatGPT is bad, but if you are on a crunch and decide its OK to be confidently incorrect some small percentage of the time, then ChatGPT is a great tool.

Most industry software jobs, at least the high paying ones, are generally low fault tolerant and that's why ChatGPT is not entirely replacing anyone yet.

So, even in your example, and even if you write the code all yourself, there is still a risk that you are operating above your own competence level, do exactly as ChatGPT instructs, and then it fails miserably down the line because ChatGPT provided a set of steps that an expert would have seen the flaws in.

oortoo··on Decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts
Another aspect here I think is the generalized fear and anxiety present in young people. Having spoken to some family members in the 15-18 age bracket, the message they seem to be receiving is that they are without a future... they won't be buying homes, they won't be getting high paying jobs, and that the system is not going to work in their favor. I think people of this age are uniquely feeling mortal and vulnerable in a way teens typically have not, causing them to be more hesitant to risk losing their mind which they may need to protect themselves down the road. But they also are modern teenagers, not only low in willpower but also coddled by their smartphones, which is why technology addiction is the go to "safer" alternative to habitual drug use.

Also, you typically need to be unsupervised with friends to get into drugs, something teenagers no longer have access to compared to 10-15 years ago. If we look at the social decline due to the pandemic, what made experts think these kids would bounce back? They are forever changed, and will forever be less social than other generations because they missed out on formative experiences.

oortoo··on Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out
Some substances at least make people more social or more engaged and empathetic. Any drug that makes someone stare at their lap and not respond to outside stimulus is probably bad for social settings.

I don't do drugs (anymore) but I enjoy hanging out with people who can use drugs and be social.

oortoo··on Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out
Are people really like this?

Maybe this is controversial but it sounds like you just don't have good friends. I can't think of any of my friends that would respond to a request to hang out and then use their phone outside of a minimal amount once they got there. And honestly if they are doing this regularly as a force of habit, I probably am not asking them to hang out again.

oortoo··on Finding a new software developer job
Obviously, learning all popular tech stacks is not entirely realistic, but IMO when a SE or any engineer is looking for work, at least 1-2 months of researching and getting proficient with the full breadth of what's out there for your interest is going to pay off.

Unless you are moving jobs to just do the exact same thing somewhere else (who wants that) you kind of have to take it on yourself to show up the the interview appearing like an expert in skills you hope to get to really grow comfortable with on the job. You may even need to exaggerate your experience.

Ultimately, specialization should be more about how you think than what facts you know, but the hiring market won't see it that way, meaning you need to just get really good at faking it and not be afraid to back it up later after some late-night study sessions.

The other half of this is that 'levels' don't always translate across environments. Just find work that resonates with you, and you will move up. Obsessing over the level (or even the pay) is probably limiting.