q_andrew

He's probably smart enough to know that his discovery and fame was one-in-a-million, and that lightning doesn't usually strike the same place twice.

I think that was the message, that deriving meaning from pop culture is pointless and also never-ending.

7 ways to maximize misery (one of the more useful CGP Grey videos) -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO1mTELoj6o

Something surprising I've noticed while developing my own side project game is that I end up being a better marketer than developer. I can only work on the game while I'm at home and 'in the zone', but I can post screenshots on social media at any time of the day. The consequence is that I have a larger-than-anticipated fanbase who are starting to get confused about why the promotional material flows freely while development time appears to slog.

If anyone is bored at work, here's a long discussion podcast that dives pretty deep into the architecture of Munger Hall (unloving dubbed 'the Cube' by locals):

https://youtu.be/4grR3qoSV90

I was under the impression that the theory was there but the hardware was not. Like, rasterization was a necessary evil because it gave better results more quickly (and artists needed that feedback).

Download time is the biggest setback for games in the browser in my experience.

I'm becoming more and more convinced that Ian Hubert is the patron saint of hobby CGI. Everything he touches turns to gold.

Not to say this isn't a worrying practice, but it's unfortunately industry standard. Almost every mainstream fps game has intrusive software, to the point where you're expected to be thankful that it's not a rootkit (which is not unheard of).

I think this might be roughly what you're looking for: https://codahale.com/work-is-work/

But this author is concerned more with 'productivity' rather than longevity or interpersonal relationships.

People keep bringing up vision problems, but I think my biggest concern would be circadian rhythm. How does my brain know when to release sleepy chemicals when I shut off the daylight for 10 hours at a time? All that artificial light would really mess up my sleep patterns. Although, with the winters we have here, it wouldn't make a difference during the twilight months.

As a 3D artist, photogrammetry is one of my favorite casual creative activities. Compared to the time it would take to model these environments, it almost feels like cheating. I recommend it to anyone with enough computing power!

This is a bandaid measure. Roblox spends most of its time convincing young children that they will be successful while simultaneously cheesing the 'robux' exchange rate so that these children get nothing.

Roblox is undoubtedly responding to backlash from revelations that they are exploiting children for economic growth. Here's a great summary: https://youtu.be/_gXlauRB1EQ

Attaching a popularity contest to any hobby can make it soul-crushing.

This makes a lot of sense. I guess I just wondered if people end up degrading the quality of their work to maximize speed instead of inspecting their process which is another part of the artistic flow. Everything you've said here is a good refutation of my original comment.

Apple is pulling a Lotus/Excel maneuver, except at least Lotus was still allowed to run on Windows at the time.

The line about asking individual knowledge workers to optimize their own work hits me hard. I'm the only programmer in the office I work at. My boss has started telling people that they should take an hour every week to stop and think about how a small process can be done better/faster. The problem is that the longest and most important part of what they do isn't some manual task, but a mental process (they are digital artists). I doubt most people are going to intuitively solve the complexity of their own brains through introspection (as some early psychologists thought we could do). It's easier for me to 'optimize' because I can manipulate how a physical computer operates. It's hard for anyone to manipulate how their intuitive functions work besides slowly gaining experience and mastery.

I think it's funny how some of these bureaus take themselves too seriously. ISIL probably doesn't care much about the new ATF headquarters, it's not a cultural landmark.

It seems like the NSO group is some kind of Hydra where every time their exploits are thwarted they find 2 new ones. The difference is that Hydras go for demigods while NSO products target civil servants and minorities.

From IGN's article about the difficulties of game development (https://www.ign.com/articles/turns-out-hardest-part-making-g...):

“Planning ahead helps, but nothing will prepare you for German,” [Joe Mirabello] said. “German destroys your best laid plans. German will defeat you. That text field you thought would only ever need a single 10-20 character word? Nope. German has a unique word for that and it’s a hundred and twelve characters long. We even have a native German developer on our team and he refuses to translate our games into German. This is all said tongue-in-cheek, of course, just to illustrate a point, and that is; whatever scaling flexibility you think you’ve planned for in your UI to account for localization? It’s not enough. It’s never enough.”

This is gonna bring celebrity impersonation to a whole new level. Also it'll make me trust my eyes even less than before...

I always assumed that Van Eck phreaking was exclusively about monitor buffers, but it seems to also include this kind of bus-centered data transfer.

Having a passing knowledge of how ML works, I always wondered how these algorithms can use such dense data structures -- it makes a lot more sense now that I know they can be compressed and still searchable.

I love Randy's blunt social commentary.

This contributes to the theory that PFAS is affecting ambient obesity rates in the modern world: https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/07/26/a-chemical-hunger-p...

You'd think google would use the same architecture for chrome! I haven't found it to be nearly as useful.

I use Microsoft Edge exclusively for its read aloud function -- it doesn't require reader mode to be activated and has integration with Microsoft's 'natural voice' which is almost indistinguishable from regular speech. Also it will instantly start reading from whatever word you click on which helps with backtracking. The downside, of course, is having to use Edge.

If the software was compatible with proprietary vinyl cutters, there would be a slew of stay at home moms who would love to use it. Popular manufacturers have completely destroyed their customers' faith - I recommend this excellent write-up in r/hobbydrama:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/mmmcy7/home_cra...

I love this sort of blend of urban exploration and archeology. I actually made a video game about it, inspired by the "sublime" of uninhabitable (yet comfortable) exurbs of midwestern USA: https://q-andrew.itch.io/anemoiapolis

Thanks! It's the first game I've made that will actually be released, I'm excited to see people play it.