blindsight
@blindsight@beehaw.org
- Comment on Who is the enemy? 2 days ago:
Me too!
I hate working with other people’s spreadsheets.
Or my old spreadsheets.
The worst is “can you just add a small feature” to a huge, sprawling, mission-critical, often reused spreadsheet.
But I love how quick and powerful it is to spin up a new spreadsheet to analyze something or clean up messy data!
- Comment on Who is the enemy? 2 days ago:
They’re also used as cleaning tips for small/targeted applications, especially when you don’t want lint from a Kleenex or paper towel lingering. Makeup application/removal and electronics cleaning, for example.
I think (not a doctor) the ear thing is because if you go too deep you can cause some serious damage, and they can make wax buildup worse by compacting it. If you stay close to the ear opening, and do circular motions to swipe wax away, and clean your ears often enough that you don’t get dense wax build up, and don’t “double dip” to introduce potential pathogens, then I think they’re pretty safe to use? But that’s too many caveats for lots of people, so I think ENTs often deal with people damaging themselves with them.
- Comment on About Star Trek Starfleet Academy blacklash 2 weeks ago:
With Star Wars, they didn’t even do the main film franchise well. Episode 7 was okay, but 8 was such hot garbage I read up on why and found out there was no overarching plan for the trilogy, and different directors for each. No wonder they pulled a J.K. Rowling to completely change the rules of their own systems to meet the needs of the (bad) plot, and shit all over their own franchise. Skywalker might as well have been given a Super Time Turner to save the day in 8.
Disney Star Wars films are bad fan fiction, not canon.
- Comment on Ross Scott Gets A Second Chance For His ‘Stop Killing Games’ Crusade 1 month ago:
Completely agreed. Nothing was added by this blog post, for anyone who wasn’t following it, but it was a decent enough summary. Then that last paragraph comes out of left field.
Ross has championed this for all our benefit, at great personal cost.
- Comment on Steam is cracking down on porn games, to keep Payment Processors happy. 1 month ago:
This is made up, right?
- Comment on Nintendo bans Switch 2 owner after they played used Switch 1 games — decision eventually reversed after 'proving innocence’ 1 month ago:
The Wii U is fantastic. Lots of great games that run smooth as butter on the Steam Deck without any fancy setup required.
Oh, that’s not how it was marketed? Weird. That’s the first I heard of it…
/s but not really.
- Comment on Anthropic destroyed millions of print books to build its AI models 2 months ago:
Hit the nail on the head.
Millions and millions of print books are destroyed all the time, and very rarely is anything of value lost. Libraries, thrift stores, and used book stores get inundated thousands of books donated to them, most of which nobody wants. Unless you, personally, are going to take on sorting, transporting, and storing dozens of duplicate copies of books in poor condition, and have some purpose for them (presumably?), then get off your high horse about the destruction of bulk-purchased used books.
Individual copies of mass-published books are not precious. Only rare books are important for preservation. And, even then, digital copies are much more practical for long-term storage than physical books. Anna’s Archive’s preservation efforts as a shadow library is only possible because data storage is very cheap, infinitely replicable, and practically free to transport.
- Comment on Anthropic destroyed millions of print books to build its AI models 2 months ago:
Nope. Ebooks are a license, so the First Sale Doctrine does not apply. Buying ebooks is nearly useless, legally.
- Comment on Great plan 2 months ago:
Actually, no. Not according to the research. (Which I can’t find right now; just in a quick break.)
Essentially, somewhere (?) had the whole region take vacation at the same time, if possible. (Not essential services and obviously vacation businesses, lol). They found much greater benefits when there’s a large chunk of the population all off at the same time, and makes everyone happier (even those who have to still work).
They think the reasons are twofold:
- We’re social creatures, and being able to connect with people meaningfully depends on them also being available at the same time.
- When the region is on “vacation”, everyone gets more relaxed/chill, even those who are still working. Basically “vibes”. (They were a lot more technical in the study, lol).
Sorry I can’t link it, but something like “everyone who can be is off from July 15-August 15” would have big societal benefits.
- Comment on Arts & STEM 2 months ago:
ngl, that’s a pretty good persuasive essay. Since the OP gave the prompt, it also took creative risks with an essay topic that is original, and doesn’t just parrot the consensus opinion on a well-trodden topic.
I’d give this a really good grade up to grade 11.
- Comment on Microsoft CEO Admits That AI Is Generating Basically No Value 2 months ago:
The podcast is called “Better Offline” for anyone else searching.
I really like the 3 episodes I’ve listened to so far. Thanks for the rec!
Not sure if I’m learning much from it, but it’s nice to hear someone explaining what’s wrong with AI hype and stock-market-driven capitalism clearly.
- Comment on The 'deprofessionalization of video games' was on full display at PAX East 3 months ago:
This is a bit of a side point, but this quote seemed off base to me:
“People are paying for these games!,” he exclaimed. “This is not happening for … books.”
50 Shades of Grey was an all-human alternate-history Twilight fanfiction that was largely plagiarised.
There are also entire genres that are becoming successful for independent authors, mostly self-publishing on Kindle Unlimited like LitRPGs (basically fantasy novels with videogame-like systems) or Jane Austen variations (like Pride & Prejudice retold slightly or very differently).
I think the Long Tail of the Internet is changing a lot of industries, creative or otherwise, not just indie games.
- Comment on What are some examples of series that only have a good first season, and should be dropped after that? 3 months ago:
Heroes was great at the start, but that didn’t even last a whole season. The “Save the cheerleader, save the world” arc might be the best superhero TV ever made (10 or 11 episodes, I think?) then it rapidly went downhill to mediocre then terrible.
- Comment on Stop Listening to Game Reviewers 7 months ago:
Yeah, I agree. I’m not at all interested in what acute they have the game; I’m more interested in what they liked/didn’t like and, more importantly, why they felt that way. Then I can get a sense of the game will match my tastes/interests.
- Comment on What is your Game of the Year? 8 months ago:
That sounds really cool. Thanks for sharing; I hadn’t heard about this one previously.
- Comment on At least 1440p is good for heating my house 8 months ago:
I was gaving exclusively on the Deck from January to the start of December…
…But Path of Exile 2 I’m streaming from my desktop to get acceptably clear visuals and smooth framerates. I’m back heating my house with my desktop.
- Comment on Discord’s New Age Verification uses AI and Your Face! 8 months ago:
To be fair to Discord, it has to work that way. They serve the files to you anywhere in the world on any device you use, don’t they? That requires hosting the content.
But it could very well be used for other purposes, too, of course.
- Comment on Balatro Dev Calls Out PEGI For "Real Gambling" Rating Hypocrisy Vs. EA Sports FC 8 months ago:
I would expect this kind of Puritanical pearl clutching in the US, not Europe.
Apparently, any game that uses straights, flushes, and full houses gets an adults-only rating, but games with addictive psychological dark patterns designed to maximize microtransaction revenue are fine for children. What a world we live in.
- Comment on Writing tip: just start brain dumping 8 months ago:
There are university classes analyzing children’s picture books. It’s not about the difficulty of the book, it’s about the level of the analysis.
1984 is quite unique as a piece of fiction, since almost a third of the book is an appendix about language and history. It’s an excellent book to analyze.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 8th 8 months ago:
Loving it.
On the Steam Deck, it was playable, but I couldn’t find settings that looked good and were visually clear, so I finally got around to setting up Sunshine and Moonlight (in-house streaming) and it’s amaze balls.
I’m using a script that switches my desktop to a virtual monitor that’s the Steam Deck’s native resolution, and I recently upgraded my house to a WiFi 6 mesh network, so it’s working almost flawlessly. (I often get crashes on startup, but it’s never taken more than 3 tries, then no issues.)
I’m still only in act 1 (limited playtime) but I’m so excited to be playing PoE again, and PoE2 is perfect for playing with a controller.
- Comment on Facebook Is Auto-Generating Militia Group Pages as Extremists Continue to Organize in Plain Sight 9 months ago:
Project 2025 includes a detailed plan about how to dismantle the entire Federal government and replace thousands of government managers with alt-right extremists.
- Comment on Facebook Is Auto-Generating Militia Group Pages as Extremists Continue to Organize in Plain Sight 9 months ago:
Project 2025 matches most of his campaign promises and is written largely by former Trump administration staffers.
- Comment on Facebook Is Auto-Generating Militia Group Pages as Extremists Continue to Organize in Plain Sight 9 months ago:
The ultra-wealthy are terrified of reprisal from Trump. And they control the media (Bezos/WP) and social media (Zuck).
Democracy in America may fail next week. Terrifying to watch.
- Comment on Y=-x² 9 months ago:
Should have used the title to figure out the reading order. Would have saved me a lot of wasted mental effort. Brilliant.
- Comment on What Ireland New Safety Code for Video-Sharing Sites Means for YouTube, Meta and Tiktok 10 months ago:
I worry that age verification will backfire spectacularly; users can just tunnel their traffic through a VPN and then once on a VPN, they would also miss all harmful content blocking. Middle schoolers can figure out how to get around school web filters, and they, and everyone else, will figure their way around age verification just as easily.
- Comment on Let's discuss: Uplifting Games 10 months ago:
A friend of mine has (had?) most of the world records in Sayonara Wild Hearts; it’s not as relaxing if you’re going for high scores since you need to get close to collisions for bonus points, but if you just play to beat levels and chill, it’s great.
- Comment on Let's discuss: Uplifting Games 10 months ago:
Brilliant. I should do that. I’m not great at skipping stuff to race faster, so the skull dungeon is really hard for me and I end up save scumming after most runs. I read about people getting to floor 200+, but I can barely get to 100 unless I waste a whole stack of staircases.
Pausing time would make it a lot more relaxing.
- Comment on Let's discuss: Uplifting Games 10 months ago:
I just read the top review on Steam and it answered this question well: TL;DR it’s a shame this is a F2P game since the seasonal cosmetic FOMO is diametrically opposed to the message/spirit of the game, but if you can ignore the cosmetics, then it’s a fantastic experience that’s completely free.
- Comment on PC Gamer: The top 100 PC games 10 months ago:
Interesting seeing Hotline Miami make the list subs I just watched a short video essay the other day explaining how OTXO is just a better game in basically every way.
I’m still in the 80s working my way down the list, but I searched and OTXO doesn’t appear to be on the page.
- Comment on Recommend me your favorite linear games! 10 months ago:
Portal Pro I remember being great. So good that Portal 2 was a disappointment for me when it landed.
I needed to cheat on a few solutions, iirc, too; not because they’re badly designed, just because I couldn’t wrap my head around the solution.
It should be noted that a couple of the portal solutions need reasonably quick portal placement, so I don’t think it would be as good without KB+mouse. It took me a few tries to nail one of the techniques.