bigbangdangler
@bigbangdangler@reddthat.com
- Comment on How do students who are always involved in mathematics and physics get to know about sex? 17 hours ago:
If I’m reading this correctly, then an orgy isn’t an orgy if there is at least one person not fucking. This means that a single camera person not getting any turns what could be an orgy into just a set of sets of people fucking.
- Comment on What can be done to prevent more dangerous heatwaves in Europe? 19 hours ago:
There is nothing else to do. We went beyond the tipping point on warming and those in charge didn’t listen. It only gets worse from here.
- Comment on GTA 6 is a 'singleplayer experience,' GTA Online may be sold separately 4 days ago:
No issues with this. I’m increasingly tired of the online multiplayer money machines. If you like them, you probably have no issues buying that version. I think Rockstar is reading their market correctly here.
- Comment on Steam Summer Sale 2026 Has Begun 5 days ago:
Hoping to snag a Frame when they come out so I can finally play HL Alyx.
- Comment on Is Ace Combat 8 (Deluxe) worth getting for ¥11,990? 1 week ago:
Agreed, and good point.
I’d also say support projects in Early Access that you want to succeed, with the same conditions.
- Comment on Is Ace Combat 8 (Deluxe) worth getting for ¥11,990? 1 week ago:
Digital distribution of games means that no game should be preordered. Ever.
Back in the day, a preorder was done to get the physical media (cartridge, disk, CD) in your hands on release day. The premium was either paying for early shipment, or ensuring a copy was reserved so that you could pick it up on release day.
Then digital distribution meant that you could buy a game and be playing it in minutes. When there is no physical media, there is no need to reserve anything.
The industry responded by turning preorders into bonuses. But almost universally, these bonuses are not worth the premium. They tend to be a single mission, or some custom skins, or other items that were relatively cheap to produce and that serve only to justify charging more for a “preorder” on a product which is distributed digitally.
So:
Is Ace Combat 8 (Deluxe) worth pre-ordering for ¥11,990?
Negative. And neither is any modern game. If you want to play a game, wait until it releases and buy it.
Let the concept of preordering die.
- Comment on When Windows users find the Threadiverse 1 week ago:
How dare you come at me with self awareness!!
- Comment on I still can't get over Skyrim. Are there any games that can replace it? 2 weeks ago:
It definitely was.
Besides just the bugs back in the day, the nature of them was so drastically different between systems. I played at launch on PC, and even then I put ~100 hours into it. The bugs on the PC version were more gameplay/story based and less about performance. I think it was easily the most playable version at launch. Some of them were just funny and I remember giggling when a car would fly into the air or an NPC would t-pose. But I was able to progress and the game didn’t run like dogshit.
Console versions depended heavily on which console. The PS4 (non-Pro) version probably just should never have existed. Downright unplayable mess.
But the turnaround really even rivals No Man’s Sky’s turnaround. It helps that the story in Cyberpunk was always pretty solid. I still wish there were more variation between character paths in the early game. That’s really my only remaining gripe.
- Comment on Reddit when they eliminated the ability to turn off "recommendations" in your fucking feed recently 2 weeks ago:
Ok, no reddit
- Comment on I still can't get over Skyrim. Are there any games that can replace it? 2 weeks ago:
It is. Easily one of the best games of all time.
- Comment on They should be. 2 weeks ago:
Right?? Lol
- Comment on They should be. 2 weeks ago:
They’re named after Dr. Arnold Kegel.
- Comment on Foreign workers say they were paid less than $2 an hour to build a new US Consulate in Milan 2 weeks ago:
Don’t worry, I’m sure the term “market rate” was used by some clueless rich person somewhere in that chain of events. It’s the American way.
- Comment on What do they put in this stuff? 3 weeks ago:
Irn Bru is fantastic. Gather it at all costs.
Fun fact: it outsold Coca Cola for a few years in its native Scotland. Unfortunately changes to the sugar tax in the UK, and the changes both companies made to their products as a result, mean that so Coke does now outsell it.
- Comment on Whales are Chinese 3 weeks ago:
Indeed, which is why it is generally classified as an analytic language (as opposed to e.g. fusional). It is sometimes misclassified as an isolating language, which it really isn’t, since Mandarin does have compounds. It is worth noting, though, that no natural language fits perfectly into the morphological prototypes.
That said, fewer complexities in one part of a grammar tend to even out in others. In fact, there is some tendency of tonal languages to lean isolating or analytic exactly because the ratio of morphemes-to-word is lower (often 1-to-1); given that syllables can only be so complex (a limitation of anatomy), analytic languages will tend to have more homophones than non-analytic ones, and thus the tone tends to be required to maintain the same information density. To look at it another way, tone is a method for distinguishing what are otherwise homophones.
Now, how any of that relates to whales… well, it very likely doesn’t.
- Comment on Whales are Chinese 3 weeks ago:
Thanks for sharing the actual research.
I’m curious to dive into this (pun intended). It sounds like a bit of a stretch to analogize these whale signals to Mandarin or any other human language simply because of this:
However, our analogy has a limit: while in human languages, different tones can be associated with different meanings, the meanings conveyed by sperm whale codas have not been established.
The jump is, though they may be referring to the whale sounds as “tones”, in human languages “tone” and “pitch” are two distinct concepts which share a modality. The former has to do with meaning, while the latter has to do with things that are extrasentential or even extralinguistic. Consider the rising pitch at the end of a question in English: this nudges the listener into thinking they heard a question, but it doesn’t carry meaning in the lexical sense, which makes it pitch and not tone (cf. the various books like e.g. the Cambridge series on Pitch vs. Tone, even though there are common terms like “intonation” which belie the scientific terms).
If there is no evidence of a mapping between meaning and pitch in whales (as the above quote suggests) then it really isn’t linguistic “tone”, even if it musical tone or some other type. It’s certainly a sound with some sonorant quality, minimally pitch.
Could all be entirely wrong. As I mentioned, I haven’t yet read the paper fully.
- Comment on What are some of the biggest continuity errors in Star Trek? 3 weeks ago:
Oh yes, definitely one of the greats!
- Comment on What are some of the biggest continuity errors in Star Trek? 3 weeks ago:
Not a continuity error specifically, but this has always irked me: In STIV, Kirk says that he and Spock are headed “back to San Francisco”, presumably from Sausalito. But anyone with a passing knowledge of geography can see from the position of the bridge behind them that they are, in that moment, standing in San Francisco. In fact, you can see Sausalito across the bay behind them.
- Comment on Me irl 4 weeks ago:
Linguistically: yes, and it’s typically attributed to a working memory constraint.
- Comment on Enterprise being able to terraforming planets. 5 weeks ago:
You know, when the new effects were done, I liked them. Years later, I always watch with the original effects. The new ones just feel plastic and odd. The old ones, for all the grain and noise, have charm.
- Comment on As adults, do you still watch kids’ cartoons, either old or new? 5 weeks ago:
I love this. Hit me in the right spot. Thanks.
- Comment on What is a game you can’t understand why its so popular ? 5 weeks ago:
This is the best response on here.
…and holy fuck, what a great game.
- Comment on Phishing attempt 5 weeks ago:
Given how polarized parts of the world currently are about some specific issues, I would not at all be surprised if this became a real thing.
- Comment on App doesn't let me use my 32 char password 5 weeks ago:
Yeah OK, I just had to read that twice to see you’re right.
The title is ambiguous (or perhaps vague, more accurately).
“doesn’t let me use my 32 char password” can be interpreted as:
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it does not allow passwords of 32 characters in length, regardless of composition
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it does allow passwords of 32 characters in length, which should be sufficient with or without special characters
In one reading, the special character requirement is the issue. In the other, the length.
Yay for English.
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- Comment on Vibe management 5 weeks ago:
Maybe… just maybe… the ones at the top with all the money should not be the ones with the least knowledge and the worst skillsets.
- Comment on Someone created a public domain version of Netflix 5 weeks ago:
Vibe coding is horrible in the wrong hands, but a skilled programmer can utilise it to carry out boring tasks.
If things continue as they are, eventually there will be no more skilled programmers.
- Comment on Does changing your last name make sense when you’re not that name? 1 month ago:
You can change your name to whatever you want. Imagine if your last name were Epstein, or Trump. No one would question your motivation.
This is a bit of an oversimplification.
If in the US, you can generally change your name at whim, usually after a petition and fee. But it depends on your state. Some states require a hearing to do a name change. Some require a publication, and some will only allow the change after a waiting period.
All states will generally deny name change requests which are deemed to be fraudulent (details of that depend on state), to avoid debt, or to be harmful/hateful to others. Sometimes the definitions of these terms is not terribly clear, in which case the state can simply deny it with vague reasoning.
- Comment on PlayStation boss says single-player games won’t come to PC going forward | VGC 1 month ago:
That’s funny because I’m not coming to PlayStation.
I guess they just sell less then.
- Comment on They're somehow always baffled that their cakes are melting 1 month ago:
This has got to be the answer.
Also, it’s just kind of a vibe having everyone be sort of outside. It would feel different in a studio kitchen.