sj_zero
@sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net
- Comment on US high school students lose ground in math and reading, continuing yearslong decline 4 days ago:
The fact that a nontrivial number of grade 12 students are functionally illiterate is a civilizational disgrace.
Part of the problem is the cargo cult of the diploma. People who tend to be successful financially finish high School, therefore the numbers for people who finished high school look better, so people assume that it is a piece of paper that makes them better and not the sort of attributes that would let you graduate from high school. But that's not how it works, it's the other way around.
Unfortunately, the United States isn't magic. It had good people becuse it had high standards, but once those high standards go away oh you're left with is a nation full of people who aren't good enough to compete in a global market.
We just haven't realized it yet because the economy is still largely supported by boomers.
- Comment on Randy Fine warns judges who release violent criminals: 'Your day in court is coming' 5 days ago:
Generally speaking, judges are immune to consequences for the decisions they make except in very narrow circumstances.
- Comment on Subscription models like Xbox Game Pass are "not properly valuing" developers, says former Bethesda exec 5 days ago:
Seems like one of those things that the bean counters really like, but it's not good for anyone. The customers end up getting a shittier experience, and the developers who make really good games end up really not getting their fair share because if a bunch of people sign up for game pass or something they are going to be subsidizing all the other companies that made games that didn't get people to sign up.
I feel kind of Lucky in this regard, I got to realize very early on that the game subscription service is better on paper than in reality. Around 2007 there was a game subscription service called gametap. It was a pretty good service, lots of good games - really good games, but you had things like if a game that you liked came out of rotation it was gone, and you never owned anything so if you quit your subscription you lost everything in fact I'm pretty sure you even lost your sabe files with that service.
Games that you love are really a thing that you want to own.
- Comment on Microsoft's 6502 BASIC is now officially open source 5 days ago:
BASIC bros, it's all up from here!
(Note: FBXL.NET has been a BASIC website for decades)
- Comment on Devolver boss calls GTA 6 an "AAAAA game" in latest attack on human dignity 1 week ago:
MY GAME IS OVER 9000 A!!!!!
- Comment on Ice obtains access to Israeli-made spyware that can hack phones and encrypted apps 1 week ago:
Not a fan of any government getting their hands on that. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
- Comment on Microsoft says recent Windows update didn't kill your SSD 1 week ago:
One of many books that I'm working on behind the scenes is a programming book that is going to be for the free basic programming language, but is also intended to be a history of computing and a broader computer science course. One of the recurring jokes I intend to put into the computer history is "that would be the only time Microsoft did something sketchy"
Their very first action ever was to announce that they had an Altair compatible basic ready to go. And it turns out that even that was a complete lie. They only bothered actually making the basic interpreter once it became obvious there was demand based on the feedback from the magazine letter.
- Comment on Hollow Knight: Silksong won't cost nearly as much as they could probably charge for it 1 week ago:
From an economics standpoint, the amount of money that you're putting into a thing doesn't really have anything to do with the amount you charge for it. I'm working on my first novel right now, and it's been a whole lot of work -- I've been working on it for 9 months, and while I haven't been working on it full time every day, I've put a lot of time in every single week since I started. By contrast, a much better author working on a much less ambitious work probably spent a lot less effort on their book. Regardless, I can probably charge a lot less for my book because the demand for my book is going to be a lot lower than the demand for their book is because people are like their book and they're probably not going to like a mine LOL
The higher you charge for your product, the less people are going to buy it, but the greater your margins are going to be, the lower you charge for your project, the more people are going to buy it to a point, but the lower your margins are going to be. For an indie title, and this is still an indie title, you could try charging more and you would still sell a lot of copies, and you really improve your profit margin, but part of the reason why indie titles work is that you can get it into the hands of a lot of people, and if it's really good then those people will end up going off and evangelizing to others, and eventually you have cult hit on your hands.
The reason to have a and bigger production is that if you think that you can get more of those sales for a higher cost, and thus getting higher margins with higher volume. A lot of companies are learning right now that you don't lose money on each unit and make it up on volume, so there's a lot of massive flops going on.
- Comment on Over 450 Diablo developers vote to unionise, because "passion can’t protect us from job instability" 2 weeks ago:
Ask the journalists and the factory workers; unions can't protect you from it either.
- Comment on Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt offered full military funeral, Air Force confirms 2 weeks ago:
In 2016, a number of congressmen broke the rules to try to contest the election. It's a matter of public record.
Should they be shot?
- Comment on Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt offered full military funeral, Air Force confirms 2 weeks ago:
Though I think we can all agree what she was doing was inappropriate climbing through that window, it's also pretty easy to say that she shouldn't have been killed by the police and it's nice to see someone honored for their duty outside of the one event that caused her death.
- Comment on I Turned This Broken Phone Into A Home Server 2 weeks ago:
This was one of the things I wanted to do at some point, someone beat me to it.
A long time ago I was going to try to get lemmy running on a phone, but the phone I used wasn't appropriate for running a container with systemd and network server access, so I put it on the backburner until I got another phone for it, but it's never really come up since.
- Comment on Gov. Tim Walz Suggests It’s Time for Democrats to ‘Be a Little Meaner,’ Calls Trump a ‘Cruel Man’ 3 months ago:
Oh! They just didn't call orange man bad!
If only someone had the guts to say orange man bad, but nobody was able to do it!
Shamefur dispuray!
- Comment on Humble Bundle have launched their 2025 Pride Month games bundle 3 months ago:
Something that I have been warning about for years now is that all of these establishment voices that claim to support a thing are just going to use that thing up and then discard it like a used tissue.
The sooner people realize that, the better off everyone will be. Global megacorps are not your friend.
- Comment on Search engines are getting worse, so OpenWebSearch funded by the European Union want to fix it 3 months ago:
Amen.
- Comment on The empire strikes back with F-bombs: AI Darth Vader goes rogue with profanity, slurs 3 months ago:
"what did you think would happen? I'm fuckin evil! I killed kids! You think I'm too nice to use some f-slurs?"
- Comment on Are AAA Games too bloated? 4 months ago:
They might be, but most AAA games for many years just haven't been worth playing at all, much less forever.
Like 95% of my gaming is pre-pandemic.
- Comment on Harassed by Assassin’s Creed gamers, a professor fought back with kindness 4 months ago:
"we based this off of actual historical Japanese battles"
"So here's a giant enemy crab, you flip it over and attack it's weak spot for massive damage"
- Comment on Carney wins Canadian election, while Conservative leader loses his seat in Parliament 4 months ago:
In this election, leftists put a hedge fund manager/banker in charge of the country.
- Comment on Discord CEO steps down, replaced with former Activision Blizzard CSO as they work towards being a public company 4 months ago:
Discord is like the dread pirate Roberts combined with a used car salesman. "I'll probably kill you tomorrow, you should buy nitro"
- Comment on Do you have any “headcanons” (so to speak) about the Star Trek TNG characters? 4 months ago:
The important thing is that it shows that canonically the holodeck is for porn.
- Comment on Do you have any “headcanons” (so to speak) about the Star Trek TNG characters? 4 months ago:
Is there a cold there were two Vulcans on that ship, and I think they both had to do it at least once, but according to dialog from memory alpha, it sounds like it's pretty common:
"I am a married man." "It's the holodeck, Tuvok. It doesn't count." "Is that what you tell your wife?" "No, of course not. My days of rescuing slave girls from Planet Ten are history. Look, you have photographs of your wife, right? The computer can use them to create a replica. You wouldn't be breaking your vows if it's a hologram of your wife."
- Comment on Do you have any “headcanons” (so to speak) about the Star Trek TNG characters? 4 months ago:
Wait a sec, tuvok literally used it to pon far. So even more canon, on screen canon!
- Comment on Do you have any “headcanons” (so to speak) about the Star Trek TNG characters? 4 months ago:
Not just Barclay either. Remember laforge? He was basically married to his warp drive waifu and then she showed up and it's like "oh shit uh awkward I've boned you in every hole"
- Comment on Do you have any “headcanons” (so to speak) about the Star Trek TNG characters? 4 months ago:
That's just canonical at this point. 👉 👌
Otherwise why can you create holograms of your coworkers to bang and apparently that's not against the rules or the programming of the holodeck?
- Comment on Do you have any “headcanons” (so to speak) about the Star Trek TNG characters? 4 months ago:
Especially time cops.
- Comment on Do you have any “headcanons” (so to speak) about the Star Trek TNG characters? 4 months ago:
You kind have to admit that Star Trek isn't much of a post-scarcity socialist utopia.
For one thing, it's viciously elitist and hierarchical. You'd think a "post-scarcity socialist utopia" would have ways that a decorated captain would be able to get their hands on a ship in a pinch, but every Star Trek captain has had to steal a ship at some point because turns out there aren't a lot of them and they don't hand them out very easily.
Now you might say "Yeah but they can't just give out prime war assets to whoever asks for them!" -- at one point the ship they steal is an Enterprise that's being decommissioned -- you can't even use their junk without permission! Then ended up sending half the fleet after a piece of junk they were in the process of throwing out!
"We're delivering food and medical supplies to the colonies!" why? Why is that a thing you need to deliver? I thought this was post scarcity?
For another thing, Seems to me like there's plenty of racism in the star trek world. I mean, you don't want to be a borg, and God forbid you're one of soong's androids, you'll be on trial because they want to dissect your brain.
God help you if your ancestors were genetically modified, that's a jailin'.
Wanna live on the wrong planet? That's a jailin'.
Wanna stop a pre-warp civilization from being destroyed? that's a jailin'.
Wanna be a pre-warp indigenous civilization and not be destroyed if the Federation wants your planet? that's a jailin'.
Wanna get trained at star fleet academy without being part of the top 0.1%? You know that's a jailin'.
wanna be a hologram and get too uppity? That's a deletin'.
Wanna be a combination of two of the captains pet crew members and you don't want to be separated again? That's a murderin'.
Wanna be inconvenient to the fleet? That's a section 31...in'.
Some utopia. Some socialist utopia.
But look on the bright side! If the shiny headed captain wants to bang your mom, maybe you'll get made a member of the bridge crew anyway! Hope you have a hot mom!
But uh oh! Sorry Wesley, you got kicked out of the academy, you have to go off with space pedo now or no space for you! Maybe if your mom was seven of nine instead? "Your mom is seven? Never mind then, no space pedos for you because I want to get in that skintight catsuit!"
It's actually a technocratic aristocracy where we get to see the aristocratic few and only occasionally see the earth tone bedecked underclass in establishing shots.
Oh, we do get to see a space autist in Barclay -- oh, and he's mocked and ridiculed and belittled, and they're looking for any chance to get rid of him. Utopia, ladies and gentlemen! (Let's not talk about the fact that he's not allowed to be a space autist, but anyone is allowed to use the holodeck to create bangable versions of real people you've met or are likely to meet. Turns out the hierarchy can't enter yellow gridlines, go ahead and bang the ship's doctor, or the hot lady who's real good and making the space ships go fast good!)
"We're so advanced because we don't use money" great but who needs money when the highest ranking aristocrats get to choose exactly how all the capital gets used and the lowest ranking proleteriat can just die because there's no star ships available to deliver supplies this week?
"You don't understand! We're morally superior! We've ended want! We've elevated the common man to a new level!"
Yeah, that's exactly the logic by which the natives in America were subjugated. "Good news! We're bringing you Jesus and freeing you from your heathen ways!"
To be honest, Voyager is really great because it lays bare the fascist undertones. The young, attractive crew in nice uniforms walk around the pristine ship and live under the thumb of the God-King Janeway who will kill you if she can get 2 crew members out of it, and will destroy entire civilizations if she deems it acceptable.
But don't worry, she got her comeuppance by.... being promoted to Admiral (and that's not in Picard, that's during the movie timeline)! But don't worry, our good pal Picard, he.... was kicked out of Star Fleet for having political opinions the people higher on the hierarchy (I guess Janeway?) didn't like. How embarrassing. I guess he just didn't murder enough crew members to get them to multiply like firing neutrons at an atom until it splits.
While we're talking about Picard, let's talk a bit about holograms and synths. Why does star trek need EMH mark 1s cleaning plasma conduits in a socialist utopia? Why does star trek need mass produced worker-synths in a socialist utopia? Is it because they need slaves and they're not allowed to use black people anymore in their space aristocracy? Sounds a bit like a Greek or Roman socialist utopia.
But all joking aside? It's the space military-industrial complex. It's Space America minus the capitalism and the democracy. Far from a socialist utopia, unless joining space Raytheon is socialist utopia.
Maybe Q was right and humanity is just lucky he picked the francophone shakespearian hawk-tua who bamboozled him with bullshit into thinking humanity wasn't still a savage child-race?
- Comment on Do you have any “headcanons” (so to speak) about the Star Trek TNG characters? 4 months ago:
I like to think that after his episode in TNG, Scotty went on to have all kinds of adventures in his little shuttlecraft.
When I was a kid, I'd draw his little shuttle craft showing up in battles against the borg and the like.
- Comment on Wendy’s Declines to Apologize for Mocking Katy Perry’s Blue Origin Space Flight 4 months ago:
I don't have any love for megacorps who try to be funny on social media....
....but those were pretty funny.
- Comment on Ubuntu 25.04 upgrades halted due to Kubuntu users getting a broken desktop 4 months ago:
No lies detected...
I'm brave. I'll run anything on the bleeding edge. I main Debian sid.
But that thing, it scares me.