jwiggler
@jwiggler@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on Steam lawsuits in a nutshell 1 week ago:
As a gamer, I love Valve. Problem is, I’m not their customer. Their customers are publishers and independent devs. Their main product is digital shelf space in the one of, if not the, most visited digital game store.
This is the lens through which any discussion of Valve’s business practices has to be viewed. None of the companies in this meme compete with Valve in this arena, except perhaps Epic Games. They are for the better part Valve’s customers, and they probably don’t like that. They might create their own stores to try to claw back some of their sales, but their core business model is not reliant on those stores.
As another commenter said, if this is a monopoly, it doesn’t seem like one created through anticompetetive behavior. You can watch Gaben on YouTube talk about how he just wanted to make a distribution platform for Half life that wasn’t clunky like Microsoft. Steam was just one of the first, imo.
(This isnt necessarily me condoning their business model though. Still feels like digital feudalism if you ask me.)
- Comment on I worry that reading through Marxist books would be boring. Are there any fun and exciting ways to study without losing focus or getting bored quickly? 1 week ago:
Don’t listen to people who say it’s not possible to have fun learning about this stuff. It can be. I can be boring, too, depending on your interests. Sounds like you’re worried about wading through things like Capital, Communist Manifesto, etc. Totally warranted – they were written in a different time and for a different audience. That’s not to say that there isn’t good stuff to get out of primary sources, but it’s more difficult.
I recommend listening Karl Marx: A Nineteenth Century Life to get some context as to who he was, what movements he was a part of, the state of the world he grew up and lived in, and a breakdown of the things he believed, things he changed his mind on, etc. It gives you important context. You don’t need to slog through it or do a ton of mental work. Just listen and absorb it. If you don’t understand a section, replay it and try to do some mental work to “get it,” but if it doesn’t click, move on and keep listening. Over time, you will begin to understand.
I also recommend listening to Michael Parenti’s Blackshirts and Reds. Very accessible.
- Comment on Air Canada Express flight AC8646 CRJ-900 at LaGuardia crash footage 2 weeks ago:
apparently they were the only ATC on at that time.
- Comment on Developers Were Left in the Dark About DLSS 5 3 weeks ago:
Honestly i felt the giddiness that DF did in that first video. It was exciting not just because it did look like a huge upgrade to realism – but because this is another pandoras box moment for genAI. Exciting in a holy shit way, not a “I can’t wait” way. Also, I believed it when they said it was just changing the lighting. Looking at the Grace model more, along with peoples comments, there has to be more than lighting going on here. and with Jensens comments, I think that seems clearer.
He really is pushing the slop angle, and, well – me too. I’ve soured on the whole idea. I think there’s been too much backlash toward DF though.
- Comment on Earbud question: Does anyone actually like to silicone tipped earbuds over the solid plastic ones? 1 month ago:
I hate silicon tips usually but these are my preference too. I have ccx brand ones though.
- Comment on Bonobos can "play pretend" 1 month ago:
Cats pretend aggression when playing with each other
- Comment on 2 months ago:
This episode is fucking amazing and so cathartic.
- Comment on Steam Link for Non-Steam games on Wayland? (Linux) 3 months ago:
So I’ve been seeing some discussion online about how Apollo has solved some user’s problems with virtual display
Do you mind me asking what you’re running? I’m on Ubuntu 25.10 w/ Plasma 6.4 running wayland, and I’ve had issues forever setting up a virtual display. I’ve just accepted that I have to go with whatever modes the edid my monitor/dummy hdmi plug offers, which means I havent been able to stream 1260x800 or 2560x1600 to my steamdeck (so it is black-barred)
I guess Plasma 6.6 is going to add the ability to add custom modes via kscreen-doctor, but thats at least a few months out I think. I’d much rather use a native virtual display if apollo is magically able to do that.
- Comment on Steam Link for Non-Steam games on Wayland? (Linux) 3 months ago:
If you just discovered Steam Link and you’re not married to it, you could use Sunshine as your gamestreaming host and Moonlight as the client. you can set it up so that you can launch Steam Big Picture on your host and play any games that are listed under your steam, even if they are non-steam games.
- Comment on Where is modern Punk? 5 months ago:
bahahahahah I was so confused
- Comment on Where is modern Punk? 5 months ago:
that is fundamentally untrue but i suppose you cant have a revolution without breaking some axiomatic eggs
- Comment on Where is modern Punk? 5 months ago:
awesome. that album is so sick. the lyrics have a shock factor that i really like. sometimes theyre straight up hilarious.
- Comment on Where is modern Punk? 5 months ago:
me too lol. the shirt with the lego guy ? that’s the one i got
- Comment on Where is modern Punk? 5 months ago:
subversive punk is still around. It’s still politically leftist. Jeff Rosenstock and his fans are pretty anarchist in ethos. Go to one of his shows, you’ll find a whole lot of messaging about solidarity, mutual aid, building better world, fuck the police, etc. His lyrics aren’t always about politics but they have an anti authoritarian edge.
There’s Infinity Knives x Brian Ennals who are mixing punk and hip hop in a very in your face political way and theyre GREAT.
Viagra boys are a pop punk who satirize the alt-right, especially in their album Cave World.
Mount Eerie is a noisy folk band that dabbles in some punk aesthetic – their most recent albums contains themes of decolonization and anti-war.
Honningbarna just came out with an amazing record called Soft Spot that has some leftist political themes, but not as overt as the others. Amazing sound though. Maybe more Hardcore than punk.
There is no centralized counter culture because the media landscape is so different now. There’s no radio to all listen to together. Communities are pretty isolated online. There are advantages and disadvantages. At the very least, decentralization of the counter culture prevents it from ever being squashed completely. On the other hand, decentralization makes it harder for people to see, and cause them to lose hope and feel alone. But as another said, you’re here, aren’t you?
- Comment on How much more progressive are European views as compared to progressives in America? 5 months ago:
You should check out the last chapter of Bullshit Jobs. The author makes a good case for UBI as a liberating force for people whose lives are tied to demeaning work. His idea is that UBI would free people from being dependent on an economic master in order to have access to basic human needs like shelter, food, water, healthcare, etc. but also less concrete needs such as sociability, leisure, and play. It would have to go hand in hand with some regulation on prices.
He’s an anarchist so he ostensibly has your same aversion (completely warranted) to the perpetuation of money and capitalism.
- Comment on I AM BETTER 5 months ago:
relevant
- Comment on New Valve trademark for 'Steam Frame', looks like we're getting new hardware 7 months ago:
I figured “frame” refers to glasses, but looks like people are thinking it’s a box of some sort.
- Comment on How do I "sabotage" my own online content to throw a wrench in AI training machines? 7 months ago:
not sure how i can express how much i hate this comment. nice job.
- Comment on Magic Rocks 8 months ago:
Me too! I prune my yard of invasives and let the natives grow, cataloging with iNaturalist as I see new species. My yard was a dirt slope last summer, this summer it is full of a wonderful variety of plants! My crotchety gardener mother and aunt keep trying to offer me non-natives to transplant – I tell them I’ve got plants growing already but thank you – they say, “yeah, weeds.”
Funnily enough, my yard with milkweed, primrose, violets, tickseed flowers, black-eyed susans, a walnut sapling, pepperweed, and st johns wort (not actually native here but not as invasive as some other plants) looks better than theirs and probably requires way less maintenance.
- Comment on Where can I find Trumps drawing in the letter to Epstein? 8 months ago:
I really don’t think it is. For one thing, there’s texted added to it that certainly wasn’t part of the original. Then there’s the matter of multiple versions of a similar line-drawing with text in the center floating around. And then finally, no mainstream media has released the image. It seems like someone just mocked this up and posted it on twitter.
Although I’d be happy to be proven wrong.
- Comment on Where can I find Trumps drawing in the letter to Epstein? 8 months ago:
Thats not the real thing though, is it?
- Comment on kingdom come 8 months ago:
I mean it in a most sincere and endearing way. Gave me a joy and chuckle.
- Comment on kingdom come 8 months ago:
good post, sounds like a copypasta
- Comment on Since we're doing magic eyes now... 8 months ago:
At my work, we maintain computers that use Nvidia glasses to view stereo images of protein structures.
Nvidia doesn’t support them anymore, and there was an email thread that was forwarded to us by the lab manager of some scientists discussing the issue. One of them suggested to the others that they could just cross their eyes and see the images that way instead of using the glasses. Funny stuff!
- Comment on How can I start getting familiar with the plants, trees and animals around where I live? 8 months ago:
I use inaturalist. You essentially take a pic, upload it, add info about its location and stuff, and it goes into a feed where others will see suggest the scientific name.
- Comment on Steam Summer Sale 2025 has begun! 9 months ago:
I’m sorry:(( I’m dumb.
I have Dredge already, and I had bought Animal Well for $18 last night. That left Inscryption as the final game in the bundle. Steam dynamically prices games in the bundle and since I already had two games, I saw the bundle as $7 and got confused.
I literally just refunded animal well, waited for the refund confirmation, went to rebuy animal well, and saw the bundle was now priced at $24 (because I still already have Dredge).
Sorry I got your hopes up :(
- Comment on Steam Summer Sale 2025 has begun! 9 months ago:
Bah. Bought Animal Well for $18 last night, but just saw now it was included in a bundle for $7.
- Comment on Where does technology come from in Star Wars? 10 months ago:
It’s fantasy, part of the fun is the mystery of this strange looking technology and how old, used, and dirty it is. Makes you wonder, what kind of history did this object see?
Relevant aside: I just learned Lucas renamed Star Wars to Star Wars: Episode IV in 1981, before knowing he’d help make the three prequel films. It was just a stylistic choice, to make Star Wars feel like just a small piece of a larger epic.
Once you explain the mystery of the technology away, or the mystery of the rest of the saga, some of that magic disappears.
- Comment on $80 for Borderlands 4 too costly? Randy Pitchford says, "If you're a real fan, you'll find a way to make it happen" 10 months ago:
Can you recommend me a starting point? For someone who has no experience with these games, or any Japanese games besides Soulsgames and RE4 remake.
Feel free to roast me in the process.
- Comment on [DeliberatelyBuried] Ratatouille 10 months ago:
I found this fact particularly fun. thanks for sending me down a lil rabbit hole.