Doom 2? From 1994?

I should play that game again

I said the things in such a way as to exaggerate for comedic effect and also to contradict myself, again, for comedic effect.

The underlying circumstances of being spoken to by someone in person while also having someone’s voice nearly blowing my eardrum out over the radio, was entirely accurate.

I got a lot of this kind of thing today, except it wasn’t headphones it was an earpiece for a two way radio, and it was designed to not stand out… So I kinda asked for it.

But then people would rudely relay important information on the radio with no regard for the conversation I’m having; and since the other person has no idea I just got earblasted with someone’s voice, they keep yapping on about their insignificant drivel and I miss half the conversation because of the priority messages rudely coming through the radio.

I was volunteering, doing communications at a local fairground… This weekend it was a renaissance faire. Fun.

First, I can’t afford a new computer or even a new graphics card. All these “gaming on a budget” type things are all priced in USD, and I’m in Canada after conversion and the Canada tax, local shops are selling it for a lot more… I can only imagine that going up with the tariffs.

Second, graphics ain’t shit. Look at some of the most popular games around and some of them have the “worst” graphics. I don’t mean to pick on any game in specific, but I’ll mention two notable examples: the first is Minecraft. Square voxels and pretty basic visuals all around. Easily one of the most popular titles of all time. I don’t play it, but I get it. The other example I want to point to is schedule I. Honestly the graphics in the game, when compared to the nearly realistic content that games like assassin’s Creed has, and it’s basically trash by comparison. The game is huge and hugely popular. The graphics, or lack thereof, is not a detractor from how fun the game is.

Don’t get me wrong. High graphics can contribute to a good game; and therein lies the problem. You need to have a good game that you can apply the graphics to, in order for it to be valuable. If you take away the graphics and replace the visuals with something far more basic, and the game loses its appeal, your game sucks. Fix that first, then try again.

I have a pretty massive collection of steam titles that I’m planning to play as things start to devolve into higher and higher specs for basically no gains. Like ray tracing, it’s cool, looks good… But I don’t need it to have fun in a game. I usually turn it off because it compromises performance for basically no real gain. Sure, shadows look a bit more shit, and lights aren’t as glowy, but I don’t care about that. I just want to play. Why is RT a requirement for some games now? The hell?

Anyways. High graphics are better in more cinematic games, but publishers have gotten so obsessed with making cinematic content that they forgot to include a game with it.

Give me more substance, more character development, more scenes, not just action.

Herd immunity is pretty important.

The first of the crazy parents who went anti-vax benefitted greatly from Herd immunity. Now enough of them are not vaccinating that the herd immunity is basically non-existent. So we get things like measles outbreaks.

There are people who are medically incapable of getting vaccinated, like those with compromised immune systems (some might be in treatment for cancer)… And their best defense is if all of us, who can be immunized, are immunized.

Cancer treatments are not the only immunocompromising thing that can happen and not all immunocompromised people have cancer specifically… For the record.

Anyone who is anti-vax should be aware that they are actively and intentionally putting other people at risk and that should be strongly and thoroughly documented; so when they bring in a cold/flu/COVID/measles/whatever preventable disease to the school and someone else’s kid dies as a result the grieving family has the ability to sue them into poverty.

They deserve worse, but legally, I can’t condone that… But if someone wanted to take a page from a particular person named Luigi, I would be hard pressed to find a good reason to pursue any charges against them.

Interestingly, I have some nurses in the family and the rate at which people who are educated in healthcare, are anti-vax, is too damned high.

Which isn’t to imply its a lot of people, but any nonzero amount of people, working in healthcare, who buy into anti-vax propaganda, is too many. You’ve been formally taught about this stuff. Yet, you’re anti-vax because some person on Facebook/Twitter/whatever, fed you some bullshit about the “dangers”?? Wow. What the actual fuck.

We’re currently unaware of any fixed coordinate system for space itself. There may be one, we have no basis of reference for it.

I mean, the same can be said for “new” teams.

Though… “Teams classic” was an electron app, and I’m not sure that’s better.

Outlook “classic”, as far as I’m concerned, is the last actual email client program that Microsoft will make. From here on out, it’s all webapps.

Honestly, so much of their stuff runs in a web browser that you might as well just just google apps… It also negates any requirement to run their bloated shitware OS.

Time will tell, if nothing else.

I think the tech has merit, but not nearly to the extent that companies are investing into it right now.

It’s moving so fast that it’s going to be hard to curb it when things start going wrong.

Here comes sky net? I guess?

I don’t mind people using it for boiler plate stuff, and/or rough drafts to get a lot of the words typed out, so you can editorialize what’s there.

When doing a lot of similar things, it can save a ton of time just having someone or something draw up a draft/starting point.

Any uses beyond this, are a non-starter for me when it comes to actual business use cases. The information that AI spits out in response to a query, is not, and should not be considered to be, complete in any way, shape, or form. It absolutely will need to be reviewed, edited, checked for accuracy and finalized by a human, before it is ready to be submitted for others to ingest. Zero AI content should be sent to anyone else until it has been reviewed and fully vetted by the person using AI to generate the content.

This has not been the goal to date. A lot of AI is trying to essentially eliminate entire segments of job markets, and bluntly, it’s an insane mistake to think that, especially in its current form, that it could possibly do that, or even come close in any capacity.

It’s at best a first-draft machine, but more likely it’s a novelty that isn’t worth the risk of using in production.

That’s fair.

I apologize to the parrot community. Clearly parrots are better than what we currently call AI.

It will eventually, when people realize it’s just a giant and complex statistical response machine. It’s really just giving you the words and/or set of pixels back that are the usual response to the words you provided. If there was no training data, there would be no AI.

It’s like a parrot, but more complex and requires nuclear power plants to generate enough power to keep it going.

AI generated stuff is fine as long as it’s not the same type of content I make.

I don’t think you’re wrong about the level this needs to get to in order to change, which is kind of sad tbh.

This is why I can appreciate someone like Luigi Mangione. As far as I’m concerned, the man is a martyr. He demonstrated that, we, the people, have the power. Not some short list of corporate elites. He fits into the mould of the whole “anonymous” movement; where anyone and everyone could be a part of it, they’re coming, expect them to come, but you will never know who, where, or when, they will come for you.

Anonymous has no formal structure, it’s just people that collectively decided to get something done; and enabled eachother to do it. Random citizens that have just fucking had enough of the bullshit and acted to make a difference.

As far as I’m concerned, that movement is growing in number, eventually it will be less of an individual effort by like-minded persons, and more of a social movement towards real, and hopefully lasting change.

IMO, this is helped along by what’s happening in the USA right now, since a nontrivial number of Trump supporters are getting royally screwed from what he said he would do, and eventually did. It’s a shame that many are unlikely to transfer those feelings onto others that are just like Trump in the future. They’ll think he’s a one-off bad Apple type thing and keep voting for the “fuck the little guy” politicians, thinking they’re not the “little guy” and get fucked by the very people they voted for. By the time they learn any different, they’re one foot in the grave.

I support social programs. Whether childcare (I don’t have children), disability (I am not disabled), education (I am neither a teacher nor student), healthcare (I rarely need medical help beyond a family doctor), welfare (I’ve been gainfully employed or on employment insurance benefits for over 10 years and I don’t expect that to change), or any of a plethora of other programs that benefit people who are not me.

I also support unions, though my line of work (IT support) is usually excluded from collective agreements specifically…

To me, these are worthwhile social and governmental goals. Things that help everyone. Even if everyone doesn’t include me in that specific case. It’s simply the best thing for everyone. There’s far too many people that are only looking out for themselves and being highly selfish, aggressively individual, and aggressively capitalistic. That kind of thinking should be bred out of society.

I agree, helping eachother is the best any of us can be. I’ve dedicated my life to helping others.

My dayjob is IT support, and I am often holding certification in first aid (I currently need to renew this), and I have a lot of skills that I’ve developed specifically to assist others. I have, know how to operate, and actively use radio technology as a qualified amateur and regularly volunteer for events to help communication and coordination between medical teams, security, supplies and other services at public events.

I even carry a car battery boost device in my vehicles trunk for the odd time I come across someone who’s car won’t start, and I have a set of booster cables in case the battery in the pack is flat… As an example. I usually have a first aid kit in there too. Just in case.

There’s a lot we could, and probably should be doing to help ourselves and others; I firmly believe that basic emergency first aid and CPR should be a part of the highschool curriculum, and we should learn how to access social services like disability services, welfare, unemployment, and other government services, in highschool as well. Instead we take classes on English in countries where that’s the native language, yet people still don’t know how to articulate themselves in a comprehendable way, and we take several years of maths classes, including algebra, geometry, and so much more, that most people never even see similar problems again ever… Instead of teaching algebra, how about a class on how to file your taxes?

I have a lot of strong feelings about it and bluntly, nobody with any possibility of enacting change, cares.

I strongly feel like highschool failed me, and most of the people in society, and it could be so much better, and there’s simply no evolution or evaluation of what’s being taught and what’s actually relevant for people to know.

In any case, I hope I can continue to help others and that’s the biggest reason why I’m still alive. I’m trying to make this place a bit more livable for the people that are here.

Ha. I’m on them. The meds I take for ADHD are classifiably also anti depressants.

What now, Poindexter?

I was diagnosed with ADHD a few years back… Just shortly before I turned 40.

I’m lucky that seems to be the only thing my brain struggles with. After about a year and a half, I found a combination of drugs that works for me, and I’ve been doing ok, as far as my ability to think, concentrate, or focus at work goes…

I’m in Canada, so we have similar issues with our social support programs. I know this because, while I got off light in my diagnosis, my brother has far more severe ADHD symptoms, and he has other medical complications that make treatments difficult at best. I won’t go into his medical issues since that’s not my story to tell, but from a high level, most of the problems root in the fact that he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in his mid-teens…

He’s actually registered in the disability system and I’ve helped, or at least tried to help him navigate it and get to a point where he can do anything and get any support at all. Needless to say, I get it. Our system isn’t super different from the UK system. Personally I think it’s shameful that we give such a hard time to people with diagnosed disabilities, it’s not like those disabilities are going to… Idk, stop being a thing? It’s kind of a life long problem.

I’m lucky in the fact that if I continue taking the meds, I’m more or less “normal”. I have a steady job and I help my brother as I am able.

None of this is to detract, compare or “one-up” your challenges. The purpose to saying all of this is that I get it, I emphasize with your situation. I hope you are doing better and that the UK disability system stops fucking up your coverage so you can get back to living your life.

All the best, from across the ocean.

I’m an “elder” millennial… I’m 40+.

Pretty much everything went to shit right after I got to the workforce. It was somewhat subtle at first, but it’s only gotten far worse and far more obvious as time has gone on.

Kids? Nah bro. Have you seen the world? I don’t want to live here, why would I subject someone that I care about to a life, living in this hellscape? Like all parents, I’m sure I would love my children if they existed and even though they don’t exist, I still love them enough to not subject them to gestures at everything this.

I haven’t gotten a meaningful raise since starting work. I was originally hired at basically minimum wage, a bit better than it in my area (ironically, my starting wage in my career is now below what minimum is now), and the only time I went up in salary is when I changed jobs.

With more than half a dozen years of experience (this is a while back) I was fighting for anything over $60k/yr (it gets worse), while housing in my area was skyrocketing above $400k for a modest home…

After the usual expenses of food and rent, I’ve been robbed blind by being given no choice but to buy things “as a service” and own fucking nothing. I’ve pushed back against it as much as possible and after years, I paid off my vehicle and absolutely, positively, 100% own this now 13 year-old car. Whoopee…

I’ve lived through everything from 9/11, to Trump… Twice… And nothing has ever quantifiably gotten “better” without getting worse in some other way.

Better, faster, more capable computers? You’re obligated to run software that spies on you. Better cars with fancy tech that makes them basically drive themselves? Only if you subscribe to activate the seat warmers for a nominal yearly fee… Phones are more capable, better, faster, more connected and overall significantly improved? These are now devices used by companies to harvest every meaningful ounce of information from you, selling it to the highest bidders (multiple times, I might add), and giving you nothing for your contribution. Congratulations, someone has monetized your existence via an app on your phone.

Everything is worse. You never have time off work anymore. Even if you take vacation, the expectation is that if they call you, you’ll answer, then you’re working for free. But if you don’t answer, then your job is at risk.

Fuck everything. This world sucks. I’m fucking sick of all of this shit and I’m mad as hell about it.

The military helped develop the technology, but they run their own “Internet” networks that are completely segregated and independent from the public Internet.

They helped with protocols and standards and such more than anything else. Military interest in Internet technologies relates to the ability to have redundant, interconnected sites so that if one site goes dark for any reason, the other sites don’t lose their connection to eachother as a result. Obviously this world help with keeping the military operating and orders flowing in the event of an international incident where some of their sites are taken down or otherwise disabled.

The public Internet, while following similar models, isn’t nearly as decentralized as you may expect. Almost all of the connectivity and data is warehoused in datacenters at, or near Internet exchange locations, or "IX"es. IXes and their locations are not secret and taking out a few IX sites is a good military tactic to disrupt communications, at least for the civilians in a country, which would create significant issues trying to keep everyone calm and safe. Almost all telecommunications today are Internet based, regardless of all other factors. The only somewhat decentralized civilian communication technology is radio, specifically broadcast radio (like FM), but even getting a message to an emergency broadcast FM station would be a challenge if the Internet was disabled, taking out phones (both cellular and landline), and all data communication. The only way to get an emergency message to an emergency broadcast station in that circumstance, would be to physically send someone there with a military communications system (generally two way radio), to relay the messages for broadcast to the public. There’s enough FM stations and emergency broadcast stations that effectively disabling all of them is strategically difficult.

All of your communications, whether landline, cellular or Internet is basically all routed through your local IX before it can go anywhere; so if that goes down, you can kiss all of your methods of communication goodbye, unless, of course, you’re a qualified amateur radio operator (or HAM).

Ham radio has a bit of an image problem as an obsolete hobby, but it really isn’t. There’s continual efforts to develop new and interesting wireless technology to run on the radio bands. Hams also have a network of repeaters and radio relays that can be brought online in geographically diverse locations for the purposes of enabling communication when commercial networks (like cellphones) become unavailable. Hams have saved lives and relayed critical information to and from first responders in natural disasters like hurricanes and tornados when all other communications have been disrupted.

But if you don’t know how to use a radio, like a ham radio, then even having the gear is useless. The best way to understand enough to be competent in using a radio when it matters is to get certified. Unless you have, or seek that certification before there’s a major incident, natural or otherwise, you may be shit out of luck when it happens.

🚩 nice try FBI agent.