Lianodel
@Lianodel@ttrpg.network
- Comment on "Yeah, but what if we used AI?" 2 months ago:
Am I paying taxes so the rich people get nicer streets?
- Comment on Please Stop 3 months ago:
First thing I found when I searched for “Maersk IBM blockchain”:
A.P. Moller - Maersk and IBM to discontinue TradeLens, a blockchain-enabled global trade platform
- Comment on Own a Roku TV or streaming device? You're about to see a lot more ads on your home screen 5 months ago:
Oh yeah, I already have a Chromecast. I know this is a post about Roku specifically, but it was just another example of enshittification getting me to finally set up my own system. It was honestly the HBO Max disaster that got me started.
Good to know about App Only Mode, though! So far the Chromecast interface doesn’t bother me, but it’s good to know there’s a ripcord I can pull if it gets worse (unless they take that away).
- Comment on Own a Roku TV or streaming device? You're about to see a lot more ads on your home screen 5 months ago:
I’ve been doing some research for the last few days on setting up a home server/NAS. If anyone’s going to ruin my entertainment, it’s going to be ME
- Comment on YouTube will now direct you to the right first-aid videos during an emergency | Searching YouTube for advice on CPR, heart attacks, or other critical health emergencies will now highlight authorita... 5 months ago:
It’s kind of funny how the enshittification of YouTube (and Google searches) is so bad, and so widely recognized, that YouTube giving the results you asked for—IF you’re having a medical emergency—is considered newsworthy.
- Comment on The four houses dads belong to. 5 months ago:
IIRC, that might be because their quality & reputation took a dip for a while. They were, after all, a Sears brand, and Sears got run into the ground by some blood-sucking leadership.
That said, they used to have a great reputation, and were sold to Black & Decker in 2017, who seem to be handling the line up much, much better.
- Comment on The Hyperloop was always a scam 6 months ago:
Yeah. I also thought that the tunnels were too small for a subway (because one of The Boring Company’s “innovations” is to drive costs down by digging smaller, shittier, and more dangerous tunnels using existing technology). However, there are subways in London that have even slightly smaller tunnels. You could absolutely lay down some tracks in there and have a functional subway. Giving it to Tesla to run a taxi lane for who knows how long was just a choice.
Also, from what I found out, the Loop is going to continue to fuck over the residents, because the expansions are going to have WAY higher fares. I think right now, the Loop is $4.50 for a day pass. As a point of comparison, a New York subway ticket is $2.90, so one round trip would be more expensive than a day pass. That makes the Loop sound great! …until you realize the prices are kept artificially low to make it seem that way. Future plans for Loop service would cost upwards of $12 a ride outside of the convention center and resorts.
Also, as an aside, something I don’t think gets brought up enough is that the Loop proves that Tesla’s self-driving cars are a scam. Even on a close course, indoors, built to whatever specs Tesla could possibly want, the cars need human drivers.
- Comment on The Hyperloop was always a scam 6 months ago:
I have to admit I was kind of impressed seeing the way two scams worked together: the Hyperloop, and the Loop. People genuinely thought they were related projects because of the name and, I guess, the tunnels. So the Hyperloop made the Loop sound more exciting than it really was, and the Loop made it seem like there was progress towards the Hyperloop.
Of course, in reality, the Loop is just a shitty cab tunnel designed to financially and physically block local mass transit projects, while the Hyperloop is just bullshit vaporware designed to financially and politically block intercity mass transit projects.
- Comment on Netflix Resumes Advertising on X After Elon Musk Controversy 6 months ago:
You make it sound like they were losing because they pulled advertising from Twitter instead of… practically every other decision they make.
- Comment on 'There's almost nobody left': CEO of Baldur's Gate 3 dev Swen Vincke says the D&D team he initially worked with is gone, due to Hasbro layoffs 6 months ago:
Yeah, it’s definitely in the same wheelhouse as modern D&D, so if you like that general experience but want to try something new, it’s worth checking out. It’s my pick when I want high adventure, superheroic fantasy, with engaging set piece encounters, which is the vibe both games are going for.
@machinaeZERO@lemm.ee is also right on the money. There’s going to be a revision coming up, but the old stuff is still compatible and in Humble Bundle right now. (Pathfinder does that periodically, and they’re pretty sweet deals!) One more thing is that all the rules are free, legitimately. There’s a wiki called The Archives of Nethys, which has ALL the rules content from ALL the books. Paizo allows it, and explicitly gave the site the green light to do that. The books are still nice to have, and you still need them if you want adventures or lore, but you never have to buy a book just to get some rules in it, like a class or feat or whatever.
- Comment on 'There's almost nobody left': CEO of Baldur's Gate 3 dev Swen Vincke says the D&D team he initially worked with is gone, due to Hasbro layoffs 6 months ago:
Eh, yes and no.
Pathfinder 1e was pretty much just straight-up continuing D&D 3.5e, but with some tweaks. Pathfinder 2e overhauled a lot of stuff, often simplifying things, but still pretty complex.
Compared to D&D 5e, Pathfinder has more rules, but those rules often make things easier, or (IMO) get you more return for the effort. So, for example: The feat list is bigger and more complicated, but in practice, it means you only need to look at a handful of them when you level up, which is easier (and the rules give you guidelines for swapping things out if you don’t like them). The monk has more decisions to make with stances and attack types, but that’s… kind of what you want with a monk to make combat interesting. There are rules for boats, and holy shit how does 5e not have rules for boats.
The last example might sound silly, but it’s part of what convinced me to switch. It’s an annoying omission in and of itself, but also speaks to a broader pattern of 5e just not supporting Dungeon Masters, letting them fix the either broken or incomplete rules, or else take the blame for them. Pathfinder actually supports
DungeonGame Masters, as though their time, effort, and fun were just as valuable as anyone else’s. /rantPathfinder 2e is what I’d play if I wanted something like 5e, but runs differently. If I wanted something similar, I’d pick something else, but that’s a longer, even more off topic discussion to go into unprompted. :P
- Comment on A perfect visualisation of a wasteful system 6 months ago:
There’s a ghastly number of people who are aggressively ignorant assholes.
The point is that we don’t have people sleeping on the street for a lack of… anything, really. Including beds. The point is that, when nearly everything is run for-profit, and it’s even slightly more profitable to let people suffer and even die, then people will suffer and die. We do a better job selling beds than we do making sure everyone has a bed to sleep in. We could make sure everyone has access to a warm bed, shelter, food, medicine, etc., but we don’t, and it’s less and less acceptable to just accept the status quo just because it’s the status quo. If someone thinks the status quo is defensible, it’s on them to defend it.
That doesn’t mean the mattress seller is evil, or (and I can’t understand the logic in one of the other comments) that wanting people to be housed makes you a hypocrite if you have your own housing. And the absolutely shameless comments that openly admit they won’t (really can’t) explain their position, but are going to condescend anyway.
- Comment on The Cybertruck Is a Disappointment Even to Cybertruck Superfans / Looking at the specs alone, the car is delivering 30 percent less range than expected for 30 percent more money 6 months ago:
If they have to work to survive, maybe any time from the 1800s on would work. You imagine a genius from the modern day, with all his knowledge, could blow the competition out of the water, create a one-man technological revolution, and radically change the course of human events!
…until you realize he’s not actually a genius. He’s a dumbass. He just owned capital that other people used to do things. So if you remove him from his money and even name recognition, he’s just some loser who keeps asking if ketamine has been invented yet.
- Comment on Elon Musk vows ‘thermonuclear lawsuit’ as advertisers flee X over antisemitism 7 months ago:
Wikipedia lists him as a founder
Does it? I expected better of Wikipedia, so I checked, and both Musk’s page and Tesla’s avoid simply listing him as a founder by explaining the situation, i.e., that he was an early investor. Even the sidebar for Tesla, Inc. just links to a subsection rather than listing names.
Just a note to add:
It’s a very common piece of misinformation that he was determined to be a founder in a court of law. That never happened. It was part of an agreement to avoid a lawsuit. It’s a lie that the relevant parties could all live with as part of a larger settlement.
I like to ask Musk apologists, “Do you need to found a company to be that company’s founder, yes or no?” If they waffle or say “no,” there’s no point continuing in good faith, because they’re not serious people. It’s not hard to say “Okay, that’s a bit of a fib, he should be called an honorary founder, but blah blah blah…” But if they can’t even do that, then they aren’t operating based on reality.
- Comment on YouTube's plan backfires, people are installing better ad blockers 7 months ago:
I love that, in a competition between a corporation worth hundreds of billions of dollars against a FOSS project, all Google managed to do was annoy uBlock Origin users for like a week. I just had to manually update and restart my browser a few times.
- Comment on Circle of life 8 months ago:
Thank you. The grieving has actually been both smooth & intense, with ups & downs, but I’m gradually doing better, as is my mom.
But anyway, the meme is accurate. :P I just have a more sensitive feeling about it given recent events.
- Comment on Circle of life 8 months ago:
My dad died recently.
He was definitely a flawed man, and there were tons of problems between the two of us over the years. But I also heard plenty of stories about how he grew up, and about his parents—both from my dad and from other family members. Without a doubt, he managed to be a better person than his parents, and a better parent to me than his parents were to him. They were straight-up cruel to him, whether physically or simply using him for the family’s gain.
That doesn’t absolve everything, and I’ve still got plenty of my own issues. But what I respect most of him, in hindsight, is that he played the hand he was dealt and managed to be a better man. Not perfect, but better. I want to do the same.
Sorry for being sappy, it’s only been a couple of weeks. I also know that this doesn’t apply to everyone, since some parents are indefensibly cruel and abusive. In general, though, I hope people can be easy on each other, easy on themselves, and stop letting “perfect” be the enemy of “good.”
- Comment on Weezer straight up writing ads for audible.com 8 months ago:
Yeah, it works great! Odds are you might have some libraries that are open to everyone in your county or even your state (assuming you live in the US, but I don’t even know if or how Libby would work elsewhere). There are also libraries that are open to anyone in the country, though they seem to be closing that option. And there are some libraries that will give cards to non-residents for a recurring fee.
…and you didn’t hear this from me, but you can also, you know, lie. Use a realty website like Realtor.com or Zillow, get a valid address, and sign up for some libraries. Very rarely one will check your IP, but otherwise, you know.
- Comment on Weezer straight up writing ads for audible.com 8 months ago:
Libby! They also loan out ebooks (which is usually what I use it for). Total game-changer.
Also, as a tip: Check out what libraries you’re eligible to join. I’m in New York State, and despite not living in NYC, I am totally eligible for cards at the New York Public Library, Queens Public Library, and Brooklyn Public Library. Between those, and all the libraries in my county pooling their resources, I rarely have to wait long for a book unless it’s brand new.
- Comment on 98 years worth of progress. 8 months ago:
I think it’s because you were mistaken for a concern troll, “just asking questions” but intended to not people down.
From your first response, it wasn’t possible to tell if you genuinely wanted more information, or were gearing up for some bad faith arguments.
- Comment on [Lemmy active users] 28th of September was the only day with more monthly active Lemmy users than the previous one, probably thanks to the release of Boost for Lemmy 8 months ago:
Yeah. I guess it will vary from instance to instance, but from my personal experience, viewing “All” on Lmemy isn’t noticeably more political than /r/all. There’s maybe less diversity in the stories, and more memes, but still. It’s not bad.
Reddit has absolutely been way worse at times, by the way. When T_D was allowed to run roughshod over the front page, and spez bent over backwards to not ban them despite clearly being a nuisance and breaking the rules.
- Comment on Wait, is Unity allowed to just change its fee structure like that? | Confusing, contradictory terms of service clauses leave potential opening for lawsuits. 9 months ago:
Nice! I do love me some Pathfinder. When I want a superheroic high-fantasy game, I’d run Pathfinder over 5e without the slightest hesitation.
I decided to cut this bit for space (and I already ran long!) but part of the fallout of WotC’s shenanigans was that other publishers got a LOT of business. Paizo sold out of something like eight months of inventory in a matter of weeks, Goodman Games had similar record sales, and tons of others noticed a bump. D&D was synonymous with tabletop RPGs for a lot of people, but the backlash to the OGL changes put a huge dent in that market domination. I’ve never seen so many people talk about branching out and trying something new.
- Comment on Wait, is Unity allowed to just change its fee structure like that? | Confusing, contradictory terms of service clauses leave potential opening for lawsuits. 9 months ago:
That might be surprising for developers that released a Unity game back in, say, 2015, when Unity CEO John Riccitiello was publicly touting Unity’s “no royalties, no fucking around” subscription plans. Now, even developers who paid $1,500 for a “perpetual license” to Unity back then could theoretically be subject to additional per-install fees starting next year (provided their game is still generating sufficient revenue and installs).
This reminds me of a story from earlier this year from Wizards of the Coast, publishers of Dungeons & Dragons (and subsidiary of Hasbro). It hinged on exactly the same semantics.
The short version is that, in 2000, Wizards of the Coast released D&D under the “Open Gaming License (OGL),” which gave third parties explicit approval to make and sell their own material using most of the D&D content, under a perpetual license. Cut forward 23 years, and lots of major publishers got their start making D&D supplements, and continue to use the OGL because (a) it’s a cover-your-ass license in case they tread into a legal gray area, and (b) allows them to open up their own content to third parties. Plans for an update OGL leaked, with predictably dogshit terms that I won’t get into right now, but essentially killed the license as anything anyone would want to use. The malicious part was that they would be “de-authorizing” the OGL 1.0a, because while it was a perpetual license, that didn’t make it irrevocable.
(IIRC, it’s also a legal argument based on case law established after the OGL was written. Not a lawyer, though.)
Predictably, there was a huge backlash. WotC backtracked, and even gave up ground by releasing a bunch of stuff under the Creative Commons. However, the OGL is still dead, because third parties can no longer trust that WotC (or Hasbro) won’t try this ratfuckery again. (Sound familiar?) Lots of products were subtly rewritten to no longer need the OGL, and several publishers worked on an industry license amusingly called the Open RPG Creative License, or ORC.
The thing is, D&D’s going to survive this a lot better than Unity. The business model was to sell D&D and D&D supplements, they only indirectly benefited from third-party material, and people are still going to make D&D stuff because it’s D&D. Unity’s entire business model relies on licensing, so if people stop using it… that’s it.
- Comment on Leaked Email Shows Elon Musk Demanding "Sub 10 Micron Accuracy” Cybertruck Parts 10 months ago:
Due to the nature of Cybertruck, which is made of bright metal with mostly straight edges, any dimensional variation shows up like a sore thumb.
It sounds to me like the reasonable conclusion to draw from this would be to modify the design of the car. I’d also assume you don’t need tolerances to be the same for literally all parts inside and out. I’d also think that, if the car looks that bad if things are 10 or more microns out of place, these cars are going to age terribly after regular use.
But what do I know? If I were smart, I’d be rich, right? And Elon is so rich, he must be a genius!