Aceticon
@Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- Comment on It will trickle down any second now 2 days ago:
Turns out that the golden stuff streaming down ain’t Gold …
- Comment on Santa is working on those lists 3 days ago:
This poster Romans!
- Comment on Santa is working on those lists 3 days ago:
Santa is gonna be getting a piece of coal this Christmas … and it will be worth it.
- Comment on US demands access to tourists' social media histories 3 days ago:
“Enjoy the once in century experience of empire collapse from the first row, go sightseeing to ‘once grand but now little more than decrepit and fast fading façades’ and return home with a warm ‘at least it’s not us’ feeling (return trip might be from El Salvador) unlike the poor sods who live in the place”
- Comment on US demands access to tourists' social media histories 3 days ago:
They’re gonna Ratchet Effect the shit out this!
- Comment on US demands access to tourists' social media histories 3 days ago:
Well, that’s definitelly going to solve the fall in Tourism problem in the US /s
- Comment on US demands access to tourists' social media histories 3 days ago:
The EU is now talking about doing what the US was already doing more than a decade ago when Snowden Revelations came out.
And don’t get me started on things like the relative ratios of “death by police” and percentage of people in prision (to mention just the things related to the use of force in policing) between America and Europe.
The EU is at least a decade behind the US in creeping autoritarianism and a lot of that shit has been imported from the US (including the new style far right, which amongst other things was set-up with money from American billionaires which Steve Bannon brought to Europe years ago very openly to “create far right parties” and is ideologically fed by American money using social media which for example paid Cambridge Analitica to use Facebook to fuel Brexit).
In this turn of the Wheel of History, the equivalent of Nazism is spreading out from America.
- Comment on US demands access to tourists' social media histories 3 days ago:
Personally I’ve been boycotting travel to the US or even just with a transfer in the US since the PATRIOT act.
Already over a decade ago I very purposefully chose Canada (highly recommended, by the way) for a month vacationing in North America rather than the US.
The writting has been on the wall for this shit ever since they allowed the TSA to start confiscating traveller’s mobile phones and computers way back in Bush’s day - the main difference with the current administration compared to the previous ones is that they’re open about what they’re looking for.
- Comment on America Has Become a Digital Narco-State - Paul Krugman 4 days ago:
Mate, I’m not the person who answered your original comment.
I just saw you making claims about somebody else making fallacious statements when in fact it was you who started with a big fat fallacy and then bitched and moaned when somebody else countered it by pointing out that at least one of the points of “evidence” that you yourself presented for Mr. Krugman’s “pretty good track record” (whatever the fuck such vague and ill-defined expression means) was in fact a fake Nobel prize.
As it so happens for a while I had a lot of exposure to Mr. Krugman’s opinions - on and after the 2008 Crash, when I in fact worked in the same industry as he did - and in my opinion he was often full of shit and all over the place, at least back then, and a pretty good illustration of the caricatural Economist “who has predicted 10 of the last 2 downturns”. One could say that he likes to throw shit at the wall and see what sticks.
I’ll repeat myself: had you not started with an Appeal To Authority in your original post and just let the logic of the point speak for itself, you would have been better off.
- Comment on America Has Become a Digital Narco-State - Paul Krugman 4 days ago:
Since you went for an Appeal to Authority as the very first paragraph of your comment, a response that trashes that person’s authoritative credentials is logic in the very context you created and thus not an Ad Hominum.
Without that first paragraph on your post you would’ve been right to claim Ad Hominum.
- Comment on 'Huge respect to the folks at Obsidian': Todd Howard invited Obsidian devs onto Fallout season 2's set so they could see New Vegas in the flesh 1 week ago:
And found out filmset scenarios are filled with tricks that make it seem one thing to viewers whilst being somethings, just like 3D worlds in games.
- Comment on Crucial is shutting down — because Micron wants to sell its RAM and SSDs to AI companies instead 1 week ago:
The mouse driver is already part of the OS in Window and Linux.
That shit is the Adverts Delivery & Private Data Capture system.
- Comment on Don't throw away your old PC—it makes a better NAS than anything you can buy 1 week ago:
The way one designs hardware in is to optimize for the most common usage scenario with enough capacity to account for the peak use scenario (and with some safety margin on top).
However specifically for power sources, if you want to handle more power you have to for example use larger capacitors and switching MOSFETs, and those have more leakage hence more baseline losses. Mind you, using more expensive components one can get higher power stuff will less leakage, but that’s not going to happen outside specialist power supplies which are specifically designed for high-peak use AND low baseline power consumption, and I’m not even sure if there’s a genuine use case for such a design that justifies paying the extra cost for high-power low-leakage components.
- Comment on Don't throw away your old PC—it makes a better NAS than anything you can buy 1 week ago:
When I had my setup with an ASUS EEE PC I had mobile external HDDs plugged to it via USB.
Since my use case was long-term storage and feeding video files to a Media TV Box, the bandwidth limit of USB 2.0 and using HDDs rather than SDDs was fine. Also back then I had 100Mbps ethernet so that too limited bandwidth.
Even in my current setup where I use a Mini-PC to do the same, I still have the storage be external mobile HDDs and now badwidth limits are 1Gbps ethernet and USB 3.0, which is still fine for my use case.
Because my use case now is long term storage, home file sharing and torrenting, my home network is using the same principles as distributed systems and modern microprocessor architectures: smaller faster data stores with often used data close to were its used (for example fast smaller SDDs with the OS and game executables inside my gaming machine, plus a torrent server inside that same Mini-PC using its internal SDD) and then layered outwards with decreasing speed and increasing size (that same desktop machine has an internal “storage” HDD filled with low use files, and one network hop from it there’s the Mini-PC NAS sharing its external HDDs containing longer term storage files).
The whole thing tries to balance storage costs and with usage needs.
I suppose I could improve performance a bit more by setting up some of the space in the internal SDD in the Mini-PC as a read/write cache for the external HDDs, but so far I haven’t had the patience to do it.
I used to design high performance distributed computing systems and funnilly enough my home setup follows the same design principles (which I had not noticed until thinking about it now as I wrote this).
- Comment on Don't throw away your old PC—it makes a better NAS than anything you can buy 1 week ago:
Yeah, different hardware is designed for different use cases and generally won’t work as well for other use cases, which is also why desktops seldom make for great NAS servers (their fans will also fail from constant use, plus their design spec is for much higher power usage so they have a lot more power waste even if trottled down).
That said my ASUS EEE PC lasted a few years on top of a cabinet in my kitchen (which is were the Internet came into my house so the router was also there) with a couple of external HDDs plugged in, and that’s a bit of a hostile environment (because some of the particulates from cooking, including fat, don’t get pulled out and end up accumulating there).
At the moment I just have a Mini-PC on my living room with a couple of external HDDs plugged in that works as NAS, TV Media Box and home server (including wireguard VPN on top of a 1Gbps connection, which at peak is somewhat processor intensive). It’s an N100 and the whole thing has a TDP of 15W so the fan seldom activates. So far that seems to be the best long term solution, plus it’s multiple use unlike a proprietary NAS. It’s the some of the best €140 (not including the HDDs) I’ve ever spent.
- Comment on Don't throw away your old PC—it makes a better NAS than anything you can buy 1 week ago:
Stuff designed for much higher peek usage tend to have a lot more waste.
For example, a 400W power source (which is what’s probably in the original PC of your example) will waste more power than a lower wattage on (unless it’s a very expensive one), so in that example of yours it should be replaced by something much smaller.
Even beyond that, everything in there - another example, the motherboard - will have a lot more power leakage than something designed for a low power system (say, an ARM SBC).
Unless it’s a notebook, that old PC will always consume more power than, say, an N100 Mini-PC, much less an ARM based one.
- Comment on Don't throw away your old PC—it makes a better NAS than anything you can buy 1 week ago:
True for notebooks. (For years my home NAS was an old Asus EEE PC)
Desktops, on the other hand, tend to consume a lot more power (how bad it is, depends on the generation) - they’re simply not designed to be a quiet device sitting in a corner continuously run a low powered task.
Meanwhile the typical NAS out there is running an ARM processor (which are known for their low power consumption) or at worse a low powered Intel processor such as the N100.
Mind you, the idea of running you own NAS software is great (one can do way more with that than with a proprietary NAS, since its far more flexible) as long as you put it in the right hardware for the job.
- Comment on Valve dev counters calls to scrap Steam AI disclosures, says it's a "technology relying on cultural laundering, IP infringement, and slopification" 2 weeks ago:
I have the impression that most, if not all, of AAA companies don’t care about gamers getting disappointed after they bought the game.
- Comment on Valve dev counters calls to scrap Steam AI disclosures, says it's a "technology relying on cultural laundering, IP infringement, and slopification" 2 weeks ago:
That’s actually a very interesting way to tackle the whole thing and opens up an even broader scope than it seems at first sight.
The base game has simple text-only character “speech” with no portraits.
AI generated character portraits with AI-generated voices is a free DLC released alongside the game.
For my specific case there would be no gameplay differences in having or not the DLC installed, only a simpler or fancier version of character interaction.
Also given that some of that stuff is going to be a lot of voice recordings, it makes the base game much smaller.
Its give gamers a choice, which is as it should be IMHO, and it also gives me feedback on how many people would rather have a less fancy version without AI generated elements over having a fancier version with AI generated elements.
- Comment on Valve dev counters calls to scrap Steam AI disclosures, says it's a "technology relying on cultural laundering, IP infringement, and slopification" 2 weeks ago:
I don’t think there are that many futuristic portrait photos in a consistent visual style available as stock images, unless we’re talking about existing IPs (say, people in Star Wars outfits), which is something I obviously cannot use.
- Comment on Valve dev counters calls to scrap Steam AI disclosures, says it's a "technology relying on cultural laundering, IP infringement, and slopification" 2 weeks ago:
Yes, that’s what I’m considering and that’s my point of view.
As I wrote at the end of my post, I totally agree with full disclosure as I think buyers are entitled to make an informed decision and many people feel that the use of AI in making a game is something that makes a difference in their purchasing decision.
I’m not so sure it’s devs wanting to hide that they’re using AI. I think is more of a mix of AI use having become an ideological subject for some people (for understandable reasons given the veritable shitshow of speculative investment, fraud and deceit around it, not to mention that many AI models - especially the corporate ones - are trained on other people’s work against the will of those people) and some are absolutist about it to the point of irrationality (that part is less understandable), and many if not most of those making and selling games not wanting to lose a single sale not matter what.
Whilst I hold the principle that buyers should know what they’re getting before they buy it (and I try to be fair on it rather than wanting it for myself alone, so that means that principle also applies to my potential customers and I’m willing to lose sales for that), mine is a one-person Indie, so the company is me and follows my principles. Some in the industry do not hold such principles or just work in or lead companies which they do not own, so instead they want what maximizes profit, and that’s getting the upsides on both sides - one one side using AI to reduce manpower costs AND on the other not losing the sales of customers who are against AI use like that, which would happen if they were informed about it.
In summary, the need to keep it secret is simply because that maximizes profits and the people in the gaming industry who think like that would rather swindle customers than lose profits.
- Comment on Valve dev counters calls to scrap Steam AI disclosures, says it's a "technology relying on cultural laundering, IP infringement, and slopification" 2 weeks ago:
I’m a one man team making a game.
It’s a management game and indirectly you control characters, which you don’t see as in-game models because instead you control the ships they’re in or you order them to work in specific positions in the space station.
I would like to actually have distinct recognizable characters with their own voices so that players can identify with them, like them and not want to lose them.
So I would like to have character cards with portraits and as much as possible unique character voices, and given that the game’s visuals are toward the realistic side, the portraits would be in a realistic style.
This means around 100+ realistic portraits and distinct voices.
As a one man team I can’t actually do this without AI - not enough funds for hiring 100 voice actors, not enough skill to do that kind of design or funds to hire somebody who will do 100 realistic distinct portraits.
So either I seriously trim down that feature (say, their speech is text only, and they have no portraits at all) or I use AI image generation and voice generation.
It’s simply not possible to do certain features at a certain level if you’re a small indie - unlike a big games company, I neither have the skill to do it myself (or in the case of the multiple voices, physically can’t), the employees to do it for me or the funds to pay for freelancers to do it, given how much work that involves.
I’ll probably try multiple options and see which works best. Maybe I’ll use AI for it, maybe I’ll cut down that feature to the point that all you have is an name and written text (essentially making the whole idea of players liking some characters nonviable), maybe I’ll find some middle way that avoids AI.
That said, I support disclosing that AI was used in making the game, ideally if it lets me list where an how it was used.
As a customer, I feel I should be able to make and informed decision when buying something, so it’s only fair that the same applies to my potential customers. As I see it, it should be up to gamers to decide if and how much they care about AI having been used in making a game.
- Comment on YSK that Boris Johnson was one of the most corrupt Prime Minister in British history. He was obsessed about money 2 weeks ago:
The serfs will work harder if they are made to believe their voice counts.
- Comment on Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They're Doing 2 weeks ago:
Theoretically the sites would have to block all IP addresses of all cloud providers, including massive ones such as Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, because people in Wisconsin can just run VPN Server software in a container or virtual machine inside one those to have their own individual VPN.
Similarly they would have to block all exit IPs of most companies because somebody in Winsconsin might be using a the VPN of the company remotelly go to their company network and via it access those sites.
This law is completelly insane.
- Comment on Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They're Doing 2 weeks ago:
Given that the only way for those websites to block VPN traffic is to block the IP addresses of all known VPN exit points, what you would see is first the VPN providers regularly rotating those IP addresses, and second people simply setting up their own VPN servers software in rented VPS in cloud providers anywhere in the World.
You don’t need a full blown remote session, just a VPN server with an IP address which isn’t yet blocked by such a site.
Now, the sites might try and block this by only allowing in connections from know ISP blocks of addresses (which would theoretically only be direct connections from individuals not using a VPN), but that’s way less reliable than merelly lists of IP addresses of the VPN servers of big providers, plus it would block thing such as the entirety of Amazon AWS.
- Comment on Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They're Doing 2 weeks ago:
Ok, so basically when your computer uses a VPN it just connects to a VPN server over the Internet using an encrypted TCP/IP or UDP/IP connection. On your computer side all your connections to the Internet just get shoved into that encrypted tunel instead of going directly into the whole wide world from your own network connection so nobody but that server sees those connections, whilst on the VPN server side they’re recieved from that tunel and then exit to the whole wide world from that VPN server as if they’re actually connections initiated by that, so nobody else but that server knows that they are in fact connections you via an encrypted tunel.
Nations with nation-wide firewalls can try and block VPN by blocking the actual encrypted network connections to VPN servers (there are ways to recognize those, but there also ways to disguise them), but for websites to block them (which is what this legislation demands) the websites have to block the actual VPN servers since they have no way to know whose really behind those connections as all the sites see is connections which seem to originate in those servers as they have only the power to interfere with the traffic coming to them, not traffic elsewhere on the Internet (such as the encrypted connections from customers of VPNs)
Now, there are lists of the IP addresses of the exist points of VPN providers, which are the IP addresses were the traffic of somebody using that VPN enters the Internet, so to try to comply with this legislation those sites would start by blocking all traffic from any of those IP addresses - remember those websites don’t know were the traffic coming from a VPN server to that website really comes from, so they can’t tell traffic from people in Wisconsin from traffic from people elsewhere hence have to block everything to catch everybody from Winsonsin.
This would affect everybody anywhere in the World using those exit points of those VPN providers since those sites can’t really tell where exactly in the World is somebody whose traffic is coming from those VPN exit points.
Then there’s the problem that the legislation applies to all VPNs, not just commercial VPN providers, meaning that the websites would also theoretically have to block VPN servers from business VPNs (and given how the networks of many large companies work, that might mean blocking the entire company) as well as thing like schools using VPNs and, even more entertaining, VPNs set up by individuals by, for example, renting a Virtual Private Server and installing a Linux there running their own VPN server or even installing the VPN server software on something like Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure, which mean they might have to block every single IP address of any provider of VPS servers anywhere in the World (as any Wisconsian could, theoretically, over the Internet rent a chea VPS in, say, Malasia, and install a Linux with a VPS server there) as well as of all AWS and Azure servers since again any Wisconsian could theoretically run their own personal VPS server there.
So this legislation is totally insane in several ways.
- Comment on Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They're Doing 2 weeks ago:
If I understood it correctly, per that legislation and given how the technology works, adult sites would have to block everybody coming to them from a known VPN exit point, not matter where the user actually is (because a site can’t really tell were a user actually is when they’re behind a VPN) to comply with it, meaning that it would impact everybody everywhere in the World using a VPN.
De facto Wisconcin’s legilslature is trying to imposed their will not only on those who live in Wisconsin, not only on those who live anywhere in the US but on those who live anywhere in World.
- Comment on Insulin 2 weeks ago:
Look, mate, Intellectual Property Laws are literally the government creating and giving somebody an artificial monopoly on something which would not naturally exist if it wasn’t for it to be forced on everybody thanks to legislation and the coercive powers of the Legal system, and this which was purposefully written in Law to do exactly that, so it’s not an unexpected side effect.
So anywhere were Intellectual Property legislation can apply the market is not free, on purpose and by policy.
Now, a good argument can be done about how IP law incentivises the creation of things with a high utility value which would otherwise not be created, but that doesn’t alter the fact that the whole thing is a giant legislative sledgehammer with massive destructive capability for both the Economy and people’s lives, which needs to be handled very carefully in order not to do more harm than good.
As it so happens IP has gone completelly out of control in the US because Corruption there is incredibly high, more some when it comes to the property of ideas since holding a piece of such property can yield billions of dollars in profits - the profits from owning ideas can be far vaster than of merelly owning land - and this shit has been copied around the world by almost as corrupt politicians (for example, the thoroughly corrupt crooks in the EU commission pretty much copy every single “this will make me personally lots of money from thankful corporations” pieces of legislation from the US).
So Copyrights now last an insanelly long period - about 1.5 times the average human lifetime - before things covered by it go into the Public Domain, whilst lots of Patent Offices (most notably the ones in the US and Japan) will just accept patents on everything no matter how obvious without even a proper search for prior art, hence things like the “round corner button” patent that Apple has as well as countless business patents for “solutions” which are obvious to any domain specialist (many such patents literaly the product of paying a domain expert for an hour of their time by a patent troll to just “think up a solution for this” as no actual implementation is needed to get a patent, just the idea of how it could be done).
All this to say that this fucked up situation of insane government-given monopolies all over the place was created ON PURPOSE by the very politicians who claim to want a Free Market.
- Comment on Insulin 2 weeks ago:
It’s yet another thing to force the riff-raff to work any job for any pay.
Can’t have people refusing to do disgusting or even life-long disabling jobs for peanuts.
See also “housing costs”.
- Comment on Insulin 2 weeks ago:
Were I am, you just get Insulin for free with a prescription from you Family Doctor, because we have a National Health Service.
Even without said prescription, it’s only €70.
Americans are being thoroughly screwed, and it’s very much on purpose thanks to the way laws and regulations were designed (and at the risk attractict the crowd throwing “bothsideism” slogans around to defend “their” “tribe”, this is due to the actions of both US major parties) since in a real Free Market, Insuline over there should cost around the same as it cost over here without a prescription, not 10x more.