cerebralhawks
@cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- Comment on Players are returning their Dispatch copies due to Switch censorship 23 hours ago:
I listened 100% on my AirPods.
- Comment on I hope hell is like a microwave so if you find the right spot, you're ok 23 hours ago:
I’m not sure how many people who believe in reincarnation believe that it happens instantly. Some do. I think for a lot of them (I couldn’t put a number or percentage weight on it), it’s a variable time.
It’s nice to think that the baby who was born down the hall at the moment of your loved one’s death got the soul of your loved one, especially if, as they grow, they exhibit similar traits. Comforting, I mean. Like they will never remember you, but their soul lives on.
I always had this wild idea when I was a kid that there was a sort of “lobby” that souls waited in for a set amount of time. This idea came about in the early 1980s, long before gaming lobbies, but… same idea. The idea being that in this lobby, there are other things you can do, but the main thing you do is pick a life and live it. Like when you’re a new soul, either one of two things happens. Either you get to pick, and you pick an easy one. Or you don’t get to pick, and you get given a shitty one. As those lives end and you come back, you retain the memories and lessons learned, but they don’t carry through to the next life. But in the lobby, they accumulate. And after a few lives, you start picking more creative ones. Like maybe you want someone who has an epic death. Or someone who is one of the 0.01%. Just for the experience. I dunno. It was a theory I thought of when I was a little kid. Probably nothing to it at all. I don’t actually believe it. I just remember making it up. Might have even pieced it together from movies and TV.
- Comment on I hope hell is like a microwave so if you find the right spot, you're ok 23 hours ago:
Sure, but I mean the mind. We can’t remember where we were before we were born because we did not exist. The mind cannot fathom true zero, not existing, so we made up a lot of cool and interesting theories for what comes next.
Of course, the physical body returns to the soil and all that.
- Comment on Players are returning their Dispatch copies due to Switch censorship 1 day ago:
Stephen King’s best (solo) book, IT, has probably over 200 N-bombs in it. It’s still his best book. Very much a product of its time (and an author who was so coked up he doesn’t remember writing a lot of it), but still his best book.
Your novel is Young Adult, or no? It’s not clear. I don’t know what the rules are for YA in America/Europe, but I’m reading the Sword Art Online series (rather, having anime lead Bryce Papenbrook read it to me, via the audiobooks) and SAO (which is LN which means Light Novel, which is Japan’s version of YA) has dismemberment. Arms being chopped off, people being chopped in half… the anime is known for its scenes of SA, but the first two weren’t SA in the books (the anime exaggerated what happened). The one in season 3 absolutely is an SA though. I haven’t gotten to the one in season 4 yet but I’ve heard it’s not. There’s also torture, but it’s not too serious. They’re playing video games, VR based. At one point the pain is amplified and a character is viciously attacked, so he feels it 10x more. In another case, people are trapped in a world that moves 1,000x slower than real life (so like a year in the game is like an hour in real life or something like that). The kind of stuff Black Mirror did (White Christmas, Black Museum, USS Callister). But not a lot of profanity. (Of course, I’m also reading it translated to English. I have no idea what Reki Kawahara actually wrote, because I would not be able to read the original Japanese text.)
- Comment on UK proposes forcing Google to let publishers opt out of AI summaries 1 day ago:
Nice, but we should ALL (UK and beyond) be able to opt out of AI manipulation. Of course, the ideal would be, we’d have to opt in in the first place. And those below the age of majority cannot consent, so that would solve that problem.
- Comment on I hope hell is like a microwave so if you find the right spot, you're ok 1 day ago:
Not only is there no proof Hell exists (I know, edgy online atheists, actual Christians just mad at God they were sent to bed without dessert, etc), but what is written about Hell in “official” texts (say, holy books) and what was written later (e.g. movies, but also classic literature such as Dante’s Inferno and whatnot) differ a bit.
One of the big misconceptions about Hell is that the Devil (Satan, Lucifer, whatever) is the warden of Hell, or the leader or something. No, he’s just prisoner #1.
It’s more accurate to say that Hell is just a purgatory that is far from God’s light. An endless void.
I’m no Biblical scholar, but most of what we commonly think of as Hell comes from movies, and has been used to scare Christians into giving more than they can afford at the collection plate so the priest or pastor can buy this year’s Cadillac.
As far as where you go when you die? Nobody knows, but science’s best guess is it’s where you were before you were born. Nowhere. You can read about how life was like before you were born, but you can never experience it. Add 100 to the year you were born: anything after that is similarly conjecture and stories. It will never exist for you. Dream about it all you like, but at that time, or somewhat after (people have lived to around 120? but it’s rare) you won’t be here. It’s what you do here that matters.
Instead of worrying about what happens after you die, worry instead about how you will live. Or spare a thought for the trillions who will never live. In your place, a great artist who united the world could have been born, or a great scientist who cures cancer. But instead, you live in their place. That’s not to say your worth is lower; in your place it could have been another serial killer as well. But no, you’re the one who lived… so live.
That last paragraph wasn’t me. I was summarizing and paraphrasing Darwin.
- Comment on Is it weird that whenever there's an internet disruption, the first thing that I assume is happening is war, civil unrest, or government censorship, or some sort of conspiracy happening? 2 days ago:
People in the US actually should. You have a fascist-leaning, borderline totalitarian regime which has tried to incite civil war several times, with the assumed goal of declaring martial law and suspending elections. They’re also on social media (including Lemmy!) trying to discourage people from voting, either by saying the other party is just as bad or saying it won’t do any good. It actually sounds like attacking the Internet is the next step, since they’ve been attacking education, health care, and nutrition lately. In fact, Twitter has been used to create and spread CSAM, and Twitter is run by an ally of the ruling party, almost like they want that social network banned in other countries (but it won’t be banned in the US).
- Comment on There should be smell museums 3 days ago:
There is, or once was, such an exhibit at the Exploratorium in San Francisco in the 1980s. They have you smell things via tubes and you try to guess what it is. Science museum. It’s since moved to the piers. So I’ve heard. It used to be cheap to go there; now, I’ve read it’s very expensive.
- Comment on Starmer says he won't 'choose between' the US or China 3 days ago:
Translation: Popular adages equating China with low quality haven’t been true in years (if not decades), everybody knows it, the real “problem” with China is their military/space programmes. As for the US, well, 51st state and all that. Sorry… Brexit was a mistake, the UK should have stayed with the EU. Now they have to kowtow to the US and they shouldn’t have to.
- Comment on Microsoft Gave FBI BitLocker Encryption Keys, Exposing Privacy Flaw 5 days ago:
Of course, this only applies to home users, not Pro/Corporate users… right?
Right?
/s if it’s not immediately obvious. In Windows 10, BitLocker required Pro. I’m not actually sure that is the case in 11, but I would assume so. Corporations almost always turn it on, the idea being if their computer is stolen, their data is not. Maybe the drive can be wiped, but the data could not be stolen. At least, that is the idea.
Meta makes computers? You mean the Meta Quest VR headsets?
- Comment on Transistors are probably a bit reason we don't live in a steampunk world. 5 days ago:
That, I’m not sure. The big computers did use vacuum tubes. I don’t think the Pip-Boy did, though. Too small.
Robobrains are powered by human brains. The others, I think are far more basic. In Fallout 4 though, Codsworth is not a Robobrain, but a Mr Handy maid robot (based on the Mr Gutsy military robot with three weaponised arms) and it has at least simulated emotion. Then there is Curie, which is another Mr Handy (or whatever the “feminine” version is called… Ms Handy doesn’t sound right) who dreams of human ambition, and can be placed in a synth (i.e. a manufactured human), which gives her the full range of human emotion. And you can flirt with her, which fucks with her hormones, which she can’t control, so she’s easily flustered. You can even hook up with her, which is incredibly disturbing once you learn one of the game’s big secrets. The big secret (CW: SA in some form):
spoiler
It’s revealed that the synths are clones of your character’s son Shawn; ergo, every synth is biologically your son or daughter, at least for their DNA. So by having sex with a clone of your son… well, the best that can be said is “at least the synths are sterile.”
- Comment on Transistors are probably a bit reason we don't live in a steampunk world. 6 days ago:
The invention of the transistor never happened in the Fallout universe. They didn’t get steampunk, they got nuclear utopia until that led to a massive recession, other stuff, then nuclear war… which is why it’s post apocalyptic.
I’m sure steampunk is also a possibility though.
- Comment on Telly has only delivered 35,000 of its free televisions with always-on ads 6 days ago:
Oh, my bad. I heard about this before, I knew it was 720, but I completely missed the part where it has an attached display not to mention can’t see the picture. /s
Come on now.
I meant in general, like on other devices.
- Comment on Telly has only delivered 35,000 of its free televisions with always-on ads 6 days ago:
When I heard about it before, they were repurposing old 720p panels.
With how cheap 4K sets are these days, these free TVs are for people who can’t even afford that. I’d say they’re useful as a secondary use for the heat they generate, in that case.
That said, I’d be fine with always on ads if ads and sponsorships never interrupt my content. Like if I’m watching a YouTube video and it’s 4:3, I’m perfectly fine with YouTube filling the sides with ads, as long as they don’t make noise, and as long as I can watch the content uninterrupted. If the video is 16:9 and fills my TV (or monitor), I’m fine propping my iPhone up. They can even use Face ID to pause the content if I look away, as long as I don’t have to look right at the ad (I’ll be watching the content).
Advertising pays for stuff, and if it doesn’t get in the way of stuff, I don’t hate it. They should try working with people rather than straight up exploiting everyone. That just leads to people turning off the ads using a third-party method (e.g. Firefox with uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock). Or I’ll just download the video with jdownloader2.
- Comment on Fable - Gameplay Teaser 6 days ago:
There is that — that it will probably be an easy game. There aren’t too many of those around. Or at least getting attention. Last year’s Game of the Year talk was all about three games that are just stupidly hard: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight Silksong, and Blue Prince. I love Blue Prince, but I caved and looked up how to beat it. I fully accept that I probably never will. And “beating” it really just means beating the tutorial. There’s so much to do after. But it’s fun, even when you lose. The other two are just exceedingly punishing.
And that’s fine — games were hard in the 80s. They eased off a bit in the 90s and 00s, but I think PlayStation was always pushing hard games while Xbox and Nintendo were more casual and “gaming is for everybody” (as opposed to “git gud or GTFO”). Then smartphones came out and easy games pretty much swept the app stores. I respect a good challenge if it’s fun, and I respect a game that pushes you to be your absolute best… I just don’t have the time for that. I like games with Story difficulty where you can do the motions if you want, but you’re basically guaranteed to survive every battle, and falling off a high ledge just returns you to the ledge you fell from.
Final Fantasy VII (both of them: the emulated PS1 version on modern consoles, and the remake) actually come with cheat codes built right in, and from what I can tell, they don’t even disable achievements. (Actually, the last one disables one achievement. The last cheat code maxes the level of your materia, and this disables the achievement for learning about materia. Once you get that achievement, go crazy.) The game even offers a Head Start mode that makes all your characters start powerful with high level gear. Of course, Final Fantasy VII is a special game. It’s often credited as being the first truly cinematic game. I’m not sure it was, but it was definitely one of them and absolutely the most popular of them at the time. The game plays like a movie, so they absolutely do not want to hold you back because you can’t push the right buttons fast enough. They want you to experience that story.
- Comment on Fable - Gameplay Teaser 6 days ago:
Someone told me that before. Still, if Peter Molyneux puts out a game and uses the name Albion, we know what he’s referring to.
Fable’s Albion could even be Great Britain in an alternate universe.
It’s like Pandora. It’s been used by a bunch of companies for different reasons. But if Gearbox lost the rights to Borderlands and they set a new game on a planet called Pandora, I would not expect they were talking about the jeweler.
So I suppose it benefits Molyneux that his world and title were so generic he can use them without the Fable license.
- Comment on Fable - Gameplay Teaser 6 days ago:
So it’s love, gold, and a tower? Yeah I still pick gold.
It’s been a while since I played but I thought you could have different pets and replace them as they go (since pets tend to be canon fodder in a lot of games).
- Comment on New Fable game removes feature core to franchise's DNA 1 week ago:
I liked what Mass Effect 2 did. Scars that healed if you did good deeds and got worse if you were evil. Or you could pay to upgrade your sick bay, remove the scars, and disable the feature entirely. I roll paragon on the Normandy, but I removed the scars.
Morality systems are easy to break anyway.
- Comment on Switch from American tech companies !? 1 week ago:
Yes, GrapheneOS is Android (it’s AOSP without Google Play Services and GApps, with open source replacements). It’s like what CyanogenMod was back in the day. I haven’t used Graphene; I’ve never owned a Pixel. And Graphene is only on Pixels.
I’ve used a ton of Android custom firmware… from around Ice Cream Sandwich through Lollipop — back when Android was named for desserts. My favourite CFW was LiquidSmooth based on Jellybean, based on AOKP, which was an AOSP fork that tried to be “cool.” It wasn’t quite as cool as Paranoid Android (which was fucking awesome), but it was way more stable. And CyanogenMod was the most stable but “boring” by comparison. I mean it wasn’t flashy. But LiquidSmooth was rock solid. So no, I haven’t used Graphene, but I’ve used forks/ROMs like it.
If Google Play Services is running on it, and you’re not blocking it with a firewall (not sure if you even can, but I suppose it isn’t impossible), then yes, it’s spying on you. (I do not think GrapheneOS runs Google Play Services.)
- Comment on Fable - Gameplay Teaser 1 week ago:
Yes, I know about 3’s good ending and how all that works, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who wants to play it but hasn’t before, but I appreciate how they handled it, as I understand it. And that twist is revealed somewhere in the middle, so you can grind out the good ending or you can take the easy way out. Fable 2 had you go all the way to the end, gave you one wish and 3 options to choose from, then pulls the rug out from under you. Unless you’re evil and you just take the money. Regarding the dog:
spoiler
There’s no option to save the dog. Not sure where you’re getting that. I don’t remember a dog. I know you could get a pet and they could die and you could get another one. But there’s no wish to bring a pet back. The evil wish is money, and lots of it, but it’s the end of the game so it’s purely symbolic. The other two endings are “bring back everyone who was killed by the bad guys” or “bring back your family.” The game pushes the value of family from the very beginning, but apparently choosing your family is a second bad ending and your family basically hate you for putting them before some strangers. Which doesn’t track with the rest of the game.
- Comment on Fable - Gameplay Teaser 1 week ago:
Oh yeah, 2 was fun as hell, I just thought the ending was a betrayal.
- Comment on Switch from American tech companies !? 1 week ago:
The iPad also wasn’t Apple’s first tablet. The Newton basically sucked and no one liked it. But now there’s really no point in buying anything but an iPad if you want a tablet, even if you use an Android phone.
There were a ton of bad MP3 players before the iPod and a bunch of smartphones before the iPhone, except in both cases, some of them were good. You just had to be real savvy to find those diamonds in the rough, because it sure was a rough market.
The problem is, Google is a data services (advertising and marketing) company. The only reason Android even exists is because Google bought it from a hobbyist (Andy Rubin) because they knew they could use it to scrape more data than Gmail alone. Android exists to harvest your data so that Google can collect and sell it.
Meanwhile, Apple is still kind of trying to sell phones like computers. They’re pushing performance harder than their rivals, and they want to be a privacy-first company, but they’re based in the US, and are licking fascist boots, so it’s not a good look. And now Apple is pushing services as well, subscriptions and whatnot. Is it really better than Android? Especially given the shortcomings in app choice (e.g. sideloading) and the broken ass keyboard? I dunno. I’m a Mac guy, I like Apple tech, warts and all. And I still think they protect your privacy. I think, like Mozilla, they collect telemetry so they know how their products are used, but I don’t believe they are tracking your activity across apps/the web, building a profile on you, and selling this to advertisers. And they’ve gone after companies that try to do so on their platform — when CEO Tim Cook came out and said “starting today, we’re still going to let Facebook track you across apps and the web, but we’re going to make them get your permission first” or something like that. And from then, you had to agree to the tracking. If you said no, the app was stopped from doing it. Apparently it was effective, Facebook ran a huge ad campaign claiming to be a small business and saying Apple was hurting small businesses like them. (They’ve since found ways around it. Apple has tried to block them. It’s a cat-and-mouse game.) Anyway, point is, I don’t know how long Apple can keep selling phones like computers. Arguably, they stopped a while ago. And that’s a shame. And it’s why, as an Apple guy, I’m rooting for Linux phones. Because if Apple won’t sell a phone like a computer, well… that’s the kind of phone I want. A pocket computer that can call.
- Comment on Switch from American tech companies !? 1 week ago:
I mean, the best way is to throw iPhone money at Google, and get iPhone 11 level performance out of a Pixel 10, then wipe the firmware and replace it with GrapheneOS. This is problematic for a couple reasons. One, if you’re gonna pay iPhone money, maybe just get an iPhone? Solves a big chunk of the privacy issue, but doesn’t get you away from American tech companies, which was your original point. So we set that option aside. Two, you have to give Google money, so they win either way. Sure, they lose out on that targeted ad money, but they sold you years-old tech at a premium price — so they win. Of course, you can buy a used Pixel, but it’s gonna be even less powerful (assuming it’s an older model).
I think the best option is to take the open-source AOSP (Android Open Source Project) that the closed-source Android is based on, and make a fork that doesn’t use Google, like Amazon did with Fire OS. Then you’d just need a hardware partner.
Apparently, Graphene OS is looking into this, but I don’t like the idea of a stripped-down Android phone. If I’m paying iPhone price on years-old hardware, the OS better kick some ass. The alternatives to iPhone just offer too many compromises in the name of virtues that I don’t really think matter enough. If we can’t get an alternative that can match iPhone on performance, it should have an awesome user experience.
- Comment on Fable - Gameplay Teaser 1 week ago:
Here’s the unbranded trailer that shows all the platforms it’s on.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5qWGaqzk98
Posting the Sony one implies it’s exclusive to PlayStation and derails the conversation to a place it really doesn’t need to go.
Personally I’m cautious. After the way the second one ended, I never touched the third one. They kinda pull this bait-and-switch where if you try to pick the good ending, the game shames you for it. It’s almost as bad as Mass Effect 3 telling you that you have three choices, giving you three paths, and not telling you which one is which. Maybe a bit worse. I mean to go through this whole game and just get shit on for trying to do the right thing. It’s a bit shit.
Then again, Peter Molyneux isn’t involved in this. He’s making a sequel to Black and White set in the Fable universe without using the Fable name (but he is using the Albion name) so it’s kinda confusing. Obvious if you know what you’re looking at, though.
- Comment on Switch from American tech companies !? 1 week ago:
So no smartphones.
Nokia is Finnish and I’m not sure if t hat’s considered European. It’s not American though. In fact the only American company left making phones is Apple. The problem is, the rest of them uses Android, which spies on you. Counterpoint: Apple won’t let you install apps your government doesn’t approve of. Counterpoint to the counterpoint: Android. Fucking. Spies. On. You. Counterpoint to the… you get the idea: Apple still hasn’t shipped a working software keyboard. Pick your poison. Spyware or a broken keyboard and you can’t use a few apps you may not care about… but you’re buying from an American company whose CEO kisses Trump’s arse and literally gave him a solid gold participation trophy.
I want to see real Linux phones that don’t run Android and are somewhat competitive with Android phones, at least in the mid-range space. No one expects them to compete with the iPhone, or the equivalent Android phone that comes out 3-5 years later and stops getting updates while the iPhone it matches on performance is still getting them… but it shouldn’t have to. We kinda hit a plateau a few years ago.
Otherwise, definitely worth a look.
- Comment on Switch from American tech companies !? 1 week ago:
Wild guess: Spotify was founded in Europe.
It’s now based in the US, and a lot of its revenue goes to alt-right loonies. Renewing their podcast contracts is why you’re paying more year after year to stream music.
I like Apple Music because they pay artists more, but I might be a little biased as it came with my phone and computer and I have a family plan with others who enjoy it (and yes, they are family).
The true alternative to streaming anything is using Plex (or something like it) to make your own music streamer, buying all your media (that pays artists more than any streaming platform), and streaming it to yourself that way. It is illegal to rip CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays in the US, but technically if you own the media it’s fine to have it, you just can’t have broken the copy protection. Kind of a catch-22. But it costs a lot more as you have to buy everything. If you already have a massive CD collection, it’s not as big a deal.
- Comment on Believing the law or elections will save us from the current situation is like believing superheroes will save us 1 week ago:
People should still get out and vote.
The blame for the current situation does not rest entirely with the ones who voted for Trump. It is also shared by everyone who didn’t vote for Harris. Because people believed that not voting, or voting for a third party would keep a dark-skinned woman from being president, this is what the US, and the world now, has to deal with.
It’s fine if you believe it won’t help, but if you don’t try, you can’t blame anyone else if it doesn’t go your way. At the very least, you should be able to look in the mirror and say “I did what I could.”
You know who else wants you to stay home and not vote? Trump. How about showing him he’s wrong? Or accept complicity in his actions.
- Comment on YSK the four rules of firearm safety 1 week ago:
Agreed, but I think they meant if you don’t know how to clear it.
When I got my gun, first thing I taught my wife was how to check and clear it. Then we played a game: check, clear, rack, pass. No magazine or rounds involved. So I’d get it from her, lock the slide back, check the magazine well, check the barrel from the top, hold it up to the light (trigger finger on the frame), then rack the slide, and pass it back — muzzle aimed down, as one does.
- Comment on Do old people still remember their childhood? Do people just start losing their memories and their sense of self as they get older? 1 week ago:
I’m almost 50 and I remember a lot of my childhood. I remember riding in a car with my mother down the main street in town and not being able to read signs. So like 1983-84. I remember a bunch of other things from that far back. Sights, sounds, feelings. More the later you go. A lot of the late 80s and beyond.
- Comment on Is it just me, or does anyone else wish there was a federated, decentralized alternative to YouTube Music? 1 week ago:
I assume you mean for artists, to do it legally?
I’ve been collecting physical audio from friends and family for decades. The idea is, you scratch your disc, I gotcha — you don’t need to go buy another one. At first it was just “cover the cost of a blank,” but the blanks got cheap enough (and the burners got fast enough) that it wasn’t a big deal. Even my technophobe mother saw the benefit of me plugging my laptop into her home stereo and DJing on it. So she would get up and change records. Once I showed her I had all the albums on the computer and could easily change them with clicks (or taps) rather than physical activity… she was 100% sold.
Now I have all that music on a Plex server. I just share with family though. Something like that, if you had a web of people sharing Plex shares, would be cool, but not exactly legit. Maybe something to ask about on an instance like db0 rather than .world. Because generally anything involving copyright tends to be frowned on by bigger/more public instances… and I try not to break rules on other instances.
But the problem is, rights are messy, to say the least.