chonglibloodsport

@chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is the Wii good?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I have a Wii and a whole bunch of games just collecting dust. Even now that I’m reminded of it I don’t have any desire to play.

  I do really want to grab a CRT TV and a NES and SNES. I miss those games far more than anything on the Wii!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Apple's controversial iPhone accessory may have been discontinued⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  You can sell out on anything, no matter how unpopular it is, if you don’t make enough of them. How many of these things did they actually make?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'My personal failure was being stumped': Gabe Newell says finishing Half-Life 2: Episode 3 just to conclude the story would've been 'copping out of [Valve's] obligation to gamers'⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s an interesting take! I’m getting to be an aging gamer myself and I no longer really play story-focused games. I play Roguelikes which I can pick up and drop any time, 5-10 minutes at a time, here and there. These games are designed to have maximum replay value. So even though I don’t have a lot of time I spend it on replaying rather than playing new games!

  It’s an interesting difference and I think it depends on what we both look to get out of games.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'My personal failure was being stumped': Gabe Newell says finishing Half-Life 2: Episode 3 just to conclude the story would've been 'copping out of [Valve's] obligation to gamers'⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I think it was inevitable. Before HL2 we had Deus Ex. It was glorious. Fans loved it. Game devs looked at it and went “F*%@ that! We’re not making 3 games worth of content when you’re only going to see 1 on a given play through!”

  So that defines the basic tension. Gamers love replay value and multiple paths and different character builds and tons of secrets to explore. Game devs on the other hand want players to see every little blade of grass and tree they worked so hard at placing in the game. I think they also have a lot of data from achievements that show most gamers barely finish the game once, let alone discover all the secrets and alternate endings etc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Warcraft 1 and 2 Remastered and the long-awaited 2.0 patch update for Warcraft 3: Reforged have just launched on PC for Warcraft's 30th anniversary⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I read a piece not too long ago by one of the developers of WC1. He originally had it so you could select all your units at the same time and just order them to attack. The lead designer said that was too boring and easy, so he had him limit the unit selection to groups of 4.

  After trying it both ways, they agreed the smaller group limit made the game more skilful and interesting to play. Ever since then RTS games have gone towards increasing the selection cap more and more! I think it’s a mistake.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Warcraft 1 and 2 Remastered and the long-awaited 2.0 patch update for Warcraft 3: Reforged have just launched on PC for Warcraft's 30th anniversary⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I loved the first one so much. I’ve been hearing the remaster for WC1 won’t have online multiplayer. That’s a huge disappointment for me. Hardly anyone ever got to experience that game multiplayer. I played it with my friend exactly once, when I brought my computer over to his house. It worked over LAN and I think also modem, but not the internet.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Optimisation is a Slow Process⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Silent? No no no. The gaping hole makes loud chewing noises while the nostrils merily chat away in a sing-songy, whistly voice!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In the context of the leaked Warcraft II remake, do you still trust Blizzard to produce good games?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think trust is at issue here. If the game sucks, don’t buy it! There’s millions of other games to play.

  There is reason to hope Blizzard will turn around. Bobby Kotick is gone. Microsoft owns the company now. Say what you will about Windows but Microsoft tends to take pretty good care of the gaming franchises they own. I think a lot of AoE fans are pretty happy with how that’s going. I could be wrong though?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨M4 Mac Mini Power Button Has New Bottom Location⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  How often do you use it, if not every day? Once a week? Once a month?

  I use my laptop every day so it makes sense that I don’t use the power button even though it’s right there. I also have a raspberry pi set up to run Retropie that I only turn on once or twice a year when I have an old friend in from out of town. In that case I use the power button every single time but I don’t mind that it’s kind of finicky (I have to turn on several other devices with it as well as a power strip to power them all) because I don’t use it that often.

  I could see the new Mac Mini being a bit annoying with its bottom side power button if you’re using it every other day. But honestly I would be more annoyed at the boot time taking 30s than the 2s it takes to reach under the case and power it up. If I had one I would probably just get the keyboard with built in power button and finger print reader though. I use the finger print reader on my laptop all the time because it unlocks my password manager.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨M4 Mac Mini Power Button Has New Bottom Location⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  How often do you use the power button to turn on your computer? These days I might use it once a year, at most!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨McDonald’s posts biggest decline in global sales in four years⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You can also get fast food much cheaper at a grocery store. A fresh rotisserie chicken, potato wedges, a nice salad. I’d much rather eat that than McDonald’s!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ragrets⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Absolutely nailed the look. I’ve seen so many PhD students with that exact look!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trying to reverse climate change won’t save us, scientists warn⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  And now I’m just picturing myself cracking open a can of beer only for bees to start flying out!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Adobe execs say artists need to embrace AI or get left behind⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  And GhostScript!

  Pandoc and LaTeX as an alternative to InDesign for book and paper publishing. Obviously not a direct replacement since they are macro languages and not GUI tools, but they are free and open source and capable of creating great looking output if you put in the time. There’s tons of free learning resources out there too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Row as Starmer suggests landlords and shareholders are not ‘working people’⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Right, but I hope we’re able to see the difference between a working person who has investments and someone who earns the bulk of their income from investments. Similarly for real estate.

  Because calling someone who works and has investment savings for retirement (such as a pension) “not a working person” is not just plain wrong, it’s extremely offensive, especially coming from a career politician like Starmer.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Row as Starmer suggests landlords and shareholders are not ‘working people’⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Are you a landlord if you let a room to help you pay bills at the end of a month? Are you a shareholder if you have a pension?

  Judging by the answers here, the answer is no. But then we’re talking about millions of people who work everyday factory jobs, retail jobs, or low level office jobs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nihilism spectrum⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s extremely common for different fields of inquiry (scientific, mathematical, philosophical, etc) to reuse common words. If we had to come up with brand new words for everything in every field then we’d all be speaking gibberish, like they do in medicine!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨...⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Wow thanks! I’ve seen other instances of this fallacy but never knew its name (nor recognized that it is a common fallacy form).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A decline in arable land⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Same story in Canada. A big decline in total farmland (decline of 13.1 million acres or 7.9%) but an increase of 3.6 million acres in crop land. This represents an increase in intensity and density of farmland and a decrease in farmland used for non productive applications.

  One of the big differences recorded in this report is a 62% decrease in the number of people living on farms from 1971-2021. A decrease in the amount of farmland used for living spaces (farmhouse, garden, garage) may be a big factor in the above crop:farmland ratio changes, as would a consolidation of farms (total number of farms decreased from 246K to 189K from 2001-2021).

  What this all says to me is that economies of scale play a huge role in North American farming, and that our subsidy structures do not favour small farms.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨X's controversial changes to blocking and AI training saw half a million users leave for rival Bluesky in just a single day⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I wonder if they’re afraid of Eternal September’ing the service. A lot of people on Lemmy were upset when a bunch of people on Reddit joined. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have millions join in one day. I doubt it would be good for the culture of the community!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just So⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You also have to look at culture. Culture has such an enormous effect on people’s psychology and behaviour!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨7 years ago there were no billionaires worth more than $100 billion - today there are 18!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  A trillion bucks, but not in cash; in shares of those companies. Try to sell it all for cash and you tank the share price. People lose their jobs, pension funds that own shares in those companies lose value.

  That’s the trouble with taxing wealth. It’s not liquid like income. All that net worth is tied up in the companies and not easily accessed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do all languages share the same intonation for questions?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s just a coincidence. 吗, meaning “what?”, is pronounced má which has the ascending tone. This is not true of all questions in Chinese. For example: 谁在你的右边 meaning “who is on your right?” does not end with 吗, and 边 is pronounced bian which has the flat tone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Beware Hollywood’s digital demolition: it’s as if your favourite films and TV shows never existed⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Ahhhh this is an absolute tragedy. The same thing goes with many movies from the golden age of Hollywood. I love to watch these old films. It breaks my heart that so many are lost forever.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Beware Hollywood’s digital demolition: it’s as if your favourite films and TV shows never existed⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve looked around quite a bit for The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. No one seems to have the complete series. The show ran nightly for 30 years and amassed 6714 episodes so it would be quite a large torrent.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ailanthus⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Where I live (Ontario Canada) we are overwhelmed with invasive Phragmites. Although they’re edible and can be used as livestock fodder they still dominate our waterways. We don’t really have any farmers raising water buffalo which would be an ideal herd for grazing them down.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ailanthus⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  What do you do with noxious weeds like giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum)?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨And you will never catch up as Bezos make 8,000,000 per hour⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Convenience is an umbrella term. There are a thousand different reasons people choose convenience and not all of them are synonymous with laziness. Single parents, working multiple jobs, with disabilities that limit mobility, lack of a car, not enough time to make a trip on public transit, lack of public transit options in their area, and countless more.

  The ability to just choose to take a bunch of extra time, or take a car to go pick up an item, is a luxury and a privilege. And all that just to spite bezos and make you happy? Not reasonable.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨And you will never catch up as Bezos make 8,000,000 per hour⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, especially if you don’t have a car. Going across town to buy one little knick knack can be an all day affair, with 2 public transit fares included.

  This may explain why Amazon is much more popular in North America than Europe: public transit. So if you want to stick it to Jeff, work for better public transit and more walkable cities!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The boomer generation hit the economic jackpot. Young people will inherit their massive debts.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Older people tend to be richer because they’ve had more time to earn and save money. Compare a 20-year-old to a 40-year-old. Both spent about 20 years being a kid, growing up and going to school, but the 40-year-old had an extra 20 years after that to earn and save money. You can do the same comparison between a 40-year-old and a 60-year-old, but take all the money the 60-year-old earned in the first 20 years of working and invest it in the stock market for the next 20 years, while also continuing to work.

  Wealth can build like crazy. If you invest at 7% average annual return, you’ll double your money in just over 10 years. At 10% the doubling period is just over 7 years. Now consider that the S&P 500 had an average annualized return over 10% between 1957 and 2023, and that 60-year-old’s 20 year investment would multiply by 6.7x.