DdCno1

joined 1 year ago
[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 4 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Because Reuters usually doesn't publish misleading opinion pieces.

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 2 points 3 hours ago

This batch of pagers was exclusively ordered and used by Hezbollah after their leader demanded they stop using Smartphones for security reasons. This isn't is sigint, it was a supply-chain attack. It wasn't random pagers that exploded, but only those that were distributed by the terrorist org to its officers.

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 3 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (3 children)

That is a silly take if I've ever seen one. How more targeted can you get than to make pagers that are exclusively used by a terrorist organization explode with such little force that even bystanders who are one meter away are unharmed, that even fruit at a vegetable stand right next to the targeted terrorist remains unspoiled? This is the very opposite of terrorism, literally the most precise strike on a terrorist organization or military as a whole in history, infinitely superior to a land invasion or air strikes. In the real world, it doesn't get any more perfect than this. It would be preposterous for a strike on thousands of targets to result in zero collateral damage, but I would bet good money that once (or if) the actual numbers ever come out, it'll be the most favorable combatant to civilian casualty rate for an operation of this size in recorded history.

How naive does one have to be to trust official accounts on the number and age of the victims from a failed state that is effectively under full control of a terrorist organization? I can assure you that the estimated five grams of explosive have resulted in far more terrorist deaths than just 10, even during just the first strike - but Hezbollah won't be willing to admit as much and instead present, through their intermediaries in the Lebanese government, a convenient fake figure and two maybe real, maybe invented civilian casualties that you'll happily regurgitate just as much as you happily regurgitate figures from the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza.

I get the feeling that what many of Israel's critics are asking of the country is to just roll over and die, that no matter to how absolutely extreme lengths they go to minimize civilian casualties compared to literally everyone else on this planet, it's all categorically wrong, because those dastardly Jews had the audacity to not present their other cheek, even as hundreds of thousands of them had to flee their bombs due to near constant Hezbollah bombardments of civilian areas in the North of Israel. Were you even aware of this? Do you really think that this situation could go on indefinitely?

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 2 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

What you would call "a bunch of propaganda" here: How is any of this even remotely similar to the Holocaust?

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 5 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

The thing is, this pornography and cats will tell future historians a ton about what people were like in our times. Not all of it will be accurate, but that's an issue with any primary source. Hell, watch some grainy smut from the '70s or '80s and pay attention to things other than the "action", like the choice of music, the way the actors are talking, how they are dressed, what the sets look like, what kind of excuses for plots are being used, all of which are clearly products of their time. Amateur stuff is even more illuminating. Before anyone thinks I'm overthinking this: We learned a lot about Ancient Rome from the smut Romans carved into buildings in Pompeii.

It's the same with old cat pictures. You can reasonably date many of them by what the background looks like, e.g. what kind of electronics and furniture are present, how people who are also in the photos are dressed, image quality (provided it hasn't been compressed to hell and back since), etc. These kinds of seemingly inconsequential artifacts of our time will be highly illuminating to future historians (provided they are being preserved), just like the complaint letters ol' Ea Nasir received thousands of years ago.

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 2 points 9 hours ago

Still is. Better than giving them smartphones and it's not like there's a comparable newer device, except for maybe some emulation systems.

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 6 points 9 hours ago

Probably wrote at least parts of the article.

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Sorry for the late answer, but about 20 years ago I read an absolutely vile piece of Tankie propaganda (surprisingly in the shape of a book that my local library had) that portrayed Tibetans as basically barbarians who should call themselves lucky to be civilized by China. I don't recall the title, but the author was German. I convinced the library to remove this book from their inventory.

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

But what about...

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 3 points 5 days ago

Thanks for the recommendation!

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)

And once the game has become a breeze, with 100% of your runs being a success, install the Captain's Edition mod and suddenly, it's a pleasantly challenging title again. The add-on that turns it into an endless game in particular is so good, I spent dozens of hours playing it.

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 4 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Does the writing ever get good? I played it for probably six or eight hours, which isn't a lot in a game like this, but it and the world building felt painfully generic and bland, to the point of being increasingly off-putting the longer I played the game.

 

The cat is out of the bag and despite many years of warning before this and similar technology became widely available, nobody was really prepared for it - and everyone is solely acting in their own best interests (or what they think their best interests to be). I think the biggest failure is that despite there being warnings signs long before, every single country failed to enact legislation that could actually meaningfully protect people, their identity and their work(s) while still leaving enough room for research and the beneficial use of generative AI (or at least finding beneficial use cases).

In a way, this is the flip side of the coin of providing such easy access to cutting edge tech like machine learning to everyone. I don't want technology itself to become the target of censorship, but where it's being used in a way that harms people, like the examples used in the article and many more, there should be mechanisms, legal and otherwise, for victims to effectively fight back.

 

I would normally not link to a tweet, but it's from the YouTuber who is behind the global campaign that aims to prevent games companies from killing games people paid for:

https://www.stopkillinggames.com/

It seems that Ubisoft is either doubling down on deleting this game in order to throw a wrench into preservation efforts and activism (even though it'll achieve the polar opposite) - or that this was the plan all along and it's just blindly being carried out, bad optics be damned.

 

I think these two deserve more love. The sidescrolling presentation and gameplay makes them stand out, but they also boast a competent combat system, interesting narratives, colorful and detailed visuals and soundtracks so memorable, I ended up whistling some of the tunes for years.

 

I can't be the only one who loves these in-depth analyses from Digital Foundry, can I?

 

Personally, I really don't like most of these games due to the tedium and frustration that comes with hunger/thirst mechanics. Most of the exceptions that I do actually like either make up for it through something else that elevates the experience enough - or they either don't have these mechanics or allow for players to disable them.

Subnautica is an example of the latter. There's already a lot to like here: A gorgeous, hand-crafted world that skillfully strides the balance between being alien and familiar, a cool sci-fi aesthetic for everything that isn't natural, purposeful progression, fantastic atmosphere, swimming that feels great. The fact that I can play this game having only to worry about my breath and health is the cherry on top.

The Long Dark still has hunger and thirst, but I'm willing to overlook this just so that I can soak in the atmosphere of this frozen post-apocalypse. With relatively simple tech and straightforward mechanics, this game effortlessly manages to engross the player. I will admit though that when I found a nice deserted cabin at one point, I decided to end the game there, deciding that this was a suitable end point. I'll definitely pick it up again in the future, but not during this time of the year.

NEO Scavenger: It's kind of ironic that one of the most "hardcore" examples of this genre is also one of my favorites. Like with the other two, it's the atmosphere and the world that drew me in, but it's also that all of the intricate, unforgiving survival mechanics this game has, down to getting sick due to exposure, feel realistic and purposeful, instead of merely existing to tick a standard survival game checkbox. It's hard, not unfair, it's punishing and random without feeling uncontrollable.

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