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Jeffool

@ Jeffool @lemmy.world

Posts
1
Comments
107
Joined
3 yr. ago

Hobbyist gamedev, moderator of /c/GameDev, TV news producer/journalist by trade

  • Picky eaters of Lemmy: Why?

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  • It's sheer curiosity when I ask if this is a hard and fast rule or is there wiggle room?

    Does this mean you're not a fan of cold pizza? Or second day spaghetti/lasagna? I feel like they famously get better for a day or two of reheating.

  • How to get non technical friends in the fediverse?

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  • I always wanted to write a 1 minute ad for Mastodon. Any artists want to animate it? I figure images of social media posts and a cute little mastodon tooting (from his trunk) might be worthwhile.

    If anyone does, here's the copy I was thinking:

    So your social media is changing and you don't like the direction it's going. Maybe it's the owner, maybe it's the algorithm. The good news is there's an alternative. It's called Mastodon.

    Mastodon works like other social media. You follow people, and they follow back. There's sharing, likes, replies, and everything else. Only, you see your timeline in order, not based on an algorithm made to sell you things. AND Mastodon lets you pick your server based on an interest. So in addition to following your friends on their servers, you can also browse your own virtual neighborhood, choosing from things like video games, music, or even your real life city or country.

    You can even create and host a server if you don't see one you like.

    Mastodon also offers extra features like hidden posts just for your followers, and content warnings so you can hide triggering content, or use them as spoiler warnings if you don't want to run a new movie for everyone else.

    To see list of servers, head to Join Mastodon dot org, and join the herd.

  • Beyond CAPTCHAs: How do we keep human‑pretending bots out of the fediverse?

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  • I've seen a few Discord servers I'm on use some bot that creates a honeypot channel. It immediately bans anyone that posts in it. It's so low tech that it perfectly handled the weird problem of people getting their account taken and posting spam in every channel. I can't help but wonder if honeypots could appeal to the "loose with rules" nature of modern LLMs/AI tools.

  • Execs Confused and Horrified by the Huge AI Bills After Thinking They Could Replace Workers for Free

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  • Don't even get me started on Facebook's "everyone's pivoting to Facebook video! Don't be left behind!"... "Oh, we lied about your views repeatedly. Sorry."

  • What Are You Actually Listening To These Days????

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  • Nine Inch Nails released a new remix project album a few months ago called Nine Inch Noize. It's with a German DJ called Boys Noize. They fine tuned it during their last tour by playing together, and released it with a couple of live performances at Coachella. You can find the album anywhere you stream music, and here's the concerts if you're curious: https://archive.org/details/nine-inch-noize-live-coachella-archive

    Also, been on a lot of Paris Texas lately. They're a rap duo with some heavy guitar usage, and punk/grunge/alt influences. Their most recent releases have been two EPs, of which I generally prefer They Left Me With the Sword. (but They Left Me With A Gun is good too.)

    Also? I went back to Flobots too. And a little Czarface.

  • What TV shows are absolutely worth watching?

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  • Before anyone skips over this, consider a show with the charm of Lost, with horror instead of sci-fi, but it feels like a much tighter long-term plan. And justice for Harold Perrineau, who is used pretty damn well in this! From is a really good show.

  • What TV shows are absolutely worth watching?

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  • I'd love to piggy back on this (great) list and add that the Netflix Daredevil show's subsequent seasons are lesser, but if you enjoyed the first A LOT, then you'll probably enjoy the offers and at least Jessica Jones' first season as well. It was also pretty great. Subsequent seasons, Punisher, and the first half of Luke Cage were also "good" to me, but clearly not on DD & JJ s1's levels. (But I thought most of the Marvel Netflix shows save Iron Fist were worth the watch on rewatches.)

    And I love to see that the first season of Westworld is still being recommended. Yes later seasons are very disliked, but I found SOME enjoyment in them. Not enough to give a blanket recommendation to anyone even if I rewatched them, but damn, that first season delivered.

    Also I hadn't heard of Scavengers' Reign. Thanks.

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    A Texas Drainage District Walked Its Ditch on a Routine Inspection. They Found a Pipe They Didn't Recognize Discharging Black Liquid From Tesla's $1 Billion Lithium Refinery

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  • I like this take. More shit needs to be not funny.

  • What's a song where you like a remix or cover better than the original?

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  • Removed

    Gabe the GOAT Newell

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  • And you may well be completely on point. I don't recall hearing those specifics in articles I've read, but at the same time, some large outlets may not be familiar enough with the industry to recognize the importance of Steam keys to the argument.

    Because I posted it elsewhere, in going to repost an example of the coverage of those lawsuits:

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2g1md0l23o

    The lawsuit - filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London - alleges Valve "forces" game publishers to sign up to conditions which prevents them from selling their titles earlier or for less on rival platforms.

    Also

    It claims that as Valve requires users to buy all additional content through Steam, if they've bought the initial game through the platform it is essentially "locking in" users to continue making purchases there.

    It was filed in 2024, and given approval to go to trial at the beginning of this year. It hasn't happened yet.

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    Gabe the GOAT Newell

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  • https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2g1md0l23o

    The lawsuit - filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London - alleges Valve "forces" game publishers to sign up to conditions which prevents them from selling their titles earlier or for less on rival platforms.

    Also

    It claims that as Valve requires users to buy all additional content through Steam, if they've bought the initial game through the platform it is essentially "locking in" users to continue making purchases there.

    It was filed in 2024, and given approval to go to trial at the beginning of this year. It hasn't happened yet.

    /Edit: The other person responding to this suggests that the "you can't charge lower elsewhere" clause exists when you use certain Steam features. (Selling Steam keys, using Steam's multiplayer backend.) And if that's the case that seems pretty reasonable to me. (I hear they're VERY kind about keys actually.) But I hope you'll understand that when articles I see why the case don't mention them, I don't know that's the case.

    At the same time, I would almost understand outlets that don't cover digital goods like this may not understand this, or may not see the importance of them. So maybe they've dropped the ball here.

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    Gabe the GOAT Newell

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  • I don't have a strong hate for Valve, but I'm fairly certain that they often DO have contracts that demand their store gets the lowest price available from at least some game developers. So if you offer a game for lower on Epic, you also have to drop your price to match it on Steam. There may be "sales" caveats in there, but I do think that's generally the rule in at least many cases.

    In fact, I think they've been sued over that before. (Maybe they changed the policy after the lawsuit? I'm honestly not certain; sorry.) The argument went that if a developer could offer the game for $40 to everyone, then the storefronts could argue over their own markup, and maybe other storefronts would be willing to take less than Valve does. But as it is, Valve artificially keeps prices high on other storefronts with this approach to contracts.

    If your experience is different I respect that, but I don't think that's universal.

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    MIT AI expert warns automating Gen Z entry-level jobs could backfire—and cost companies their future workforce

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  • And they'll just hire more H-1B visa employees for more and more smaller roles, and they have them in an even tighter place than they could American workers. It's not like they're blind to the issue. It's the plan.

  • What's an online service you happily pay for?

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  • YouTube Premium.

    I pay for this, and two other family members pay for two other services. Theirs have each blocked the other 2 of us... So what was once 3 of us buying 3 family plans has become just me doing it. And the second YouTube blocks them, I'm canceling it.

    Dreamhost.

    More than a decade ago they had a big fuck up where they accidentally charged tons of users multiple times when their contracts weren't when finished. So one day I woke up and they'd taken a few hundred dollars from my account. That put me in the negatives.

    When I called them, they verified my identity, and let me complain a little. (I'm not much of a complainer. But their customer service person was great.) They paid me back the charged amount, and asked how much I'd had in overdraft fees, and paid me that too. And they let my hosting plan date reset at that date for the year-long renewal. So they basically have me like 9 months on top of it.

    Mind you, I wasn't using much at the time. Just a few blogs and a podcast. So it's not like they're not making free money off of me. But they handled it so damn well. Didn't even ask to see a bank statement about my overdraft fees. Just "and how much was that? Got it." I'm sure it was just a case of cost and smart business... But fuck yeah, reward smart business.

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    Permanently Deleted

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  • If Infinity Ward's next game includes a DMZ mode and it's good, it will probably determine what I do. I'll probably need a new PC to play it. I've got a 1080 and I'm on Windows 10. I play ARC Raiders with no problem now. But if I have the money, and DMZ2 is fun, and it requires Windows, I'll probably get a new PC with the next Windows. If it doesn't, I'll probably just switch my current PC over to some flavor of Linux, and maybe put that money to a down payment of a house. It'll probably be about the same amount by that point.

  • LibreOffice criticizes EU Commission over proprietary XLSX formats

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  • I think saying that they "bribed the standards body" suggests the body was in on it. The actual allegation (I don't know any facts, just these comments) seems to be that the body was subverted by other countries that were bribed by Microsoft. Being someone who doesn't know the details there's a worthwhile distinction there. Though that still opens questions about the board's reaction, and I might read up on it all later.

  • What's a TV series that you really, really liked and would enthusiastically recommend?

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  • Barry is a phenomenal show for film/TV nerds, which you wouldn't expect without someone telling you that.

  • What's a TV series that you really, really liked and would enthusiastically recommend?

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  • YouTube adds new hurdles for ad blockers, and there's currently no way around it

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  • Like was already said, I'm considering cancelling YouTube Premium too but our numbers won't really matter. The reports of worsening Firefox compatibility almost some me in and I didn't even notice.

    I have a family plan with my brother and cousin on it. I know they're cracking down on sharing with people who don't live together, but if they cut them I'm done. I'll figure it out. And I'm probably petty enough to comment about it on everyone's videos that I follow. (Which also won't really matter, but I'll feel better voicing the discontent.)

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    Jeffool @lemmy.world

    What (digital) media stores do you recommend?