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Half-Life 2 peaks at 52,000 concurrent players, 20 years after its release
  • Ricochet hasn't recieved the love it deserves. We've been waiting on Ricochet 2 for decades. The fans need closure.

  • Amazon delivery vans were parked in bike lanes all over Cambridge today.
  • I can see how you'd think that if you didn't read it or pay attention to any of the pertinent details.

  • I put on my robe and my wizard hat
  • Nerds can be so freaky.

  • Amazon delivery vans were parked in bike lanes all over Cambridge today.
  • If cycling wasn't so dangerous and given lower priority there would be many more cyclists and fewer cars. We see this wherever town planners make this change.

    Less car traffic in general is better for everyone, even the drivers. It doesn't matter if you think that cyclists are annoying or holier than thou. It doesn't matter what kind of people they are at all. They could all be assholes, that doesn't change the fact that cars are bad actually.

  • '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'
  • The combat may not have been the most interesting versus basic grunts, but it never got stale. I've never played another game where the core gameplay changed so much so frequently.

    Physics interactions -> Basic FPS -> Fan Boat -> Mounted Gun -> Gravity Gun -> Zombies & Traps -> Car -> THE CRANE FIGHT -> Rockets & Gunships -> Ant Lions -> Ant Lion Minions -> Turrets -> Resistance Squads -> Striders -> Super Gravity Gun

    Honestly the HL1 combat may have been somewhat more challengjng, but it was a grind. Fights were often just frustrating. I've abandonded playthroughs because I didn't feel like spending another 10 hours beating my head against the endless amounts of enemies just to get to the end of... whatever I was doing I forgot.

    HL1's big innovation was never removing control from the player just to tell the story. Beyond that they also had some interesting AI behaviour and weapons. It was a game with old-school length and old-school difficulty.

    HL2's big innovation was the physics engine, and they played with it in so many ways, whole polishing every other aspect of the design. They kept the gameplay tight and did something just long enough to explore it and then they moved on. They never forced you to hang out just repeating the same loop over and over to pad the length.

  • Twitter is dead. Long live BlueSky.
  • Pitch perfect snark, 10/10.

  • hehe
  • This is the one.

  • Yes Google, 2/3 is TOTALLY the same as 1/2
  • Ah, that's why it's a bunch of symbols that make no sense, thanks for the clarification.

  • Yes Google, 2/3 is TOTALLY the same as 1/2
  • Wait did you edit this image? That's some effort you've put in.

  • What should i get my 10yo nephew that’s all into radical sports and anything physical for xmas?
  • Yup, second this. GoPro is the Gucci brand, but you can get stuff that does 90 to 100% of what they do for considerably less. You'll need to do a bit of research in sports communities to find out which ones are good, they will have opinions. Also FPV quad hobbyists will know a lot about them, especially which ones are light and tough.

  • The Onion buys rightwing conspiracy theory site Infowars with plans to make it ‘very funny, very stupid’
  • Is Dan the loud one? I've never learned their names, but I'm waiting for him to scream something about them horning in on their territory.

  • The Onion buys rightwing conspiracy theory site Infowars with plans to make it ‘very funny, very stupid’
  • I gotta find out what the Knowledge Fight folks have to say about this.

  • Brick Layers: Stronger 3D Prints TODAY - instead of 2040 (bad patent holding back progress)
  • You're just repeating the justification for patents with zero skepticism and apparently no awareness of how they actually get used.

    Hell, I said the following to you a day before you made this comment, and you haven't replied. Are you happy to just ignore the counter arguments then?

    Edit: the fact both this comment and the other one just got downvoted with no reply would indicate they are in fact not interested.

    I don't see it that way. The systems we have in place now are the alternative to just sharing. The secret-keeping monopolistic behaviour of capitalists is preserved by things like the patent system, because they lend the appearance of legitimacy to an illegitimate system.

    If you want to see the horror of the patent system, you juat have to look at the millions it killed in the pandemic.

    The covid vaccine was developed by public and private researchers and paid for by the state, with a promise it would be made open source to allow anyone to manufacture it and hasten the end of the pandemic.

    Bill Gates was one of the fucking vampires who blocked the open sourcing efforts, so poor countries couldn't manufacture it, allowing the pandemic to run unchecked in those places and of course mutate and inevitably make its way back to wealthier countries for yet another outbreak that actually makes our news because it affects us. The patents killed people.

    These companies were funded to do it. There's no way they wouldn't have worked on the vaccine otherwise. The pandemic showed us what governments can do when a crisis actually threatens the status quo and they're forced to do the bare minimum of solving a problem. We didn't need patents for it, just the will.

  • No Gods, No Rulers
  • If the first movie is similar the humans were taken from Earth millennia ago, so not really a prime directive issue I wouldn't think. Not only are they not an indigenous species, they've technically already made first contact. John Star Trek would rescue them.

  • Apple Quietly Introduced iPhone Reboot Code Which is Locking Out Cops
  • Oh yeah, just don't read about what happens to our prime ministers when they attempt to defy the empire. Totes democracy we got over here.

  • Apple Quietly Introduced iPhone Reboot Code Which is Locking Out Cops
  • Fun fact: in Australia we don't have a bill of rights of any kind, so the cops can just force you to reveal your passwords. The maximum penalty for refusing is 2 years imprisonment.

  • Can't sleep, he's watching
  • Even if it weren't true I would definitely tell the advertisers it was.

  • Brick Layers: Stronger 3D Prints TODAY - instead of 2040 (bad patent holding back progress)
  • I don't see it that way. The systems we have in place now are the alternative to just sharing. The secret-keeping monopolistic behaviour of capitalists is preserved by things like the patent system, because they lend the appearance of legitimacy to an illegitimate system.

    If you want to see the horror of the patent system, you juat have to look at the millions it killed in the pandemic.

    The covid vaccine was developed by public and private researchers and paid for by the state, with a promise it would be made open source to allow anyone to manufacture it and hasten the end of the pandemic.

    Bill Gates was one of the fucking vampires who blocked the open sourcing efforts, so poor countries couldn't manufacture it, allowing the pandemic to run unchecked in those places and of course mutate and inevitably make its way back to wealthier countries for yet another outbreak that actually makes our news because it affects us. The patents killed people.

    These companies were funded to do it. There's no way they wouldn't have worked on the vaccine otherwise. The pandemic showed us what governments can do when a crisis actually threatens the status quo and they're forced to do the bare minimum of solving a problem. We didn't need patents for it, just the will.

  • Self-described Nazi becomes first person jailed in Australia for performing outlawed salute
  • Also, what does it mean to "tolerate" the existence of minorities? What exactly are we "tolerating"? Tolerance in every other context means to accept deviation from a standard or some negative outcome.

    Framing anyone's mere existence as a thing to be "tolerated" is to imply they are deviant or negative.

    That's where the paradox of tolerance loses me. I don't think we should be tolerant in general. I think we should make value judgements about what is good or bad and act accordingly. Every society does this, and pretending we're above it all and completely neutral is dishonest.

    And if the "tolerance" is of differing views, diversity of thought is also good, not a bad thing to be tolerated.

    It's simple: we identify behaviour that is bad, like bigotry and hatred, and we say no. We're not rejecting it because it's merely different, and to accept that framing is to accept the cry-bullying of fascists. We reject them because they suck, and we don't owe them shit about it.

  • Google AI nails it again
  • Yes, the companies have a reputation to protect, but it's also just a standard hype-cycle. If you pay attention to tech history these things always go in cycles like this.

    Whether the tech is actually useful or not doesn't actually matter. What matters is whether you can convince investors to fork over the cash with a shiny presentation.

    The tech industry has basically habituated to surviving on selling us bullshit through hype cycles. I think it's become dependent on them.

  • Brick Layers: Stronger 3D Prints TODAY - instead of 2040 (bad patent holding back progress)

    This is about a bad patent that is preventing slicers from making brick-layer prints that would increase strength enormously, despite the fact that there is clear prior art that has expired for nearly a decade. The patent is full of bad references to the prior art and clearly shouldn't have been approved - even if the person saying it isn't a lawyer, it's obvious.

    The new bad patent from 2020 would keep the invention away for another 20 years, and do real harm to the development of 3d printing.

    The creator asked viewers to share this with people in the FOSS slicer community. I don't know if that's anyone here, but lemmy is pretty FOSS-happy. Also the FOSS communities here might be interested to hear about how this patent is hamstringing development of FOSS features. I don't have the time right now to search through the communities so any crossposts would be welcome.

    28
    Satisfactory: Compact Techniques That Don't Look Bad

    > i give you this great power > i do not expect great responsibility > Train Interiors Mod: https://ficsit.app/mod/TrainInteriorsSatisfactory > Tutorial Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zluo4KpTeYU&list=PLd0z_0Gxs3VAi6T8Gr5Ip0g_oMX5LPNst&index=1&t=0s

    Mods, this is self-promo since it's my own video. Please let me know if it crosses the line into ads/spamming, but the main reason I post it here is to contribute content.

    6
    Satisfactory 1.0 Tutorial: Compact Stackable Blueprints

    Octo Smelter blueprint: https://satisfactory-calculator.com/en/blueprints/index/details/id/7199/name/Compact+Stackable+Octo+Smelter

    0
    Satisfactory 1.0 Tutorial: Get Your Belts up off the Floor

    > it's just better this way

    20
    Advice on best way to replace personal Atlassian Jira subscription

    I'm currently paying a moderate amount to atlassian to host jira for me, and I'm looking for a FOSS way to replace it. I don't use it every month and I've decided it's not worth continuing to pay, plus I want to transition to FOSS wherever I can. I just feel trapped. I'm sure people here know the feeling when using proprietary stuff.

    I've used hosted bugzilla before, and possibly I didn't know enough about how to make it work, but the web frontend they had was garbage, it was unintuitive and took forever to respond, and I just transitioned to jira because it was easier to use.

    I'm happy to self-host for now and maybe pay for hosting if I want to collaborate in the future. I have a Ubuntu server at home with miles of headroom to run a webserver.

    I would love to hear anyone's opinions here. Also any other relevant lemmy subs would be very welcome.

    Edit: some good questions about my requirements. I'm doing software development on personal projects using git, and I'm tracking issues using jira. I'm also developing hardware, which means 3d print files, CNC files and possibly gerbers for PCBs. All this can be tracked via git, so actually having an in-house way to host all that would be great too.

    So I need an issue tracker that syncs with git, essentially.

    I have also been using jira to kind of ad-hoc document any research involved in these things, but it's not great because to find any of that documentation I need to dig into my closed issues. I'd like a documentation system that can handle diagrams, drawings and stuff like that, and if this could double as a general note-taking solution I'd love that too, because I've been trying to replace trello/onenote for that.

    EDIT 2: Thanks for all the replies. I plan to investigate all the suggestions, my health has just been really bad since I posted this, but I always try to update anyone who offers help.

    22

    EDIT: I think this video shows a better design, although I note some improvements below:

    Making a DIY analog force sensor under quarantine, with the Kontrol Freak. | KontinuumLAB

    The main video linked uses two strips of copper bridged by the velostat, but this creates deadzones where those copper strips are, and probably also gives different responses depending on the shape of the region being pressed. I've done more research and a much more consistent method should be to sandwich the velostat between the two conductors so that the entire surface gives a consistent response that goes directly through the material. This should also give a more pronounced response because the length of the circuit through the velostat is only the thickness of the sheet, not the width of the pad. This should also make it less sensitive to changes in the pad size.

    Some videos use conductive fabric, but the best one I found uses adhesive copper tape. If you're getting this, make sure to use copper tape that is conductive on the adhesive side, as not all of them are.

    ---

    And a follow up video with a more refined method of building the pads and ideas about how to improve the analog-to-digital conversion:

    Eight pressure-sensitive Velostat/Linqstat pads for a velocity-sensitive MIDI controller

    ---

    There is also this method using piezo sensors, but from experience I know that this is completely insensitive to sustained holds. It's used for electronic drumkits because it measures percussion, not pressure:

    DIY midi controller with 8 Velocity-Sensitive Drum Pads (on one chip Atmega328) 'Very simple'

    I suppose combining a piezo sensor with a simple touch-sensitive control might achieve a good effect, but velostat seems like a simpler solution to me. Also if you want a capacitive sensor on the surface you probably can't use the soft rubbery material that nice MIDI pads use.

    ---

    Also this guy is quite good at his explanations and breaks down quickly how to make a full button pad, although he still uses regular buttons and pressure-sensitive ones would need a bit more logic to understand:

    Launchpad || DIY or Buy || Keyboard Matrix & MIDI Tutorial

    ---

    So I've been looking into how to do this, and I found someone on reddit asking this same question like 3 years ago, and they're still active. I was planning to log in just to link them the video since literally everyone just told them to use regular buttons, but they obviously want to make the real thing, and it's a night and day difference between using velocity sensitive pads and simple buttons. Also they said they live in India where a lot of musicians can't afford the more intuitive interfaces because they're massively marked up, and I thought they should have the information they need to make a DIY solution.

    Anyway, I realised giving them that link would be contributing to making reddit the go-to place for information, but I didn't find this there, I don't spend time there, and in fact my alts keep getting banned, and I'm the one adding the information.

    So since reddit doesn't want me, I figure the best way to solve this is to make a post here and link them to it. That way I'm helping them with their problem, adding content to the fediverse, and linking people here.

    The only thing to add is that I plan to expand on this to make a proper MIDI controller using some of the second video's suggestions for improvements, and I'll be making a modular set of boxes that can magnetise together to arrange however we want. Also I'm going to look for translucent silicone rubber that I can illuminate with RGB LEDs so the sequencing can be animated.

    Anyway, if that person or anyone else finds their way here, hello! Welcome, this is a much better place than reddit.

    0
    TFW the universe rips you from your everyday existence in an instant to remind you that you are tiny, it is immense and everything is subject to change (edit: rule i guess)

    Description: A very overexposed image of a girl staring open-mouthed into a bright, cloudy, night sky, mid-flash as it is lit up by a meteor.

    Still image taken from this IG video: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7JcDGXtORH/

    Longer, unedited version with original audio: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7LrNlCNOmR/

    She just happened to catch this meteor and her own reaction to it, entirely by accident. Absolutely watch the video, the shadows playing through the clouds as the meteor passes through the frame are stunning, but the most remarkable thing to me is this moment where laughing with her friends is interrupted and she doesn't yet know where to look. It's such a universal reaction and really special to see. This image is taken as one of the very bright flashes is blowing out the camera. Some frames are almost entirely white, others look much clearer. I chose a frame to make the subject legible but also give a sense of how overwhelmingly bright the flashes really were.

    11

    Obviously this man was an important anarchist thinker, but I think this is particularly relevant to anarchism right now in a US election year where this conversation will come up ad nauseum.

    He stops short of decrying electoralism in general here, but makes the point that the milquetoast emptiness of the US liberals enables a rightward slide. What he says is short and to the point and avoids getting bogged down in wider issues. He acknowledges that "at least they're not nazis" is an appeal of the liberals, but points out that is the only appeal.

    I just think this is a good thing to have if you don't want to type out this argument every time you see it, to point out that this has been happening for a very long time, and to hear a voice of sanity when every single liberal is yelling at you to stop criticising poor Joe or else we'll get the fascists again.

    6
    There is No Rule Regarding This

    Description: An iconified image of a space helmet, with text underneath reading:

    >MURDERING ALL CITIZENS IS NOT REQUIRED.

    No context has been provided.

    6
    schruledinger

    Description: picture of youtube poll, mostly text

    Kyle Hill

    Schrodinger's cat is:

    Alive -- 50% Dead -- 50% 42K votes

    Comments I love how this community knew exactly what to do.

    10
    PSYCHOPRULECEPTRULE HAZRULE

    description

    Text: WARNING

    Icon of eye and crossed-out alligator

    Text: PSYCHOPERCEPTUAL HAZARD DO NOT HALLUCINATE ALLIGATORS

    Image of person holding up hands defensively towards an alligator approaching them from the water

    Text: oh shit oh no oh fuck why did you do that you've killed us all

    7
    Parkour group Storror does some guerilla urbanism

    I've recently started getting into parkour and I love its inherently political bent. It reminds of me of Graeber's quote that "Direct action is, ultimately, the defiant insistence on acting as if one is already free," which is exactly how traceurs behave.

    This is the lads just showing up to a dilapidated public space and transforming it into a playground. They didn't get permission, they just made the place better.

    0
    Is anyone else like 10 times more likely to play a game they pirated versus one they bought?

    I can't explain it, something about the freedom of acquisition takes the pressure off and lets me just launch it and try it out.

    Maybe it's easier to pay some money and hit "install", than it is to find a torrent, download it and go through the install process, so there's a selection bias there.

    Maybe it's the fact I downloaded it exactly when I decided to and not when a sale happened or it was in a bundle.

    But even then, when I decide I want something right now and I pay full-price, something about that just puts a psychological barrier in between me and enjoying the game. Like now I have to validate the purchase, and if I want a refund it has to happen within 2 weeks, and within 2 hours of play (for steam). It's just an unpleasant feeling.

    Even worse is the subscription model. I absolutely hate the pressure of having to try all the games I put on my list before the end of the month so I don't have to renew to keep trying them, that just feels like wasted money. But then about a week into the month I'll lose my energy for trying new games and I'll let the sub lapse and never try a bunch of the games I wanted to. It's the worst way to pay for games, even if on paper it's the cheapest for trying a bunch of them legally.

    Very occasionally a game will come along that I know I want and will happily pay for immediately, and usually that means I'll give it a decent try.

    The best experience for me is pirating a game and loving it so much I then buy it, that guarantees I'm going to play it a lot. The latest game that happened to me with was A Dance of Fire and Ice. I bought it like 5 times, once each for me and my two kids, and twice on phone, and I was completely happy to. I even built a custom rhythm controller for it.

    Funny story though - the pirated version of ADOFAI puts savegames in user folders, but the steam version puts them in the game folder, so it merges the progress between users. So for that reason, the pirated version is better. I can't explain the discrepancy.

    29
    Getting an error when attempting to visit communities from outside links

    I've been searching for communities using https://lemmyverse.net, but lately every time I click on a link I get the error shown above (I've edited out my username because it's not really important). For instance the above error was shown when I clicked on the link https://slrpnk.net/c/imsa@lemmy.world

    After I refresh the page I can see the content of the community, but I appear to be logged out. Then I hit refresh again and I log in, but sometimes the posts all disappear so the community appears to be empty.

    Seems like something weird is going on here. I assume it's a bug. I'm happy to give any extra details you might need to figure out the problem.

    EDIT: Turns out I couldn't see posts after logging in because my language wasn't set properly, and the other errors have disappeared with time.

    18
    Is there a way to search for all communities in a given server?

    So for instance I'm interested in all communities in the aussie.zone instance, and I can't find a way to use the search function for that. I've tried searching for communities using the search string "aussie.zone" and I get nothing.

    Then in the screenshot shown I tried searching for communities with just the string "aussie" and I got "Aussie Environment@aussie.zone", which is strange because all the community names there contain the substring "aussie" and I'd expect this search to find them.

    Is this a bug? Am I doing it wrong? It would be nice if there was a way to browse all communities in a given instance easily, because when I find an instance I like, I want to be able to go through and find the communities I like just as if I was browsing local communities on this instance.

    Also the copy-paste method, which is still extremely clunky, is broken for me. I it just has [email protection] which when clicked does nothing useful. I've tried the Lemmy Link addon but not only is that also a very slow and clunky method which still doesn't let me browse by server, it keeps slowing down firefox so I've had to uninstall it.

    9
    Excrubulent Excrubulent @slrpnk.net
    Posts 15
    Comments 1.9K