SmokeyDope, smokeydope@lemmy.world
Instance: lemmy.world
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 111
Comments: 781
Posts and Comments by SmokeyDope, smokeydope@lemmy.world
Comments by SmokeyDope, smokeydope@lemmy.world
Call Of Duty Black Ops 7, however im hearing Battlefield 6 is also in the same boat.
A lot of gamers tend to also be teenagers/young adults who just want to play a game with their friends in their social group. I was a kid once too after all so its understandable. However its the “just want to play with my friends” crowd that enables the industries worst practices by being consumers who think of yearly video game release hype cycles as vehicles of social interaction instead of caring about games as an art form thats being slowly degraded by corporate cuckery over time.
And thats the big divider. A fundamental schism between people who use video games as a vehicle for socializing with friends vs people who play videogames for the love of the art form and enjoyment of the genre.
The “want to play with my friends” types follow the hype train. They consume games as a social product. They go from one AAA multiplayer to the next as their social groups collective interest waxes and wanes. They buy game consoles based purely off what their other friends have. They aren’t that deeply invested in the 50 years of history, industry practices, or current culture trends of games. They dont care about nerd shit like privacy and dont care about always online requirements or optimization. AAA shooters, mobas, and sports games appeal to these types.
The “art form enjoyer” types are the people who grew up with this stuff and have an intrinsic interest in game industry practices. People who played hundreds of single player games to experience a story or beat a challenge. The people who care enough to notice the constant corporate commodification ofthe art into slop and the never ending plays for control over the game you paid to own or shoving microtransactions everywhere. Its the people who will put their foot down and vote with their wallet just because of shit anticheat or always online or being unoptimized UE5 garbage. Also the type of people who will give indie games made by small developers who treat the community well while providing the opportunity to run community servers.
Theres overlap but to me it seems lot of the industries anti-consumer practices are born and bread in the triple AAA " want to play with my friends” honeytraps. Those kinds of players are the most apathetic, most willing to chase hype trains, buy the newest consoles, consume the same reheated product, willing to put aside personal philosophy and bend over backwards to take the corporate cock to play a game with friends.
But like I was a teenager once during the 360/ps3 games so I have empathy. The socialite tribal monkey instincts for connection and communication are a big driver very hard to resist. Theres nothing wrong with playing games with friends but I wish it would stop being used as an put for enabling shitty products and practices. “Sorry nerds I’m a real person who wants to play with my friends normal people ain’t got time to care about voting with their wallet or having an invested interest in making sure I can play the product I paid for 10 years from now with hardware I already own” is such a common undertone justifying the apathy.
That was Hubble who discovered cosmic expansion was a real thing. einstein believed in a static universe and made up a constant specifically to model a static universe in general relativity
Black Ops 7. Its got plenty of shaming going on for other reasons already but this is the first time ive seen this message.
Also the Phone must be at or under 200$ no matter the build quality. I get it, linux users are likely to be cushy financially well off opsec nerds will pay out the wazoo for hardkill switches which I guess is your bread and butter whales to target in this market. Please release something economical for us plebs it can be like a walmart tracphone for all I care.
The lesson is that humans should always be held responsible for important decision making and to not rely on solely ML models as primary sources. Eating potentially dangerous mushrooms is a decision that you should only make if you’re absolutely sure it wont hurt you. So for research If you choose upload a picture to chatgpt and ask if its edible instead of taking the time to learn mycology, attend mushroom foraging group events, and read identification books, well thats on you.
I believe that Valve can afford to sell hardware at cost or even a little in the red. Getting people in the steam store ecosystem makes it back and then some in the long term.
The GabeCube looks awesome! The GabeGoggles probably aren’t riddled with spyware. The controller fucks so hard it could be an aphrodisiac. Massive win for valve today.
Honestly, my favorite people are the ones who love to talk and are horribly desperate to babble to potential listeners. I’m not much of a talker but I absolutely dont mind looking you in the eyes and nodding my head as you talk about your hobby or current going ons.
In bigger social groups I noticed this weird thing fellow humans tend to do where they all want a slice of being the talker/ center of attention and constantly cut off eachother or tune out current speaker waiting for them to shut up so they can start their monkey babble turn.
This behavior absolutely infuriates me and I refuse to take part in it. I would rather just be silent and let you say your piece than interrupt the flow.
As a knock on effect people subconsciously notice I’m not competing with them for talk time and am sending them constant listening signals like looking in the eye nodding head “mhm got you” stuff. This seems to really go a long way with making friendly with talkative types with minimal effort.
The question isnt whether quantum computers have an advantage over regular computers (they pretty much always do for code cracking as the parallel superposition computation is some crazy shit that changes cryptography forever) instead the question is whether or not AES-256 is able to resist our current quantum compute and how long it can do that.
Its a simple equation, as long as it takes longer than the lifespan of the universe to compute with our most powerful supercomputers its considered good encryption. However as computers get more powerful, the projected time decreases potentially to the point of human lifespan time frames. Thats when it becomes a problem and the standard fails.
Currently AES is quantum resistant but it almost certainly won’t be forever. New standards are gonna need to be adopted at some point.

Absolutely cannabis.
Paid products can be enshittified. Also, its not just the quality of products that are getting enshittified but the concept of ownership over usage and access to digital data.
Slowly raising sub rates with that boiling frog tek.
No longer providing means to purchase local copies of data on a CD-ROM when you did before, just to pigeon-hole buyers down a subscription only access to the cloud.
Not offering a one time lifetime subscription in your sub-only model.
It used to be that you bought something and owned it physically or at least owned a private copy of the data that could be cracked/ stripped of DRM so you could truly freely own and distribute. Now they all want to be digital landlords where you own nothing and pay a little more each month through the good old boiling frog while pinning price increases on inflation. The mid-term result is a 100$/year to rent out digital access to a dictionary when before you could buy a cd copy.
Also, I don’t buy the “academic quality things should be incredibly expensive because its meant for scholars and university libraries” argument. Fuck that grift man. I know server infrastructure. It cost less to update a database or serve thousands of visitors than you might think especially for simple database lookups sent through https.
It also cost practically nothing to distribute a digital file. So, Free digital access to educational and reference materials output by universities realistically should be a right in any sane society. Im sure Oxford University gets enough tax breaks and gov subsidy they could do it without impacting the stock holders precious quarterly figures. That entire 12 volume OED set + SOED takes up 500mb and can be fit on every modern tablet and phone. It sure as hell could be fit on a CD ROM years ago when they made that. The only reason its not is greed and maybe the dopamine rush scholars get from filtering the plebs.
so why all the fuss about the inaccessibility of OED?
Because the OED is the creme of the crop for dictionaries, particularly the SOED has some of the most well put together definitions of any dictionary for casual lookup. Because the 1200$ paywall they put behind the physical editions was always bullshit. Because they no longer have legitimate ways of purchacing a cheaper local digital copy when one was available before is bullshit.
Sure, wiktionary or webster might have an entry for the word but if you do side by side comparisions betweeen dictionary theyre mid compared to OED/SOED. If your reaching for one the logic should be that you want the best/most accurate and descriptive one possible, no?
I genuinely believe that universities have at least a moral obligation (HA!) to provide free public services that better humanity. These are places of education subsidized and given tax breaks by the government for gods sake, yet theyre so corrupt from the rich fucks that run them like a for-profit corporation.
I would make an argument that free access to the highest quality dictionaries thats the gold standard for scholarly reference and similar such materials should be closer to a digital right than anything. In a better world academia pricing structures get fucked, knowledge becomes truly open through digital online and local reference resources without DRM.
Of course, thats a pipe dream. So instead, I simply ask for the option of an updated CD rom to be released as a possible purchacing option in a DRM free format. You know, like they already did years ago.
I don’t own/use a kindle but did a 2 minute search and found this promising fourm post comment from user Enterio https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=360684
“On my Kindle (Paperwhite, 11th gen), the dictionaries are held in the “\documents\dictionaries” subfolder (I kept my firmware to an older version to keep my USB connection).
When I bought them online (on Amazon, see Kindle Default Dictionaries category), I received pre-made MOBI files that I only had to place in the aforementioned subfolder, without converting them to other file formats.
Afterwards, I set up my default dictionaries for every language on my Kindle in Settings → Language & Dictionaries → Dictionaries.
Hope that helped. "
Also, the 1921 version of Merriam-Webster dictionary has entered public domain and is available for local download in stardict format here https://github.com/ahacop/websters-dict-1913-stardict
Double reminder that local offline copies of wiktionary.org dictionaries are available in Stardict, Tabfile and Kindle formats for download here:
https://github.com/Vuizur/Wiktionary-Dictionaries
Sure! Heres links.
The full Unabridged 2nd edition (comes in 2 parts): https://archive.org/details/stardict-Oxford_English_Dictionary_2nd_Ed._P1-2.4.2
The Smaller condensed SOED edition: https://archive.org/details/soedrich-star-dict-2022-11-11
While your at it download the torrent link file themselves too in case these archives ever get taken down. I get the impression Oxford is particularly aggressive with takedown request so please consider seeding to keep these alive and easily accessable for others.
Oxford English Dictionary is directly funded by Oxford University. Im pretty sure a world class old money university can afford to subsidize public access and periodic updates to a digital dictionary database without putting it behind a subscription based paywall. At least they could try to offer a lifetime sub option.
Well, that sure is an option, though one that I would rather not take, like ever.
Coincidentally a copy of the Unabridged Oxford English Dictionary 2nd edition stardict is currently available for free on the internet, only requires approximately 200-300mb of storage space, can be installed on my e-reader or pc software of choice for potential automated database retrieval / RAG, ect ect.




















Call Of Duty Black Ops 7, however im hearing Battlefield 6 is also in the same boat.
A lot of gamers tend to also be teenagers/young adults who just want to play a game with their friends in their social group. I was a kid once too after all so its understandable. However its the “just want to play with my friends” crowd that enables the industries worst practices by being consumers who think of yearly video game release hype cycles as vehicles of social interaction instead of caring about games as an art form thats being slowly degraded by corporate cuckery over time.
And thats the big divider. A fundamental schism between people who use video games as a vehicle for socializing with friends vs people who play videogames for the love of the art form and enjoyment of the genre.
The “want to play with my friends” types follow the hype train. They consume games as a social product. They go from one AAA multiplayer to the next as their social groups collective interest waxes and wanes. They buy game consoles based purely off what their other friends have. They aren’t that deeply invested in the 50 years of history, industry practices, or current culture trends of games. They dont care about nerd shit like privacy and dont care about always online requirements or optimization. AAA shooters, mobas, and sports games appeal to these types.
The “art form enjoyer” types are the people who grew up with this stuff and have an intrinsic interest in game industry practices. People who played hundreds of single player games to experience a story or beat a challenge. The people who care enough to notice the constant corporate commodification ofthe art into slop and the never ending plays for control over the game you paid to own or shoving microtransactions everywhere. Its the people who will put their foot down and vote with their wallet just because of shit anticheat or always online or being unoptimized UE5 garbage. Also the type of people who will give indie games made by small developers who treat the community well while providing the opportunity to run community servers.
Theres overlap but to me it seems lot of the industries anti-consumer practices are born and bread in the triple AAA " want to play with my friends” honeytraps. Those kinds of players are the most apathetic, most willing to chase hype trains, buy the newest consoles, consume the same reheated product, willing to put aside personal philosophy and bend over backwards to take the corporate cock to play a game with friends.
But like I was a teenager once during the 360/ps3 games so I have empathy. The socialite tribal monkey instincts for connection and communication are a big driver very hard to resist. Theres nothing wrong with playing games with friends but I wish it would stop being used as an put for enabling shitty products and practices. “Sorry nerds I’m a real person who wants to play with my friends normal people ain’t got time to care about voting with their wallet or having an invested interest in making sure I can play the product I paid for 10 years from now with hardware I already own” is such a common undertone justifying the apathy.
That was Hubble who discovered cosmic expansion was a real thing. einstein believed in a static universe and made up a constant specifically to model a static universe in general relativity
Black Ops 7. Its got plenty of shaming going on for other reasons already but this is the first time ive seen this message.
Want to play the latest multiplayer games? Just go into your bios settings or upgrade your PC if it doesn't have TPM chip.
Plot twist: Theres still hackers in multiplayer even with all that crap plus rootkit they bundle with.
Also the Phone must be at or under 200$ no matter the build quality. I get it, linux users are likely to be cushy financially well off opsec nerds will pay out the wazoo for hardkill switches which I guess is your bread and butter whales to target in this market. Please release something economical for us plebs it can be like a walmart tracphone for all I care.
The lesson is that humans should always be held responsible for important decision making and to not rely on solely ML models as primary sources. Eating potentially dangerous mushrooms is a decision that you should only make if you’re absolutely sure it wont hurt you. So for research If you choose upload a picture to chatgpt and ask if its edible instead of taking the time to learn mycology, attend mushroom foraging group events, and read identification books, well thats on you.
I believe that Valve can afford to sell hardware at cost or even a little in the red. Getting people in the steam store ecosystem makes it back and then some in the long term.
The GabeCube looks awesome! The GabeGoggles probably aren’t riddled with spyware. The controller fucks so hard it could be an aphrodisiac. Massive win for valve today.
Honestly, my favorite people are the ones who love to talk and are horribly desperate to babble to potential listeners. I’m not much of a talker but I absolutely dont mind looking you in the eyes and nodding my head as you talk about your hobby or current going ons.
In bigger social groups I noticed this weird thing fellow humans tend to do where they all want a slice of being the talker/ center of attention and constantly cut off eachother or tune out current speaker waiting for them to shut up so they can start their monkey babble turn.
This behavior absolutely infuriates me and I refuse to take part in it. I would rather just be silent and let you say your piece than interrupt the flow.
As a knock on effect people subconsciously notice I’m not competing with them for talk time and am sending them constant listening signals like looking in the eye nodding head “mhm got you” stuff. This seems to really go a long way with making friendly with talkative types with minimal effort.
The question isnt whether quantum computers have an advantage over regular computers (they pretty much always do for code cracking as the parallel superposition computation is some crazy shit that changes cryptography forever) instead the question is whether or not AES-256 is able to resist our current quantum compute and how long it can do that.
Its a simple equation, as long as it takes longer than the lifespan of the universe to compute with our most powerful supercomputers its considered good encryption. However as computers get more powerful, the projected time decreases potentially to the point of human lifespan time frames. Thats when it becomes a problem and the standard fails.
Currently AES is quantum resistant but it almost certainly won’t be forever. New standards are gonna need to be adopted at some point.
Absolutely cannabis.
Paid products can be enshittified. Also, its not just the quality of products that are getting enshittified but the concept of ownership over usage and access to digital data.
Slowly raising sub rates with that boiling frog tek.
No longer providing means to purchase local copies of data on a CD-ROM when you did before, just to pigeon-hole buyers down a subscription only access to the cloud.
Not offering a one time lifetime subscription in your sub-only model.
It used to be that you bought something and owned it physically or at least owned a private copy of the data that could be cracked/ stripped of DRM so you could truly freely own and distribute. Now they all want to be digital landlords where you own nothing and pay a little more each month through the good old boiling frog while pinning price increases on inflation. The mid-term result is a 100$/year to rent out digital access to a dictionary when before you could buy a cd copy.
Also, I don’t buy the “academic quality things should be incredibly expensive because its meant for scholars and university libraries” argument. Fuck that grift man. I know server infrastructure. It cost less to update a database or serve thousands of visitors than you might think especially for simple database lookups sent through https.
It also cost practically nothing to distribute a digital file. So, Free digital access to educational and reference materials output by universities realistically should be a right in any sane society. Im sure Oxford University gets enough tax breaks and gov subsidy they could do it without impacting the stock holders precious quarterly figures. That entire 12 volume OED set + SOED takes up 500mb and can be fit on every modern tablet and phone. It sure as hell could be fit on a CD ROM years ago when they made that. The only reason its not is greed and maybe the dopamine rush scholars get from filtering the plebs.
Because the OED is the creme of the crop for dictionaries, particularly the SOED has some of the most well put together definitions of any dictionary for casual lookup. Because the 1200$ paywall they put behind the physical editions was always bullshit. Because they no longer have legitimate ways of purchacing a cheaper local digital copy when one was available before is bullshit.
Sure, wiktionary or webster might have an entry for the word but if you do side by side comparisions betweeen dictionary theyre mid compared to OED/SOED. If your reaching for one the logic should be that you want the best/most accurate and descriptive one possible, no?
I genuinely believe that universities have at least a moral obligation (HA!) to provide free public services that better humanity. These are places of education subsidized and given tax breaks by the government for gods sake, yet theyre so corrupt from the rich fucks that run them like a for-profit corporation.
I would make an argument that free access to the highest quality dictionaries thats the gold standard for scholarly reference and similar such materials should be closer to a digital right than anything. In a better world academia pricing structures get fucked, knowledge becomes truly open through digital online and local reference resources without DRM.
Of course, thats a pipe dream. So instead, I simply ask for the option of an updated CD rom to be released as a possible purchacing option in a DRM free format. You know, like they already did years ago.
I don’t own/use a kindle but did a 2 minute search and found this promising fourm post comment from user Enterio https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=360684
Also, the 1921 version of Merriam-Webster dictionary has entered public domain and is available for local download in stardict format here https://github.com/ahacop/websters-dict-1913-stardict
Double reminder that local offline copies of wiktionary.org dictionaries are available in Stardict, Tabfile and Kindle formats for download here:
https://github.com/Vuizur/Wiktionary-Dictionaries
Sure! Heres links.
The full Unabridged 2nd edition (comes in 2 parts): https://archive.org/details/stardict-Oxford_English_Dictionary_2nd_Ed._P1-2.4.2
The Smaller condensed SOED edition: https://archive.org/details/soedrich-star-dict-2022-11-11
While your at it download the torrent link file themselves too in case these archives ever get taken down. I get the impression Oxford is particularly aggressive with takedown request so please consider seeding to keep these alive and easily accessable for others.
Oxford English Dictionary is directly funded by Oxford University. Im pretty sure a world class old money university can afford to subsidize public access and periodic updates to a digital dictionary database without putting it behind a subscription based paywall. At least they could try to offer a lifetime sub option.