• 9 Posts
  • 38 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: August 9th, 2023

help-circle
  • It reads like someone trying to sound smart, but failing. I’ve used ChatGPT to explain abstracts of scientific papers, and it never sounds like this. This was written by a human.

    ChatGPT is actually rather critical of the article:

    It’s definitely well-written and poetic, but it does seem heavy on grandiose language that might obscure the actual scientific content. The core idea—reformulating the Bekenstein bound using a toroidal structure and relating it to entropy, quantum mechanics, and cosmology—is intriguing, but the argumentation is somewhat buried under metaphorical and philosophical flourishes.

    If the goal is to make a technical argument, it could benefit from a clearer, more structured explanation of the key mathematical and physical insights. Right now, it reads more like a mix of scientific exposition and philosophical reflection, which makes it engaging but also somewhat vague.

    What exactly changes in the equations? How does this solve the cosmological constant problem? These aspects should be spelled out more clearly.





  • Here’s a summary of this hot take.

    • The game gives you way too much powerful equipment and abilities right away. This undermines any sense of progression or challenge.
    • The power armor is so good it makes radiation damage irrelevant. This completely contradicts the idea of Fallout, where radiation is a constant danger.
    • The game is incredibly easy. Bethesda tries to compensate by throwing tons of enemies at you, which makes combat feel overwhelming and chaotic.
    • The writing is bad. Dialogue options are simplified, and the main story is riddled with plot holes.
    • The Institute storyline is poorly written. The main villain, “Father”, is inconsistent and his motivations are never fully explained.
    • The ending of the game is deeply unsatisfying. There’s no option to negotiate with the Institute or prevent them from being destroyed.
    • The game is full of glitches and technical issues. These range from animations to camera issues to disappearing textures.

    Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed this nightmare. It’s a beautiful game with excellent gameplay, and I’ve played it multiple times. The companions have deep and interesting stories and quests. The side quests are full of humor and nods to other Fallout games and pop culture. The gunplay is the best of any Fallout game. And the god rays! Oh, the god rays!

    Yeah, the main quest was sub-par. Oh well. Personally, I enjoyed the twist regarding Father, and it was satisfying to destroy the Institute.

    Using a full dialog mod at least let’s you see what you’re going to say before you say it. I agree on that point. The dialog choices suck compared to older games.





  • Oh, interesting. I have that installed, but didn’t realize it could be your default browser. 😅 I had been sharing links to it manually like you have to do with Léon the URL Cleaner. Using it as your default browser is really cool.

    Turns out, you can also add automations to URLCheck. Maybe it can be programmed to open OP’s bank links in a certain browser with zero interaction, and then open every other link in their normal browser, again, with zero interaction. EDIT: This doesn’t seem possible. See my comment reply.

    Alternatively, someone in this thread recommended LinkSheet, which seems nice since it is similar to the standard “choose and app” UI in Android, and lets you choose a specific browser. Some people might prefer the familiar UI, although it seems to require a double tap to choose a browser, not a single tap.

    Here’s Linksheet’s UI:

    This next screenshot is URLCheck, for those who haven’t used it, with my own modifications by turning certain modules off and changing others. For one, you can make the Cleaner module auto-apply instead of having to tap it manually. This is great for removing YouTube tracking tokens and such. Now that I figured out you can set it to auto-apply, I’m going to probably stop using Léon and just use URLCheck.

    It’s nice that it supports opening links in apps that are set to handle such links instead of only showing general web browsers. I’m gonna start using URLCheck more, and try it as my default browser for a while, and maybe set up some automations. I learned a lot while writing this comment!





  • Brits who say “Microsoft are doing a thing” are poking knitting needles into my ears every time!

    It’s not plural. Microsoft is a company. A. One!

    It doesn’t matter that it’s a company of individuals. Next your going to tell me my person is plural because I’m made from many cells. “CrayonRosary are mistaken about language!” No!

    Bonus: Math is singular, too, because mathematics is singular. It’s not the plural of mathematic!

    We overthrew your rule specifically because of this one language issue!



  • They’re “roguelite” games. Games that feature permanent death, and are designed to be played from the start over and over while you learn more about the game, and often unlock new things each run (metaprogression) that can make each future run a little easier, or at least different.

    Examples:

    • Binding of Isaac
    • Dead Cells
    • Enter the Gungeon

    The “roguelite” name comes from “roguelike” which itself is used to describe games being similar to “Rogue”, a very old ASCII dungeon crawler that pioneered this sort of gameplay. Roguelikes are modern, turn-based dungeon crawlers that feature the same mechanics.

    Examples:

    • Caves of Qud
    • Shattered Pixel Dungeon