For anyone wanting a short piece of fiction about human-animal communication development, I enjoyed this one (or part one of one) from Lars Doucet: https://www.fortressofdoors.com/we-trade-with-ants-a-short-s...
Readit NewsDizzyDoo commented on Scientists Find an 'Alphabet' in Whale Songs nytimes.com/2024/05/07/sc... · Posted by u/tintinnabula
DizzyDoo commented on TwitchAdSolutions – Blocking Twitch Ads github.com/pixeltris/Twit... · Posted by u/11001100
Haven't watched much twitch in the last 5-10 years, but Streamlink [0] still seems active, and was a really nice experience (before wide adoption of HTML5 video players) as a CLI and standalone media player enthusiast.
It doesn't look like Streamlink is immune to the challenges of Twitch ads: https://github.com/streamlink/streamlink/issues/4949
I live in Japan so deal with some of this. The attitude I've adopted is that the government officials are giving me free Japanese speech practice.
A week ago I just so happened to look up some of your older blog posts and Candy Japan articles that you had written, it was an enjoyable reread!
For anyone else, here are some links:
Related Trivia : France stands out as one of the select countries that enforce a music quota system, which appears to be among the most stringent : a minimum of four in ten songs broadcast by domestic radio stations to be in the French language [1]. (link : it is this same french music that will be further supported by the new Tax)
Not specific-language related, but see also Canada's CanCon legislation on Canadian-made music quotas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_content
DizzyDoo commented on Lee Sun-Kyun, 'Parasite' Actor, Dies at 48 nytimes.com/2023/12/27/wo... · Posted by u/bookofjoe
It definitely is. It seems impossible to enforce but high-profile Koreans have been nabbed for things like, use of Adderall. I cannot remember her name, but a K-Pop singer got snagged for her use of Adderall in the states.
I find that Koreans can be surprisingly snitchy. For instance, garbage snitches. A lot of Koreans seem mortally afraid of accidentally throwing away plastic because neighbors would (and do) look at their trash and will report them to authorities for it. They can receive a hefty fine as a result.
A big part of the Lee Sun Kyun "scandal", less reported in the US media, is the fact that he was blackmailed by an escort. Having known very little about this, I thought he committed a mortal sin, but upon reading the allegations.. while they may look bad.. and they are really bad for his family.. they were at the very bottom of the totem pole of vice-seeking behaviors. They're not remotely reason for one to take their life over. Which leads to a broader discussion about Korea.The fact society in Korea makes suicide seem like a better option than the reputational ruination for the violation of what are essentially Christian-conservative values is a shame.
About the trash police - is there anything stopping a neighbour planting plastic in the garbage and then calling the authorities? Or just saying that the plastic isn't theirs, and perhaps the neighbour planted it? It just seems hard to prove either way.
Under the category of "Rube Goldberg Machines", I'd add this classic retro game for the kids:
The Even More Incredible Machine: https://playclassic.games/games/puzzle-solving-dos-games-onl...
I enjoyed The Incredible Machine as a kid, the modern equivalent (though still 10 years old) is 'Contraption Maker' - https://store.steampowered.com/app/241240/Contraption_Maker/ - which was designed by the same person. Glad to see he's still going all these years later!
This is not 'Incredible Machine' related, but while I'm here, I'm working on an engineering-adjacent game where you build and automate a zoo full of spooky monsters. Might be of interest to some! https://store.steampowered.com/app/654960/The_Eldritch_Zooke...
DizzyDoo commented on Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath aftermath.site/welcome-to... · Posted by u/netaustin
Check out Rock Paper Shotgun. One of the few sites whose articles I read purely for pleasure.
I very much enjoyed RPS in the days of the original four writers, and also when Quinns was contributing, though I haven't kept up so much in the last eight years or so.
Eurogamer seems to cover the games news and reviews in the way I like best right now, and Digital Foundary's writing and videos that lean on the more technical side of games are just excellent. (I believe DF also have an arrangement to do some content for RPS, so it's probably being shared around as it should.)
DizzyDoo commented on Lemming Suicide Myth: Disney Film Faked Bogus Behavior adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm... · Posted by u/oppodeldoc
congratulations to whomever amongst you who capitalized on this and initially created the Lemmings game for the Amiga
I mean, it was Russell Kay[0], David Jones[1] and Mike Dailly[2], though I don't know if they're here.
Personally I enjoyed the Lemmings Revolution game in the series, and that was much later than the Amiga version.
[0] - https://www.mobygames.com/person/685/russell-kay/
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Jones_(video_game_develo...
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Dailly_(game_designer)
DizzyDoo commented on A close look at the round-edged Wii U proprietary discs (2012) web.archive.org/web/20121... · Posted by u/networked
Vendor locking. Maybe with the inner edge rounded they will be difficult to read in normal dvd or blu ray players.
Exactly, and it's not just about reading but also (perhaps even more so) about writing. If Nintendo control the manufacture of their proprietary disk, well, it's unlikely that a pirate outfit will be able to build a disk manufacturing factory that produces something compatible with retail Wii U's they can then sell their own non-Nintendo licensed games on. Or burn Nintendo's own games onto. The cartridge era of games were much easier to reproduce the physical medium onto, and this was super-widespread.
This did break down for Sony later on in a way it hasn't for the Nintendo Switch, a widely shared opinion on why the PS Vita flopped was because it was incompatible with standard SD cards _and_ that their own flash game cart and memory card offerings were so incredibly expensive. (And there were cheap SD-to-PSVita adapters that were released anyway. [0])
[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Vita#Hardware
Miami set the record for most points earned in a season for the regular season and then went out in the first round to an 8th seeded team. LA Galaxy won the title last season and are currently sitting at the bottom of the table halfway through the season.
Anybody can win any game, but most of the teams are thoroughly mediocre, and MLS struggles even to beat Mexican teams, let alone do well at something like the Club World Cup (Miami being an exception because they spent the money to sign the best person in the history of soccer to the team, and even then they suffered from the lack of depth caused by the salary cap).
IMO, parity and mediocrity is also boring, and I would much prefer a league that allowed teams to spend more if they want and really try to compete on an international level. Even if that means you have 2 or 3 teams that dominate the league, that is not necessarily bad. Baseball was dominated by the Yankees for literally decades, and it survived and even thrived.
[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesliga#List_of_champions