pruetj (u/pruetj) - Readit News

pruetj commented on Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room nytimes.com/2025/08/18/ar... · Posted by u/asnyder

rimunroe · 6 days ago

I will forever mourn the general demise of server browsers. Too many games require you to use matchmaking systems, which means it's very hard to build up a small community in-game anymore. You either have to rely on forming small parties with people you've stumbled upon one by one, or you have to seek out people from some much larger area like Reddit or Discord. It takes a lot of the serendipity out of the experience. Without a small community it becomes much harder to ensure you're not playing with people who make the game less fun by whatever metric you care about.

I used to be an admin on a group of about 18 or so connected Counter-Strike 1.6 servers called T3Houston*. We ran modified versions of various Warcraft 3 mods which added persistent XP/leveling, as well as integration with an external item store and player database the owner maintained. Most of those servers were filled to the brim during peak US gaming times, and our forum was quite active.

There aren't many games these days where you could do something like that. I discovered the community because one day I was just looking for a server with open slots for me to join. I was fairly skeptical of whatever a Warcraft mod would be like, but ended up enjoying it so I added it to my favorites. Eventually I got to know the regulars and joined the forum. Notably, the place felt far less toxic than the average server I'd join back then. I can completely believe this is just me looking at the past through rose tinted glasses, but it feels like the general toxicity has gotten worse at the same time as we've lost a lot of tools to manage it.

* If anyone else here remembers the name T3Houston: hi! I'm Stealth Penguin

pruetj · 5 days ago

Wow, I played on your servers as a 9-10 year old. I lived in Houston and joined your server simply because they said Houston and I assumed my ping could make it there. I became obsessed with the WC3 mod. Handle was probably Coomie at the time.

I still remember invisible humans, elves with evasion, orcs with massive nade damage, undead with life steal… good times. I didn’t know how to spell “ultimate” so it took me forever to actually be able to bind an ult to keyboard.

pruetj commented on Random selection is necessary to create stable meritocratic institutions assemblingamerica.substac... · Posted by u/namlem

biomcgary · a month ago

That's an interesting interpretation but a quick search didn't turn up the first version of that until 1861, so it seem rather late to have influenced EO iconography. Perhaps you are familiar with earlier examples of that interpretation?

Impetuous or not, Peter was likely influenced by the many decisions made by lots in the Hebrew Scriptures. e.g., picking a scapegoat (Leviticus 16:7-10), assigning priestly duties (1 Chronicles 24), dividing land (1 Chronicles 6:54), etc. Furthermore, Proverbs 16:33 & 18:18 indicates the outcome of lots is from God and reduces conflict.

Anyway, ascribing random processes to the divine for decision making, particularly political situations seems to have strong textual support within the Judeo-Christian tradition. I'm curious about parallels in Islam and other offshoots.

pruetj · a month ago

Honestly, going off of something I heard Fr. Stephen De Young mention in one of his podcasts. If I remember right, he says when you see the 12 in certain icons, Paul is often present instead of Matthias.

He did not speak of casting lots as being something never endorsed in the Bible, more just for this particular passage, it might not be the takeaway Luke is aiming for. Agree with all your points on 'chance' often being used in scripture.

pruetj commented on Random selection is necessary to create stable meritocratic institutions assemblingamerica.substac... · Posted by u/namlem

biomcgary · a month ago

There is an interesting example of random selection of leadership from the Bible when the apostles replaced Judas. The criteria were agreed upon and then lots drawn.

Acts 1:21-26 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.” So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

Can you imagine this practice replacing the Papal conclave? Or, pastor selection at your favorite Protestant group?

pruetj · a month ago

Interesting point! One interpretation of this passage suggests Peter is actually rushing this appointment. In typical Peter fashion, he makes choices before fulling thinking them through (this seems to change post Pentecost). Matthias is never mentioned again in the Bible; we aren't sure what becomes of him. Canonically, he is the 12th but traditionally, it is Paul who is sometimes considered the true 12th disciple (you can find this depicted in EO iconography).

So, the random selection mentioned here may have actually been a fault of Peter's and not something the Bible is endorsing as a means to choose leadership; possibly quite the opposite in this case.

pruetj commented on Show HN: Patio – Rent tools, learn DIY, reduce waste patio.so... · Posted by u/GouacheApp

pruetj · 3 months ago

I like the idea. The rental section has a lot of potential imo. It makes me wonder if there’s room for the personal property rental business in tools like there is for housing and cars.

I do a lot of DIY and tend to acquire a lot of the tools I use if I think they are generic enough or I’ll repeat a similar job in the future but there’s also jobs I do where I’ll happily borrow from a friend. For example, I just built a small privacy fence that needed 5 posts cemented in. For that, I wanted to use a post hole digger. It’s very unlikely I’ll build another fence any time soon and a post hole digger takes up enough space that I don’t want to buy one and keep one. It’s also like $50.

If I didn’t know a friend who just built a new fence and had one but had an option of renting one from a guy down the street for $10, that’s what I’d do. And I’d be so happy I didn’t just spent $50 and then have to either store a tool that’s never used again or try to sell it.

I think DIY is growing, it’s a great way to save money and it’s only becoming easier with YouTube to help you through most any job. Good luck with the site!

pruetj commented on Noise noise.jake.fun/... · Posted by u/amadeuspagel

pruetj · a year ago

If you’ve ever been by a Tesla coil in person, that static-y noise near the top of the screen is almost a perfect match.

pruetj commented on Google's Gemini Headaches Spur $90B Selloff forbes.com/sites/dereksau... · Posted by u/donsupreme

Veuxdo · a year ago

> This doesn't really seem like an AI problem

It can be many problems, but I think it is certainly an AI problem. A big one. It really shows that asking a computer for something is fundamentaly a bad idea. Computers are for, well, computing. They are not for answering history questions or whatever.

pruetj · a year ago

> It really shows that asking a computer for something is fundamentally a bad idea

No, that is not what it shows at all. Everything you do on a computer is "asking a computer for something." Do you think computers are computing things that no one asked for?

pruetj commented on Ask HN: How did yall meet your SO? · Posted by u/yfh

pruetj · 2 years ago

Church. I was living in Long Beach, about 23 years old. I had searched for community through CrossFit, work, etc. but just didn’t quite fit in right. Finally, I went back to church after not attending for about 5 years figuring I could meet some new people there. Became a Christian and met my wife, been married almost 8 years now.

pruetj commented on Shouldn't FROM come before SELECT in SQL? (2011) stackoverflow.com/questio... · Posted by u/tosh

pruetj · 2 years ago

I used to work on an Ingres database using QUEL that did have FROM before SELECT, just with different key words. We would use something like:

  RANGE OF t IS table
  RETRIEVE INTO target (t.column1, t.column2) 
  WHERE t.condition

Instead of

  SELECT t.column1, t.column2
  FROM table t
  WHERE t.condition

I still find the joins to be more readable:

  RANGE OF t1 IS table1
  RANGE OF t2 IS table2
  RETRIEVE INTO target (t1.column, t2.column) WHERE t1.common = t2.common