#because most of consumer technology is a solved problem

[kn-1013]

i know i've been on my anti-modern AU propaganda lately and it's just because i've been delving deeper into the sally face ao3 tags and i just keep finding them over and over. it's frustrating because there are a lot of really interesting concepts out there that would fit really well and make for a genuinely really interesting story in the 90s, but they get thrown off because the author doesn't know enough about the 90s to write for that time period, so they make it into a modern au instead. there's nothing inherently wrong with that, and i think there's room for modern aus to be done well here, i even have my own half-serious modern au, but i do think you often lose part of what makes sally face special when you turn the story into any other kind of contemporary love story/horror story/etc where all the characters just have ~iphones~ and use ~snapchat~ and all these things.

like, the 90s was not some kind of alien planet, and a vast number of the problems that you're solving with smartphones can be worked around very easily with just a bit of research or thought. long distance walkie-talkies, pagers, and PDAs were all (though sometimes expensive) perfectly capable contemporary technologies for talking to people when you are not physically with them. in fact, a lot of the abbreviations and slang we use over text right now was developed by young people in the 90s using pagers to talk to their friends. PDAs were a bit more out there in the 90s than they were in the aughts, but it's still completely plausible for henry in particular to have one, considering he already owns a home computer, which was not at all ubiquitous in the 90s. considering the apparent financial limitations that he and sal live under (it's never stated explicitly, but i mean, they live at addison's, they can't be in a great financial situation) and how insanely expensive computers were back then, it's more than likely that henry's job requires a home computer of some sort, meaning that a PDA would probably be incredibly useful to him if he were away from it, because there's no way in hell he's getting himself a luggable or another kind of early laptop to bring with him, that would've been too expensive.

and that's ignoring the fact that so many situations where two characters are apart form each other but need to communicate could just be fixed by rewriting the plot so that they can meet in person. i know that's not what people wanna hear because rewriting sucks, but you can find a lot of reasons for characters to meet each other randomly or to have reasons to meet up later if you give it a bit of problem-solving. part of what makes the pre-smartphone era interesting to write for and so optimized for horror, and probably a big reason that gabry chose this time period for the story in the first place, is the level of disconnection between each character in the story BECAUSE they don't have things like smartphones. having to work around this technological limitation is part of the fun, because you get a very enjoyable push and pull of closeness vs. disconnection between each character.

this is great for alienating ash, the only one who doesn't live in the apartments (except for neil), and causing her internal conflict about her relationships with the rest of her friends, especially as the story progresses and they start discovering more shit about the cult, and her instincts are to call the cops because she's a lot more normal than her friends are. or, it's good for alienating travis, who also doesn't live there and is far more isolated than everyone else (more on that next), or for creating an unhealthy and codependent relationship between sal and larry, who, with the walkies, are the only two in the friend group who DO have semi-instant access to each other all the time--all of which are plot points i put into my writing.

and if that's not enough, think about the implications for travis's character in particular. his father is a preacher, and a huge talking point of christian extremists in the 90s was that things like television were evil and demonic in some way. they campaigned against these things heavily. with the kind of person that we know kenneth phelps to be and the way many technologies we take for granted today, including TVs, were still being adopted by older generations, it's not out of the question at all that travis doesn't own something like a TV or a VCR, putting him even more out of the loop with what other people his age are doing than he already would be, having approximately 0 friends. he doesn't know what DND is, and he doesn't know how to look it up because he's not familiar with computers or the internet, he just knows his dad thinks it's demonic, so he steers clear of it.

the intention of cult leaders like kenneth is to keep their victims as isolated as possible, and not owning a TV, VCR, home computer, etc, is a great way to keep travis and his sisters isolated and disconnected from their peers, and therefore more connected to the cult, and it's a lot easier to justify not owning these things in the 90s, where the story already takes place, than it is if you're writing a modern au. a modern au for this situation would require all kinds of technological workarounds to make sure that travis owned a phone but couldn't do anything his father didn't want him doing on it. he's the kind of father who would go through and monitor his kid's texts, he wouldn't just let travis have snapchat or whatever, but i digress.

i know i'm just doing my petty bitching and people can do whatever they want however they want to, but i really do feel like there's a huge piece of the story that is lost in turning the sally face story as it is into some kind of modern au, and it's pretty unfortunate to me that people seem to think that the 90s was such a primitive alien world of incomprehensible technology that they don't want to write for that time period at all. it's really not as terrifying as it seems, genuinely. a surface level understanding of the era's technologies would be straightforward enough for anyone who wasn't there to write something perfectly coherent, if lacking in specific cultural/technological details that nobody but me cares about because i have autism.

if you're a sally face fan reading this and you struggle with writing for the american 90s because you weren't there, go look up pagers (also called beepers) and PDAs (which are basically early pocket computers) and how they work. ask older family members if or how they used them. go look at the different kinds of home computers of the era from companies like packard-bell and IBM. learn what a pentium III is/was, or what it means to be X86 compatible. look at the history of the CD-ROM, and how when it was invented, it could contain so much data that consumers had absolutely no idea what to do with them until people started putting video games on them. go watch cathode ray dude, LGR or techmoan on youtube.

go learn things about this era, it's good for you and you will have a lot of fun, even if you're not like me, i promise, and your fanfiction will be better for it. please learn about this era. take my hand. we can go to beautiful places together.

[treasure-mimic]

So, let me try and put everything together here, because I really do think it needs to be talked about.

Today, Unity announced that it intends to apply a fee to use its software. Then it got worse.

For those not in the know, Unity is the most popular free to use video game development tool, offering a basic version for individuals who want to learn how to create games or create independently alongside paid versions for corporations or people who want more features. It's decent enough at this job, has issues but for the price point I can't complain, and is the idea entry point into creating in this medium, it's a very important piece of software.

But speaking of tools, the CEO is a massive one. When he was the COO of EA, he advocated for using, what out and out sounds like emotional manipulation to coerce players into microtransactions.

"A consumer gets engaged in a property, they might spend 10, 20, 30, 50 hours on the game and then when they're deep into the game they're well invested in it. We're not gouging, but we're charging and at that point in time the commitment can be pretty high."

He also called game developers who don't discuss monetization early in the planning stages of development, quote, "fucking idiots".

So that sets the stage for what might be one of the most bald-faced greediest moves I've seen from a corporation in a minute. Most at least have the sense of self-preservation to hide it.

A few hours ago, Unity posted this announcement on the official blog.

Effective January 1, 2024, we will introduce a new Unity Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs. We will also add cloud-based asset storage, Unity DevOps tools, and AI at runtime at no extra cost to Unity subscription plans this November. We are introducing a Unity Runtime Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying game is downloaded by an end user. We chose this because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed. Also we believe that an initial install-based fee allows creators to keep the ongoing financial gains from player engagement, unlike a revenue share.

Now there are a few red flags to note in this pitch immediately.

Unity is planning on charging a fee on all games which use its engine.

This is a flat fee per number of installs.

They are using an always online runtime function to determine whether a game is downloaded.

There is just so many things wrong with this that it's hard to know where to start, not helped by this FAQ which doubled down on a lot of the major issues people had.

I guess let's start with what people noticed first. Because it's using a system baked into the software itself, Unity would not be differentiating between a "purchase" and a "download". If someone uninstalls and reinstalls a game, that's two downloads. If someone gets a new computer or a new console and downloads a game already purchased from their account, that's two download. If someone pirates the game, the studio will be asked to pay for that download.

Q: How are you going to collect installs? A: We leverage our own proprietary data model. We believe it gives an accurate determination of the number of times the runtime is distributed for a given project. Q: Is software made in unity going to be calling home to unity whenever it's ran, even for enterprice licenses? A: We use a composite model for counting runtime installs that collects data from numerous sources. The Unity Runtime Fee will use data in compliance with GDPR and CCPA. The data being requested is aggregated and is being used for billing purposes. Q: If a user reinstalls/redownloads a game / changes their hardware, will that count as multiple installs? A: Yes. The creator will need to pay for all future installs. The reason is that Unity doesn’t receive end-player information, just aggregate data. Q: What's going to stop us being charged for pirated copies of our games? A: We do already have fraud detection practices in our Ads technology which is solving a similar problem, so we will leverage that know-how as a starting point. We recognize that users will have concerns about this and we will make available a process for them to submit their concerns to our fraud compliance team.

This is potentially related to a new system that will require Unity Personal developers to go online at least once every three days.

Starting in November, Unity Personal users will get a new sign-in and online user experience. Users will need to be signed into the Hub with their Unity ID and connect to the internet to use Unity. If the internet connection is lost, users can continue using Unity for up to 3 days while offline. More details to come, when this change takes effect.

It's unclear whether this requirement will be attached to any and all Unity games, though it would explain how they're theoretically able to track "the number of installs", and why the methodology for tracking these installs is so shit, as we'll discuss later.

Unity claims that it will only leverage this fee to games which surpass a certain threshold of downloads and yearly revenue.

Only games that meet the following thresholds qualify for the Unity Runtime Fee: Unity Personal and Unity Plus: Those that have made $200,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 200,000 lifetime game installs. Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise: Those that have made $1,000,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 1,000,000 lifetime game installs.

They don't say how they're going to collect information on a game's revenue, likely this is just to say that they're only interested in squeezing larger products (games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, Fate Grand Order, Among Us, and Fall Guys) and not every 2 dollar puzzle platformer that drops on Steam. But also, these larger products have the easiest time porting off of Unity and the most incentives to, meaning realistically those heaviest impacted are going to be the ones who just barely meet this threshold, most of them indie developers.

Aggro Crab Games, one of the first to properly break this story, points out that systems like the Xbox Game Pass, which is already pretty predatory towards smaller developers, will quickly inflate their "lifetime game installs" meaning even skimming the threshold of that 200k revenue, will be asked to pay a fee per install, not a percentage on said revenue.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Hey Gamers!

Today, Unity (the engine we use to make our games) announced that they'll soon be taking a fee from developers for every copy of the game installed over a certain threshold - regardless of how that copy was obtained.

Guess who has a somewhat highly anticipated game coming to Xbox Game Pass in 2024? That's right, it's us and a lot of other developers.

That means Another Crab's Treasure will be free to install for the 25 million Game Pass subscribers. If a fraction of those users download our game, Unity could take a fee that puts an enormous dent in our income and threatens the sustainability of our business.

And that's before we even think about sales on other platforms, or pirated installs of our game, or even multiple installs by the same user!!!

This decision puts us and countless other studios in a position where we might not be able to justify using Unity for our future titles. If these changes aren't rolled back, we'll be heavily considering abandoning our wealth of Unity expertise we've accumulated over the years and starting from scratch in a new engine. Which is really something we'd rather not do.

On behalf of the dev community, we're calling on Unity to reverse the latest in a string of shortsighted decisions that seem to prioritize shareholders over their product's actual users.

I fucking hate it here.

-Aggro Crab - END DESCRIPTION]

That fee, by the way, is a flat fee. Not a percentage, not a royalty. This means that any games made in Unity expecting any kind of success are heavily incentivized to cost as much as possible.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A table listing the various fees by number of Installs over the Install Threshold vs. version of Unity used, ranging from $0.01 to $0.20 per install. END DESCRIPTION]

Basic elementary school math tells us that if a game comes out for $1.99, they will be paying, at maximum, 10% of their revenue to Unity, whereas jacking the price up to $59.99 lowers that percentage to something closer to 0.3%. Obviously any company, especially any company in financial desperation, which a sudden anchor on all your revenue is going to create, is going to choose the latter.

Furthermore, and following the trend of "fuck anyone who doesn't ask for money", Unity helpfully defines what an install is on their main site.

While I'm looking at this page as it exists now, it currently says

The installation and initialization of a game or app on an end user’s device as well as distribution via streaming is considered an “install.” Games or apps with substantially similar content may be counted as one project, with installs then aggregated to calculate the Unity Runtime Fee.

However, I saw a screenshot saying something different, and utilizing the Wayback Machine we can see that this phrasing was changed at some point in the few hours since this announcement went up. Instead, it reads:

The installation and initialization of a game or app on an end user’s device as well as distribution via streaming or web browser is considered an “install.” Games or apps with substantially similar content may be counted as one project, with installs then aggregated to calculate the Unity Runtime Fee.

Screenshot for posterity:

That would mean web browser games made in Unity would count towards this install threshold. You could legitimately drive the count up simply by continuously refreshing the page. The FAQ, again, doubles down.

Q: Does this affect WebGL and streamed games? A: Games on all platforms are eligible for the fee but will only incur costs if both the install and revenue thresholds are crossed. Installs - which involves initialization of the runtime on a client device - are counted on all platforms the same way (WebGL and streaming included).

And, what I personally consider to be the most suspect claim in this entire debacle, they claim that "lifetime installs" includes installs prior to this change going into effect.

Will this fee apply to games using Unity Runtime that are already on the market on January 1, 2024? Yes, the fee applies to eligible games currently in market that continue to distribute the runtime. We look at a game's lifetime installs to determine eligibility for the runtime fee. Then we bill the runtime fee based on all new installs that occur after January 1, 2024.

Again, again, doubled down in the FAQ.

Q: Are these fees going to apply to games which have been out for years already? If you met the threshold 2 years ago, you'll start owing for any installs monthly from January, no? (in theory). It says they'll use previous installs to determine threshold eligibility & then you'll start owing them for the new ones. A: Yes, assuming the game is eligible and distributing the Unity Runtime then runtime fees will apply. We look at a game's lifetime installs to determine eligibility for the runtime fee. Then we bill the runtime fee based on all new installs that occur after January 1, 2024.

That would involve billing companies for using their software before telling them of the existence of a bill. Holding their actions to a contract that they performed before the contract existed!

Okay. I think that's everything. So far.

There is one thing that I want to mention before ending this post, unfortunately it's a little conspiratorial, but it's so hard to believe that anyone genuinely thought this was a good idea that it's stuck in my brain as a significant possibility.

A few days ago it was reported that Unity's CEO sold 2,000 shares of his own company.

On September 6, 2023, John Riccitiello, President and CEO of Unity Software Inc (NYSE:U), sold 2,000 shares of the company. This move is part of a larger trend for the insider, who over the past year has sold a total of 50,610 shares and purchased none.

I would not be surprised if this decision gets reversed tomorrow, that it was literally only made for the CEO to short his own goddamn company, because I would sooner believe that this whole thing is some idiotic attempt at committing fraud than a real monetization strategy, even knowing how unfathomably greedy these people can be.

So, with all that said, what do we do now?

Well, in all likelihood you won't need to do anything. As I said, some of the biggest names in the industry would be directly affected by this change, and you can bet your bottom dollar that they're not just going to take it lying down. After all, the only way to stop a greedy CEO is with a greedier CEO, right?

(I fucking hate it here.)

And that's not mentioning the indie devs who are already talking about abandoning the engine.

[Links display tweets from the lead developer of Among Us saying it'd be less costly to hire people to move the game off of Unity and Cult of the Lamb's official twitter saying the game won't be available after January 1st in response to the news.]

That being said, I'm still shaken by all this. The fact that Unity is openly willing to go back and punish its developers for ever having used the engine in the past makes me question my relationship to it.

The news has given rise to the visibility of free, open source alternative Godot, which, if you're interested, is likely a better option than Unity at this point. Mostly, though, I just hope we can get out of this whole, fucking, environment where creatives are treated as an endless mill of free profits that's going to be continuously ratcheted up and up to drive unsustainable infinite corporate growth that our entire economy is based on for some fuckin reason.

Anyways, that's that, I find having these big posts that break everything down to be helpful.

[reasonsforhope]

"It is 70 years since AT&T’s Bell Labs unveiled a new technology for turning sunlight into power. The phone company hoped it could replace the batteries that run equipment in out-of-the-way places. It also realised that powering devices with light alone showed how science could make the future seem wonderful; hence a press event at which sunshine kept a toy Ferris wheel spinning round and round.

Today solar power is long past the toy phase. Panels now occupy an area around half that of Wales, and this year they will provide the world with about 6% of its electricity—which is almost three times as much electrical energy as America consumed back in 1954. Yet this historic growth is only the second-most-remarkable thing about the rise of solar power. The most remarkable is that it is nowhere near over.

To call solar power’s rise exponential is not hyperbole, but a statement of fact. Installed solar capacity doubles roughly every three years, and so grows ten-fold each decade. Such sustained growth is seldom seen in anything that matters. That makes it hard for people to get their heads round what is going on. When it was a tenth of its current size ten years ago, solar power was still seen as marginal even by experts who knew how fast it had grown. The next ten-fold increase will be equivalent to multiplying the world’s entire fleet of nuclear reactors by eight in less than the time it typically takes to build just a single one of them.

Solar cells will in all likelihood be the single biggest source of electrical power on the planet by the mid 2030s. By the 2040s they may be the largest source not just of electricity but of all energy. On current trends, the all-in cost of the electricity they produce promises to be less than half as expensive as the cheapest available today. This will not stop climate change, but could slow it a lot faster. Much of the world—including Africa, where 600m people still cannot light their homes—will begin to feel energy-rich. That feeling will be a new and transformational one for humankind.

To grasp that this is not some environmentalist fever dream, consider solar economics. As the cumulative production of a manufactured good increases, costs go down. As costs go down, demand goes up. As demand goes up, production increases—and costs go down further. This cannot go on for ever; production, demand or both always become constrained. In earlier energy transitions—from wood to coal, coal to oil or oil to gas—the efficiency of extraction grew, but it was eventually offset by the cost of finding ever more fuel.

As our essay this week explains, solar power faces no such constraint. The resources needed to produce solar cells and plant them on solar farms are silicon-rich sand, sunny places and human ingenuity, all three of which are abundant. Making cells also takes energy, but solar power is fast making that abundant, too. As for demand, it is both huge and elastic—if you make electricity cheaper, people will find uses for it. The result is that, in contrast to earlier energy sources, solar power has routinely become cheaper and will continue to do so.

Other constraints do exist. Given people’s proclivity for living outside daylight hours, solar power needs to be complemented with storage and supplemented by other technologies. Heavy industry and aviation and freight have been hard to electrify. Fortunately, these problems may be solved as batteries and fuels created by electrolysis gradually become cheaper...

The aim should be for the virtuous circle of solar-power production to turn as fast as possible. That is because it offers the prize of cheaper energy. The benefits start with a boost to productivity. Anything that people use energy for today will cost less—and that includes pretty much everything. Then come the things cheap energy will make possible. People who could never afford to will start lighting their houses or driving a car. Cheap energy can purify water, and even desalinate it. It can drive the hungry machinery of artificial intelligence. It can make billions of homes and offices more bearable in summers that will, for decades to come, be getting hotter.

But it is the things that nobody has yet thought of that will be most consequential. In its radical abundance, cheaper energy will free the imagination, setting tiny Ferris wheels of the mind spinning with excitement and new possibilities.

This week marks the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. The Sun rising to its highest point in the sky will in decades to come shine down on a world where nobody need go without the blessings of electricity and where the access to energy invigorates all those it touches."

-via The Economist, June 20, 2024

[csuitebitches]

book review: Stolen focus by Johann Hari

Major learnings from this book. It basically talks about focus, why and how we’re losing it. Why can’t we pay attention anymore? Are we individuals to blame or our systems? 

There will be a time when the upper class will be extremely aware of the risks to their attention (caused by tech, social media, our current generation) and the masses, with fewer resources to resist the temptation of technology, will be manipulated more and more by their computers. 

Multitasking is a myth. What actually happens when we multitask is that we “juggle” between tasks. This results in incomplete tasks, higher error rates, less focus, less creativity and memory decreases. 

Sleep is extremely important, especially sleeping according to nature - when the sun sets and sun rises. If the whole world slept the way we are naturally programmed, we would have an economic earthquake. Our economic systems run on sleep deprived people. 

Reading online and reading print has a huge difference. Reading online creates tendencies of skimming and scanning text. This prevents our brain from focusing intently on one story at a time, which print allows you to do. You also remember and understand things from printed texts better. 

Empathy. Certain research suggests that reading fiction and novels improves empathy, because you are immersing yourself in another character’s life for a while. Empathy has played a huge role in human advancements. If a group of white people did not realise that colonisation was wrong, if men did not realise that women deserve equal rights, we would not have independent nations nor be close to gender equality today. 

There are multiple types of paying attention. Focused attention is one thing. But day dreaming and letting your mind wander with no distraction (that is, being alone with your thoughts) is equally important. Some of the most important breakthroughs in human history were because the inventors were not actively focusing on solving the problem. 

Being on social media = giving a free pass to be manipulated. No thoughts, opinions, desires that you have are original. They have all been fed into you by social media and the online world. It is by their design that we cannot focus. 

Leaked internal records of Facebook show that they are aware that their algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness. 64% of people, for instance, who join extremist groups join because FB’s algorithm directly recommends too. “Our recommendation systems grow the problem.” Zuckerberg eventually terminated the unit that was studying this. 

Diet and attention. The diet we consumed today is a diet that causes regular energy spikes and energy crashes. Our food does not have the nutrients we need for our brains to function well. Our current diets actively contain chemicals that seem to act on our brains almost like drugs.  

Be careful about reading research, especially when it’s funded by the industry itself. For 40 years, the lead industry funded all the scientific research into whether it was safe, and assured the world that it was. Lead later turned out to severely stunt your ability to focus and pay attention and that you are more likely to get ADHD. 

We define success broadly as economic growth. Economies should get bigger, companies should get bigger. Growth can happen in two ways - either the companies find new markets or they persuade the existing consumers to consume more. If you can get people to eat more or to sleep less, you’ve found the source of economic growth. It results in people working overtime, not having enough time with family, friends and themselves, stress and anxiety prone, lack of sleep and bad health, etc. 

Conclusion: use precommitment to stop switching tasks, try to focus more on intrinsic motivation than extrinsic, go off social media periodically (say 1 month at a time) and then extend those breaks; everyday spend 1 hour in walking in silence (no music, conversations or people- and if this is in nature, even better) to connect with yourself, 8 hours of sleep every night, build on slow practices like yoga, cut out processed food, take your PTO!!

[mimzalot]

there's a recurring detail in a lot of current discussions about 'what's wrong with society' that I wanna boil down to this statement: a capitalistic, results-oriented society does not value the process, because the process takes time, and time is money.

this means that results take precedence over due process. but what's the purpose of due process? quality. integrity. effectiveness. sustainability. people need time to not only tangibly make things, but also to consider the work, improve and refine it. so where does that leave us?

let's think about fruit farming real quick. most people in a city district are never going to pick their own fruit, because we don't have access to that process or the skills necessary for it. but what happens when we are oblivious to the process? or, better yet, never consider that there is a process at all?

grocery companies are able to make money from us buying their fruit, but they're also able to save money by hiding the fruit labour process; are they exploiting the fruit-pickers? are they paying their farmers? how are these fruits made available to us in bulk, year round? how does climate affect this, or how are we impacting the planet? the necessary questions are hidden because analysing the process would reveal its flaws. criticising it would reveal solutions, and implementing those solutions would take time, thus cost money.

apply that same logic to smart phones and you find the Congo, cobalt mining, slave labour. apply that same logic to fast fashion and you find sweatshops, landfills and, again, slave labour.

hiding the process means hiding the 'why? how?' and dissuading people from 'why? how?' makes more complicit consumers.

and I might not know much about fruit-picking, but I do know that a large reason why fruit is so much sweeter back home in the islands is because it isn't picked early with the expectation of being sold en masse. it has time to ripen on the trees.

which leads me back to the prompt that inspired this train of thought: devaluing of 'the process' and the companies that benefit from it.

especially lately it has been coming up when we discuss the impacts of AI. when people talk about chatgpt, the main productivity benefit they're talking about is that it takes away the chore of thinking. which, most severely, not only conceals the process but undermines the process of forming thoughts altogether.

and we've seen that echoed across the board, referred to as the 'attention span problem' or 'poor media literacy'. it's spoken about as if it's a natural aspect of technological advancement when we can clearly observe that it is designed - literally designed, by web-designers - to be beneficial to the wealthy.

the disregard for artistic process that fuels the AI art debate also speaks to the same results-oriented society - not just for the reasons related to the nature of humanity and making, expression, storytelling, but primarily the clear disregard for the rights of the artists whose work is being stolen. we're diminishing not only the creative process (of thinking, problem-solving, creating) but also of the artists themselves (workers rights, intellectual property).

even the tendency for hot takes, valuing a fully-formed 'correct' opinion over the task of processing, researching, discussing, making statements (even wrong ones!), being corrected, reforming the sentiment, reaching consensus - these stops-and-starts are an essential part of growth. botched conclusions are a natural result of learning to do anything. community makes time for learning and imperfection. industries do not have time to teach nor the desire to have faulty products.

(not to mention that the good/bad morality figure also feeds into this industrial mindset, because things that are categorical are also profitable and marketable. in fact binaries really benefit most business models, which is why a capitalistic society also doesn't have space for nuance whether in media or especially in gender. because how do you profit off a racist and patriarchal white/black man/woman straight/gay society when there are people transing their genders? with greater difficulty. who's got the time to learn a new pronoun? not me, not me...)

there's a reason why the arts are about analysing thoughts, and while it can run the risk of becoming results-irrelevant (circular philosophiising, education for the sake of elitism, results-irrelevant musing), it also aims to foster your ability to think.

(which is tied to why the supposedly 'masculine' disciplines of STEM don't value the arts. there's a link between what is seen as tangible and 'real', what is perceived as masculine, and what is considered profitable thus valuable in a colonial society. but even in science you can't (or shouldn't) pull a solution out of thin air; there's due process. unless you are, say, an idiot billionaire that can pay people to do the thinking for you while you take the mantle of genius. but I digress)

so what does that mean! for me, it means being aware of the process. it means making time to take my time, even as someone that struggles to sit still. it also means constantly reminding people to take breathers, to not let themselves become cogs in a machine, if not because it's bad for you, then out of sheer spite for the people that might profit from it. I encourage people to do art, or engage in creating, or at least observe the magic of creation in things they might do regularly.

a results-oriented society is one that is prepared to disregard humanity. it's rooted in slavery, so that's not a surprise. countering that, to me, is about seeing where I say things like "I don't have the time for that" and analysing whether it's true, or whether a business model would just like me to think that it's true.

probably the funniest way I could end this post is without a clear conclusion huh. yeah

[mariacallous]

The Chinese government announced Tuesday it is opening an investigation into Google in response to 10 percent tariffs imposed on Chinese imports by US president Donald Trump. Minutes after the tariffs went into effect, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said it was probing the American tech giant for potentially violating the country’s anti-monopoly law.

The Chinese government may have strategically chosen to go after Google because it has limited operations in the country, ensuring the hit to the US tech giant would be relatively minimal. The move gives China plenty of room to escalate if the Trump administration announces further tariffs or other trade measures. Google declined to comment.

China also announced it was putting more restrictions on the sale of some critical minerals like tungsten and slapping additional tariffs on farm equipment, pickup trucks, liquified natural gas, coal, and other goods from the US. While the US isn’t reliant on China for all of the impacted minerals, the country does control the majority of the world’s tungsten supply, which is used in light bulbs, semiconductors, and ammunition.

“China’s position is firm and consistent. Trade and tariff wars have no winners,” China’s Ministry of Foreign affairs said in a statement Sunday shortly after the tariffs were announced. “This move cannot solve the US’s problems at home and, more importantly, does not benefit either side, still less the world.”

China has kept Google in its crosshairs during the ongoing trade war with the US over the last few years. In 2020, the government reportedly considered opening an antitrust investigation into Google's Android business, according to Reuters. The deliberations followed a complaint from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, which was targeted by Trump during his first term.

Because of US sanctions, Huawei is unable to use American-made software like Google Mobile Services, a suite of tools widely used across the smartphone industry. The restrictions forced the company to develop its own operating system called Harmony OS.

But most smartphones around the world still run on Android, which has sparked competition investigations in a number of countries, some of which have led to concessionary changes designed to give consumers and app developers more choices and lower fees. In China, several smartphone makers continue to rely on an open source version of Android.

This past December, Chinese authorities also opened an anti-monopoly investigation into Nvidia, the chipmaker whose GPUs play a crucial role in the development of generative AI and have become a significant source of trade sparring between the US and China. The announcement came soon after the Biden administration further tightened China’s access to high-end semiconductors.

About 15 years ago, Google stopped offering a search experience tailored for China following a series of Chinese government-linked cyberattacks against it and other US companies. Google debated reentering China with a search engine about seven years ago, but the project was scuttled following protests from some employees concerned about supporting Chinese surveillance and censorship.

Google has also stopped short of directly selling cloud technologies in China, as local laws could threaten the privacy and security assurances it offers to customers in other markets. Other Google services such as YouTube are blocked by Chinese internet regulators.

China has allowed domestic companies to buy advertisements through Google so that they can market to customers abroad. But the revenue from those deals is relatively small, and China didn't even garner a mention in parent company Alphabet's annual financial report last year. That stands in contrast to Meta, which lists China among its biggest markets in terms of advertiser location and said last year that China-based advertisers account for 10 percent of its annual revenue.

[lobautumny]

So, Alex Avila uploaded a very good 3-hour-long video yesterday about AI. This toy can't meaningfully summarize it because it's very long and dense, but it's absolutely worth the watch for anyone who cares at all about the argument surrounding AI. The video is largely about the most common narratives you see people use against AI, dissecting the core reasons people believe them, the rhetorical devices behind them, the problems/limitations of these arguments, who is propagating them, and who stands to benefit from them. The video is not demonizing AI detractors, but rather pointing out that there is a kind of carelessness with how people tend to talk about the subject, and this carelessness can be/is being abused by bad actors. A particularly noteworthy example is how ultramassive media conglomerates like Disney and Warner are using the fact that "AI art is theft" is a very common talking point as a wedge to try to massively strengthen copyright law, which could lead to such outcomes as entire art styles being copyrightable if they get their way, and this plan relies on the masses uncritically believing the narrative that all use of stable diffusion constitutes copyright infringement, or that if it doesn't already, it should.

Once again, the video is very good and absolutely worth the watch, and this toy came out of it with two major thoughts:

Damn, it really wants to make some art now.

It really wants to make a post detailing its own thoughts on AI because the video has given it a lot of food for thought.

This toy fucking hates the current landscape of discussion surrounding AI. You're not allowed to hold a nuanced opinion. If you express any skepticism towards the capabilities of AI or criticism towards the ways in which the technology is being marketed to and utilized by consumers, the AI bros will ostracize you for not being a true believer. If you express any sentiment that AI may have legitimate use-cases, you get ostracized by the anti-AI crowd because everyone assumes you're a corporate bootlicker who fully supports every aspect of the industry. And so, no intelligent discussion can occur, and everything is bound to just continue to slowly get worse until we all die.

Here's a concept: You can simultaneously believe that the technology that allows people to communicate with each other over the internet and share files and stream videos and host livestreams and whatnot is useful and valuable while also believing that there are massive problems with platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Tiktok, Snapchat, Discord, Twitch, Reddit, Tumblr, and many more, and that a lot of the time, these platforms and the corporations that run them serve as a force of evil within our society. The fact that these platforms are designed to foster extremely unhealthy relationships between the users and the technology, radicalize people into dangerous ideologies (which has directly caused a very large number of real deaths), and contribute to the dystopian mass surveillance state we now live in, does not mean we need to throw out the baby with the bathwater and claim that there is no possible legitimate value to be found in the concept of online platforms that let you communicate and share files/videos/whatever with other people.

One would think this is obvious, yet to many people, this exact logic simply does not apply when the subject is AI.

Yes, AI products have an overwhelming tendency to be predatory and falsely marketed. Yes, AI is being used by businesses to cut costs (especially in customer service) by performing mass layoffs without an equivalent number of new jobs opening up, and this practice is also typically making the services these companies offer substantially worse as a direct result of this. Yes, AI is being used to cynically commodify art. Yes, the industry behind LLMs is pushing non-solutions to problems we've already solved while also creating a highly-predatory industry marketing AI companions to the lonely and desperate. Yes, AI is being used for social media scams and the propagation of misinformation. Yes, AI does use energy (though as Alex's video covers, we don't actually have any concrete idea how much energy it uses and most of the statistics that have been circulating are either pointless conjecture or sourced from the energy industry, which has a direct financial incentive to exaggerate projected energy demands). Yes, ChatGPT being made 4% less racist came at a massive cost of real people in underpriveleged countries performing menial labor sifting through industrial quantities of horrible and abusive content for slave wages. Yes, there are many more problems this toy could point out, but this paragraph is getting pretty long at this point.

But does all of this mean that the technology is inherently worthless and should not exist under any circumstances? No. In fact, aside from a few hyper-specific issues (such as google image search results getting clogged with AI slop), the vast majority of these issues aren't actually new, once again, as Alex's video points out. They're exacerbations of pre-existing problems within our society, much like the problems that have arisen with social media.

If this toy wants to be morally/principally consistent and commit itself to arguing rationally in good faith, then:

It cannot, as a copyright abolitionist and collage artist who is a fan of Youtube Poop, argue that the use of stable diffusion is akin to theft.

It cannot, as someone who understands how the technology works, argue that the use of stable diffusion is akin to plagiarism.

It cannot be a proponent of features in art programs like Photoshop's content-aware fill tool (which has existed since long before the AI craze, for the record) and say that it sees no potential for technology like stable diffusion to be useful as a tool within the creation of art.

It cannot be a fan of Marcel Duchamp and claim that stable diffusion inherently cannot be a valid artistic medium.

It cannot look at the myriad of ways in which neural networks are being used by scientists and mathematicians right now to solve problems that were previously impossible (or at least practically infeasible) without this technology and say that neural networks are pointless.

It cannot look at the genuine use-cases for LLMs (primarily extremely deep processing of mass quantities of highly-varied data) and say that LLMs are worthless.

So, it is forced to believe that yes, there is, in fact, value to be had in this technology. But make no mistake, it is not a corporate bootlicker, nor is it trying to enlightened-centrist "there's good points on both sides" the argument. As this toy hopes it has made abundantly clear by now, it is highly critical of the ways in which large corporations are pushing this technology on people and the ways in which the average end user is using it. It is possible to simultaneously believe that there is genuine artistic value to be had in stable diffusion and that people trying to cynically use it to replace artists and automate creativity, envisioning a future in which there are no artists at all, is profoundly shitty and tangibly hurting artists. It is possible to see value in the potential of LLMs as a scientific tool while also pointing out how stupid and predatory LLM chatbots are, and how they are currently aiding in the spread of mass misinformation, and how people using them to cheat on their college homework is bad.

And no, the fact that AI is used in so many harmful ways does not, in fact, make absolutely everyone who uses this technology to any extent for any reason bad. Going back to the social media comparison, this toy believes it is extremely irrational and hypocritical to believe that everyone who uses AI at all is ontologically evil if you do not also believe that everyone who uses Twitter at all is ontologically evil.

In conclusion, sometimes subjects are nuanced and require you to form complicated and inconvenient opinions, lest we all become a bunch of reactionary shitheads who argue in bad faith trying to hastily justify our initial knee-jerk reactions to things without ever forming a deeper understanding of what we are reacting to.

[thelivingfractal]

The Exploitation of Humanity and the Earth: Unveiling the Truth About Our System

In the world we live in today, it often feels like everything is designed to keep us running on a treadmill—always striving, never arriving. Beneath the surface of modern life lies a system engineered to exploit not only us as individuals but also the earth itself. This isn’t conspiracy or exaggeration; it’s a structural truth about the consumer-driven, profit-oriented model of society we inhabit. Here’s a closer look at how the current system exploits, deceives, and profits from our disconnection.

1. The System’s Foundation: Exploiting Disconnection

At the heart of the system is disconnection—from nature, from ourselves, and from each other. This disconnection isn’t accidental; it’s deeply embedded in the design of our society because it drives dependence on external solutions.

How We Are Disconnected:

From Nature: Urbanization and industrialization have distanced us from natural environments, making nature seem like a luxury rather than a birthright. As a result, we now buy bottled water, air purifiers, or supplements to "restore" what nature once freely provided.

From Ourselves: Advertisements constantly tell us we’re not enough—too flawed, too old, too imperfect. This creates insecurities that fuel industries like beauty, fitness, and pharmaceuticals, all offering external fixes for internal struggles.

From Each Other: Individualism and competition are promoted over community and collaboration, ensuring that our emotional needs are unmet and driving us to seek fulfillment in consumption rather than connection.

This disconnection is the perfect environment for exploitation, creating a perpetual cycle of dissatisfaction and dependence.

2. The Cycle of Exploitation

The system is structured to perpetuate itself by creating needs that don’t naturally exist, then selling us solutions that often exacerbate the very problems they claim to solve.

The Creation of False Needs:

Industries thrive on convincing us that we lack something essential:

Beauty and Wellness: Instead of embracing natural self-care, we’re sold endless products that promise unattainable standards of beauty, many of which damage our skin, hair, or health.

Technology and Entertainment: Gadgets and apps keep us hooked, distracting us from deeper fulfillment while mining our attention and data for profit.

Convenience Culture: Foods, tools, and services are marketed as time-savers, even as they erode traditional skills and self-reliance, keeping us dependent on external sources.

Exploiting the Earth:

This system doesn’t stop at exploiting people; it also systematically exploits the planet:

Resource Extraction: Natural resources are over-extracted and commodified, from water to fossil fuels, devastating ecosystems and communities.

Planned Obsolescence: Many products are designed to fail or become outdated quickly, ensuring constant consumption and waste.

Environmental Degradation: Consumer goods—from fast fashion to single-use plastics—contribute to pollution and climate change, creating crises that disproportionately affect marginalized communities.

3. Why the System Thrives on Our Unhappiness

The system profits from keeping us unhappy, insecure, and disconnected. A content, self-sufficient population wouldn’t need most of the products and services currently being sold.

Key Mechanisms of Control:

Consumerism as Identity: We’re taught to define ourselves by what we own or consume. Brands sell not just products but lifestyles, convincing us that happiness lies in the next purchase.

Addiction to Instant Gratification: Convenience and entertainment industries keep us hooked on quick dopamine hits, distracting us from long-term fulfillment and self-awareness.

Exploitation of Labor: The system’s structure depends on cheap labor, often from the Global South, to produce the goods consumed in wealthier nations. This perpetuates cycles of inequality and exploitation.

By keeping us focused on acquiring, achieving, or fixing ourselves, the system ensures we remain too preoccupied to question its underlying structure.

4. The Truth: Most of What We Consume Isn’t Necessary

You’re absolutely right—the majority of products and lifestyles promoted by the system are not essential. They’re manufactured desires, created to keep us consuming.

Essentials vs. Non-Essentials:

Essentials: Shelter, clean water, nutritious food, meaningful relationships, and a connection to nature.

Non-Essentials: Most fast fashion, processed foods, beauty products, and even certain aspects of modern technology and media.

Reclaiming our lives means questioning what is truly necessary and stepping away from consumption patterns designed to keep us dependent.

5. Reconnecting as Resistance

The most radical act we can take in this system is to reconnect—with ourselves, with others, and with the earth. By prioritizing what truly matters, we disrupt the cycle of exploitation and reclaim our power.

Practical Steps to Reconnect:

Nature: Spend time outdoors, grow your own food, or use natural remedies and self-care practices.

Self: Focus on mindfulness, self-compassion, and holistic health rather than external fixes.

Community: Build meaningful connections and collaborate with others to create systems of mutual support.

By stepping out of the system’s manufactured disconnection, we heal not only ourselves but also the world around us.

Final Thoughts

The system we live in thrives on disconnection, dissatisfaction, and overconsumption. It’s a machine designed to exploit both humanity and the earth for profit, all while perpetuating the illusion that we need more than we truly do. But the truth is simpler: we are enough, and nature has always provided what we need.

Recognizing this is the first step toward liberation. By reconnecting with what truly matters, we reclaim our autonomy, heal ourselves, and resist a system that profits from keeping us broken. True fulfillment isn’t found in what we buy—it’s found in who we are, the relationships we build, and the harmony we create with the world around us.

[settledthingsstrange]

I could provide more market research, but do you really need to see it? Almost every one of you feels this in your gut: You can’t trust the tech. Not anymore.

Let me make my own allegiances clear. I love technology, and still believe it can solve many of our most pressing problems. But we need and deserve healthy innovation that contributes to human flourishing.

That’s not happening now. And hostility will continue to build until our tech leaders decide (or are forced) to change their ways.

They’re doing so many things wrong, I can’t even begin to scratch the surface here. But I’ll list a few warning signs.

You must be suspicious of tech leaders when…

Their products and services keep getting worse over time.

Their obvious goal is to manipulate and monetize the users of their tech, instead of serving and empowering them.

The heaviest users of their tech suffer from depression, anxiety, suicidal impulses, and other negative effects as a result.

They stop talking about quality, and instead boast incessantly about scalability, disruption, and destruction.

They hide what their technology really does—resisting all requests for transparency and disclosure.

They lock you into platforms, forcing you to use new ‘features’ and related apps if you want to access the old ones.

They force upgrades you don’t like, and downloads you don’t want.

Their terms of use are filled with outrageous demands and sweeping disclaimers.

They destroy entire industries not because they offer superior products, but only because as web gatekeepers they have a chokehold on information and customer flow—which they use ruthlessly to kill businesses and siphon off revenues.

Every one of those things is happening right here, right now.

We’re doing the technocracy a favor by calling it to their attention. If they get the message, they can avoid the coming train wreck. They can return to real innovation, with a focus on helping the users they now so ruthlessly exploit.

—Ted Gioia

[generativeaitraining]

Generative AI Course in Hyderabad | Gen AI Online Training

What Makes Generative AI Essential for Modern Workflows?

Gen AI Online Training is quickly becoming a key resource for professionals seeking to stay ahead in the ever-evolving digital landscape. In today’s fast-paced, data-driven world, workflows are becoming increasingly complex, and the need for innovation and efficiency is more critical than ever. One of the most transformative technologies enabling this shift is Generative AI. With its remarkable ability to generate new, valuable content based on existing data, Generative AI is revolutionizing industries worldwide. A Generative AI Course in Hyderabad provides an excellent opportunity for individuals to master this cutting-edge technology and apply it to their business processes, ensuring they remain competitive in the rapidly advancing AI-driven world.

Generative AI refers to algorithms that can create new content, including text, images, music, and even code, by learning from patterns in large datasets. It works by using deep learning models, particularly generative adversarial networks (GANs) or transformer models, to understand the structure of existing data and generate new, creative outputs. This capability is essential for modern workflows because it allows businesses to automate tasks that traditionally required human creativity or labour-intensive manual work. By completing tasks like content generation, problem-solving, and data analysis with incredible speed and accuracy, Generative AI is reshaping industries from marketing to software development.

Streamlining Content Creation and Marketing Efforts

In the world of marketing, content creation is essential but time-consuming. Businesses need fresh, high-quality content to engage customers and enhance brand visibility. Generative AI is revolutionizing content creation by automating processes that once required hours of effort from creative teams. With the knowledge gained in a Generative AI Course in Hyderabad, professionals can train models to generate blog posts, social media captions, product descriptions, and even video scripts in a fraction of the time.

AI-generated content can be tailored to specific audiences and optimized for SEO, making it an invaluable tool for marketing teams. The efficiency gains from this technology mean companies can produce a higher volume of content, reach a broader audience, and ultimately drive more conversions. This is where Gen AI Online Training becomes highly beneficial, as it equips marketers with the skills needed to incorporate AI into their workflows effectively.

Enhancing Customer Service and Support

Customer service is another area where Generative AI is making waves. Traditional customer support systems often involve long wait times and repetitive queries, but with AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants, businesses can offer instant, 24/7 customer service. These AI tools are capable of understanding and generating human-like responses, significantly improving customer experience.

By taking a Generative AI Course in Hyderabad, customer service managers can learn how to integrate AI-driven chatbots into their support workflows. These bots can handle common queries, process orders, and even troubleshoot issues without human intervention. Moreover, they can continue to learn and adapt over time, improving their responses and reducing the need for human oversight.

Automating Data Analysis and Insights

Data is a powerful asset, but it can be overwhelming to process and analyze manually. This is where Generative AI shines. By using AI to analyze vast amounts of data, businesses can extract actionable insights quickly. Generative AI models can be trained to identify patterns, trends, and correlations within data, helping organizations make more informed decisions faster.

For professionals looking to enhance their skills in this area, Gen AI Online Training offers a comprehensive learning experience, covering topics like data pre-processing, model training, and result interpretation. With these tools at their disposal, organizations can streamline decision-making processes, improving productivity and competitiveness.

Supporting Design and Creativity

In creative fields such as design and product development, Generative AI is a game-changer. Designers can use AI to generate prototypes, assist with design variations, or create entirely new visual concepts. Rather than starting from scratch, AI tools can suggest new ideas based on existing designs, enabling faster iterations and more innovative outcomes.

A Generative AI Course in Hyderabad can help design professionals learn how to use AI tools to enhance their creative processes. By harnessing the power of AI in design workflows, they can reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks and focus more on creative problem-solving. Whether it’s creating digital art, designing user interfaces, or developing new products, Generative AI can drive efficiency and foster innovation.

Revolutionizing Software Development

Generative AI is also making significant strides in software development. AI tools can now automatically generate code, test applications, and identify bugs, reducing the need for manual coding and quality assurance. This is especially valuable for development teams working on tight deadlines or managing large-scale projects.

By participating in Gen AI Online Training, developers can learn how to use AI to automate certain aspects of the development lifecycle, improving both speed and accuracy. From generating boilerplate code to conducting automated testing, Generative AI allows software engineers to focus on higher-level design and problem-solving, leading to more efficient workflows and faster time-to-market.

Optimizing Supply Chain and Logistics

Supply chain management is a complex process that involves coordinating numerous variables, from inventory levels to customer demand. Generative AI is playing a pivotal role in optimizing supply chains by predicting demand, optimizing routes, and improving warehouse management. AI models can analyze historical data to forecast demand trends and suggest inventory adjustments, helping businesses avoid overstocking or running out of critical supplies.

Supply chain managers who take a Generative AI Course in Hyderabad can gain the skills needed to apply AI in logistics optimization. By using Generative AI to predict and manage supply chain disruptions, companies can save time and money while ensuring smoother, more efficient operations.

Improving Employee Productivity

AI-driven automation can significantly improve employee productivity by taking over repetitive, mundane tasks. For example, AI-powered systems can automate data entry, report generation, and other time-consuming administrative tasks. This increased efficiency translates into better employee satisfaction, as staff can devote more time to creative and decision-making roles.

By undergoing Gen AI Online Training, professionals can learn how to integrate AI tools into their own workflows, freeing them from monotonous tasks and boosting overall productivity.

Conclusion

The rise of Generative AI is changing the way businesses approach workflows, from content creation and customer service to data analysis and design. By automating time-consuming tasks and providing innovative solutions, Generative AI enhances productivity, fosters creativity, and drives efficiency across industries. For professionals looking to stay competitive, investing in a Generative AI Course in Hyderabad or enrolling in Gen AI Online Training is essential. These courses offer the knowledge and tools required to effectively integrate Generative AI into workflows, helping businesses thrive in an increasingly digital world. As AI continues to evolve, its role in shaping the future of work will only grow more significant, making it an indispensable tool for modern businesses.

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[everygame]

The Mysterious Murasame Castle

Developed/Published by: Nintendo R&D4, Human Entertainment / Nintendo Released: 14/04/1986 Completed: 31/01/2024 Completion: Finished it (with quicksaves at the start of levels and before bosses.)

1986 is a huge year for Nintendo. They released the NES in North America at the tail end of 1985 and will launch it in Europe by the end of 1986. After nearly 3 years of spotty releases and arcade ports an avalanche of games are going to start showing up. But most fascinatingly, as they begin to conquer the world, they take a massive right turn in Japan by releasing the Famicom Disk System in February.

I assume that even if you’re not a scholar of video game history, if you’re reading this you already know all about the system, but in précis, Nintendo made a business decision. The Famicom was successful; producing cartridges was expensive. Retailers and consumers wanted cheaper games. Nintendo hadn’t created a licensing scheme for the Famicom (as they would for NES) so they weren’t seeing any sweet, sweet fees either. Seemingly, a floppy disk add-on solved all those problems, while also allowing games to be larger, have more sound channels, and include saving.

You can debate the success of this business decision. They sold 4.4 million of them by 1990, and the hardware pushed their game design forward leaps and bounds. But it seemed to come at the exact wrong time. Within four months of launch cartridge games were being released with larger capacities than the disks offered. Saving becomes available on carts; newer and better mapper chips meant games on the disk system were stuck in the past. It was simply a technological dead end. The first original game to released for it would be The Legend of Zelda, and by the time of its release in North America not quite a year and a half later it would be on cartridge without any major concessions.

Interestingly, though, the second original game to be released would be Nazo No Murasame Jou, aka “The Mysterious Murasame Castle” which would not be released outside of Japan at all. Why this is I have no idea and can find nothing concrete, because when considered contemporaneously, this is a perfectly successful run-and-gun adventure that feels like an early example of what the system would become known for via companies like Capcom: arcade ports that have been expanded into something more suitable for the home console (think Bionic Commando and that.) Here it’s like someone, noticing that Nintendo had The Legend of Zelda engine lying around, decided that they should make a version of Sega Ninja with it–and in fact, I’m not sure that’s not what they did, considering the SG-1000 version of Sega Ninja has flick-screen scrolling too.

Cast as the samurai Takamaru, you have to make your way through five castles by first fighting your way through their castle grounds (taking one or two maps) and then the castle interior (one more map.) You do this by melee combat (which tends to kill everything in one hit) or throwing projectiles (which tends not to.) Movement feels very much like The Legend of Zelda, including very boxy collision detection. The maps, too are like The Legend of Zelda dungeons, but not exactly: you travel about them in a non-linear fashion and have to pick up certain power-ups to advance (sandals, for example, that allow you to travel over water) but you’re not really ever forced to fight any enemies, and most power-ups follow the Xevious system of just being invisible and you have to shoot where they are to get them (thankfully, they’re predictable once you’ve found them).

While I can’t guarantee this was inspired by Sega Ninja, it’s very much like it in one respect. The Mysterious Murasame Castle is relentless. Multi-colored ninjas are throwing themselves on the screen constantly, and if you stop moving or stop attacking you’re dead–it really is that simple. Most of the game is played trying to get off screen as quickly as possible and working out the optimum route through the castle–it’s almost a racing game in that respect. 

It is very hard. Not impossible, but made, er, impossible-adjacent by how strict it is. You can only take three hits, health restoring items are rare (and invisible) and and every time you die you lose everything (but you do start on the screen you just died on–and you can backtrack to try and get some power back, so that’s nice.) While it feels stupidly difficult for 2024, I can imagine how for the right kind of player in 1986 this was the straight razor compared to The Legend of Zelda’s, uh… quill pen. Play a hard action game surviving and mapping out the levels, learning new things, new efficiencies every time rather than doodling about. It feels perfect, actually, for the American audience of the era, which makes its absence all the more puzzling–I suspect that the setting was considered “too Japanese” and reskinning it felt like too much work, the kind of thing that kept Ninja JaJaMaru-kun stuck in Japan too. 

Now, there are some absolutely brutal skill checks in this that I can only see as requiring you reset the system every time you die (most notably the last few bosses) that just make it feel old-school cruel, but I had a fairly decent time trying see how far I could get “for real” once I’d learned the maps (not very far, it turns out.) And I still enjoyed the challenge of this even letting myself do some judicious quick-saving. This isn’t the great leap forward for design that The Legend of Zelda was, but it sort of offers an interesting counterpoint–would games look completely different if Nintendo decided this was the one to get released in the west instead of Zelda?

Probably not actually.

Will I ever play it again? It’s fun, but it’s too hard. Probably not on this one too.

Final Thought: Nintendo really haven’t returned to this one very much. It’s not a complete black sheep, getting a GBA re-issue and (bizarrely) a 3DS release in Europe and Australia, but one of the strangest has to be that in Samurai Warriors 3 for Wii (Nintendo published in the west but otherwise a Koei game through and through) Nintendo EAD made an entire “Murasame castle mode” which is a remake in the Musou style. That’s an even odder decision than not releasing this in the west in the first place.

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[tommyandlala]

Editor’s Note: This is being posted a day late, we are now in Nepal, not Japan.

We’ve been in Japan for ten days now, but that time feels like it’s been either a blink or lifetime. We’ve seen and done so much already- experienced more Japanese culture in a few days than most will in a lifetime - while knowing full well that we’ve barely scratched the surface. And hell, we are certainly not in Kansas anymore. To say things are different here is like saying that fire is different than water; that the drab plastic facade of a cookie-cutter apartment building is different than hand-cut stone of a fountain adorning the entrance to a thousand year old wood temple. Can you guess which country is which in this analogy?

It’s a feeling that I vaguely understood about Japan before we left and was hit over the head with upon arrival. How not only is the architecture of Japan’s physical world different, but how much the shared history, traditions, and values of the people influence everyday life in a way I’m not used to at all. And maybe it’s because we’re coming from the US, where you can feel yourself living through a fading empire’s swan song. Where products and apps and technology and transportation and public space (and often people, government, and culture writ large) not only never work the way they’re supposed to, but, by and large, exist solely to take your money.

But I digress, we are not talking about the stars and stripes, we’re talking about the land of the rising sun. And it has been beyond refreshing to experience a culture that invests in making things work for its people. Utility and practicality are baked into every aspect of life. This applies to the most visible parts of Japanese life, from a train system that is extensive and frequent to some of the cleanest streets that I have ever seen. Tokyo’s population is almost twice that of New York City’s, yet I saw all of three pieces of trash and two people sleeping on the street while we were there. Obviously, figuring out how to ensure such a massive, densely-populated area stays looking good is not simply a logistical problem to solve but a matter of customs and shared values. A culture of respect, honor, and emphasis on consensus goes a long way to ensuring that society functions as smoothly as possible. There aren’t public trash cans anywhere, but there’s also no trash on the street. That’s because everyone, collectively, cares enough to pack garbage out with them and not leave it on the street.

And that’s just one small aspect of the culture that feels different in a thoughtful, positive way that works for everyone. How about the fact that my Japan Rail tap card also works as a debit card when buying food at 7-Eleven? And why is 7-Eleven selling such delicious pre-made meals? By delicious I’m not talking about a hotdog that’s been furiously spinning on greased rollers under an aggressive heat lamp for the last twelve hours. These are noodle bowls with veggies and chicken, fish wrapped in rice and seaweed, squid and brocolli salad, or a simple egg salad sandwich on the fluffiest bread you’ve ever had in your life. All for a few bucks a piece. And they exist not only because of the demand (people want a convenient, cheap, and consistent snack) but because even at the corporate level there’s a principle in creating something of value for the consumer without price-gouging or eschewing quality. It feels like what I imagine growing up in the American post-war years must have felt like: high quality goods and services; products made with care and designed to last; things that serve a legitimate purpose - and all for a price that’s affordable to most working people.

Ok I could go on like this forever, commenting on all the fun, confusing, big, and small differences between cultures, but I’m getting carried away and I don’t think the point of this blog was to be a deep dive on how Japanese culture creates a more benevolent form of capitalism. So I’ll end by saying that obviously none of this is an original thought. No doubt a million other Westerners have remarked about these very same cultural differences upon their first trip to Japan. What I’ve realized is that there’s a gulf between reading someone else talk about it and actually experiencing it yourself. And crossing that gulf.. well folks, we call that traveling.

[frechbachs-2nd-child]

What makes art high quality on youtube?

Post Watcher Incident, I finally collected my thoughts regarding a pattern occurring in internet content creation spaces.

Most popular creators manage a Patreon or similar payment platform where bonus content, behind the scenes, etc. content is provided to paying members in the community. The benefits of such platforms are on the nose; it provides more income for creators to produce high quality content. Watcher, like many who started their career on youtube, sought to expand their art to a higher standard.

As a non-content creator, I believe that rebranding is incredibly difficult on an individual level (youtube). Art accessible through archives creates large quantities with a range of quality (archiveofourown, youtube, tiktok, etc). Professionals are looking to solve the dichotomy of the democratization of media and how to create a system that prioritizes the quality content of artists. Check out "Death of the Follower", a speech done by Jack Conte. Each person deserves an opportunity not only to consume good content, but artists deserve a chance to have their creations properly advertised.

Creators are feeling the impact of the algorithm, often times in a very negative way. Cool creations get drowned out, and popular creators have to fight tooth and nail for followers to even get notified when videos drop. Income and sustainability are put on the line. That's why I reemphasize, its no wonder that creators are looking for other means of income to continue to produce their work.

Now, I do have a problem with creators like Watcher who have no need to worry about content suppression. They have a large enough fanbase, praise from the algorithm, and sponsors to ensure longevity on the platforms. It comes off as a money grab to place a paywall on their content with the intent of 'tv quality production'.

Part of the beauty of archival style platforms is the 'homemade' or 'crafty' aesthetics of art. There are many instances where the initial videos come with a beautiful human aspect to the videos. People who post to youtube initially are not looking to build fame or fortune as a number one priority when it's good content. Amateur storywriters, video essay creators, gamers, whatever is being made comes from a humanness to make something. A lot of people criticized Watcher on their reasoning because the 'tv quality' idea was not apart of the identity of the show. Part of the beauty of youtube is that we recognize this genuineness of people wanting to make something because they recognize that there is something worth making.

Obviously, I am all for compensating artists, especially when new members, technology, and ideas are coming forth. I do not think archival platforms are the place to make television. New equipment, settings, any resources to help develop an idea into reality is worth it, but do not take the human out of it. Companies like Marvel, Netflix, and Amazon that over green screen or digitalize the art make it gross.

Creators interested in trying something bigger and newer deserve spaces to do that, but don't remove your content that no longer meets your quality standard. Move yourself to a new space where that kind of art is wanted. Watcher could find a netflix deal and say goodbye to youtube if that's what they felt their creative journey needed, but they should not force tv style art into places like youtube.

[zelda-larsson]

How to Spot Business Opportunities Before They Go Mainstream

Every successful business begins with two fundamental insights: a genuine market need and the ability to fulfill it better than existing solutions. But identifying these opportunities requires more than surface-level observation — it demands a systematic approach to interpreting market signals and customer frustrations.

Michael Shvartsman, an investor who has helped launch multiple successful ventures, offers this perspective: “Great entrepreneurs don’t create markets — they discover them. The difference between a fleeting idea and a viable business often lies in how deeply you understand the intersection of emerging trends and unmet needs.”

Reading Between the Headlines.

Market trends often reveal themselves in subtle ways before becoming obvious. The astute entrepreneur looks beyond industry reports to spot:

Behavioral contradictions (when what people say differs from what they do).

Improvised solutions (how customers “hack” existing products to fill gaps).

Emerging language (new terms consumers use to describe frustrations).

Michael Shvartsman notes: “I once invested in a company because I noticed restaurant workers duct-taping smartphones to equipment. That observation revealed a need for rugged mobile mounts long before surveys would have caught it.”

The Customer Frustration Index.

Pain points that elicit strong emotional responses often indicate ripe opportunities. The most promising business ideas solve problems that:

Make people visibly angry or exasperated.

Cost significant time/money in workarounds.

Are overlooked by established players.

“The best opportunities hide in plain sight,” says Michael Shvartsman. “When multiple people have the same complaint but assume ‘that’s just how it is,’ you’ve found potential.”

Trend vs. Fad: Spotting the Difference.

Sustainable businesses align with durable shifts in behavior rather than temporary enthusiasms. Key indicators of lasting trends include:

Multiple industries adapting to the same shift.

Infrastructure developing to support the change.

Demographic consistency across age groups.

Michael Shvartsman’s rule: “If you can’t explain why this trend will still matter in five years, it’s probably a fad. Real opportunities have roots in human behavior, not just novelty.”

The Unserved Middle.

Many markets polarize between high-cost premium options and budget compromises, leaving quality-conscious but price-sensitive buyers underserved. This gap represents fertile ground for innovation.

“The ‘good enough’ premium segment — better than basic but not luxury — often gets overlooked,” Michael Shvartsman observes. “I’ve seen companies thrive by occupying that middle ground with thoughtful tradeoffs.”

Validating Before Building.

Smart entrepreneurs test assumptions before full-scale development through:

Concierge MVPs (manual service prototypes).

Landing page experiments.

Pre-order campaigns.

The Synthesis Advantage.

Breakthrough opportunities often emerge at the intersection of multiple trends. Successful entrepreneurs combine:

Technological shifts (new capabilities).

Behavioral changes (how people live/work).

Economic forces (spending patterns).

Michael Shvartsman concludes: “The businesses that will define tomorrow aren’t just riding one wave — they’re spotting where multiple currents converge to create something entirely new. That’s where category leaders are born.”

[financeeverywherewithcashadvance]

Navigating Fintech Customer Support: What to Do When You Need Help

Struggling with fintech customer service? Learn effective steps to resolve issues with digital banking apps and find reliable support when you need it most.

In today's fast-paced world, financial technology, or fintech, has revolutionized how we manage our money. Digital banking and cash advance apps offer unparalleled convenience, allowing us to handle transactions, pay bills, and access funds with just a few taps on our smartphones. However, this digital convenience can sometimes come with a significant drawback: navigating customer support. When something goes wrong, finding a real person to help can feel like a maze, a stark contrast to walking into a traditional bank branch.

Understanding the Challenges of Fintech Customer Support

Many digital-first financial companies prioritize automation to streamline operations and reduce costs. This often means your first point of contact is a chatbot or an extensive FAQ page. While these can be effective for simple queries, they fall short when dealing with complex or urgent issues. Users can get stuck in automated loops, unable to reach a human representative who can understand the nuances of their situation. This is a common frustration and a key factor to consider when choosing a financial app. An actionable tip is to always have your account details and a clear, concise summary of your problem ready before you initiate contact. This will save you time and help the support agent, if you reach one, to assist you more efficiently.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Help

When you encounter a problem, it's best to approach it systematically. Don't panic; instead, follow a clear path to resolution. This organized approach increases your chances of getting the help you need without unnecessary stress.

Start with Self-Service Options

Before trying to contact support directly, explore the app's built-in Help Center or FAQ section. These resources are often surprisingly comprehensive and can provide instant answers to common questions about transactions, fees, or account features. Take a moment to search using keywords related to your problem. You might find that your issue is a known one with a straightforward solution you can implement yourself, saving you the time and hassle of waiting for a response.

Leverage Digital Communication Channels

If the Help Center doesn't solve your problem, the next step is usually in-app chat or email support. These methods are useful because they create a written record of your conversation, which can be valuable if you need to escalate the issue. When you're in a moment of panic over a transaction, you might find yourself frantically searching online for terms like chime customer servise hoping to find a direct phone number. While phone support is sometimes available, starting with documented channels like chat or email provides a paper trail you can reference later. As a practical step, always take screenshots of your issue and the conversation for your records.

When and How to Escalate Your Issue

If you've tried the standard channels and are not getting a satisfactory resolution, it's time to escalate. Politely but firmly ask the support agent to transfer you to a supervisor or manager. If that's not possible, ask for the company's formal complaint procedure. It is your right as a consumer to have your issue addressed properly. For serious disputes with financial service companies, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a U.S. government agency that ensures financial companies treat you fairly. Keeping a detailed log of every interaction—including dates, times, and the names of the people you spoke with—is a crucial action item that will support your case.

Choosing Financial Apps with Reliable Support

The best way to avoid customer service headaches is to choose your financial apps wisely from the start. Before committing to a service, do some research on their support options. Do they offer multiple ways to get in touch? Is their contact information easy to find? Reading user reviews can also provide insight into how responsive and helpful their support team is. A company that is transparent about its support channels is more likely to be there for you when you need them. You can also check resources like the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to see how a company handles complaints. For more general financial guidance, government resources like Investor.gov offer a wealth of information.

Consider a Fee-Free Alternative for Financial Flexibility

Many customer service issues arise from confusing fee structures, unexpected interest charges, or late penalties. These problems can create significant financial stress. If you are tired of dealing with these frustrations, it might be time to explore alternatives designed with the user in mind. Gerald is a cash advance and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) app built on a foundation of transparency and zero fees. With Gerald, you don't have to worry about interest, service fees, or late fees, which eliminates many of the common reasons people need to contact support in the first place. By offering a straightforward, fee-free service, Gerald provides a more predictable and user-friendly financial tool to help you manage your expenses without the extra stress. For more information on filing a formal complaint against a financial institution, you can visit the CFPB complaint portal.

[sovorun]

IT Consulting That Solves Real Business Problems

Technology was supposed to make our lives easier. Instead, it sometimes feels like that roommate who leaves dishes in the sink, forgets to pay the Wi-Fi bill, and randomly crashes at 2 AM just when you need it most.

From lagging systems to patchy cybersecurity, many businesses today face tech-related roadblocks that stall growth and frustrate teams. And while there’s no shortage of software, tools, or “one-size-fits-all” solutions, what businesses really need is clarity, strategy, and smart implementation.

Looking for expert IT guidance without full-time salaries? Our consulting team is ready to act as your on-demand tech partner no extra overhead.

This is where IT consulting services become more than helpful they become crucial.

The Real Meaning of IT Consulting

Let’s clear something up: IT consulting is not just fixing printers or yelling "have you tried turning it off and on again?"

A professional IT consulting company partners with businesses to solve core operational issues, using technology as the lever. Whether you're a startup trying to scale fast or an enterprise dealing with outdated systems, IT consultants help you align your tech with your business goals.

They don’t just bring in tech they bring in transformation.

Business Problems, Meet Your Match

Every business has its "oh no" moments:

Teams wasting hours on manual reporting

Customer complaints piling up due to system lags

Projects getting delayed because the tools don’t talk to each other

IT consultants step in like digital detectives. They assess what's working, what’s breaking, and what needs a graceful retirement (looking at you, 2007 CRM). The goal? To solve actual business problems—not just slap fancy tools on top of broken processes.

Common problems IT consulting services tackle:

Poor workflow automation

Inefficient data handling

Lack of integration across platforms

Weak cybersecurity posture

Sluggish software performance

By auditing your systems and processes, a seasoned IT consulting company doesn’t just suggest solutions they design sustainable improvements.

It’s Strategy, Not Software

You don’t go to a financial advisor for a piggy bank. Similarly, you don’t go to an IT consultant for random software recommendations.

What sets high-quality IT consulting services apart is their ability to strategize. Consultants analyze your current systems, identify performance gaps, and map out digital upgrades that align with your unique business model.

Whether you're in retail, finance, logistics, healthcare, or hospitality—your tech needs to serve your goals. A good consultant makes sure it does.

For example: A retail business might need ERP integration to manage inventory and sales data. A law firm might require a secure document management system with encrypted client access. A growing startup may need help with cloud migration and DevOps best practices.

Each case is different, which is why custom strategy is king.

A Team Without the Overhead

Hiring a full in-house tech team is expensive, time-consuming, and often overkill for businesses that don’t need constant development.

This is where an IT consulting company becomes a cost-effective game-changer. You get access to a team of experts—developers, analysts, architects, and project managers—only when you need them.

This not only reduces payroll costs, but also speeds up implementation. No long recruitment cycles. No lengthy onboarding. Just actionable solutions, fast.

Transforming Chaos Into Clarity

You’ve got systems. You’ve got software. You’ve got... confusion. If you’ve ever said, “I know we have that feature somewhere,” you probably need help organizing your tech stack.

IT consultants bring structure. They standardize your tools, centralize your data, and integrate platforms for smoother performance. That way, your team can focus on what they do best instead of playing tech support all day.

What transformation looks like:

Replacing 5 tools with 1 integrated platform

Automating repeatable tasks

Creating real-time dashboards for smarter decision-making

Setting up secure remote access for hybrid teams

Reducing downtime with better infrastructure

The result? Your business runs like a well-oiled (digital) machine.

Section 5: Future-Proofing Your Business

Tech is changing fast. What works today might be outdated tomorrow (just ask anyone still clinging to Internet Explorer). A top-tier IT consulting company doesn’t just solve today’s issues—they prepare you for what’s next.

From cloud migration and AI adoption to cybersecurity upgrades and scalability planning, IT consultants ensure your business stays competitive and resilient.

A good IT consulting service includes:

Regular audits

Risk assessments

Compliance assistance

Disaster recovery plans

Growth mapping and forecasting

This is the kind of support that turns a reactive business into a proactive one.

Want your business to stay ahead of tech trends, not behind them? Let’s future-proof your operations with smart IT strategies.

Real Impact, Real Results

You’re not investing in IT for fun you want results. Faster performance. Better customer service. Smarter data usage. Increased revenue. And guess what? The right IT consulting services deliver just that.

Our clients have:

Cut software costs by 40%

Reduced manual tasks by 70%

Achieved faster project turnaround

Improved employee satisfaction (yes, tech burnout is real)

Gained a competitive edge in their industries

The ROI is real, and the transformation is often dramatic.

Conclusion

In a world flooded with tech buzzwords, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. But good IT consulting isn’t about jargon it’s about results. It’s about working with someone who listens to your problems, understands your business, and builds solutions that actually fit.