#Apple Desktop Review | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

photomatt · 2 years

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Why “Go Nuts, Show Nuts” Doesn’t Work in 2022

For those who don’t know or remember, Tumblr used to have a policy around porn that was literally “Go nuts, show nuts. Whatever.” That was memorable and hilarious, and for many people, Tumblr both hosted and helped with the discovery of a unique type of adult content.

In 2018, when Tumblr was owned by Verizon, they swung in the other direction and instituted an adult content ban that took out not only porn but also a ton of art and artists – including a ban on what must have been fun for a lawyer to write, female presenting nipples. This policy is currently still in place, though the Tumblr and Automattic teams are working to make it more open and common-sense, and the community labels launch is a first step toward that.

That said, no modern internet service in 2022 can have the rules that Tumblr did in 2007. I am personally extremely libertarian in terms of what consenting adults should be able to share, and I agree with “go nuts, show nuts” in principle, but the casually porn-friendly era of the early internet is currently impossible. Here’s why:

Credit card companies are anti-porn. You’ve probably heard how Pornhub can’t accept credit cards anymore. Or seen the new rules from Mastercard. Whatever crypto-utopia might come in the coming decades, today if you are blocked from banks, credit card processing, and financial services, you’re blocked from the modern economy. The vast majority of Automattic’s revenue comes from people buying our services and auto-renewing on credit cards, including the ads-free browsing upgrade that Tumblr recently launched. If we lost the ability to process credit cards, it wouldn’t just threaten Tumblr, but also the 2,000+ people in 97 countries that work at Automattic across all our products.

App stores, particularly Apple’s, are anti-porn. Tumblr started in 2007, the same year the iPhone was released. Originally, the iPhone didn’t have an App Store, and the speed of connectivity and quality of the screen meant that people didn’t use their smartphone very much and mostly interacted with Tumblr on the web, using desktop and laptop computers (really). Today 40% of our signups and 85% of our page views come from people on mobile apps, not on the web. Apple has its own rules for what’s allowed in their App Store, and the interpretation of those rules can vary depending on who is reviewing your app on any given day. Previous decisions on what’s allowed can be reversed any time you submit an app update, which we do several times a month. If Apple permanently banned Tumblr from the App Store, we’d probably have to shut the service down. If you want apps to allow more adult content, please lobby Apple. No one in the App Store has any effective power, even multi-hundred-billion companies like Facebook/Meta can be devastated when Apple changes its policies. Aside: Why do Twitter and Reddit get away with tons of super hardcore content? Ask Apple, because I don’t know. My guess is that Twitter and Reddit are too big for Apple to block so they decided to make an example out of Tumblr, which has “only” 102 million monthly visitors. Maybe Twitter gets blocked by Apple sometimes too but can’t talk about it because they’re a public company and it would scare investors.

There are lots of new rules around verifying consent and age in adult content. The rise of smartphones also means that everyone has a camera that can capture pictures and video at any time. Non-consensual sharing has grown exponentially and has been a huge problem on dedicated porn sites like Pornhub – and governments have rightly been expanding laws and regulations to make sure everyone being shown in online adult content is of legal age and has consented to the material being shared. Tumblr has no way to go back and identify the featured persons or the legality of every piece of adult content that was shared on the platform and taken down in 2018, nor does it have the resources or expertise to do that for new uploads.

Porn requires different service providers up and down the stack. In addition to a company primarily serving adult content not having access to normal financial services and being blocked by app stores, they also need specialized service providers – for example, for their bandwidth and network connections. Most traditional investors won’t fund primarily adult businesses, and may not even be allowed to by their LP agreements. (When Starbucks started selling alcohol at select stores, some investors were forced to sell their stock.)

If you wanted to start an adult social network in 2022, you’d need to be web-only on iOS and side load on Android, take payment in crypto, have a way to convert crypto to fiat for business operations without being blocked, do a ton of work in age and identity verification and compliance so you don’t go to jail, protect all of that identity information so you don’t dox your users, and make a ton of money. I estimate you’d need at least $7 million a year for every 1 million daily active users to support server storage and bandwidth (the GIFs and videos shared on Tumblr use a ton of both) in addition to hosting, moderation, compliance, and developer costs.

I do hope that a dedicated service or company is started that will replace what people used to get from porn on Tumblr. It may already exist and I don’t know about it. They’ll have an uphill battle under current regimes, and if you think that’s a bad thing please try to change the regimes. Don’t attack companies following legal and business realities as they exist.

#tumblr #community labels #automattic #apple

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mmorgvet · 2 years

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Apple computers desktop review

#APPLE COMPUTERS DESKTOP REVIEW PC#

That means you can store basically anything and access it very quickly.Įrika Rawes who reviewed the Aurora R11 said, "While some gaming PC towers boast bold designs with transparent glass, RGB fans, and enough colors to make you feel like you’re at a rave, the Aurora R11 takes a much different design approach. Add an NVidia GeForce RTX 3080 Super GPU, 64GB of DDR4 RAM, and two SSDs for a combined total of 3TB. Specifically, you have an 11th generation Core-i7 processor, with eight cores running at 2.5GHz (max at 4.9 GHz) and sixteen threads. We haven't had the chance to go hands-on with the Alienware R12, but we did look at the R11 and we're confident enough in the Alienware brand to draw conclusions about the R12. Shortly after Intel announced its 11th generation processors, Dell upgraded its Alienware to take advantage of them. So check out our list below!ĭell's Alienware desktop comes from a long legacy of top-quality gaming hardware. Our experts have rounded up our best picks that we feel will give you the power you need while still giving you value for your hard-earned dollars. But just because you buy a pre-built computer doesn't mean it can't be upgraded later. We're focusing primarily on pre-built machines that come ready to go out of the box. Some desktops can be pieced together from separate parts. When shopping for a desktop PC, it's important to keep things like upgrades, processing power, RAM, and storage in mind. When shopping for a desktop PC, it's important to note what comes with it and what you'll have to buy separately. Desktops are harder to transport and often are sold just as a tower without a monitor, mouse, or keyboard. That's because they're generally easier to design and build. In short, a good desktop PC is a sort of jack of all trades that fills a number of needs.ĭesktop PCs typically come at a lower price point than other computers of similar power. Further, desktops PCs can be designed for work in a cubicle, gaming, streaming entertainment, school, and more. Since then, computers have adopted all sorts of form factors, like laptops, all-in-one PCs, mini-PCs, and more. The original home computer took the form of the desktop computer and tower. The best desktop PCs are powerful and often upgradable.

#Apple computers desktop review

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retronator · 1 year

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It's been a while since a new pixel art editor joined the top ranks. Aseprite is the current go-to recommendation for desktops, while Pixaki (now in its 4th iteration) has always been my favorite on the iPad.

It's time to add another worthy alternative for the owners of Apple Pencils, Pixquare, which is probably the closest you will get to Aseprite on iPadOS. Son Nguyen, the app's developer, says he was inspired a lot by Aseprite, both for the UI and functionality. This is perhaps the most evident in the layer/animation system with the cel grid and of course support for importing and exporting .aseprite files.

I reviewed the app on my latest Twitch stream and it's not (yet) as polished as Pixaki (just one example: pixel grid rendering is not pixel-perfect), but it had all the tools that I needed and more. Among unique capabilities are pressure sensitivity (great for more expressive pixel painting) and importing of Lospec color palettes (on the other hand, you can't yet import palette files).

The biggest switching reason for me is the ability to export a timelapse (which I would say is an expected feature of iPad drawing apps at this point—thanks, Procreate!). For those of us who double as artists and content creators, being able to post a timelapse is very useful. This has been on the feature request list of Pixaki at least since 2021, so it's been refreshing to see Son just go ahead and do it based on the beta test feedback. Going forward, now that v1 is fully released in the App Store ($10, or free Lite version that is limited to 2 files) he wants to continue developing the app based on user feedback, so also join his Discord if you decide to give it a chance.

One more timely thing, you have until the end of July to create an artwork in Pixquare (paid or Lite) to get a chance at winning $200 or $100 (plus app codes to share with your friends). Full details on participating in the contest are on Twitter.

#Feature #Software #Son Nguyen #Pixel Art #cover2

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homestuckreplay · 3 months

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some times video games, DOES CAUSE violence: Who Is Dave Strider?

Character Deep Dive 3 - 7/7/2009

TG: im wearing them ironically TG: because theyre awesome TG: the fact that theyre ironic makes them awesome TG: and vice versa TG: are you taking notes on how to be cool?? jesus get a fucking pen (p.110)

With an ‘OH PSYCHE’ and a dramatic sword slash into the digital world, Dave Strider made his dramatic entrance into Homestuck on June 29, 2009. We’ve previously seen a few of his instant messenger chats with John, which establish him as a disaffected and irony-poisoned guy who values the idea of being ‘cool’ and dismisses his friend’s earnest interests. Actually seeing Dave as a point of view character gives a very different impression - he's emotionally dependent on the people around him, doesn't have a strong sense of self, and is scared to express an earnest thought. And he's not even the tiniest bit cool.

Below the cut is an analysis of what we learn about Dave in the first 350 pages of Homestuck, through the framework of his stated interests on p.315. It's about 4.4k words because much like Dave, I can’t shut up.

1 - You have a penchant for spinning out UNBELIEVABLY ILL JAMS with your TURNTABLES AND MIXING GEAR.

Dave’s computer (p.323) has two desktop files for his jams - ‘ILL BEATS’ and ‘DOPE RHYMES. SO DOPE’ which I can only assume are two separate musical genres that Dave understands the nuance of, even while his listeners do not. However, despite Homestuck regularly featuring music as part of the story, we don’t hear any of Dave’s sick mixtapes. Instead, we make them for him (p.338) - meaning Dave’s first stated interest is one that the audience has control over. This is like if on page 4, each reader got to enter a list of movies for John to love, and those movies were substituted into the later comic, giving every reader a unique experience of John’s taste.

John is established as someone who has a very specific taste, staying firm while other characters and the narration criticize him. Dave is established as easily influenced by other people’s creative impulses and opinions on art. Whether the reader seriously creates something they enjoy, or layers all 16 or 20 beats at once in an unlistenable mess, the next page still reads ‘Those beats were so fresh they belong in the produce aisle’ (p.339). Dave thinking whatever the reader does is cool is similar to him thinking whatever his bro does is cool, which he mentions throughout his pesterlogs and narration in reference to diverse topics like the sylladex, video games, and puppets.

He’s also easily influenced by John, perhaps even gullible, as John’s talk of a monster pissing in apple juice at the factory is enough to get inside Dave’s head and stop him from drinking the bottle he was excited about, and Dave switches instantly from parroting the GameBro review of Sburb to believing that Sburb can save Rose’s life, based only on what John says. A big question I’m interested in with Dave is what he actually likes, and where to draw the line between his own interests and opinions, and those of other people that he copies without exploring for himself.

Dave being a technology guy is the first thing we learn about him because of his username, turntechGodhead. We see Dave protective of his turntables, not wanting to spill anything on them (p.315) and we see him refer to his technology by the model name, suggesting that the specifics of the tech are important to him (p.337). Three of Dave’s six stated interests relate to music - unbelievably ill jams, bands no-one’s heard of, and phat rhymes. As music was notably absent from John and Rose’s interests, despite them being skilled instrumentalists, this over-focus on music is really notable. Dave’s musical interests explore the full spectrum of creating vs appreciating music, with Dave creating remixes as the exact middle point, a form of creation that is based on incorporating other artists’ work that Dave enjoys. This is kind of perfect for him as someone whose personality might just be a remix of his brother’s.

We get no sense of Dave being religious, so the ‘godhead’ in his name apparently refers to how Dave presents himself and his creations. He talks as though his opinions are objectively correct, even in narration, and describes himself as being ‘worshipped’, with people prostrating themselves before him and kissing his shoes. However, music itself can be a religious experience. In Christianity, for example, songs of praise are a form of worship and a way to bring believers closer to God, and all major world religions have their own musical traditions. In secular culture, for many people, music intensifies emotions, creates community, and can create feelings of reverence and catharsis similar to those experienced in religious worship (see this article and this deviation for examples). I can easily imagine Dave feeling the same way, and music being his truest expression of emotion and therefore the thing that hits him most deeply and defines his life.

2 - You like to rave about BANDS NO ONE'S EVER HEARD OF BUT YOU.

We are taking this one on faith, because so far, we haven't seen Dave raving about any bands. He does own an extensive and colorful record collection which he keeps beneath his turntables, but he hasn't looked at any, or given the reader a chance to rifle through them the way we did with John's game collection. This interest parallels Rose's 'RATHER OBSCURE LITERATURE', and similarly, I don't think Dave's bands are genuinely underground - they're probably well regarded indie bands who aren't in the pop charts. If I’m headcanoning Dave’s favorite bands it’s Dirty Projectors, Porcupine Tree, The Streets, Animal Collective, Modest Mouse and LCD Soundsystem. The only real world media we know for sure Dave likes is Starsky & Hutch (2004), and Ben Stiller as an actor. Some of Ben Stiller’s work is definitely ironic comedy, but it’s still fairly mainstream.

It's also possible that Dave already got his only three friends to listen to his obscure bands, and now they have heard of them, meaning Dave can no longer act smug and superior about being the only one that knows them. This is a tragic and self defeating prophecy, and there's no direct textual evidence for it, but I came up with the idea while thinking about the Midnight Crew comic. Dave has a poster and bedspread of this comic but '[hasn't] looked at it in a while' (p.327), so he's less of a fan than he used to be. John also reads Midnight Crew and its predecessor (p.112), so I wonder if Dave got John into mspaintadventures and it then lost its magic of being something cool to Dave. There is a real loneliness in not being able to share your interests with somebody for fear that it will ruin them somehow, or that other people won't understand them the same way - Dave also mentions that it's hard to explain the 'subtleties' of his ironic appreciation (p.318). John likes everything so earnestly in a way that seems uncomfortable for Dave.

3 - You collect WEIRD DEAD THINGS PRESERVED IN VARIOUS WAYS.

Much like the record collection, we can see evidence of Dave's weird dead things in his room, but it's not an interest he's explored in the comic. Page 337 gives us a good view of his specimens, which appear to include an embryo in a jar of liquid, an assortment of scorpions, centipedes and beetles encased in solid material, a fish encased in a different solid, and various rocks, fossils and bones just chilling on the shelf. We don't learn whether Dave collects and preserves the specimens himself or buys them like this, but I found guides online for preserving specimens as a hobby using commercially available supplies, and those sunglasses are kind of like safety goggles (or at least better than nothing). Either way, this interest sticks out - all the others are very typical for a selfconsciously cool indie guy, but even if it's ironic, this is some confirmed nerd shit.

I do think Weird Science will become important to Homestuck. John's interested in ectoBiology and paranormal lore, Rose lives next door to a mysterious laboratory and has the ethos of a mad scientist, and now Dave displays biological specimens on a shelf. I'm always thinking about how the comic is setting itself up to explore some fascinating dichotomies (spectrums?) like physical vs digital and technology vs religion, and I'm now adding art vs science to that list.

I also think we can interpret this interest non-literally, and think about what other things Dave might like to preserve. Vinyl was thought of as a dead medium for decades, until a recent indie resurgence that Dave is helping with. Photography, Dave's next interest, is a way of preserving a moment in time that can't be relived. And one popular argument for why the Internet is good is that while physical items like a paper book will degrade over time, digital data like a website can be preserved forever. Maybe part of the reason Dave feels a lot of responsibility towards his websites is because he knows that people could still be reading them decades or even centuries from now, when he himself is a weird dead thing. In a story where Sburb represents the near-limitless potential for creation and destruction, it is very interesting that Dave, the biggest Sburb hater, is associated with preservation.

4 - You are an AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER and operate your own MAKESHIFT DARKROOM.

Again, Dave hasn't discussed his photography, but his pictures are strung up around his room. This is fascinating because it implies that the makeshift darkroom is also Dave's actual room, not the bathroom or a spare room or closet. This might suggest that like John, Dave doesn't have much control over the rest of the house. His brother has puppets strung up in the hallway and bathroom, but Dave either isn't allowed to hang his photos there, or he's not comfortable hanging them where the rest of his family might see. It also suggests that Dave simply draws the blinds, switches off the lights and screens, and exists in his room in darkness, navigating by touch and memory alone. This might tie into how half his hobbies are related to sound, not sight - and Dave wearing sunglasses indoors could be a way of practicing finding his way around with reduced sight, or an effect of regularly doing so, if Dave spends enough time in darkness that he now struggles with bright lights.

Three of Dave's four visible photos are selfies of him in different poses, despite a host of interesting things to photograph in his room. I'm thinking of a line from House of Leaves where a character, famous for her smile, is described as practicing it every night in front of the mirror when she was fourteen. Dave is the same to me. He's regularly associated with muting and masking his emotions - for example, saying 'Nah.' to retrieving his arms from cinderblocks (p.313), where John and Rose had far stronger emotional reactions to similar commands (p.5, p.218). Dave photographing himself in the perfect expression or pose surgically designed to look effortless, then studying those photographs and iterating from there, is so easy to imagine.

Conversely, for someone who is so dedicated to concealing emotion to the point of wearing sunglasses and hiding his eyes even while alone, making art (like photography and music) is probably the only way Dave knows how to process his feelings. Sadly we are in a post-cassette tape world, but Dave is such a 'make a mixtape for his crush' type of guy that I can imagine him finding a bunch of limewire rips, compressing them into a zip file and emailing them to John, who replies like 'I don't know how to open this'.

5 - You maintain a number of IRONICALLY HUMOROUS BLOGS, WEBSITES, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING PROFILES.

We are treated to two of Dave's ironically humorous websites - sweet bro’s hella blog, a blogspot page, and SWEET BRO AND HELLA JEFF, a dot com that really exists (and redirects to the SBAHJ comic on mspaintadventures). This explains everything. A blogspot is one thing but owning a dot com makes you a Guy Who Owns Web Domains, which feels extremely cool despite being ultimately meaningless. These sites also establish how much Dave has to say - we see this in pesterlogs too, where Dave will message John every few minutes asking for updates on the Sburb beta (p. 26, 35, 110) or send twenty messages in a row even after John has said he’s leaving the chat (p.204).

On sweet bro’s hella blog (p.325), Dave’s just yelling into the void with no real goal in mind, just an idea he thought would be funny. I do think his March review is pretty funny, but I also think Dave likes GameBro for real. He respects their opinions - ‘did you see how it got slammed in game bro????’ (p.26) - and changes the subject when John criticizes it. He’s also adopted the lexicon, as the GameBro review of Sburb (p.42) is written similarly to how Dave types. But mostly I’m interested in Dave’s blog’s followers. He has at least twelve, and maybe more. The Ghostbusters icon is almost certainly John, but none of the icons jump out as Rose or GG. They could be real people - or they could be more of Dave’s accounts, with him creating an extensive social network of characters who interact with each other’s posts ‘ironically’. If Dave is someone who craves social interaction, this could be a way he copes with loneliness.

In SWEET BRO AND HELLA JEFF (p.326), Dave is creating something. He’s a webcomic artist! He might even have been inspired by the Midnight Crew. He’s only made four comics so far, which I’ll call ‘stairs’, ‘HE HE HE’, ‘jelly’, and ‘BARACK’. These all feature two characters, who are presumably Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, but it’s not defined which is which, so I’ll call them Red and Blue. Red’s mom makes an appearance in HE HE HE, and there’s a squirrel in BARACK, but these are side characters. The dynamic seems to be Red getting into situations, and Blue expositing/commentating on them. They are both gamers, might also be stoners, and Blue is possibly transmasc. BARACK suggests that the two characters might represent the American political parties, which makes sense, because the recent 2008 election is probably the first political moment Dave’s been old enough to have real knowledge and opinions on.

SBAHJ is clearly intended to be near impossible to parse, filled with nonsensical dialog and plot points and horrific jpeg compression, so it’s extremely hard to analyze right now. I think this might be on purpose, and that part of Dave’s layers of irony are him not wanting people to learn too much about him through his art. The line between irony and sincerity is something really fascinating to me, because these concepts are so embedded into internet culture. Dave tells himself he’s making something that’s bad on purpose, and that he’s doing it ironically. But he actually believes that what he’s making is good. He thinks it’s good because of the irony, but he’s still making art that he’s proud of, he’s still showing vulnerability by posting it on the internet and getting people’s honest reactions, no matter how many layers he tries to cloak that in.

Dave does think of his blog as a responsibility - ‘ive got a lot of shit on my plate, i am sort of a big deal ok?’ (p.333) - and I think that’s a really common feeling. Having any kind of following, even if it’s just John, his bro, and a couple of strangers on the internet, can easily turn into feeling like there’s an obligation to create content for them. If Dave’s cool bro has promoted Dave’s work, that becomes even more pressure, since those are people Dave probably wants to impress. So when he says he doesn’t have time to read Midnight Crew (p.332) or play Sburb with Rose (p.333), I don’t think he’s lying, or making himself out to be busier than he is.

Much like Dave’s sick beats (p.338), SBAHJ is the first time a Homestuck character has created something that also exists in our world. I think it’s very interesting that John, Rose and Dave all have meta roles to play in the story, but they are all different flavors of meta. John’s meta role is explicitly that of a character, but one that the reader, player, and narrator are all able to control at times through the various layers of the narrative (p.90, p.253, etc). Rose’s meta role is that of a player, able to control John’s environment in godlike ways and be immune to the commands of the Vagabond, another player (p.139, p.277, etc). Now, Dave’s meta role is that of the narrator, as he infodumps and exposits even when nobody is around, posts commentary, and creates an entirely separate narrative on his own website.

6 - And if the inspiration strikes, you won't hesitate to drop some PHAT RHYMES on a mofo and REPRESENT.

The phatness of rhymes can’t be quantified scientifically, but I did my best. I tried reading both of Dave’s raps aloud, doing my best to put them to a beat. The first four lines (p.287) went well, and it all fell apart from there.

This didn’t feel like a fair test as I’d never usually read rap lyrics before listening to the song - so I read the lyrics to Lil Wayne’s 2008 song A Milli, and Kendrick Lamar’s 2009 remix of the same song, which I hadn’t listened to before. These were both much easier to read in rhythm, and when I listened to the songs afterwards, they were decently close to what I’d imagined. To further control the variables, I read Andrew Hussie’s 2005 comic And It Don’t Stop, which centers around rap battles. Here, too, the rhymes and rhythms are crisp - so this is a Dave issue, and not an author issue.

Dave is trying to use the word ‘McConaughey’ in a rap. He is probably inspired by far more experienced rappers who might be able to pull that off, but Dave definitely can’t. I think he’s skipping steps and trying to make something complex before he has the basics nailed down. His raps also highlight how self centered he is, much like his infinite recursion of ironic websites. John reveals that his life was in danger, and Dave’s instant reaction is: ‘how can I make this about my art?’

However, I’m concerned about the cultural implications of Dave’s raps. We don’t know Dave’s race and he definitely could be black, but there’s no specific indication of that. He’s represented in #ffffff, which is closer to a white skin tone than any other - many black and white comics use shading to denote a dark skinned character. Due to the nature of white privilege, white is culturally seen as the ‘default’ or ‘unraced’ option. In books, race or skin tone will be described for characters of color but not mentioned for white characters, and both Lego and The Simpsons use yellow skin for the majority of their characters as an ostensibly universal option, but still depict characters of color with brown skin tones, implying that the default yellow actually means white.

Written by a white author, it’s likely that Homestuck has the same problem - and two factors make this even more concerning. The first is And It Don’t Stop, which was co-created by Black artist Tauhid Bondia, but was entirely written by white artist Andrew Hussie. The comic includes multiple instances of the n-word as well as a couple other race related jokes. The second is Dave’s raps themselves, one of which is an irreverent analysis of black presidents in movies at the start of the Obama era. Real life black people have incredibly varied opinions on race and politics, but Dave is a fictional character, and even if he is intended to be textually black, it’s uncomfortable for a white author to write him rapping about living in a post-racism world.

I think it’s likely that the author - and by extension, Dave himself - are justifying their racism by claiming that it’s ironic and doesn’t represent their actual beliefs, failing to see that the effects of their words are exactly the same. I can give Dave the benefit of the doubt because he is 13 years old and doesn’t exist, but I think the very real 29 year old creator of this work should do better.

7 - The Absence of Gaming

John and Rose shared one common interest, which was video games. We know that Dave reads GameBro, owns the Sburb beta, and has played Problem Sleuth and And It Don’t Stop with John (or at least enjoys the art of these games). And yet, he doesn’t cite gaming as an interest, which I've been puzzling and theorizing over in my mind.

Dave likes gaming unironically and loves playing games with John. He reads GameBro to find out what the Correct Contrarian Takes are that’ll be socially acceptable in Cool Guy Circles. He does this to keep up with his bro, who he has a ‘campaign of one-upmanship’ with (p.314) not dissimilar from the Prankster’s Gambit between John and his dad, and who plays a very important role in his life. The magazine is called GameBro, Dave’s comic features Sweet Bro, and Dave effusively compliments his brother in both pesterlogs and narration, such as ‘my bro taught me a few tricks he basically knows everything and is awesome’ (p.35).

Dave tells John to brush up on his data structures and allocate his strife specibus, but never actually demonstrates his own knowledge of data structures, and doesn’t know the specific procedure for allocating the specibus (p.35). Dave’s not an expert himself, he’s just parroting the sylladex tricks his bro taught to him. Dave never states a reason for his disinterest in Sburb beyond ‘it sounds so HELLS of boring’ (p.110), and we know that Dave’s bro also doesn’t plan on playing Sburb (p.314). Dave also implies that he’s a little bit scared of his brother with the mildly threatening ‘hes not gonna be happy about [my taking his Sburb discs]’ (p.294).

It’s highly possible that Dave’s love of irony also comes directly from imitating his bro, who is probably a 16 year old high schooler involved in a weird theater kid subculture, based on typical sibling age gaps and the puppets strung around the house. To Dave at 13, of course an older, alternative teen is going to be the absolute height of cool, even while it all looks silly to an outsider. I think that John’s stack modus is actually a very standard option for a sylladex, and that Dave and his bro are the weird ones insisting that hash map is usable - I can imagine them being like ‘why is everyone always using “plates” and “bowls”? I eat all of my meals out of aluminum foil folded into the right shapes.’

Dave’s post-ironic hipsterism isn’t exclusive to men, of course, but it is a very specific type of masculinity - ironic sexism is a known phenomenon. Dave, who confines his emotions to an expressionless nod, solves the minor problem of someone getting his name wrong by making a violent sword attack, and makes gay jokes but gets defensive the second someone suggests that he might be gay, is definitely falling into some toxic masculinity.

Gender roles (both male and female) are unachievable ideals for even the most cisgender and perisex of people, but I think there’s a reading of Dave as a transgender man who came out when he was young and passes well, but always has to put in more work than the other men around him, because he has to work against biology and other people’s perception of his gender. Whether Dave is trans or cis, I think his ninja sword could be a metaphor for masculinity - it’s allocated to his strife specibus, but his actual strife portfolio is empty, and the sword is displayed on the wall. To me this says that Dave is a man, but he’s more concerned with the outward performance of masculinity than actually buying into those gender roles.

Final Thoughts

Just like Rose, Dave has meticulously crafted the personality he wants to have, but there are plenty of cracks in his facade. All three of our main characters so far are easy to understand and easy to relate to - right from their early appearances, we can see the clear disconnects between characters’ words, thoughts and actions, and effortlessly synthesize them into a coherent character. The author is simply gifted at characterization. The patterns of character introductions are very cool too, making readers both want and expect to see certain things, such as the characters allocating their strife specibus or playing a haunting tune (personally I’m most excited to explore Rose and Dave’s houses further like we have John’s). Establishing these patterns means I have a better sense of where the story is, and don’t have as many questions, though of course some mysteries remain, such as:

Just what is Dave’s cool brother’s deal, really?

Will Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff (the characters) eventually cross the boundary into the Homestuck universe? Will we ever find out which one is which?

Are the characters’ interests intended to be things they’re bad at (when they’re skills)? Could this be why music isn’t featured in John and Rose’s lists of interests, but is in Dave’s? Could this mean that Dave kicks ass at video games?

To what extent are the images in Homestuck literal and to what extent are they representational? Or, in other words, do Dave’s sunglasses really gleam when we get his name right?

Dave’s message to John about apple juice (p.324) is almost identically worded to the preceding narration (p.320). Is the narration a perfect representation of character thoughts for everyone all the time, or is this only true for Dave because he’s positioned closer to the narrator?

#homestuck #analysis #dave strider #unfortunately i relate to him. i would prefer not to. but i do #also i started making a dave quiz but its on hold until we get more dave content. feels like theres not quite enough for questions yet #chrono

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andmaybegayer · 3 months

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it's so annoying that it took this long for Qualcomm to put together a half-decent ARM desktop chip because they have so clearly had the tech to do it for years. My Quest 2 headset is a four-year-old piece of silicon and it pushes 90Hz VR graphics on an 8W system power budget. The battery in this thing is absolutely minute, 14Wh, and it lasts two hours of intensive usage, which is preposterous. If you could have had this tech in a laptop it would have wiped the floor with every other thin and light on the planet in 2020. Intel was doing 10th gen back then.

A gaming laptop from 2016 would last similarly long on a 40Wh battery and it would have groaned and complained running VR, actually I don't even have to speculate, do you know what existed in 2016, it was the MSI VR Backpack which was exactly this and it sucked ass, I used it at a trade show once. 90-120 minute battery and it was huge and heavy, needed a 1060 which could just barely push desktop VR, and the battery in it was a 91Wh monster I think.

The Quest is taking shortcuts, it's probably not quite as fast as the MSI VR One, but it's close and you wear it on your head.

Qualcomm are finally making a good ARM chip with desktop and upstream Linux support and it only took Apple beating everyone to the punch with a spectacularly efficient hunk of silicon. I have an old chromebook that's running postmarket Linux because I have wanted an ARM laptop basically for as long as I have known what ARM was and unfortunately it kind of sucks ass because the mainline support is still shit.

#computer stuff #arm #vr #qualcomm

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tenaciouschronicler · 3 months

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July 3 2024 2009

Lets take a look at Julys updates now that I have some free time.

Behold! Apple juice!

So with this we have a better grasp of the time jump, its before Dave and John first talked on Pesterchum. @homestuckreplay made a great observation that I just wanna reiterate... Its absolutely adorable how much Dave LOVES talking to his friends, especially John. First thing he thinks of when finding apple juice? How much of a kick John is gonna get out of the unexpected movie reference.

Behind his cool guy persona hes just as much of a dweeb as John and I think he(John), at least as far as weve seen, is probably his closest friend. Maybe they were childhood friends until one of them moved and as they grew up Dave found it harder to fit in or find someone he could let in and trust.

You also might as well ask him about that beta. The kid's been harping about it for weeks. It would be cool if it came on his birthday. He'd be one happy camper.

Before we get into the chat, we see a little of Daves mindset. Even though Dave has made it pretty clear hes not really interested in the Beta, his friend is and hes gonna, 'In your own cool, sort of roundabout way', ask about it because he likes his friends happy.

Lets take a look at his desktop. (I appologize for the quality, dont know what happened)

Fisrt of, sick as hell wallpaper. Not sure what its from but its got a battle bracket on the bottom right so maybe an in-verse video game? Im not sure what app that blue one is, or maybe a file?, but Dave aint happy with it seeing as its named 'COMPLETE BULLSHIT'. The two red folders however hold Daves 'ILL BEATS' and 'DOPE RHYMES SO DOPE'. And keeping in-line with the sheer amount of tech, Daves sporting a shiny Pesterchum 7.0.

The enflammed silhouette is Daves browser aptly named Hephaestus. Hephaestus is the Greek God of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes. He was casted out of Olympus either by his mother Hera or by Zeus depending on the myth. In the first he is lame at birth, in the second he becomes lame after the fall. He now resides again on Mount Olympus crafting the Gods equipment and any fine metalwork pieces are said to be his work.

The first website Dave visits is his own satire review blog where he posts about Gamebro. And then theres his webcomic SWEET BRO AND HELLA JEFF and. it. sure is. Something.

Theres no words honestly.

Daves cool guy facade is fading fast. But then again hes a kid so....

Theres 3 pages with the same style and Ive gotta question if this is really as popular as Dave makes it out to be ┐(￣ヘ￣）┌

#homestuck #homestuck replay #hsrp liveblog #ooc: i know the whole collection is open but ive decided to only react to sbahj as they updated originally

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ilyastudies · 7 months

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I saw that you use a tablet, a desktop, and paper notes. How do you conciliate those notes?

Is there a mechanism of making primary notes on one resource and then passing those notes to other while reviewing them?

hi! thanks so much for asking! here are my favorite methods for sharing notes between devices :). i personally have apple devices so i can fairly easily airdrop and sync things between devices, but i also frequently work at the library desktop computers where i can't do that! so here's my tips and tricks for sharing notes between devices

for context: i've been mostly doing digital notetaking recently, but i also like to scan my paper notes as well!

i'm going to be dividing this post into 2 methods! (there will be some overlap). syncing already written notes and syncing notes (in progress) between devices

for already written notes:

the first step i would take is export your notes as a pdf or any other file type. if they're handwritten try going into your notes app (for ios) or downloading a pdf scanner app for your phone! if your notes are digital check the sharing options in your app to see if there's anything about "exporting".

personally, i like to use either discord or notion. i have created a discord server with only myself that i use just for sharing links/files/anything between devices! i like discord because there's apps for pc, mac, tablets, and phones; and even a web app! discord is really nice and fast, and you can make different channels (as pictured below) for organization. as long as your file size isn't too big, you should be fine.

my second app i like to use is notion! notion is such a beast in itself, but i like to use it to upload files and images and links! below are two ways i have used it: to upload pdfs/files, and to upload goodnotes (my notetaking app) links to the pages i'm writing on! similar to discord, notion has apps for all devices, but it also works great just by itself on the website (no app required)! it's really great to access it from all my devices.

another way you could share your notes on different devices is through the cloud! (yes, discord and notion are both through the cloud). google drive, microsoft onedrive, icloud storage, etc. are great tools that you can use to upload files and see on multiple devices. i personally like discord and notion more, just because they're already apps i frequently use, but if you can't get either one cloud-based storage platforms are also a great idea! they definitely have more security than discord or notion, because your files may be at risk of being deleted!

for the purposes of sharing notes to reference on another device when writing an essay, or something of similar vain, i really love discord and/or notion and they both work great!

for syncing notes in real time:

pretty similar to the last one, i would say notion or google docs (or microsoft word on the web i believe has similar functionality, or onenote, anything similar!)

if you want to be writing notes on one device and have them sync up quickly on another - i think any word processing software is the best bet for you.

both notion and google docs you can access them on any device, and/or on their websites too!

google docs is a lot more straightforward, but since notion is so powerful it provides a lot of flexibility for your notes! here's an (old) example of notes i've taken on notion. (i personally really like how easy it is to make columns!)

i hope this helped a little bit! please let me know if you have any more questions :)

also! notetaking is very much an individual thing, if something works for me and doesn't work for you - that's okay! we're all learning and just have to figure out what's best for ourselves.

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puckpocketed · 3 months

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hi!! I was wondering where or how you do you research for players and teams, and just hockey in general? do you have any favorite blogs or other resources? thank you~

okay picking thru web rot for the sharks primer has prepared me for this one lmao here's the quick answer because i really need to eat some pie and go to bed. Hockey is my all-consuming interest at the moment and I haven't watched actual television or films; or read anything non-academic that isn't about hockey in.... 9 months? If it seems like I am taking in a LOT of information in a short amount of time it's because I am. I listen to hockey things at 2-5x speed depending on if its a video on youtube (locked to 2x), a podcast (3.5x is my ideal speed), or my screenreader (5x) and often take notes, save articles as pdfs to go back to, and transcribe things for fun (only recently am putting my transcriptions as addendums to gifs... very rewarding <3). When not studying for my actual degree, I am reading about hockey or listening to something hockey related or watching hockey or writing about hockey or learning how to play hockey. i am so serious. please don't assume that this is normal, optimal, or even something I would wish upon other people. I am in Love with her in thee most wretched and irrevocable way. She's my hobby in the sense that shes my sun and im building my wax wings and looking directly at her light and thanking her for blinding me. amen.

more seriously, if I'm going down a player rabbit hole I will try many of these things - though not necessarily all of them, and not in this order (and i'm sure i've forgotten one or two things I usually try... lordy):

I go to spotify/apple podcasts and throw in player names just to see what comes up and listen to basically everything.

if they are on an NHL team, there are likely MULTIPLE podcasts dedicated to that team. trawl through their podcast archives, especially post-game podcasts where discussion is happening about their performance. sometimes there are even interviews <3

i do the same with youtube if I can...!

throw their name into reddit, tumblr, twitter and scroll. endlessly. just trawl through everything that I can possibly get my hands on. The more obscure the player the easier this is, because there really aren't that many things to find out about them and not many people are talking about them at all. <- this is how I make contact with people who are the only person that knows about this one (1) guy and then we hold fins forever. <3

find out who the teams beat reporters are. if youre looking into prospects, even juniors teams have people covering them. the writing might not be the highest quality but you WILL eventually find fun details if you go digging.

check: elite prospects articles, the hockey writers articles, find out the player's home town and see if their local paper has anything on them (basically, check any and all databases that use a tagging system or have a functional search engine)

helpful things to tack onto the end of google/youtube/database searches: "media availability" "post-game" "interview" "feature" "profile" "scouting report" "draft" "debut" "review" "highlight" "tournament"

if they're a player from a non-english speaking country it's worth throwing their non-romanized name into google to see what you can get. google translate the website // chatgpt translation are two options - not ideal and not to be trusted 100% over actual translation done by a fluent human speaker.

Instagram stories are the bane of my existence because they're so ephemeral

tiktok is a parallel universe to me. I do not have the app. any browsing I do on it is solely via googling "[team name] tiktok official" and clicking around on my desktop PC. I've only ever done this for M.Chrona's gf (who is much more famous than him) but if you're really doing down the rabbit hole of player research, some of their WAGs will post about them. <- as always, be respectful/not weird.

facebook for older stuff... genuinely makes my skin crawl so I avoid it and its a last resort LMAO but yeah teams used to post on facebook and everything!!! <- again. dont be weird and stalk peoples families or friends asjklakjl

"[player/team name] gettyimages [day/month/year]" <- substitute getty images for: flickr, hockeyshots, dreamstime, alamy

Substack is good for general hockey stuff if you can stomach the dreaded idea of subscribing via email or getting the app <3 I like: Jack Han (hockey tactics newsletter), Sean Shapiro (shap shots), Adam Gretz (adam's sports stuff), Thibaud Chatel <- for the analytics nerds, Alex MacLean <- his Scouting The Scouts series is what got me into substack in the first place, Greg Revak (hockey IQ newsletter) <- this is the one that's got me on development stuff atm SUPER rec because there's gifs and charts and many many hyperlinks included for citations <3

i should do a book rec at some point but uhhhh its getting late and im hungry <3 thank you for asking + reading if you got this far, I hope it was a helpful peek into my process?

#if anyone was curious as to how i go about researching . ough <3 #asks #anon #source gathering

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murumokirby360 · 4 months

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My Family's 2010s Digital Camera (Canon EOS 1000D/Rebel XS) [feat. my Paper Dolls]

DeviantART version → [CLICK ME!]

Hello, May! 🌏☀️ Unfortunately, I cannot continue my upcoming and latest "PC Upgrade Project". The good news was, that I've already worked on it, but I need to adjust the size for the comparison, as well as splitting it into two videos instead of one to reduce memory size, and even timing the subtitles (which is important for the latter). So, my plan was to be submitted by July of 2024. On the bright side, I have another item review that has yet to be revealed, this June. 🙂 Nonetheless, onto my month's share. 😊

BREAKING NEWS: Just recently, yesterday [on May 30th, 2024] my current Power Supply Unit blew up, making my custom PC desktop useless without any power source! 💥😨 As of today, We send it to the "Computer Repair Shop" for a replacement. 🖥️🔧😓 Ouch! Luckily, it was fixed the next day, as in TODAY! And I cost a lot from my earning funds. Double ouch! 💵🤕 So, that topic deserves another month, I suppose...

Now, onto my topic...

• So, another camera from my parent's shelves, and it's the latest abandoned camera, as of 2024. The "Canon EOS 1000D" 😊📸, also known as the "EOS Rebel XS" is a DSLR camera that debuted in June 2008. This old professional camera possessed a 10.1-megapixel camera, a detachable lens like other DSLR cams do, and a whole bunch of features that only professional DSLR cam photographers could understand. Also, unlike the Sony Cybershot's exclusive "Sony" Memory Stick for photo storage, Canon uses the universal SD Card to store photos, on any memory brand used such as Sandisk, Transcend, Lexar, etc... For megapixels comparison, the 90s Olympus Camedia C-2000 Z has "2.1", the previous topic of Sony DSC-T70 has "8.1", and what about the "Focus-35"? Well, let's say it's not as level as the 90s Olympus camera that we've owned. 🤔🤷‍♀️

• So, do you have a story about this camera? Well, there's one I remembered, and it's based on the true story. ☝😊📖 I was 18 years old (late adolescence, may I add) while I was in High School in the year 2011 (3rd year High School). I went to a local 7-Eleven store when I saw a raffle promo poster. For the prize? A bunch of awesome stuff, including the Canon camera itself (the EOS Rebel XS). And since I'm 18, I'm qualified the participate by buying consumed-related stuff from the aforementioned convenience store daily. After the promo ended and my 3rd year of High School ended, a rider came to our house to receive a letter from 7-Eleven, only to find out that my father was the winner of the promo instead of me, and I was shocked. 😲 Damn... That winning camera should've been ME, and I used this cool camera to pursue my future career as a professional photographer; which sadly, did not happen. 😥 Regardless, in the end, I'm happy that my father won the prize, so I have to congratulate him. 👏😊 And the rest was history, we have SO MANY photo moments that we've shared on our main social media(s), unlike our previous digicams. We've been using it for a few years, until 2018(?) (as far as I know). When the camera itself started to get old, bugs were unbeknownst inside the lens (seriously, where did that come from? 🐜), and the built-in flash was unable to work properly. Making use of itself. Also, the repair cost for our camera was expensive, so we can't afford it. 💵😬 Yup, another camera bites the dust (I guess). 😥 And so, we've decided to switch to smartphone cameras over our bulky DSLR camera. 📱➡📷 After all, the cams from smartphones we're superior to those before depending on what brand we've used. Plus, it is ultra-portable, too.

• For ME, however, I would love to use the traditional digicams (big or small) over smartphones because it had a superior quality image over modern phones. 📷➡📱 Yeah, Apple and Samsung had overtaken, but true camera brands like Canon, Nikon, and Fujifilm (the trio of Japanese camera brands 🇯🇵📷. Don't forget Sony, by the way.) are already stronger than before; innovate after innovate for the professional photographers and content vloggers. The big boy cameras never gets old, and they're still producing them, to this very day. 📸🎥😁 However, with the rise of "Action Cameras" (not to mention Flying Camera Drones") will soon be surpassed, in the digital image industry. So, I'm not sure who'll die first. We may never know...🤔

• On the plus side, my paper dolls appreciate my story. So, here's my final moment before I put this cool memorable DSLR Camera on the wardrobe. 😊📷📸

Well, that's all for now! And do you have any good "item" memories from the 2000s to 2010s, like mine? Type it down in the reply section! 😊

If you haven't seen my related camera throwbacks, and my previous topic, then I'll provide some links down below. ↓ 😉

• My Family's 2000s Digital Camera (Sony Cybershot DSC-T70) [Apr 30th, 2024]

• Another 90s Camera: Olympus Camedia C-2000 Z [Jan 29th, 2024]

• My Family’s Old Film Camera (from the 90s) [Aug 29th, 2023]

• My BRAND NEW SMARTPHONE BY Tecno Mobile [Mar 30th, 2024]

Tagged: @lordromulus90, @bryan360, @shadowredfeline, @leapant, @alexander1301, @coda-archive, @rafacaz4lisam2k4

#My Photos #My Photo #MyPhotos #MyPhoto #Photos #Photo #Chowder #Panini #Chowder Panini #Paper Dolls #Canon #Canon EOS 1000D #Canon Rebel XS #DSLR Camera #Camera #Digital Camera #Photography

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sirfrogsworth · 2 years

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I said I would be posting more now that I have a laptop upstairs, and I will. I haven't posted much yet because I was still getting used to the keyboard and trying to get to a more comfortable typing speed that didn't frustrate me.

I actually bought a MacBook Air. I borrowed some money from my dad that I will be paying back over time. It's my first Apple product if you don't count the iPhone I got for my parents. It's a wonderful computer. The M1 chip is super zippy. Battery life is amazing. My former 12 year old laptop lasted about 2 hours per charge. This thing lasts me basically all day. The construction is very impressive. The aluminum body feels very sturdy. The screen is beautiful and gets way brighter than I need. And while they don't have any bass, I can't believe how good these tiny laptop speakers sound. My old laptop sounded like a super quiet AM radio. This thing hasn't gotten even mildly warm yet (though I am not rendering video or anything). It is very light. I feel comfortable taking it with me around the house if I need to. The old laptop was about 12 pounds and I think this is 2.75 or so.

Apple just makes good laptops. They always have, though they weren't always a great value. But I think the M1/M2 models are actually competitively priced as long as you don't get too many upgrades. The upgrade prices are still bonkers.

The OS has taken some getting used to. But for basic functions it's fine. I haven't had any trouble navigating. And the search function is much better than Windows. As is the aesthetics.

I don't really get into those technology pissing contests. I considered a Windows laptop, but there were just so many PC laptop choices and I was overwhelmed with the research required to find a good one. Not only can quality vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but it can also vary from model to model. There are shitty Dells and fantastic Dells. I just didn't have the energy to figure out which was which. But I knew the new M1 Macs were all well reviewed and would serve my needs. So, that's what I got.

One bonus is that all of my friends are on iPhones and so now I can use iMessage and not turn into a dreaded green bubble. I still think Apple should make texting with android not crappy, but I'm happy to have a less frustrating way to communicate with my friends until that happens. If it ever does. (C'mon Europe, force Apple to fix that!)

Choosing tech these days is just about your needs and preferences. Brand loyalty is bullshit. All of the companies basically suck as far as business practices. Google might even be eviler these days. Microsoft has always been shit. And Dell has some of the worst customer service around. In this particular instance, Apple was the least evil choice for my needs and preferences. And anytime I need to do something only a PC can handle, I can just pop downstairs and use my desktop machine.

My only complaint so far is that I don't like how the scroll wheel functions with my bluetooth mouse. I like to scroll 3 lines at a time and Apple has this weird scroll acceleration feature that scrolls really slow at first and then crazy fast the more you scroll. I think there is a workaround but I haven't had the time to figure it out yet.

I'm excited to test out Photoshop, as I've heard the M1 version is about 50% faster. I just haven't had the energy to edit any photos recently.

So, that's my Apple experience so far. It's a good computer that I hope will last for many years. I also like that they maintain decent resale value if I need something different down the line.

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xtrablak674 · 4 months

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1/8/93

Hi, I am the Editor, Producer, and Main writer for Fashion Fag Magazine® I do not want to be the only contributor to this magazine. I want and love your input and support to make this magazine, that you can rely on for good articles, poetry, reviews, fashion tips etc. Use this magazine as an outlet for your feelings and emotions. I will try to have in depth interviews with prominent gay figures and the ordinary fag. Unlike other magazine this magazine will not be, Gay white male oriented.

This magazine will be inclusive of everyone, lesbians, bi-sexuals and supporters. People of all races, colors and socio-economical backgrounds will be represented within these pages. If you see us falling short on any of these promises let us know because we are here to serve your needs. With all of this said enjoy your first issue of Fashion Fag Magazine®

Peace, Love + Hair Grease

Miss Trevor

Nineteen Ninety-Three, thirty-one years ago, three decades, a quarter of a century, seriously a lifetime ago, but one thing is consistent I have used the written word to express my feelings, values, failures and loves for a long damned time. Mind you, this was the furthest thing from a magazine, the first issue basically being double-sided text on colored office paper, it was all about the aspiration!

I would love to say my starting this zine/newsletter was an original idea but that would a fine piece of creative retelling of history. My college friend Matthew Carlin had a newsletter called TMCM, The Matt Carlin Mirror where he talked about his life, love, school and anything else that came to mind. It was his post-college way of keeping in touch with the friends made back in Ithaca, and like him I thought I could do the same and grow the fan-base I thought I had, in my head.

Desktop publishing was a new idea in the early nineties, albeit Quark Xpress was started in 1981, it didn't become more widely used until the early nineties on Macintosh and Windows dominating the market share of the time. I wouldn't start using it myself until '95 somehow coping a bootleg version for my Mac SE. Previously I was using AppleWorks which later became ClarisWorks, this was basically just a word processing application, and I remember to create just one page I would have to create a text box in different positions and put them together when I printed it.

Below is one of the template pages from issue #2, there are three parts of this page, the find-a-word with its description below, Miss Moody Herself and the bits below it, and the three columns on the lower half. I didn't know how to make ClarisWork split up a page into different areas. I could easily make columns, but having something on the upper half of the page that was different than the content on the lower page had to be done by passing the document through the printer multiple times my Apple StyleWriter II.

So in my digital files for one page I would sometimes have three or four ClarisWord docs. It made for a slightly confusing organizing of an issue because one four page issue could easily have twelve to sixteen files. Quark Xpress which I taught myself, would get rid of the need for multiple documents and multiple passes through the printer. It had become the standard for desktop publishing and it was appropriate that I should utilize the industry standard for my own mass-read publication.

Sorry, I went off into a technical rabbit hole, but I think part of understanding who I am is to understand my technical proficiency throughout my adult life, and even now, its one of the things that I seriously think gave me the edge when I went to work in the corporate world, the fact that I had dabbled in so many applications and technology made me hit the ground running faster than a lot of my contemporaries.

I wish I still had that old SE, I gave it back to the friend who I purchased it from as a payment for his ripping out the old red carpet in my new apartment, the same one I am living in today. The reason I would love to have it, is I know there was a special app I used to create the type for Fashion Fag Magazine, my initial logo, which would change by my third issue.

Looking back at this production this was truly the first manifestation of my artistic voice as an adult. As I am learning of my childhood where I attempted to draw, sing, perform and write a little bit, but here I was now taking writing to the forefront as a means of expression. Albeit untrained I was designing a newsletter about my life and my experiences, I was seeking to give a voice to my identities and the struggles faced there within.

For all the wonderful things I learned at college, in this post-college queer world I was attempting to be seen for all the many aspects of my personhood, not just a body part, skin color or general aesthetic appeal. One of the backlashes of attending a primarily white educational institution, no matter had well-intentioned folks were, I was repeatedly othered. Sometimes by the people who looked like like me and had similar social-economic backgrounds, and others who loved the way I did with varying economic backgrounds but also failed to see the entire me.

Just a brief moment about the title, I have alway had a thing for fashion albeit my vision for myself and what was actually executed in the real-world wouldn't align until much later. I still felt I had the potential for a personal style that would surpass that of my peers.

Albeit the whyte queers weren't necessarily always the most fashion-forward of folks, particularly the ones I knew, I envisioned personal style being able to push the envelope and announce something more nuanced about my personality other than just being Black and queer. This voice would come to full fruition later, but Fashion Fag Magazine was precognition of what I knew would come in time.

Through my observations about my world I wanted folks to see the world in the way that I did. And through my nine issues published from nineteen ninety-three through nineteen ninety-six I attempted just that, sometimes successful other-times failing miserable, but still trying to make myself seen and heard in a world that wasn't really checking it for people like me, dark-skinned, femme, gender non-conforming, queer, well-spoken, nerdy, comic book reading, dance the house down folk.

I am going to try to translate this classic text for a new audience, who am I fooling with my twelve followers here, but I look at this mini-blog as a digital obituary for my life, and its important to include all the bits and pieces of a life, so you're are not just broken down to legal document or a one-hundred and fifty word summary. For as long as Tumblr is around which may be less than the span of my life, I at least want to make an attempt to record my thoughts and feelings about the breadth of the experiences of Trevor A. Brown.

[Photos by Brown Estate]

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linuxgamenews · 7 months

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Introducing Please Touch The Artwork 2 A Free Hidden Object Adventure Game

Please Touch The Artwork 2 releases the hidden object adventure game playable on Linux with Windows PC. Thomas Waterzooi's exceptional development skills have played a pivotal role in this achievement. Available now on Steam with 100% Positive reviews. So, today's a big day in the world of digital art and hidden object adventure! Please Touch The Artwork 2 has just hit the scene and this release is totally free. You can also play it on your smartphone or tablet from the Apple Appstore or Google Play. Or if you're more of a desktop fan, it's available on Linux via Windows / Mac through Steam. At least until the native release is available. And here's the best part – it's all about pure, unadulterated fun with zero ads, hidden fees, or paid DLC. This is all about enjoying at your own pace, without any pesky interruptions. Still due to receive a native build. The Please Touch The Artwork 2 release takes you deep into the world of James Ensor, a legend in Belgian Modern Art. The game is a playful stroll through his iconic works. It's not just about looking at art – it's about engaging with it in a unique way. You're there to help out some quirky characters by finding lost items and fixing up the paintings. It's a blend of art appreciation and a bit of detective work, all wrapped up in a fun, short trip. The thing about this release is that Please Touch The Artwork 2 is backed by the Flemish Government. Celebrating both the Belgian EU Presidency 2024 and the 75th anniversary of Ensor's passing. The idea is to make art accessible to everyone, and making this adventure free is a big step towards that.

Please Touch The Artwork 2 - Release Trailer

youtube

The gameplay? It's like stepping into a hand-painted world where you assist a skeleton artist. Your task is to collect hidden items for the people and solve puzzles along the way. The artwork comes straight from Ensor's collection, giving you an authentic experience of his style. Here's what you can look forward to:

Exploring Five Unique Worlds: Each world is a gateway into Ensor's mesmerizing art, filled with mysteries and hidden treasures.

Hints for Tough Spots: If you ever get stuck, the Please Touch The Artwork 2 release offers hints to help you out, keeping the frustration at bay.

Simple and Intuitive Controls: The point-and-click style makes navigation a breeze, and the zoom function lets you get up close and personal with every detail.

Casual, Hand-Painted Art: The interactive elements and animations are straight out of Ensor's own works, bringing a unique life to the experience.

Relaxing Soundscapes: The audio is just as immersive as the visuals, creating a calm and captivating atmosphere.

Highly Accessible: It's light-hearted, playful, and suitable for pretty much anyone looking to dive into a cozy art adventure.

So, if you're into exploring new and creative worlds, the Please Touch The Artwork 2 release is worth checking out. The game is a fresh take on art, puzzles, and storytelling, and it's all just a download away on Steam. Available to play on Linux via Proton with Windows PC.

#please touch the artwork 2 #hidden object game #linux #gaming news #thomas waterzooi #ubuntu #windows #pc #unity #Youtube

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thewizardscurse · 8 months

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#just as with last time. i needed to do this to put a properly specific poll into the wild #a lot of these are music related. im a music guy. sorry #ozzy.txt #polls

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allaboutmarketing4you · 6 months

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How Google Maps, Spotify, Shazam and More Work

"How does Google Maps use satellites, GPS and more to get you from point A to point B? What is the tech that powers Spotify’s recommendation algorithm?

From the unique tech that works in seconds to power tap-to-pay to how Shazam identifies 23,000 songs each minute, WSJ explores the engineering and science of technology that catches our eye.

Chapters:

0:00 Google Maps

9:07 LED wristbands

14:30 Spotify’s algorithm

21:30 Tap-to-Pay

28:18 Noise-canceling headphones

34:33 MSG Sphere

41:30 Shazam "

Source: The Wall Street Journal

#Tech#Algorithm#WSJ

Additional information:

" How Does Google Map Works?

Google Maps is a unique web-based mapping service brought to you by the tech giant, Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° panoramic views of streets, real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bicycle, or public transportation.

A short history of Google maps:

Google Maps was first launched in February 2005, as a desktop web mapping service. It was developed by a team at Google led by Lars and Jens Rasmussen, with the goal of creating a more user-friendly and accurate alternative to existing mapping services. In 2007, Google released the first version of Google Maps for mobile, which was available for the Apple iPhone. This version of the app was a huge success and quickly became the most popular mapping app on the market. As time has passed, Google Maps has consistently developed and enhanced its capabilities, including the addition of new forms of map data like satellite and aerial imagery and integration with other Google platforms like Google Earth and Google Street View.

In 2013, Google released a new version of Google Maps for the web, which included a redesigned interface and new features like enhanced search and integration with Google+ for sharing and reviewing places.

Today, Google Maps is available on desktop computers and as a mobile app for Android and iOS devices. It is used by millions of people around the world to get directions, find places, and explore new areas.

How does google maps work?

Google Maps works by using satellite and aerial imagery to create detailed maps of the world. These maps are then made available to users through a web-based interface or a mobile app.

When you open Google Maps, you can search for a specific location or browse the map to explore an area. You can also use the app to get directions to a specific place or find points of interest, such as businesses, landmarks, and other points of interest. Google Maps uses a combination of GPS data, user input, and real-time traffic data to provide accurate and up-to-date information about locations and directions. The app also integrates with other Google services, such as Google Earth and Google Street View, to provide additional information and features.

Overall, Google Maps is a powerful tool that makes it easy to find and explore locations around the world. It’s available on desktop computers and as a mobile app for Android and iOS devices.

Google uses a variety of algorithms in the backend of Google Maps to provide accurate and up-to-date information about locations and directions. Some of the main algorithms used by Google Maps include:

Image recognition: Google Maps uses image recognition algorithms to extract useful information from the satellite and street view images used to create the map. These algorithms can recognize specific objects and features in the images, such as roads, buildings, and landmarks, and use this information to create a detailed map of the area.

Machine learning: Google Maps uses machine learning algorithms to analyze and interpret data from a variety of sources, including satellite imagery, street view images, and user data. These algorithms can identify patterns and trends in the data, allowing Google Maps to provide more accurate and up-to-date information about locations and directions.

Geospatial data analysis: Google Maps uses geospatial data analysis algorithms to analyze and interpret data about the earth’s surface and features. This includes techniques like geographic information systems (GIS) and geospatial data mining, which are used to extract useful information from large datasets of geospatial data.

Overall, these algorithms are an essential part of the backend of Google Maps, helping the service to provide accurate and up-to-date information to users around the world.

Google Maps uses a variety of algorithms to determine the shortest path between two points:

Here are some of the algorithms that may be used:

Dijkstra’s algorithm: This is a classic algorithm for finding the shortest path between two nodes in a graph. It works by starting at the source node and progressively exploring the graph, adding nodes to the shortest path as it goes.

A* search algorithm: This is another popular algorithm for finding the shortest path between two points. It works by combining the benefits of Dijkstra’s algorithm with a heuristic function that helps guide the search toward the destination node.

It’s worth noting that Google Maps may use a combination of these algorithms, as well as other specialized algorithms, to determine the shortest path between two points. The specific algorithms used may vary depending on the specifics of the route, such as the distance, the number of turns, and the type of terrain. "

Source: geeksforgeeks.org - -> You can read the full article at geeksforgeeks.org

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