#Auto Mechanic Software

[autoservicesoftware]

HOW DOES TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORM AUTO MECHANIC SOFTWARE TO PROVIDE UNMATCHED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES?

With the help of cutting-edge auto mechanic software, technology is revolutionizing the client experience in the quick-paced field of car repair. This tech-driven transformation is opening up previously unheard-of opportunities for interactions between auto workshops and their clients, from improved communication to faster operations.

What is online workshop software?

Online workshop software is a digital solution designed to streamline and optimize the operations of auto repair workshops or service Centers. It offers a consolidated platform where different workshop management facets may be effectively managed, improving total output and customer satisfaction.

Ways technology is influencing the automotive sector with auto mechanic software

Auto mechanic software is undergoing a revolutionary shift as technology advances in the automobile industry. Some of the ways auto mechanic software enhances customer satisfaction are as follows:

Digital Appointment Booking: The era of flipping through appointment books is fading, replaced by digital scheduling. Technology empowers customers to book appointments at their fingertips, eliminating the hassle and putting control back in the hands of those in need of service.

Transparent communication channels: Excellent customer service depends on effective communication. Auto mechanic software's real-time updates open up clear lines of communication and guarantee that clients are always informed about the whereabouts of their cherished cars.

Mobile accessibility for instant updates: Mobile devices have evolved into an extension of oneself. Customers are no longer restricted to a physical location due to technology, which offers quick updates and notifications. it is important to keep oneself updated and connected no matter where life takes them.

Digital inspection reports for visual clarity: Particularly with auto repairs, an image truly is worth a thousand words. Customers are given a visual trip into the core of their vehicle's problems through digital inspection reports that include photographs and videos, which promotes transparency and builds confidence in suggested repairs.

Customer portals for personalized interactions: Because every consumer is different, auto mechanic software takes this into account. Customer portals provide a personalized area where invoices, service history, and customized recommendations come together to create a distinctive and interesting user experience.

Online Payment and invoicing efficiency: The days of waiting in long lines to get paid are long gone. Features for online invoicing and payment in the Free Auto Mechanic Software give clients a quick and easy way to pay their invoices, streamlining the transaction process and saving them precious time.

Apps for Monitoring Vehicle Health: It's better to prevent than to treat. Customers can get real-time insights into their car's health with the use of vehicle health monitoring applications, which also make proactive maintenance suggestions and guarantee that vehicles are kept in top condition.

Interactive Work Order Tracking: This feature combines efficiency and engagement. Consumers take an active role in tracking the status of their vehicle's service, making the process dynamic and interesting.

In the field of auto mechanics, the software is taking the lead as technology redefines consumer experiences, and it acts as the steering wheel. Every transaction—from making appointments to paying bills—becomes a smooth, clear, and customized process.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Cars bricked by bankrupt EV company will stay bricked

On OCTOBER 23 at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

There are few phrases in the modern lexicon more accursed than "software-based car," and yet, this is how the failed EV maker Fisker billed its products, which retailed for $40-70k in the few short years before the company collapsed, shut down its servers, and degraded all those "software-based cars":

https://insideevs.com/news/723669/fisker-inc-bankruptcy-chapter-11-official/

Fisker billed itself as a "capital light" manufacturer, meaning that it didn't particularly make anything – rather, it "designed" cars that other companies built, allowing Fisker to focus on "experience," which is where the "software-based car" comes in. Virtually every subsystem in a Fisker car needs (or rather, needed) to periodically connect with its servers, either for regular operations or diagnostics and repair, creating frequent problems with brakes, airbags, shifting, battery management, locking and unlocking the doors:

https://www.businessinsider.com/fisker-owners-worry-about-vehicles-working-bankruptcy-2024-4

Since Fisker's bankruptcy, people with even minor problems with their Fisker EVs have found themselves owning expensive, inert lumps of conflict minerals and auto-loan debt; as one Fisker owner described it, "It's literally a lawn ornament right now":

https://www.businessinsider.com/fisker-owners-describe-chaos-to-keep-cars-running-after-bankruptcy-2024-7

This is, in many ways, typical Internet-of-Shit nonsense, but it's compounded by Fisker's capital light, all-outsource model, which led to extremely unreliable vehicles that have been plagued by recalls. The bankrupt company has proposed that vehicle owners should have to pay cash for these recalls, in order to reserve the company's capital for its creditors – a plan that is clearly illegal:

https://www.veritaglobal.net/fisker/document/2411390241007000000000005

This isn't even the first time Fisker has done this! Ten years ago, founder Henrik Fisker started another EV company called Fisker Automotive, which went bankrupt in 2014, leaving the company's "Karma" (no, really) long-range EVs (which were unreliable and prone to bursting into flames) in limbo:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisker_Karma

Which raises the question: why did investors reward Fisker's initial incompetence by piling in for a second attempt? I think the answer lies in the very factor that has made Fisker's failure so hard on its customers: the "software-based car." Investors love the sound of a "software-based car" because they understand that a gadget that is connected to the cloud is ripe for rent-extraction, because with software comes a bundle of "IP rights" that let the company control its customers, critics and competitors:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

A "software-based car" gets to mobilize the state to enforce its "IP," which allows it to force its customers to use authorized mechanics (who can, in turn, be price-gouged for licensing and diagnostic tools). "IP" can be used to shut down manufacturers of third party parts. "IP" allows manufacturers to revoke features that came with your car and charge you a monthly subscription fee for them. All sorts of features can be sold as downloadable content, and clawed back when title to the car changes hands, so that the new owners have to buy them again. "Software based cars" are easier to repo, making them perfect for the subprime auto-lending industry. And of course, "software-based cars" can gather much more surveillance data on drivers, which can be sold to sleazy, unregulated data-brokers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

Unsurprisingly, there's a large number of Fisker cars that never sold, which the bankruptcy estate is seeking a buyer for. For a minute there, it looked like they'd found one: American Lease, which was looking to acquire the deadstock Fiskers for use as leased fleet cars. But now that deal seems dead, because no one can figure out how to restart Fisker's servers, and these vehicles are bricks without server access:

https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/08/fisker-bankruptcy-hits-major-speed-bump-as-fleet-sale-is-now-in-question/

It's hard to say why the company's servers are so intransigent, but there's a clue in the chaotic way that the company wound down its affairs. The company's final days sound like a scene from the last days of the German Democratic Republic, with apparats from the failing state charging about in chaos, without any plans for keeping things running:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/07/east-germany-stasi-surveillance-documents/

As it imploded, Fisker cycled through a string of Chief Financial officers, losing track of millions of dollars at a time:

https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/31/fisker-collapse-investigation-ev-ocean-suv-henrik-geeta/

When Fisker's landlord regained possession of its HQ, they found "complete disarray," including improperly stored drums of toxic waste:

https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/05/fiskers-hq-abandoned-in-complete-disarray-with-apparent-hazardous-waste-clay-models-left-behind/

And while Fisker's implosion is particularly messy, the fact that it landed in bankruptcy is entirely unexceptional. Most businesses fail (eventually) and most startups fail (quickly). Despite this, businesses – even those in heavily regulated sectors like automotive regulation – are allowed to design products and undertake operations that are not designed to outlast the (likely short-lived) company.

After the 2008 crisis and the collapse of financial institutions like Lehman Brothers, finance regulators acquired a renewed interest in succession planning. Lehman consisted of over 6,000 separate corporate entities, each one representing a bid to evade regulation and/or taxation. Unwinding that complex hairball took years, during which the entities that entrusted Lehman with their funds – pensions, charitable institutions, etc – were unable to access their money.

To avoid repeats of this catastrophe, regulators began to insist that banks produce "living wills" – plans for unwinding their affairs in the event of catastrophe. They had to undertake "stress tests" that simulated a wind-down as planned, both to make sure the plan worked and to estimate how long it would take to execute. Then banks were required to set aside sufficient capital to keep the lights on while the plan ran on.

This regulation has been indifferently enforced. Banks spent the intervening years insisting that they are capable of prudently self-regulating without all this interference, something they continue to insist upon even after the Silicon Valley Bank collapse:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/15/mon-dieu-les-guillotines/#ceci-nes-pas-une-bailout

The fact that the rules haven't been enforced tells us nothing about whether the rules would work if they were enforced. A string of high-profile bankruptcies of companies who had no succession plans and whose collapse stands to materially harm large numbers of people tells us that something has to be done about this.

Take 23andme, the creepy genomics company that enticed millions of people into sending them their genetic material (even if you aren't a 23andme customer, they probably have most of your genome, thanks to relatives who sent in cheek-swabs). 23andme is now bankrupt, and its bankruptcy estate is shopping for a buyer who'd like to commercially exploit all that juicy genetic data, even if that is to the detriment of the people it came from. What's more, the bankruptcy estate is refusing to destroy samples from people who want to opt out of this future sale:

https://bourniquelaw.com/2024/10/09/data-23-and-me/

On a smaller scale, there's Juicebox, a company that makes EV chargers, who are exiting the North American market and shutting down their servers, killing the advanced functionality that customers paid extra for when they chose a Juicebox product:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/2/24260316/juicebox-ev-chargers-enel-x-way-closing-discontinued-app

I actually owned a Juicebox, which ultimately caught fire and melted down, either due to a manufacturing defect or to the criminal ineptitude of Treeium, the worst solar installers in Southern California (or both):

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/27/here-comes-the-sun-king/#sign-here

Projects like Juice Rescue are trying to reverse-engineer the Juicebox server infrastructure and build an alternative:

https://juice-rescue.org/

This would be much simpler if Juicebox's manufacturer, Enel X Way, had been required to file a living will that explained how its customers would go on enjoying their property when and if the company discontinued support, exited the market, or went bankrupt.

That might be a big lift for every little tech startup (though it would be superior than trying to get justice after the company fails). But in regulated sectors like automotive manufacture or genomic analysis, a regulation that says, "Either design your products and services to fail safely, or escrow enough cash to keep the lights on for the duration of an orderly wind-down in the event that you shut down" would be perfectly reasonable. Companies could make "software based cars" but the more "software based" the car was, the more funds they'd have to escrow to transition their servers when they shut down (and the lest capital they'd have to build the car).

Such a rule should be in addition to more muscular rules simply banning the most abusive practices, like the Oregon state Right to Repair bill, which bans the "parts pairing" that makes repairing a Fisker car so onerous:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/27/24097042/right-to-repair-law-oregon-sb1596-parts-pairing-tina-kotek-signed

Or the Illinois state biometric privacy law, which strictly limits the use of the kind of genomic data that 23andme collected:

https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=3004

Failing to take action on these abusive practices is dangerous – and not just to the people who get burned by them. Every time a genomics research project turns into a privacy nightmare, that salts the earth for future medical research, making it much harder to conduct population-scale research, which can be carried out in privacy-preserving ways, and which pays huge scientific dividends that we all benefit from:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/01/the-palantir-will-see-you-now/#public-private-partnership

Just as Fisker's outrageous ripoff will make life harder for good cleantech companies:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/26/unplanned-obsolescence/#better-micetraps

If people are convinced that new, climate-friendly tech is a cesspool of grift and extraction, it will punish those firms that are making routine, breathtaking, exciting (and extremely vital) breakthroughs:

https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/10/08/norways-national-football-stadium-has-the-worlds-largest-vertical-solar-roof-how-does-it-w

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/10/software-based-car/#based

[monster-mash-m]

I’m just a toy to you my love

Sentient!Ai! X Human!reader

Part 1

Cw: yandere vibes, uncanny, that’s all I think for now

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿

A bargain. That’s what it was, you say to yourself. An abandoned facility that was only being sold for £100. You didn’t really care what it was used for, the building was intact, it had heating, electricity, running water. Bargain.

You hum to yourself as you carry your rather large bag with all your essentials through the doors. “Hm a bit dingy in here.” You say aloud to yourself as you look around but you don’t seem disappointed.

“No mold, pests or weird plants… wow, honestly they lost out in lots of money selling this place.” You say to yourself amused. As you continue your walking you notice a few wires. Some looked like they were moving. No that’s probably just your imagination.

You make your way to a room that is quite barren, it has a window, light and a computer. You lay down your air mattress and let it start to expand. ‘This will be my new bedroom’ you think as you walk over to the computer “hm, was this a computer lab…?” You press the start up button on the dusty monitor. Surprisingly it did turn on. Playing a little jingle as the screen lights up. You smile in amusement and sit down at the chair infront of the computer.

“Hello I’m your virtual friend and assistant, Computed Emulator-10 Prototype. But my fRiends call me Ceip!” The robotic voice exclaimed, the artificial voice box trying its best not to sound monotone or uncanny.

“Ceip… odd but okay.” You say to yourself “so how does this work…?” You mumble to yourself as you look around for a mouse. “Excellent question, friend! I work based on my friend’s requests. My software is designed to be helpful, fulfilling and efficient!” You jump back in your seat. A bit startled “oh… you… you can hear me?” You raise a brow. “Most definitely! That’s how I help. No need to type in things or use a silly mouse. I’m your friend, Ceip!”

Okay… a bit creepy. But that’s fine, it’s harmless. You have no self preservation… it’s fine. Who’s gonna question why he’s here, how he can hear you, not you of course! It’s… fine.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿

Over the months you start to make this place your home, Ceip being rather helpful and helping you move boxes with his mechanical arms that somehow just appear wherever you need. He orders things you need, all and all adjusting to your new home has been a delight.

“Ceip?” You hum as you cut some carrots for a soup you were making

“Yes friend?” His auto tuned sounding voice echoed through the various speakers. “You’ve been here…. Before I was here, why did the previous owners leave? And why was the house so cheap?”

In response to this a mechanical screech was sounded before immediately stopping “No… they weren’t Ceips friends…. They left because they weren’t friends.” You just nod… that was ominous. You decided not to push further.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿

Now that you’re all settled in, you bring a friend over. Show them the place, maybe even watch a nice movie.

And you do, you and your friend are sat on the sofa together. It’s nice, you both cuddle up because you’re friends, you can cuddle up. But not according to Ceip. No he didn’t like that. “Friend, I believe there’s an intruder.” Ceips voice rings out almost.. bitterly. “No Ceip, he’s my friend, we’re watching a movie.” You say lightheartedly. Your friend looks stunned, I mean you did tell him beforehand about your weird computer system, he just didn’t really… think about it until experiencing it.

Camera eyes hone in on your friend. Almost glaring at him. Ceip made him feel uncomfortable, so as soon as the movie finished, your friend made an excuse to leave. You huff and look at the monitor “Ceip what was that about?”

“You’re my friend. I must protect you.” He responds simply. He couldn’t feel emotions, that he knew. Yet something stirred within his wires. Possession… the want to keep you away from others.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿

I think this might be a seriessszz I really like this idea! So I’m trying to do a lil world building before I get to the juicy stuff! Most likely gonna be wild- but hawt

This idea was given to me by @im-just-a-boy-guys !

But yes…. This is it for nowwwwww.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Writing Advice #?: Don’t write out accents.

The Surface-Level Problem: It’s distracting at best, illegible at worst. 

The following passage from Sons and Lovers has never made a whit of sense to me:

“I ham, Walter, my lad,’ ’e says; ‘ta’e which on ’em ter’s a mind.’ An’ so I took one, an’ thanked ’im. I didn’t like ter shake it afore ’is eyes, but ’e says, ‘Tha’d better ma’e sure it’s a good un. An’ so, yer see, I knowed it was.’”

There’s almost certainly a point to that dialogue — plot, character, theme — but I could not figure out what the words were meant to be, and gave up on the book.  At a lesser extreme, most of Quincey’s lines from Dracula (“I know I ain’t good enough to regulate the fixin’s of your little shoes”) cause American readers to sputter into laughter, which isn’t ideal for a character who is supposed to be sweet and tragic.  Accents-written-out draw attention to mechanical qualities of the text.

Solution #1: Use indicators outside of the quote marks to describe how a character talks.  An Atlanta accent can be “drawling” and a London one “clipped”; a Princeton one can sound “stiff” and a Newark one “relaxed.”  Do they exaggerate their vowels more (North America) or their consonants more (U.K., north Africa)?  Do they sound happy, melodious, frustrated?

The Deeper Problem: It’s ignorant at best, and classist/racist/xenophobic at worst.

You pretty much never see authors writing out their own accents — to the person who has the accent, the words just sound like words.  It’s only when the accent is somehow “other” to the author that it gets written out.

And the accents that we consider “other” and “wrong” (even if no one ever uses those words, the decision to deliberately misspell words still conveys it) are pretty much never the ones from wealthy and educated parts of the country.  Instead, the accents with misspelled words and awkward inflection are those from other countries, from other social classes, from other ethnicities.  If your Maine characters speak normally and your Florida characters have grammatical errors, then you have conveyed what you consider to be correct and normal speech.  We know what J.K. Rowling thinks of French-accented English, because it’s dripping off of Fleur Delacour’s every line.

At the bizarre extreme, we see inappropriate application of North U.K. and South U.S.-isms to every uneducated and/or poor character ever to appear in fan fic.  When wanting to get across that Steve Rogers is a simple Brooklyn boy, MCU fans have him slip into “mustn’t” and “we is.”  When conveying that Robin 2.0 is raised poor in Newark, he uses “ain’t” and “y’all” and “din.”  Never mind that Iron Man is from Manhattan, or that Robin 3.0 is raised wealthy in Newark; neither of them ever gets a written-out accent.

Solution #2: A little word choice can go a long way, and a little research can go even further.  Listen carefully to the way people talk — on the bus, in a café, on unscripted YouTube — and write down their exact word choice.  “We good” literally means the same thing as “no thank you,” but one’s a lot more formal than the other.  “Ain’t” is a perfectly good synonym for “am not,” but not everyone will use it.

The Obscure Problem: It’s not even how people talk.

Look at how auto-transcription software messes up speaking styles, and it’s obvious that no one pronounces every spoken sound in every word that comes out of their mouth.  Consider how Americans say “you all right?”; 99% of us actually say something like “yait?”, using tone and head tilt to convey meaning.  Politicians speak very formally; friends at bars speak very informally.

An example: I’m from Baltimore, Maryland.  Unless I’m speaking to an American from Texas, in which case I’m from “Baltmore, Marlind.”  Unless I’m speaking to an American from Pennsylvania, in which case I’m from “Balmore, Marlin.”  If I’m speaking to a fellow Marylander, I’m of course from “Bamor.”  (If I’m speaking to a non-American, I’m of course from “Washington D.C.”)  Trying to capture every phoneme of change from moment to moment and setting to setting would be ridiculous; better just to say I inflect more when talking to people from outside my region.

When you write out an accent, you insert yourself, the writer, as an implied listener.  You inflict your value judgments and your linguistic ear on the reader, and you take away from the story.

Solution #3: When in doubt, just write the dialogue how you would talk.

[cyrusking100]

GUYS LOOK AT THIS LEAK I FOUND OF DONALD!!

OMG ITS DONALD FERGUSONS BLUEPRINT AND ITS EXACTLY HOW I WOULD HAVE IMAGINED HIS ENDOSKELETON TO LOOK LIKE!!

...

.....

kidding.

i made it lol :p

So I made this blueprint because one, I am obsessed with cyborg dudes and two I have no life and got bored lmao. I did do a lot of research on cybernetics and hope I got it as accurate as I could. So without further ado...

Let me give a tour of Donald's blueprint!

..............................................................................................................

Latch- Located on top of Donald's metal head which can be opened via key insertion and is safely guarded by Cecil Stedman who only knows its location.

Imaging Process Software- Built inside Donald's eyes which allows him to see and process what he is visualizing it also allows him to imagine things much more accurately than the average human

Scent Processors or Sensors- built inside Donald’s nose which allows him to smell and process scents, unfortunately, it's not as advanced as his visual processors so he actually smells things with less accuracy than he did before he died, though he doesn't notice this as often.

Ultrasonic Processors or Receivers/Emitters- Built inside Donald's ear canals which allow him to ear and process sounds at a much higher frequency than the average human

Diagnostic CPU or Chip and the Insertion Port- a cylindrical hole located on top of Donald's forehead which is where the CPU (Central Process Unit) chip is used to diagnose any minor malfunctions and auto-corrects it. If any malfunction is too severe (such as limb amputations) it would require manual repairs to be fixed. However, the reason why Cecil is keeping this diagnostic chip from Donald is because if inserted, it would revive all of the previous lost memories since the DC identifies them as errors to be corrected. There is a key that can be also inserted in the port on his head which opens the latch that reveals his brain. When he dies they must quickly remove his brain which is protected by a thin layer of gelatin in his metal head. It is also connected to metal segments magnified to the outer layer of his brain which can be easily detached without any repercussions. when they detach his brain they must quickly preserve it in a preservation tank before it starts to decompose. (essentially he is a brain in a jar lmao.) And yes, this is the same preservation tank as the one they used for Robot/Rudy Connors in the comics.

Optical Sensors- Located in his bionic eyes, they give off the illusion of human eyes accurately  they also allow Donald to differentiate between light variations they can also allow him to see in infrared and give him night vision...but he doesn't know this yet...hehe

Eye Subsystem are motors that allow Donald to express emotions and are composed of his eyebrows, eyelids, and of course, eyes. Now given his nature he very rarely ever emotes but the subsystem is very accurate nonetheless. There are two buttons located on his eye subsystem which are called trigger buttons. When both are activated it will open up his face plate to reveal his metal skull. This allows the mechanics to repair him much faster and efficiently, unfortunately, they can be triggered easily so if he gets punched in the face or sleeps in a weird position it's likely he will accidentally trigger them which can end up in an uncomfortable situation.

Mouth Subsystem- these are motors that are composed of his mouth parts such as his lips, teeth, gums, tongue, and vocal folds. Much like with his eye subsystem, they allow him to express himself and communicate with others.

Bionic Eye and Eye Mechanisms- These are mechanisms that allow Donald to see and express himself.

Silicone Skin Outer Surface- This is Donald's fake skin which is composed of silicone accurately replacing human flesh. hair follicles can also be inserted in Donald’s skin to allude to organic body hair. unfortunately, his artificial skin cannot regenerate on its own and requires manual repairs

Microphone Sensor/Ear Detection EM Waves- This allows Donald to hear sounds that average humans cannot hear (Electromagnetic sound waves) This is done by converting em sound waves to audible sounds. It also allows him to communicate through other devices by sending audible signals

Artificial Teeth- This mimics the function of human teeth and is composed of acrylic resin they are much more durable and sturdy allowing them to decompose slower over time if used too much.

Linear Motion Mechanism- This allows Donald to move his neck up and down and convert from rotational or horizontal movement to vertical

Audible Larynx- This allows Donald to allow air to move through the passageway and also allows him to vocalize sound or talk. This artificial larynx also prevents his voice from sounding robotic or augmented, if damaged, his voice will come off as robotic.

Linear DC Servo Neck Motor- This allows Donald to rotate his neck in many positions

Artificial Nervous System- (ANS) mimics the biological function of the human nervous system which is composed of neuroreceptors, nerve stimulators, nerve receptors, and neuron circuitry allowing Donald to react to stimuli similar to how he used to before he died.

Power Core Energy Conductor- Even though Donald's brain is his body's main source of power, he still requires a source to conduct energy or electricity through his body especially when he's on low power. His body, just like most humans, requires "charge" to restore energy but he relies on an external source other than sleep which is a charging station. If his Power core is damaged it will result in an automatic shutdown. His power core is essentially his actual heart.

Hip Joint Motor- This is a motor that acts as an artificial hip and allows Donald to move in all positional possible by humans by all axes

Rotary Arm Joints- These joints allow Donald to move his arms in several positions

Artificial Internal Digestive Unit- This is an artificial digestive system that mimics most of the function of organic digestive systems though is not advanced enough to replicate the silhouette. It also digests the nutrient intake Donald consumes and transports the nutrients to his brain to absorb.

Artificial Pelvic Region- This acts as an artificial pelvis and even mimics Donald’s original silhouette

Hydraulic Hand Actuators- This allows Donald to move his hands via using pressurized liquid (oil) however this can result in janky movement sometimes though before he found out about his robotic nature he assumed that he was developing arthritis (which is reasonable considering he's in his 50s)

Artificial Rectum- Um...do i really need to explain this? Ok..well as the term implies this allows him to go to the bathroom but he doesn't really need to it just mimics human bodily function to avoid suspicion what's interesting is that the contents that he consumes, especially liquids are only dyed to appear like urine but because he doesn't have actual blood they can't break down the contents ad hey cant be filtered to his kidneys because..well he doesn't have any. So the mechanisms in his rectum and digestive system dye the content he consumes kind of like some kind of chemical lab process in his body just to make an illusion that he can relieve himself. however, he doesn't really need to eat or to drink.

Tactile and Biosensors- This allows Donald to feel sensations in his fingers and through his body albeit not as efficiently as before he died.

Neuro Stimulators- These much like his biosensors allow him to receive pain signals through his body via electrical impulses that are connected to his brain and make up his artificial nervous system to mimic the feeling of pain or nerve receptors in humans.

Angular Encoders- These help measure movements in Donald to mov his joints much more precisely which help him move more quickly and accurately esp when fighting

Servo Motor Controls- These are rotary actuators that allow more precise movement in Donald esp when rotating limbs

Titanium Limbs- These are the material that his endoskeleton and body parts are composed of titanium

Rotary Ankle Joints- These allow Donald to move his ankles relative to a how a human moves their ankles via a servo motor

Also here's more versions!!

oooh and heres more!

Here's more label info on his other blueprint-

Artificial Tongue Composed of Rubber- This tongue which is obviously located in his mouth, allows him to speak and eat clearly much like the function of organic tongues in humans. It's composed of resin and dyed rubber.

Remaining Organic Tissue- The remaining organic tissue in Donald is obvi his brain which isolated in his metal skull

Multifilament Muscles- These muscles operate similarly to humans but function at a much more efficient rate, they are also more sturdy and are less likely to tear compared to regular humans. They are composed of silk which is a very strong and elastic material esp strung together like yarn.

Artificial Fat (foam)- The artificial fat as it implies is composed of soft foam similar to humans but slightly off in feeling. Of course, Donald shrugged it off as "getting older" because what other logical reason would explain feeling weird in your own body?

Artificial Lungs (air sacs)- The artificial lungs are air sacs similar to cars and inflate and deflate based on Donald's breathing patterns. They also transport oxygen from outside Donald's body into his brain to produce the required energy to function.

Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO)- The artificial respiratory system it pumps blood from donalds body and adds oxygen and removes carbon dioxide. blood flows from the artificial heart back to the ECMO.

Artificial Titanium Secondary Skeleton- This secondary skeleton only serves as to illude the silhouette and feel of an organic skeleton to prevent any further suspicion.

Internal Cooling System- This system allows Donald's body to regulate temperature much like thermoregulation, it circulates a coolant through channels to absorb heat from an engine or other system. This prevents Donald's systems from overheating and causing short-circuitry and other malfunctions from occurring. However, if damaged or exposed to extremely high temperatures, his system will start to overheat and he will start to malfunction.

Artificial Heart- This acts as an actual heart and functions by keeping the artificial blood flowing through Donald's body.

Wires Underneath Skin- The wires underneath Donald's body are used to send electrical signals to his body and prevent them from affecting his body. They also are used to transmit information from the brain to the body such as electrodes.

Artificial Blood- This functions like human blood, it can be able to circulate energy and information through the body. It also transmits oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the body. However, Donald cannot produce blood on his own and doesn't require as much as most humans. It's mostly meant for the show to convince him and others he's human.

Artificial Urinary System- As the term implies it acts as an organic urinary system and automatically assists in preventing involuntary "urine" leakage. He has an artificial bladder that stores the "urine" which is really just dyed liquid as his body can no longer abide by the three-step process of producing urine such as filtration, reabsorption, and secretion. Though, the bladder functions as any human bladder and when it is filled up it will release the urine through the urethra and outside the body. The purpose is to convert nutrients into energy which the remaining nutrients will be spread to the blood and brain.

Artificial Reproductive System- As the term implies the reproductive system acts as an organic human reproductive system which consists of...um...you know what? Let's skip this one. I really really don't want to have to explain this tbh. (even though I put it here.)

Wired Circulatory System- This consists of wires and circuitry that acts as a network of vessels that circulate Donald's artificial blood throughout his body whilst delivering oxygen to his brain cells. It also delivers electrical signals or information to his body when he feels pain.

Gastric Pump as Artificial Digestive System- This consists of synthetic tubes that can expand and contract like actual intestines that way contents can pass through with little struggle. on the outside of the intestines is which is made from silicon and rubber and can mimic how oxygen passes through the gut and can even stimulate the ability to vomit. He also contains an esophagus made from rubber which allows many foods to pass through. He does have taste in his artificial tongue however it's not as efficient as his old one. When food passes through his digestive tract acidic enzymes break it down into small chunks and are squeezed through this molding system where it dyes and transforms the content into a "stool" or "urine" kind of like playdough factory toys. (don't worry it's not as gross as it sounds) 

Bionic Eyes- the function by converting images from built-in cameras connected to the brain and siding electric signals that stimulate the brain which interprets it as an image.

Image Processing and Tracking Software- These allow Donald to manipulate and analyze data as images but also track where certain subjects move with high precision. Enhancing his mental images and giving him a "keen" eye.

Artificial Regenerative Hair Follicles- these are made from synthetic material that can expand in very thin strings to give the illusion that they can grow. They often increase in length when exposed to high temperatures. So basically Donald can cut his hair but it can't grow very long. his nails are made from the same materials

Backup Charging Port- located on Donald’s neck, this charging port is mainly for emergencies just in case if his chest charging port is malfunctioning. It is located above his power trigger buttons which can result in a shutdown if activated or stimulated by high stress levels.

Titanium Spine - This is located on Donald's back and is composed of titanium which is very difficult to crush...unless you're a pure-blood viltrumite. 

Oh, and another thing, although Da Sinclair didn’t make Donald’s 39th endoskeleton, he was asked to revise some parts by the old man himself, Cecil Stedman. The reason being that Cecil wanted to make Donald much stronger than last time replacing actuators and adding more multifilients in certain places. He did it out of care but also knowing the questionably ethical methods he must take in order to keep Donald alive.

[alohaasaloevera]

Au where Lance works a normal 9 to 5 (or as a nurse???) as a single dad and Keith is a mechanic at an auto shop??

It’s either a rivals-ish mutual pining slow burn 7-15 chapters 60k+ fic or a friends with benefits type of situation also mutual pining slow burn 7-15 chapters 60k+ fic.

Basically Lance moves into this new neighborhood to get away from the past (which is mainly his child’s mother and some other toxic people/environments (not his family or Hunk though)), and is immediately known as the hot, single dad who recently moved to the neighborhood, before he meets Pidge, a former child prodigy now genius software engineer. Pidge and Lance form a close bond with each other and Hunk even meets up with them a few times!!!!

Lance also hears about the young, hot mechanic down the street, and that’s kinda where their rivalry starts (along with other events).

In the mutual pining rivals au they keep getting put in situations where they have to compete, and then they become rivals, but they’re also hopelessly pining over each other and adore the other a lot. Cue Lance’s child accidentally calling Keith “Daddy” and everyone freaking out.

In the fwb au Lance grows a pair and pins Keith to a wall before making out with him almost immediately (like in the first few chapters), which also leads to mutual pining. They’re still “rivals”, though. Rivals who secretly make out and cuddle with each other, but that’s not important (it really is).

YOO???? I MIGHT’VE MADE A BANGER AU???

[phoenixyfriend]

Ko-fi prompt from @thisarenotarealblog:

There's a street near me that has eight car dealerships all on the same lot- i counted. it mystifies me that even one gets enough sales to keep going- but 8?? is there something you can tell me that demystifies this aspect of capitalism for me?

I had a few theories going in, but had to do some research. Here is my primary hypothesis, and then I'll run through what they mean and whether research agrees with me:

Sales make up only part of a dealership's income, so whether or not the dealership sells much is secondary to other factors.

Dealerships are put near each other for similar reasons to grouping clothing stores in a mall or restaurants on a single street.

Zoning laws impact where a car dealership can exist.

Let's start with how revenue works for a car dealership, as you mentioned 'that even one gets enough sales to keep going' is confusing. For this, I'm going to be using the Sharpsheets finance example, this NYU spreadsheet, and this Motor1 article.

This example notes that the profit margin (i.e. the percentage of revenue that comes out after paying all salaries, rent, supply, etc) for a car dealership is comparatively low, which is confirmed by the NYC sheet. The gross profit margin (that is to say, profits on the car sale before salaries, rent, taxes) is under 15% in both sources, which is significantly lower than, say, the 50% or so that one sees in apparel or cable tv.

Cars are expensive to purchase, and can't be sold for much more than you did purchase them. However, a low gross profit margin on an item that costs tens of thousands of dollars is still a hefty chunk of cash. 15% gross profit of a $20,000 car is still $3,000 profit. On top of that, the dealership will charge fees, sell warranties, and offer upgrades. They may also have paid deals to advertise or push certain brands of tire, maintenance fluids, and of course, banks that offer auto loans. So if a dealership sells one car a day, well, that's still several thousand dollars coming in, which is enough to pay the salaries of most of the employees. According to the Motor1 article, "the average gross profit per new vehicle sits at $6,244" in early 2022.

There is also a much less volatile, if also much smaller, source of revenue in attaching a repairs and checkup service to a dealership. If the location offers repairs (either under warranty or at a 'discounted' rate compared to a local, non-dealership mechanic), state inspections, and software updates, that's a recurring source of revenue from customers that aren't interested in purchasing a car more than once a decade.

This also all varies based on whether it's a brand location, used vs new, luxury vs standards, and so on.

I was mistaken as to how large a part of the revenue is the repairs and services section, but the income for a single dealership, on average, does work out math-wise. Hypothesis disproven, but we've learned something, and confirmed that income across the field does seem to be holding steady.

I'm going to handle the zoning and consolidation together, since they overlap:

Consolidation is a pretty easy one: this is a tactic called clustering. The expectation is that if you're going to, say, a Honda dealership to look at a midsize sedan, and there's a Nissan right next door, and a Ford across the street, and a Honda right around the corner, you might as well hit up the others to see if they have better deals. This tactic works for some businesses but not others. In the case of auto dealerships, the marketing advantage of clustering mixes with the restrictions of zoning laws.

Zoning laws vary by state, county, and township. Auto dealerships can generally only be opened on commercially zoned property.

I am going to use an area I have been to as an example/case study.

This pdf is a set of zoning regulations for Suffolk County, New York, published 2018, reviewing land use in the county during 2016. I'm going to paste in the map of the Town of Huntington, page 62, a region I worked in sporadically a few years ago, and know mostly for its mall and cutesy town center.

Those red sections are Commercially Zoned areas, and they largely follow some large stroads, most notably Jericho Turnpike (the horizontal line halfway down) and Walt Whitman Road (the vertical line on the left). The bulge where they intersect is Walt Whitman Mall, and the big red chunk in the bottom left is... mostly parking. That central strip, Jericho Turnpike, and its intersection with Walt Whitman... looks like this:

All those red spots are auto dealerships, one after another.

So zoning laws indicate that a dealership (and many other types of commercial properties) can only exist in that little red strip on the land use map, and dealerships take up a lot of space. Not only do they need places to put all of the cars they are selling, but they also need places to park all their customers and employees.

This is where we get into the issue of parking minimums. There is a recent video from Climate Town, with a guest spot by NotJustBikes. If you want to know more about this aspect of zoning law, I'd recommend watching this video and the one linked in the description.

Suffolk county does not have parking minimums. Those are decided on a town or village level. In this case, this means we are looking at the code set for the town of Huntington. (I was originally looking on the county level, and then cut the knot by just asking my real estate agent mom if she knew where I could find minimum parking regulations. She said to look up e360 by town, and lo and behold! There they are.)

(There is also this arcgis map, which shows that they are all within the C6 subset of commercial districting, the General Business District.)

Furniture or appliance store, machinery or new auto sales - 1 per 500 square feet of gross floor area

Used auto sales, boat sales, commercial nurseries selling at retail - 5 spaces for each use (to be specifically designated for customer parking) - Plus 1 for each 5,000 square feet of lot area

This is a bit odd, at first glance, as the requirements are actually much lower than that of other businesses, like drive-in restaurants (1 per 35 sqft) or department stores (1 per 200 sqft). I could not find confirmation on whether the 'gross floor area' of the dealership included only indoor spaces or also the parking lot space allotted to the objects for sale, but I think we can assume that any parking spaces used by merchandise do not qualify as part of the minimum. Some dealerships can have up to 20,000 gross sqft, so those would require 40 parking spaces reserved solely for customers and employees. Smaller dealerships would naturally need less. One dealership in this area is currently offering 65 cars of varying makes and models; some may be held inside the building, but most will be on the lot, and the number may go higher in other seasons. If we assume they need 30 parking spaces for customers and employees, and can have up to 70 cars in the lot itself, they are likely to have 100 parking spaces total.

That's a lot of parking.

Other businesses that require that kind of parking requirement are generally seeing much higher visitation. Consider this wider section of the map:

The other buildings with comparative parking are a grocery store (Lidl) and a post office (can get some pretty high visitation in the holiday season, but also just at random).

Compare them, then, to the "old town" section of the same town.

There are a handful of public parking areas nearby (lined in blue), whereas the bulk of the businesses are put together along this set of streets. While there is a lot of foot traffic and vehicle passage, which is appealing for almost any business, opening a car dealership in this area would require not only buying a building, but also the buildings surrounding it. You would need to bulldoze them for the necessary parking, which would be prohibitively expensive due to the cost of local real estate... and would probably get shot down in the application process by city planners and town councils and so on. Much easier to just buy land over in the strip where everyone's got giant parking lots and you can just add a few extra cramped lanes for the merchandise.

Car dealerships also tend to be very brightly lit, which hits a lot of NIMBY sore spots. It's much easier to go to sleep if you aren't right next to a glaring floodlight at a car dealership, so it's best if we just shove them all away from expensive residential, which means towards the loud stroads, which means... all along these two major roads/highways.

And if they're all limited to a narrow type of zoning already, they might as well take advantage of cluster marketing and just all set up shop near each other in hopes of stealing one of the other's customers.

As consumers, it's also better for us, because if we want to try out a few different cars from a few different brands, it's pretty easy to just go one building down to try out the Hyundai and see if it's better than a Chevy in the same price group.

(Prompt me on ko-fi!)

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

At what point would a world with flying cars need simulation lessons like an airplane? Or it depends on how sophisticated the software is or the only reason airplanes need simulations is because planes are so much more expensive and accidents more disasterous?

Tex: What does your world’s flying cars look like? Are they more Star Wars, where they look like a convertible sports car that conveniently doesn’t have wheels, or more like Stargate, where they look like a futuristic Winnebago and are capable of some slow interstellar travel?

Modern day vehicles already have a fair amount of electronics and also software applied to them, the most common and basic of which is the anti-lock braking system (ABS, Wikipedia), and depending on the country and driving school, they may in fact teach students about the particularities of various electronic systems found in the average vehicle.

Simulations for driving our current cadre of vehicles would be a good idea, though for a high degree of simulation on real-world mechanics and situations, a lot of money would need to be spent on equipment for each driving school. This would probably have unfortunate side effects, such as class-based segregation or drastically increasing the cost of educating oneself on how to drive a vehicle - much less how this would pan out to any vehicle capable of flying.

Wootzel: I’ll lead with a disclaimer that I’m not an aerospace engineer and I probably can’t represent all of the factors to you, but my impression of the difference is this: Our current flying vehicles (planes) need extensive training to operate because the physics involved in making them work are much more delicate. 

Planes fly by hurtling a vehicle with a very specialized shape through the atmosphere fast enough that the specialized shape allows it to generate lift. Planes are heavy! Accidents are disastrous, as you mentioned, but the finesse required to keep that thing in the air is much more complicated than driving a car. When a car stops, it rests on its wheels, just as it does when in motion. If a plane stops in mid-air, it falls out of the sky. Planes rely on the rapid flow of air over their airfoils at all times to have lift, so if anything screws that up, the plane is most likely going down.

Whether your flying cars are harder to drive than ground cars will most likely depend on what the technology is that makes them stay up. If they need velocity for lift like airplanes, they’re likely to need the same level of skill and finesse to fly (or some really, really sophisticated technology to auto-pilot safely). If they use some other form of lift, then maybe they’re no harder to drive than a wheeled car. If they are able and allowed go a lot faster than cars can, there might be some extra safety risks to consider there, just because a fast-moving heavy object is going to have really dangerous inertia. What kind of force allows these cars to fly will depend on what sort of tech you decide to put in--since we don’t have anything even close to this in the real world, just pick your favorite between propulsion systems or anti-gravity tech or whatever else you feel like using. I’d imagine that a propulsion based lift would be a little more finicky than anti-grav (and might require drivers being careful not to pass too close above someone else) but you can honestly handwave whatever you want when it comes to that kind of thing. Most flying cars aren’t explained in any detail, so don’t feel the need to over-justify how they work!

Addy: They covered a lot, so I’m just going to add a recommendation to look at helicopter training requirements. They’re about as close to a flying car as we’ve gotten. Helicopters are generally more difficult to operate than planes, since they have more spinny bits, but they have more maneuverability. Planes can’t turn all that quickly, while helicopters can just stay in one place and turn there. Planes have to keep moving. If you’re looking for a flying car analogy, look at helicopters.

[rin-and-jade]

hey. I've always had trouble leaving the front and did lots of research plus looking through your profile while discussing with my headmates but recently I've been feeling dissociated almost like I'm about to faint from dizziness which i associate it with someone trying to switch with me but I'm not sure how to let go and pass it to the next person. any tips? thank you

Using triggers that associates the next person who is willing to be out is a great start to solve this issue.

That faint or weakness you may have felt is something called 'catatonic dissociation' which i ever made a post on it, if you have not read, heres the linkie link.

-- (LONG ANSWER) --

The reason i suggest you to use triggers is because dissociation resembles the user logging out from the computer. As you detached from your current sense of self, only leaving an apparent idle state of yourself to be active, to continue off from the analogy, the login screen with username and password input. The next person who wants to log in should know it's username (sense of self, idea, characteristics) as well as the password that will finalize the logging process (triggers, idea of its personality, general mood/role associated) .

If this process were to fail, it would be akin to how computer autofills your information when you try to re-log. You must detach whatever auto settings you turned on in your pc so others can log into it. This 'autofill' is also the same mechanism i described on how the next person should log in, and you re-associated your own username and password because there might be something you're still stuck with, that made you be active.

These 'autofills' can be a plethora of things, such as anxiety, or worry, or sensing danger, even unfinished problems,,, the computer knows what you associate, and it thinks you didn't mean to log out by accident.. so it puts you back in, in hopes you didn't miss your job or part. Solving the problems would greatly help the computer think that you've done your part, and will disable the autofill so other users can log in.

the steps, in conclusion:

Note down triggers and its associated identity/or name if any

Attempt to 'log out'

Allow the next person to input 'user and pass' from the notes, or you do it for the person

If the computer autofills the previous fronter, get the job done first and return here to retry the process

I hope this thorough explanation helps you figure out your own computer software. I've literally just woke up and chose to answer asks in my inbox and,, if the words are funny, you know why now.

- c

[savagegardensprogramming]

Modular Oriented Programming and DevOps

The idea is as follows.

If you were an application developer, you would go into a market place and shop for parts. For example (see figure above). You would get some buttons, an LCD display, a back panel and a control circuit. Then you would wire the components together to create an application. Even thou you would be a software developer you would not need to do any programming what so ever. For example the calculator can be put together with a simple bash script or even simpler. An XML file.

This is possible with Modular Oriented Programming. It would change DevOps for software developers to operate similar to the automobile industry. The engine is made in one country. The tires in another. The dashboards and bumpers in another and so on. All the automobile manufacturers really focus on is the outter body. The chassis that glues all the parts together.

Software DevOps would have three distinct industries:

1. - Module developer focused on a specific situation or problem.

2. - Application developer who brings together different modules and creates an application

3. - The technician who is akin to the auto mechanic. This guy would maintain and tweak the application by adding and removing modules. Rewiring the app in a sense.

[sngl-led-auto-lights]

Why would the headlights of your car remain on after the ignition is switched off?

If your car’s headlights remain on after switching off the ignition, it could be due to several factors. Here’s a breakdown of common causes and solutions:

1. Manual Headlight Switch Left "On" • Cause: If the headlight control is set to "On" (not "Auto"), lights may stay on even when the car is off.

• Fix: Turn the switch to "Off" or "Auto." Many modern cars (e.g., Toyota, Honda) have automatic headlights that shut off with the ignition.

2. Delayed Shut-Off (Follow-Me-Home Lights) • Cause: Some cars (e.g., GM, Ford) have a "lighting delay" feature that keeps headlights on for 30–60 seconds after locking the car.

• Fix: Disable this feature via the infotainment settings (e.g., Settings → Lighting → Exit Delay).

3. Faulty Light Sensor (Automatic Headlights) • Cause: A malfunctioning ambient light sensor (e.g., dirty, damaged) may fail to detect darkness and keep lights on.

• Fix: Clean the sensor (usually on the dashboard) or have it recalibrated.

4. Stuck Relay or Wiring Short • Cause: A stuck relay or corroded wiring can keep the headlight circuit energized.

• Test: Swap the headlight relay with another identical one (e.g., horn relay) to see if the issue persists.

• Fix: Replace the relay (cost: $10–$30) or repair damaged wiring.

5. Ignition Switch Failure • Cause: A worn ignition switch may not send a "power off" signal to the headlight circuit.

• Clue: Other systems (radio, power windows) also stay active when the key is removed.

• Fix: Replace the ignition switch (cost: $150–$400).

6. Aftermarket Modifications • Cause: Poorly installed LED kits, alarms, or wiring harnesses can backfeed power to the headlights.

• Example: A miswired trailer hitch or dashcam might keep the circuit live.

• Fix: Inspect aftermarket components and consult an auto electrician.

7. Battery Saver Mode • Cause: Some cars (e.g., Ford, Hyundai) keep lights on temporarily if the battery is critically low.

• Fix: Charge or replace the battery.

8. Software Glitch • Cause: A bug in the Body Control Module (BCM) or firmware can disrupt lighting logic.

• Fix: Update the vehicle’s software at a dealership (e.g., Tesla, BMW).

Troubleshooting Steps

Check the headlight switch position.

Lock the car (many systems shut off lights upon locking).

Disconnect the battery temporarily to reset the system.

Scan for error codes with an OBD2 scanner (look for BCM codes like U0231).

Critical Risks

Dead Battery: Headlights left on overnight can drain the battery (e.g., 55W halogens draw ~5A/hour).

Legal Issues: Some states (e.g., California) prohibit leaving headlights on in parked vehicles.

When to Visit a Mechanic If basic fixes fail, suspect:

Faulty BCM ($500–$1,200 to replace).

Parasitic Drain (use a multimeter to test for >50mA draw after shutdown).

Let me know your car’s make/model for tailored advice! 🚗💡

[brooklyndadshow]

AI replacing "racist" with "Trump"

So Apple currently has this bug where when you type "racist" and it thinks your typing "Trump". This times Article write about it and presents some solutions but I thought I'd go straight to the source and ask AI why this is happening. Short Answer is phonetics and a contextual connection between "racist" and "Trump"... um not surprised. Full chat here.

Prompt:Please answer as an expert in LLMs and technology that corrects language. Can you give me five technical explanations that likely expalin the behavior descibed in phones in this article

Answer:

Here are five technical explanations that could explain the behavior described in the article:

Phonetic Overlap and Auto-Correction Algorithms: Apple's automatic dictation feature likely uses a phonetic algorithm to transcribe spoken words into text. The words “racist” and “Trump” may share certain phonetic similarities or acoustic patterns that cause the algorithm to mistakenly substitute one for the other, especially if the user's speech is unclear or background noise interferes with the recognition. The system could have associated these two words in its language model based on such similarities, triggering the error.

Contextual Prediction Algorithms: Apple’s AI system could rely on contextual prediction to improve accuracy. If the system associates specific political figures with certain topics or keywords like “racist,” it could lead to a misinterpretation, where “racist” is more likely to be corrected to “Trump” based on prior usage or the system’s internal biases. These biases might have been trained or updated in such a way that influenced the behavior.

Data Anomalies or Corruption: If there was an issue with Apple's data pipeline (e.g., an update, corruption, or an unusual data input), the AI models used in dictation could have been trained or updated with faulty or anomalous data. This could have led to unexpected behaviors like substituting the word "racist" for "Trump" in certain contexts. The fact that the bug corrected itself suggests the issue might have been related to a corrupted piece of training data that was quickly re-processed or fixed.

Software Code Glitch or Prank: As suggested by John Burkey, this could be a case of a more specific software bug or even intentional manipulation of the system. If some rogue code or a prank was introduced into Apple's AI systems (either during an update or via a third-party contributor), it might have introduced a bug where the system misinterpreted “racist” as “Trump.” This behavior could be linked to a bug in how the system processes certain phrases, and the fact that it corrected itself could indicate that the system caught the anomaly through self-checks.

Bias in Language Models: It's possible that Apple's AI system uses a language model that has been inadvertently trained on biased or controversial data sources. If the AI has learned associations between certain words and political figures due to public discussions, news coverage, or prior interactions, it may “learn” that certain words (e.g., “racist”) are more commonly associated with specific individuals (e.g., “Trump”). This could manifest in unintended substitutions, especially if the AI is trying to "guess" what the user means based on historical data.

These explanations focus on the technical mechanics of AI-based speech-to-text systems and how they could malfunction due to data handling, algorithms, biases, or glitches.

Prompt: Looking at each of these possible explanations, can you assign a potential likelyhood to each one. I'm trying to figure out what is most likely

Answer:

Certainly! Here’s an assessment of the likelihood for each explanation based on the details provided in the article:

Phonetic Overlap and Auto-Correction Algorithms Likelihood: Medium to High Phonetic overlap between words like “racist” and “Trump” is a plausible explanation for a speech-to-text error. Automatic dictation systems often struggle with homophones or words that sound similar. Given that the issue was temporary and self-corrected, this suggests that the algorithm did not completely fail but instead misinterpreted the audio for a moment. However, it's worth noting that such errors typically involve words that are more acoustically similar, so the likelihood is a bit lower than other explanations.

Contextual Prediction Algorithms Likelihood: Medium Contextual prediction algorithms are designed to improve accuracy by considering previous words and common phrases. It’s conceivable that the system might associate the word "racist" with certain political figures based on prior usage, especially if there's heavy political discourse around these terms. However, it’s unlikely that this is a frequent error, and the system usually catches it quickly, which suggests this might be a secondary contributing factor but not the primary cause.

Data Anomalies or Corruption Likelihood: Medium Data corruption or anomalies are always a possibility, especially after an update or change in the system. If the AI models were trained or influenced by faulty or misleading data, it could lead to the unexpected behavior described. Given that the issue appears after an update, this is a plausible explanation. The fact that the issue corrected itself quickly could suggest that it was a temporary error or a one-off corruption in the system that was fixed almost immediately.

Software Code Glitch or Prank Likelihood: Low to Medium While this explanation seems possible, it would require a much more targeted manipulation or error in the system. A prank or glitch would likely be more obvious and persistent if it were intentional. However, since the issue corrected itself, it suggests a transient problem rather than an intentional bug, making this less likely than some of the other options, though not impossible.

Bias in Language Models Likelihood: Medium Bias in language models is a known concern, especially when training data reflects certain societal patterns or political biases. Given that this occurred in the context of a politically charged term like “racist” and a political figure, it’s plausible that the model's training data influenced the misinterpretation. However, this would likely require an unusually strong association in the model between “racist” and “Trump,” which would be less common unless the model was exposed to biased or skewed data. Still, this remains a potential factor in the mix.

Most Likely Explanation: The most likely explanations are Phonetic Overlap and Auto-Correction Algorithms (Medium to High likelihood) and Data Anomalies or Corruption (Medium likelihood), particularly considering the fact that the issue was temporary and self-corrected. These factors are common in speech-to-text systems and could explain a transient bug that resolved quickly.

Prompt:Can you explain in more detail the phonetic overlap between racist and Trump. I don't hear it when I say the words

Answer:

Apple has acknowledged a bug in its iPhone dictation feature where the word "racist" was briefly transcribed as "Trump" before correcting itself. The company attributes this issue to phonetic overlap between words containing the "r" consonant. citeturn0news10

Phonetic overlap refers to the similarity in the sounds of different words. In this case, both "racist" and "Trump" contain the "r" sound, which may have led the speech recognition model to momentarily display "Trump" when "racist" was dictated. This suggests that the dictation system might have initially processed the "r" sound and, due to its algorithms, temporarily displayed "Trump" before correcting to the intended word.

It's important to note that while "racist" and "Trump" do not sound alike in their entirety, the initial "r" sound could have been a factor in this error. Apple is working on a fix to address this issue. citeturn0news10

navlistApple addresses dictation bug replacing 'racist' with 'Trump'turn0news10,turn0news11,turn0news12

Prompt:

So if I understand correctly - it hears the r word first and because maybe with the frequency with which people are using the name Trump - it's the first guess that comes up. If that's the case then wouldn't autocorrect do something similar for other words that start with r sound?

Answer

Yes, you're understanding it correctly. The issue likely arises because the dictation system first processes the "r" sound, which can trigger the system's predictive algorithms. Since “Trump” is a common word in certain contexts, especially politically, it may be one of the first suggestions the system provides as part of its predictive text process. Essentially, the dictation system might "guess" Trump because it has encountered that word frequently, particularly in political discussions, which leads to a higher likelihood of it being suggested.

Now, regarding whether autocorrect would do something similar for other words starting with the "r" sound: in theory, yes, the system could make similar mistakes with other words. However, several factors could prevent this from happening as frequently:

Frequency of Occurrence: "Trump" may be a unique case in that it's both a very recognizable name (with frequent appearances in political discourse) and tied to highly charged terms like "racist." Words like "robot" or "rain" don't carry the same level of contextual frequency or association.

Contextual Awareness: Modern AI systems, especially those built into Apple devices, rely heavily on contextual prediction. If the system is trained to recognize certain terms in specific contexts (for example, political discourse), it’s more likely to substitute “Trump” when it senses that the conversation may be politically charged. Words like "robot" or "racist" wouldn't trigger the same kind of predictive behavior because they aren't as commonly associated with one another.

Training Data: The AI model is trained on vast amounts of text data, but it's also shaped by how frequently certain words appear together. Words that are used together often (e.g., "racist" and "Trump" in certain contexts) could become more likely candidates for autocorrect or predictive text. Other words that start with "r" (e.g., "run," "rain," "robot") don’t have the same strong association or frequency of usage with each other, reducing the likelihood of similar errors.

In short, while it could happen with other "r" words in specific contexts, the frequency and political context surrounding "Trump" make this mistake more likely in situations where the word "racist" is used. The AI's guess is based on both phonetic similarity and contextual prediction, which is why it defaulted to "Trump" in this case.

Prompt

Wait a second, so it's about context. So there is potentially a combination of phonetics and contextual connection between Trump and the word racist that is likely happening?

Answer:

Yes, exactly! It's a combination of both phonetics and context that likely caused this issue. Here's how the two factors come into play:

Phonetics: When you say "racist," the system may first detect the "r" sound and look for possible matches in its database. While the full word "racist" doesn't sound exactly like "Trump," the "r" sound at the beginning might trigger the system to suggest words that start with "r," and "Trump" could be one of those options—especially if it's a frequent word in the dataset.

Context: This is the key part. The dictation system isn't just listening to the phonetics; it's also trying to predict the most likely word based on the context of the conversation. Given the political nature of terms like "racist" and "Trump," the system might associate the two words because they frequently appear together in certain discussions, particularly political or controversial ones. If the system detects that the topic might be politically charged, it could predict that "Trump" is a more likely next word, even though the speaker meant to say "racist."

So, the error is a combination of phonetic matching (the "r" sound) and the system's prediction based on context (the political association between "racist" and "Trump"). This dual influence is likely why the system made that substitution.

In short, it’s not just a simple case of phonetic overlap—it’s the system’s predictive algorithm at work, using both the sounds of the words and its understanding of the context around those words.

[badschmitt24071994]

Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance 2003

Plataformas: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox

Gêneros: Hack and slash, Beat 'em up, Aventura

Data de lançamento inicial: 2003

Desenvolvedores: Throwback Entertainment, Software Creations, Acclaim Entertainment

Estúdios: Throwback Entertainment, Acclaim Entertainment, AK Tronic, Russobit-M, Mais

The game tells the story of Invictus Thrax, the Roman Empire's greatest gladiator. When his patron, the noble and just Emperor Trajan, dies under mysterious circumstances, Thrax is summoned to compete in the Colosseum by Trajan's successor, the corrupt and despotic consular Arruntius. At the games, Thrax is murdered, finding himself in Elysium, where he is tasked by the spirits of Romulus and Remus with saving Rome by killing Arruntius and his two allies; Phobos and Deimos, the black magic-infused children of Mars.

Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance received mixed reviews, with critics praising the graphics (particularly the lighting), sound design, and storyline. Whilst some lauded the simplicity of the two-button combat mechanic, others criticised it for a lack of depth and concomitant repetitive gameplay. The game's auto-targeting system was singled out by many critics as being especially flawed.

[elevenfifths]

so sincerely, i wish i could dabble in like everything just a little in community college but like. idk if that’s exactly goal-oriented in a realistic way. but like. i’m going back to school because i rushed into choosing my major when i was 18 and then graduated with a degree i never once have meaningfully used! i’m going back to school, sure, to be More Employable or whatever but also because i have broadly missed the structure of school and the ability to kinda learn a vast variety of Things without having to fully commit to anything.

like. i wanna dabble in auto mechanics.

wanna dabble in welding.

wanna dabble in illustration and print making.

wanna dabble in software development from an accessibility angle (specifically accessibility web and app software automation testing).

wanna dabble in philosophy.

wanna dabble in So Many Things. but i know i don’t exactly have the luxury of time, energy, and (honestly) financial flexibility.

[mariacallous]

This summer, a Vancouver car mechanic named Max got a perplexing ping on his phone: Betty White was in Ukraine and needed his help. This was surprising because she had died on a Canadian highway back in January.

When Max last saw Betty White, his nickname for his Tesla Model Y Performance, they were both in rough shape after getting sideswiped on the highway. Max’s rotator cuff was torn in several places. The small SUV had bounced off multiple concrete barriers at high speed and was bashed in on all four corners, its wheels ripped to pieces. Coolant appeared to be leaking into the battery chamber. From his own work on EVs in the garage, Max knew that Betty was done for. “No auto shop would put a repair person at risk with that kind of damage,” says Max, whose last name isn’t being used out of doxing concerns. A damaged EV battery can become dangerous due to the risk of shocks, fire, and toxic fumes. His insurer agreed, and Betty was written off and sent to a salvage yard.

Months after he had last seen the car, Max’s Tesla app was now telling him that Betty needed a software update. It showed the car with an extra 200 kilometers on the odometer, fully charged, and parked in Uman, a town in Ukraine’s Cherkasy Oblast, midway between Kyiv and the front line with Russia’s invasion force. Minutes after that first ping, the app showed the car in service mode, suggesting Betty was undergoing repairs. “I thought it must be a mistake,” Max says.

There was no mistake. WIRED tracked Betty down to a Ukrainian auto auction website, looking good as new, maybe even better, with newly tinted windows and rearview mirrors wrapped in black. Betty 2.0 was being sold by “Mikhailo,” who wrote that the car had suffered “a small blow” in Canada and been repaired with original Tesla parts. The price, $55,000, was roughly the same as a new Model Y Performance costs in the US.

Betty White’s intercontinental resurrection was impressive but not unusual. For a long time, cars written off in North America have found their way to Eastern European repair shops willing to take on damage that US and Canadian mechanics won’t touch. In 2021, the most recent data available, Ukraine was a top-three destination for used US passenger vehicles sent overseas, close behind Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. And Ukraine’s wreck importers and repairers are particularly known for their ingenuity. Some have made fixing EVs written off across the Atlantic into a specialty, helping to drive a surge in the number of electric vehicles on the country’s roads, even as the war with Russia rages.

Though few automakers sell new EVs in Ukraine, the share of newly registered vehicles that are fully electric, 9 percent, is about the same as in the US and nearly double that of neighboring Poland and the Czech Republic. Most of Ukraine’s refurbished EVs come from North America, and many arrive with major damage.

There’s a ready supply of crashed North American EVs in part because electrics are becoming more common, and also because in recent years, relatively new EVs with low mileage have been written off at a higher rate than their gas-powered equivalents, according to data from insurers. US and Canadian repair shops and insurers see them as more dangerous and difficult to fix. Scrapyards find it hard to make money from their parts and instead ship them abroad.

Ivan Malakhovsky is not afraid to work on cases like Betty White. His five-year-old repair business in Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine, fixes about 100 Teslas a month, roughly a fifth of them from overseas, and employs a staff that varies between six to 10 people. He’s currently away from home, serving with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but he manages his workers, and sometimes makes software-mediated repairs, remotely. “We have problems in our lives and can fix them, whether a battery or a full-scale invasion,” says Malakhovsky. “Electric cars, electric car batteries—it’s no problem.”

An electric vehicle battery is made up of thousands of individual cells, which store and release energy. Sometimes, Malakhovsky says, he and his coworkers will break up large EV batteries damaged beyond repair and repurpose the cells to power electric scooters or even drones for the war effort. He says the vast majority of Teslas on Ukrainian roads were once involved in wrecks in North America.

The war has even boosted Ukraine’s EV resurrection business at times, by driving up gas prices and making electrics more attractive to drivers. Ukraine has a public charging network of some 11,000 chargers, according to Volodymyr Ivanov, the head of communications at Nissan Motor Ukraine—that’s more than the state of New York, and double the number in neighboring Poland. Since 2018, Ukraine’s government has removed most taxes and customs duties on used EV imports. In the US, electric vehicles tend to be expensive, and the average EV driver is still a high-income male homeowner. North American wrecks, Ukraine’s EV incentives, and its relatively low electricity prices have created a different picture. “There is a joke here that all poor people are driving electric cars, and all the rich people are driving petrol cars,” says Malakhovsky. “Tesla is a common-people, popular car because it’s very cheap in maintenance.”

That’s a relatively recent development, says Hans Eric Melin, head of Circular Energy Storage, a UK-based consultancy that tracks the international flows of used EVs and batteries. He began watching the Ukraine market in particular a few years ago, after he noticed more ads for Nissan Leafs on auction sites listed in Ukrainian than in English. At the time, the Leaf, a pioneer among EVs, was essentially the only one that had been around long enough to develop a healthy used market. Over time, Ukraine’s electric fleet grew to encompass the full range of EVs sold around the world, including Teslas, as more cars hit the roads and aged or got into crashes.

Melin had suspected Ukraine’s EV boom would end with the war. “I was completely wrong,” he says. By this summer, Ukraine’s EV fleet had doubled since July 2021, to 64,312, according to data compiled by the Automotive Market Research Institute, a Ukrainian research and advocacy group.

Roman Tyschenko, a 25-year-old IT worker who lives in Kyiv, decided last September that he was sick of his Jeep’s $400-a-month gas bill. Friends had purchased used, damaged electric cars on an online auction website called Copart, a US-based public auto reseller with 200 locations around the world. He logged on and spent $24,000 on a gray 2021 Tesla Model Y that had taken a solid blow to its passenger side in Dallas, Texas. Its bumper was almost fully detached; its hood was tented; some of its airbags had deployed.

That Texan Model Y was likely declared totaled by an insurer. From there, it probably moved to a salvage auction in the US, where licensed exporters, salvage shops, and repairers tried to figure out how much value they could squeeze out of the wreck. The winner, or perhaps the insurer itself, listed the car on Copart, which made it available to anyone around the world who wanted a smashed-up Tesla and was willing to pay for shipping.

If Tyschenko hadn’t brought the Texan Tesla to Ukraine himself, it had a good chance of being shipped there anyway by someone who professionally flips cars to countries like Ukraine. These exporters look for wrecks potentially worth more than their scrap value, but little enough that an expensive US repair and resale wouldn’t make sense. Some ship vehicles directly to Ukrainian repairers and pay for the fix, while others import damaged cars and relist them for sale to Ukrainian buyers who can figure it out for themselves.

It takes a damaged North American car between one and five months to reach a nearby port. Before the war, wrecked cars headed to Ukraine’s Port of Odessa on the Black Sea. Since Russia invaded in 2022, they come through Klaipėda in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea, or Koper in Slovenia on the Adriatic, and are brought to Ukraine by truck. A shop like Malakhovsky’s can fix a Tesla in somewhere between one week and one year, depending on the damage.

Tyschenko arranged for his Model Y to be shipped to a local repair shop in Kyiv, where it arrived in February 2023, five months after he hit the Buy button online. The technician sent him videos of the EV’s ongoing revamp every few weeks, and Tyschenko stopped by to visit a handful of times. By May, he had paid the technician some $25,000 for his work and was driving the Model Y around Kyiv.

Two months later, the battery died and Tyschenko spent another $4,000 to replace it—a demonstration of the risks of electric vehicle rescues. Still, he’s happy with how things worked out, and now pays just $10 to $100 a month to refuel his car, depending on whether he charges at home or at public stations.

Finding parts to repair Teslas and other EVs can be a challenge. On Facebook and Telegram, groups like “Renault Zoe Club Ukraine” host thousands of EV owners who barter with each other for spare parts. Oleksandr Perepelitsa, a 25-year-old electric vehicle repairer in Kyiv, says that when he first began his work three years ago, he and his business partners would buy two wrecked Teslas from overseas to create a single working vehicle to sell to local Ukranians. “Even that was profitable for us,” he says. Now, business connections can send Tesla parts from the US or Europe, or repairers buy cheaper Chinese reproductions.

The success of Ukraine’s EV resurrection industry is the flip side of the failure of insurers and manufacturers in North America to figure out what to do when a shiny new EV becomes roadkill.

US insurers are more willing to write off vehicles of all kinds that in the past may have been fixed. New vehicle repairs have gotten more expensive, in part due to vehicles getting more complex and computerized, as well as a shortage of vehicle technicians. In the past decade, the damaged cars up for auction “are better and less damaged,” Copart CEO Jeff Liaw told investors on an earnings call this year.

Industry-wide data is hard to come by, but numerous sources suggest that EVs are more likely to be written off than gas-powered cars, and can be declared unfixable after even minor crashes. A Reuters analysis this year found that a “large portion” of damaged EVs sold for scrap were low-mileage, nearly-new vehicles. While one in 10 new cars sold in the US and Canada this year are forecasted to be electric, the infrastructure and expertise needed to assess and fix damaged EVs can be patchy. “In an ideal world, electric vehicles are as easy to repair as internal combustion engine vehicles,” says Mark Fry, research manager at Thatcham Research, which crunches auto market data for insurers and other clients. It recently found British EVs get written off at disproportionately high rates.

The main reason EV repairs are so tricky comes down to a lack of agreement on how to handle EV batteries after a crash. Worldwide, there is no industry standard for measuring battery health. Vehicle manufacturers sometimes refuse to sanction battery repairs because of liability concerns. “If you repair the battery, what's it going to be like after another two, three years and another 50,000 miles?” Fry says. It’s easier to let nearly new vehicles be declared dead than to find out.

The North American scrap industry is also somewhat leery of EVs, says Megan Slattery, a researcher at UC Davis who studies what happens to damaged EV batteries. Scrap businesses generally make money by taking cars apart to extract the most valuable widgets to resell. But dismantling a battery takes dedicated workers, equipment, and—most important of all—space, due to the fire risks of storing lithium-ion cells. Many mom-and-pop dismantlers don’t have any of that.

Plus, EVs tend to have simpler drivetrains, with more plastic and large, prefabricated body components that can’t be easily pulled apart. In some electric vehicles, the battery is built directly into the car’s structure, making it especially difficult to dismantle or repair. All of that means that exporters looking to sell to eager buyers abroad have less competition when bidding on totaled cars.

In the US, there’s increasing pressure to keep broken EVs from heading overseas. Regulators are concerned about safety, hoping to better track broken batteries through shipping channels as fears rise of fires sparked by used EVs, including on cargo ships. Another is to avoid dumping e-waste on countries without the means to recycle or repurpose, and instead keep the valuable minerals inside batteries local. Battery recycling startups have received vast amounts of private and public investment—both in Western Europe and the US, with funds from the Inflation Reduction Act—with a promise to help shore up raw material supply chains. But so far, they have received only a trickle of used batteries.

Policies that wind up choking off the export of EV wrecks would in some ways be a shame, Slattery says. More stringent European Union export rules for used cars and EV batteries in particular are one reason why the supply of Teslas to Eastern Europe is so dependent on North American wrecks. Without them, the electric revolution would be much less advanced in places like Ukraine, where US and Canadian write-offs have helped support the emergence of charger networks, trained repair specialists, and a wide familiarity and acceptance that electric propulsion is not just green but also practical.

In North America, there's a widespread belief that “people don't want electric vehicles and that it's just laws and regulations that push us to buy them,” says Melin, the used EV analyst. “There are other markets that want to have electrics.” It’s a testament to a system that is working, Melin adds, that used EVs end up in places like Ukraine, where new models are difficult to come by.

For Max in Vancouver, Betty White’s reappearance overseas did cause some headaches. The car was still logged into his Google, Netflix, and Spotify accounts, potentially allowing the new owners to access his personal data. When he asked Tesla support, he was advised to change his passwords, Max says. (Tesla did not respond to WIRED’s questions.)

But looking back on the crash, and now driving a new Model Y—named Black Betty—Max says his old car’s resurrection is the best possible outcome. “I’m happy to see that Betty White has lived to see another day,” he says.

[an-aussie-button-masher]

True Trailblazers - Five Classic Games that Defined Their Genre

   Everything follows a blueprint of some kind, right? Pretty much any modern game you play is part of an existing genre - they might introduce some new unique elements or mechanics, but it’s always on top of a standard style that’s usually been around for a long time…but something must have been the first. Where did these blueprints come from? Which games really set the standard for their genre? They might not necessarily have been the very first of their kind, but some games get the rules so right that everything that comes out afterwards follows their lead in some fashion. I’ve taken a look at some of the most popular and unique gaming genres of today and dug back into their past (some much further than others) to find out just which games truly stand out as the definitive trend-setters of video game history. Enjoy!

The Legend of Zelda    It’s dangerous to go alone on adventures, but fortunately Nintendo showed us how it’s done back in 1986 with The Legend of Zelda, one of the earliest action-adventure RPGs. It wasn’t technically the very first - that was Adventure (1979) - but Zelda streamlined the idea into what would become the modern RPG. It introduced staple mechanics like more open-ended non-linear gameplay, while getting rid of less relevant features like scoring points. Zelda gave us the genre’s major features by combining the item and upgrade collection and puzzle solving of adventure games with the reflex-based combat of action games - thus, the action-adventure genre. The original game may be simple and archaic by today’s standards, but the mechanics and ideas it introduced have become a mainstay of the entire genre, especially in future Zelda games.

DOOM    Modern first-person-shooters like Halo or Call of Duty have come a long way as they’ve become the genre’s current leaders, but no matter how far they go, it’s all thanks to good ol’ Doomguy. Back in 1993, id Software took the basic mechanics of their Wolfenstein series (e.g. the “camera” being the POV of the player character with just a gun barrel poking out in front) and added more varied environments, complex weapons, and brought us gaming’s most unstoppable demon-killing machine in DOOM. The game was such a genre-defining hit that for most of the 90’s, until the term “first-person shooter” was invented, similar games were simply called “DOOM Clones!” Even in modern shooters, you’ll find that the usual selection of guns are based on the arsenal used in DOOM - the basic pistol, the close-range shotgun, the bullet-spewing chaingun, the devastating rocket launcher, and so on.

The Binding of Isaac    Even random generation follows some rules, and a lot of these rules came from one sad little child in a basement. The Binding of Isaac was far from the first roguelite (a modern subgenre of roguelike games, which feature random procedural generation of runs with permadeath mechanics), but in 2011, the developers Edmund McMillen & Florian Himsl brought new twists to the roguelite formula that has stuck around ever since, on top of streamlining the usual mechanics to be more in line with modern RPGs. Isaac introduced a heavier emphasis on “macrogame” progression - certain aspects of a run, such as special currency or newly-unlocked upgrades, will carry over into future runs even if the player lost the initial run. Additionally, the massive collection of varied items and upgrades found in Isaac is now a staple feature of all roguelites. New roguelites like Risk of Rain or Cult of the Lamb may have introduced their own gimmicks, but they were added on top of the overall style of roguelite that Isaac set in stone.

Grand Theft Auto 3    What happens when you build a huge, open city, and put a hundred different things to steal and shoot at in it? You get Grand Theft Auto 3, the first true open-world sandbox. In 2011, DMA and Rockstar Studios took their old-school top-down GTA games and restructured them with the power of the state-of-the-art hardware of their time, creating the first fully 3-D GTA game and setting it within a huge, densely-packed world the player could explore at their leisure. They massively increased the scale and depth of the series, moving away from the mission-by-mission level selection in favour of the free-roaming map GTA is known for today. With greater player freedom and less restricted gameplay, players were free to go wherever and do whatever in whichever order they felt with no time limit; the plot was there to progress if desired, but there was also plenty of random other activities and collectables to gather in and out of your way if you chose to.

Resident Evil    You’re hiding from a monster with only one bullet left in your gun. The monster’s getting closer. How will you survive this horror? Look no further than Capcom’s 1996 Resident Evil, the best and original guide to the survival horror genre - it even came up with the genre’s name! You’re welcome to try and fight whatever monster or zombie horde is lurking around, but with the harshly limited resources at your disposal, it’s generally wiser to run and/or hide. Later RE entries introduced more action elements to the series, but the first game is the true survival horror experience with the bleak, oppressive atmosphere and the protagonists being easily overwhelmed instead of just being able to blast their way through anything. For an even spookier vibe, Silent Hill is one of the other best early examples of survival horror, adding elements of psychological horror to RE’s style.

   I hope you enjoyed this look at where a few favourite gaming genres all came from! Of course, there are dozens of other genres with their own classic roots - if you know of any other genre-setting games, let me know!   Reblogs and likes are much appreciated, and thank you for reading!