#Come to Linux land!

[secundareforged]

Chapter I is now on Itch.io!<зз

"Within the land of tarnished, benign and somber you are then met by moon - shall be now seen, adored by your tender sovereign, the star of mal, and you shall bite and jaw within that gentle, open maw. Drop down a bird, come high of snake - that is your pair this part onward.

Whom you shall meet? A bird of prey.

Where you shall come? The rabid high, the depth of evermore, the stone of tender winter’s mal."

Tall-crazed morn, sharp-toothed maw of my adored - is out and spoken tenderly so evermore, all-shared tone! Thank you so, so much and so unspeakably and plenty for your gentleness and your support!<з

But there we also go~

Of just as tall I'd love within my all's to see you come there so onward - for evermore I'd also shall adore for you to then return back here along:ззз

[codingquill]

What happens when you start your computer ? ( Booting a computer )

We studied this in the lecture today, and it was quite interesting. What makes something a hundred times simpler than it is? Creating a story about it. That's why I made this super fun dialog that will help you understand it all.

I've set up a drive to compile everything I create related to the Linux operating system. Feel free to explore it for more details on the topics discussed in the conversation below. Check it out here.

Have a fun read, my dear coders!

In the digital expanse of the computer, Pixel, the inquisitive parasite, is on a microventure with Binary, a wise digital guide. Together, they delve into the electronic wonders, uncovering the secrets hidden in the machine's core.

Pixel: (zooming around) Hey there! Pixel here, on a mission to demystify the tech wonders . There's a creature named Binary who knows all the ins and outs. Let's find them!

Binary: (appearing with a flicker of pixels) Pixel, greetings! Ready to explore what happens inside here?

Pixel: Absolutely! I want the full scoop. How does this thing come alive when the human outside clicks on "start"?

Binary: (with a digital chuckle) Ah, the magic of user interaction. Follow me, and I'll reveal the secrets.

(They traverse through the circuits, arriving at a glowing portal.)

Pixel: (inquiring) What's the deal with this glowing door?

Binary: (hovering) Pixel, behold the BIOS - our machine's awakening. When the human clicks "start," the BIOS kicks in, checking if our components are ready for action.

(They proceed to observe a tiny program in action.)

Pixel: (curious) Look at that little messenger running around. What's it up to?

Binary: (explaining) That, Pixel, is the bootloader. It plays courier between the BIOS and the operating system, bringing it to life.

Pixel: (excitedly buzzing) Okay! How does the computer know where to find the operating system?

Binary: Ah, Pixel, that's a tale that takes us deep into the heart of the hard disk. Follow me.

(They weave through the digital pathways, arriving at the hard disk.)

Pixel: (curious) Huh? Tell me everything!

Binary: Within this hard disk lies the treasure chest of the operating system. Let's start with the Master Boot Record (MBR).

(They approach the MBR, Binary pointing to its intricate code.)

Binary: The MBR is like the keeper of the keys. It holds crucial information about our partitions and how to find the operating system.

Pixel: (wide-eyed) What's inside?

Binary: (pointing) Take a look. This is the primary boot loader, the first spark that ignites the OS journey.

(They travel into the MBR, where lines of code reveal the primary boot loader.)

Pixel: (in awe) This tiny thing sets the whole show in motion?

Binary: (explaining) Indeed. It knows how to find the kernel of the operating system, which is the core of its existence.

(They proceed to the first partition, where the Linux kernel resides.)

Pixel: (peering into the files) This is where the OS lives, right?

Binary: (nodding) Correct, Pixel. Here lies the Linux kernel. Notice those configuration files? They're like the OS's guidebook, all written in text.

(They venture to another partition, finding it empty.)

Pixel: (confused) What's the story with this empty space?

Binary: (smirking) Sometimes, Pixel, there are barren lands on the hard disk, waiting for a purpose. It's a canvas yet to be painted.

Pixel: (reflecting) Wow! It's like a whole universe in here. I had no idea the operating system had its roots in the hard disk.

(They continue their microventure, navigating the binary landscapes of the computer's inner world.Pixel gazes at the screen where choices appear.)

Pixel: What's happening here?

Binary: (revealing) This is where the user picks the operating system. The computer patiently waits for a decision. If none comes, it follows the default path.

(They delve deeper into the digital code, where applications start blooming.)

Pixel: (amazed) It's like a digital garden of applications! What's the enchantment behind this?

Binary: (sharing) Here, Pixel, is where the applications sprout to life. The operating system nurtures them, and they blossom into the programs you see on the screen.

Pixel: (excited) But how does the machine know when the human clicks "start"?

Binary: It's the BIOS that senses this initiation. When the human triggers "start," the BIOS awakens, and we embark on this mesmerizing journey.

[4ltrd]

See Update in Reblog Below!

I've futzed around with a bunch of machine translation over the years, and here's what I've landed on (for Android and Windows).

Note: For both of these, the translations are wildly imperfect. Having some knowledge of the language you're translating obviously helps, or you're going to be confused when Google or DeepL decide to infer the wrong pronouns because they aren't people and don't understand context.

EverTranslator

When I'm purely on my phone, I use EverTranslator. It's free and much better than it used to be once you make a few changes in the settings. I have it set to . . .

Joiner between text blocks: Space

Remove ending dashes: On

Remove line breakers inside text blocks: On

Remove spaces in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text: On

EverTranslator: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tw.firemaples.onscreenocr

UGT (with a controller)

Mirroring Your Screen on your PC

I cast my phone to my laptop via Windows Phone Link or ScrCpy when I use UGT.

§ Windows Phone Link

Upsides of WPL:

It should be natively included in your version of Windows (you'll need to get the app on your phone, though).

(Usually) sound will come through your PC instead of phone.

USB connection not required--you can connect wirelessly to a PC on the same internet connection. Great if your phone is charging across the room.

Downside:

Can't rotate the screen manually for apps that are weird about rotating (AKNK).

§ BlueStacks

This method ought to also work with BlueStacks, but I haven't ever used BlueStacks because I'm paranoid about where I allow my Google data to be accessed.

§ Samsung Dex

Samsung Dex doesn't rotate apps at all, so that method is straight out.

§ ScrCpy

Scrcpy via USB Debugging mirrors your Android to your PC without having to root your phone. This is a little more advanced than using Windows Phone Link or BlueStacks, but you're using your own phone without granting anyone your Google credentials AND you can rotate the screen easily (unlike Dex or Windows Phone Link).

Upsides of ScrCpy:

You can rotate the ScrCpy window on your PC by holding alt and pushing the left arrow key. Great for AKNK's outings and sleep support.

Downside:

Getting sound through your PC rather than phone via ScrCpy is less reliable. Though it supposedly ports audio to your PC natively with the latest release, I still need to use the dev's SndCpy: https://github.com/rom1v/sndcpy/blob/master/README.md

Setting Up UGT

UGT requires more work than EverTranslator, but once you've set it up, it's worth it. You can use it for anything on your PC. Congratulations, you can now play any untranslated Japanese otome game via emulator.

A walkthrough on how to set up UGT: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2741318181

You'll need to futz around with the config file a bit, especially with the autoglue, even when you move from game to game, but it's worth the hassle.

UGT normally supports controllers to make it easier/faster to translate (and save your wrists/fingers), but that feature is broken at the moment. The dev knows. So, I cobbled together a script in AutoHotKey for my Xbox controller . . .

Autohotkey: https://www.autohotkey.com/

The script: https://vatnalilja.neocities.org/UGTAHK

Once you load this script into AutoHotKey and run it, the buttons on your Xbox controller will work as follows:

UGT's normal functions will work; consult the program

A will translate the active window (use ctrl+F10 to set a translation rectangle so it's not unnecessarily translating everything onscreen—you can always use ctrl+F10 to set a new rectangle)

B will clear the translation (the equivalent of spacebar in UGT)

Y will act as the left click of a mouse button

Left joystick will act as a mouse, so you can move around the screen to select things without touching the mouse

I updated the above AHK config file so its set back to UGT default (ctrl+f12), allowing you to run it out of the box with UGT. My original version was tailored to my modified hot keys.

These AHK settings may conflict with games that require these buttons on a gamepad, but you can look up AutoHotKey's instructions and easily change them in the script. I promise it isn't hard. Otome games are usually point-and-click, though.

This is what my setup looks like on Windows with my Android phone cast to my laptop via Windows Phone Link using UGT and a controller (not that you can see the controller part). It's so big. Good for my old eyes!

Here's my setup via ScrCpy:

DeskTranslator

Another option besides UGT is DeskTranslator, which won't require you to connect Google or DeepL in the settings or set up anything in Google Cloud Dashboard, but will require you to know some Python, access PowerShell, etc.

The installation directions for DeskTranslator and its requirements are available on each repository page, and if you need help installing Python packages, you can very easily search Google for the right commands to copy/paste into PowerShell.

One nice thing about DeskTranslator is that it will give you reasonably real-time translations without having to push any keys/buttons. Use this combined with Windows' captions in a foreign language and you can have translation of spoken dialogue that has no built-in captions in your game.

You can also drag the translation box over a normal dialogue box and use it that way, too (like UGT or DeepL's app--see reblog below for more on DeepL's app).

When used with ScrCpy, you can simply hold your phone in your hand (connected to your PC by USB) and tap the screen like normal. No controller or keyboard hot keys are needed.

ScrCpy + SndCpy with Windows Captions and DeskTranslator

ScrCpy + SndCpy and DeskTranslator

If you use Apple products or a controller other than an Xbox controller, YMMV. There is a version of UGT that is on Linux and experimental on MacOSX: https://pypi.org/project/pyugt/. Godspeed.

[mistakenot4892]

Nebula vedlbog June '24

This devblog has been crossposted from cohost.

Hello, hello. This one's a bit late because there were a few bits and pieces pending merge. As a bonus, I moved back to Linux from Windows this month after Win10 pushed Copilot once too often, so that has taken up a bit of my time and effort. My workflow is a bit horrifying, but so far works well enough to be getting on with. Now if I could get Vulkan to stop crashing when I play Warframe...

Nebula SS13 is an open source project based on the Baystation 12 version of Space Station 13. SS13 is a topdown multiplayer simulation game where you play the crew of a ship, station, colony, etc. depending on your fork and map, with the Nebula and Bay forks having a focus on roleplaying and simulation interactions.

Notable changes

Melting has been disabled on dev due to the UX impacts of having all your clothes melt off if you step onto a fire for a few seconds.

Drakes have been merged! Big stupid lizards are now live on the dev branch. This has come along with stance and dexterity refactors to support non-human behaviors.

Bows have been reworked to have slightly nicer UX and to support multiple ammo types. Crossbows, regular bows and slings are now available in the crafting menu.

Penny has been busily moving all of the SS13-specific game modes into modpacks, to allow them to be dropped from maps where they wouldn't make sense. While it would be funny for a meteor storm to land on Shaded Hills, it probably wouldn't be a lot of fun to play through. A nuclear mercenary ship landing on Middle-Earth might be more fun.

A swathe of fixes to the atmospherics system have been authored by NataKillar, and should help resolve some of the weird edge cases that have been cropping up during testing.

We have finally, FINALLY removed /carbon from the /human mobtype. This means that the majority of life code like breathing or equipment handling are available to all /mob/living subtypes, not just humans (and diona nymphs). It also basically guarantees all map or code ports involving humans will need extra work, but them's the breaks.

We have replaced /datum/dna with a new mob_snapshot datum, generated on demand. This was a big job due to how entangled DNA was with mob code, and cleaning up like this allows for us more flexibility when implementing new things like a reworked changeling or new genetic conditions/superpowers.

I finished dismantling /under, which is a minor victory. Originally this was going to support adding a lower body/pants equipment slot, but in practice with accessory stacking the pants slot seems like unnecessary complexity; maybe something to consider down the track(pants).

Shaded Hills has had quite a lot of work done, most recently adding beggar knights and shrine attendants to the job roster. We are down to 6 items on the Shaded Hills MVP list, one of which is lobby art, which I have been putting off for something like four successive weekends.

Penny directed me through some adventures in updating the scripts we use for running headless Linux servers to support BYOND 515. I am still not sure where she finds the information, other than some kind of communion with nightmare gods.

Just recently I added a bunch of skeleton icons for kobolds, tajara and drakes, mainly to support zombies and skellymans downstream.

Bugs of note

We have an annoying issue on ScavStation where some quirk of the server scripts and the Linux setup is resulting in a round end looping the round end sound effects and warning message until the server finishes rebuild and restarts. It's not great to get bombarded with 50 YOU WANNA PUT A BANGING DONK ON IT out of nowhere.

Until a recent dexteruty tweak, drakes were fully capable of cocking aiming and firing a combat shotgun using nothing but their mouths. They could also arm grenades and perform surgery with scalpels. Thankfully they have been nerfed before they could seize power.

Current priorities

With the PR list in single digits, I'd like to take the opportunity to work through our backlog of fiddly issues. Getting that down to zero (or at least getting through some of the old issues and any new dev issues) would be nice.

r5 has been merged to stable, and r6 will be staged soon. One of the big remaining PRs is a flooring rewrite that I have been working on off and on for months. It's now blocking the next staging period, so hopefully that will put some pressure on me to finish it.

Just recently, the Shaded Hills map and the fantasy modpack have been spun into a fork server called Pyrelight. A lot of the content I'd like to make using the Shaded Hills map and Neb systems is a bit too magicy-fantasy for Neb main, so I'm going to point it at this fork.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

#20yrsago Vote absentee, avoid Diebold machines http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2004/01/22/avoid_diebold_register_absentee.html

#20yrsago Air travel “security” as theater of the absurd https://web.archive.org/web/20040130200202/https://idlewords.com/2004/01/security_as_theater.htm

#20yrsago GOP electronically burgled Dems’ computers https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2004/01/3327-2/

#20yrsago Milne heirs don’t own Pooh https://web.archive.org/web/20040211100427/http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2004-01/22/11.45.film

#20yrsago DVD cartel backs off, EFF wins, DVD keys aren’t “secret” https://www.eff.org/cases/dvdcca-v-bunner-and-dvdcca-v-pavlovich

#15yrsago Monty Python’s free web video increased DVD sales by 23,000 percent https://mashable.com/archive/youtube-boost-sales

#15yrsago National Film Board of Canada puts its archives online, free https://www.nfb.ca/explore-all-films/

#10yrsago Animal Planet’s “nature” shows: whistleblowers detail crimes, animal cruelty, fakery https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/01/animal-abuse-drugs-call-of-the-wildman-animal-planet/

#10yrsago Teach your rooted Android phones to lie to apps about whether it’s rooted https://lifehacker.com/rootcloak-hides-root-access-from-specific-applications-1505596942

#10yrsago Eyes on the Prize, famed civil rights documentary series, is back on DVD and Youtube https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/eyesontheprize/

#10yrsago One Soul: 18 interwoven lives in a graphic novel that pushes the boundaries https://memex.craphound.com/2014/01/22/one-soul-18-interwoven-lives-in-a-graphic-novel-that-pushes-the-boundaries/

#5yrsago Senator Mark Warner’s Stop STUPIDITY Act would protect federal employees’ pay during shutdowns https://www.scribd.com/document/398006535/Stop-the-Shutdowns-Transferring-Unnecessary-Pain-and-Inflicting-Damage-In-The-Coming-Years-Act

#5yrsago Republican Arizona lawmaker revives doomed “porn tax” to fund Trump’s doomed border-wall https://www.vice.com/en/article/gyapwj/arizona-porn-blocking-bill-trump-border-wall

#5yrsago An annotated bibliography of anarchism in science fiction https://www.anarchysf.com

#5yrsago The sad history of Livejournal as a lens for understanding the state of social media today https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/01/the-linux-of-social-media-how-livejournal-pioneered-then-lost-web-blogging/

#5yrsago Teen Vogue explainer: what are “resistance, rebellion, and revolution?” https://www.teenvogue.com/story/resistance-rebellion-revolution-explainer-interviews

#5yrsago English and Welsh Ramblers have seven years left to catalogue the nation’s footpaths, or they will be absorbed into private lands https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/the-search-for-englands-forgotten-footpaths

#5yrsago A list of all the booze in Casablanca (surprisingly long!) https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2019/01/booze-gin-joints-crazy-world/

#1yrago Walking the Plank https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/22/walking-the-plank/

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

[zaozoruzhna]

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🍄 Happy Music Monday from the fine folks over at Mushroom Musume~! 🍄

This week we’re looking at another new track in the recent RPG update: “Nocturne for the Wooded Witch” - a dark, foreboding track that one can unlock upon challenging the fabled Witch of the Woods.

In truth, when it comes to the might of magic found in the realms of hume and fae, there are few who can compare to the duplicitous matron herself. And even in a fairy tale land, tragedy can be ever found alongside whimsy in equal measure.

Download Mushroom Musume for free today. Available for PC / Mac / Linux and Android.

Remember: Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child.

[linuxgamenews]

Unleash Your Inner Crow in Just Crow Things: A Playful Sandbox Adventure Game

Just Crow Things sandbox-y adventure game is coming to Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Credit goes to the creative and spirited team at Unbound Creations for this delightful experience. Due to be available on Steam. If you're keen to dive into a world where mischief meets charm, Just Crow Things could be your next great adventure. While playing as a crafty little crow, out to make a name for yourself in a series of playful, sandbox-style settings. Your mission? To stitch together a reputation (or "Crowputation") that echoes through the lands—from the quaint streets. Doing so from the French Riviera to the bustling corners of New York, and all on Linux. This experience offers ten uniquely crafted levels where freedom and discovery are the name of the day. Each setting is a mini-playground loaded with puzzles, hidden items, and opportunities to cause a delightful ruckus. Why do all this? Well, because it's fun—just "caws"! Customization is a big part of your Just Crow Things journey. You can deck out your crow in adorable accessories like hats and scarves. This isn't just about looks; it's about flying through these levels with your personal flair. As you explore, you'll find various foods that not only satisfy your crow's hunger but also unlock new "poop modes." Due to be a cheeky mechanic that adds a layer of humor to your interactions.

Just Crow Things - Gameplay Reveal Trailer

The real joy comes from the toolkit you build along the way. Picking up a graffiti spray can let you leave your mark on the city walls. Or while using a leaf blower to disrupt a quiet day in the park. Even handling a blow torch—a great way to 'warm up' the night (and yes, that's as mischievous as it sounds). "Make new animal friends and help them out" isn't just a line; it's a core part of your Just Crow Things adventure. Each friend you make and each task you complete also adds to your Crowputation. From helping a frantic Squirrel Mom find her lost kids to racing against the Ferret. Since these interactions enrich your experience and deepen the game's world. And it doesn't stop at the main objectives. Optional side quests are peppered throughout to challenge your skills and intellect. So keep an eye out for all the crow puns scattered around—these add entries to your "Puncyclopedia." A fun collection that brings an extra layer of engagement. Just Crow Things sandbox-y adventure lets you live out a lighthearted fantasy of chaos and charm. It's an invitation to spread your wings, explore vibrant worlds, and embrace the joy of being the best crow around. Whether you're in it for the puzzles, the customization, or the sheer fun of creating a bit of adorable chaos, there's something here for everyone. Be sure to Wishlist the game on Steam. Due to make its way onto Linux, Mac, and Windows PC.

[reaperbabegaming]

My Alien Roommate Game Review

Reviews can contain a few spoilers. Heavy, in-depth spoilers will have a warning. All opinions are my own and I have not been paid to do this review.

Dev Lead - WholesomeWraith Romance Routes - 3 male romances (BxB and GxB available) Rating - PG-13 (Sexual References and Humor) Genre - Comedic Slice-of-Life/School Romance + Thriller/Sci-Fi elements Available On - Windows, Linux, Mac Price - Name Your Own Price

Overall Rating 4/5

Summary (retrieved from Itch.io)

"Oh my God, they were roommates."

When an alien boy named Enoch lands on Riley's balcony one uneventful Sunday night, Riley's world is instantly turned upside-down.

Play as either the male or female protagonist, Riley (name changeable) and navigate the complicated maze of academics, friendships and rivalries that is high school, all while trying to keep the biggest secret in the entire world under wraps: the existence of your alien roommate.

Pursue three MALE Love Interests in this romantic BxB/GxB visual novel: the socially-anxious childhood friend Lucas, the intelligent but arrogant "Class President" Felix Yang, or last but not least, the man alien of the hour himself, Enoch.

Reaper Review

As someone who is known for their love of alien romances, I was immediately drawn to My Alien Roommate. The art was beautiful, the writing was hilarious, and I wanted more.

You, the MC, are a high schooler who lives alone when one night something crashes onto your balcony. After seeing a blue humanoid creature exit said something, you pass out, wake back up, think it’s all a dream, and then get freaking jump scared because you’re a scaredy cat and wasn’t expecting it! ….I mean maybe that happens to you.

The adorable creature, Enoch, is just too lovable in his cinnamon roll ways that you agree to help him stay undercover but he just isn’t satisfied with staying in your apartment. This leads to lots of questions and situations that you have to navigate through. Good thing you have awesome friends to help you (even if they don’t know all that’s going on and think you’re being a little…. questionable sometimes). Together you work to keep Enoch safe, enjoy your school life, figure out what is going on with your new and weird substitute teacher, and maybe dabble in some romance along the way.

CAST

Romances:

Enoch He/Him - The alien cinnamon roll that we love to roll our eyes at but would protect with our lives.

Lucas He/Him - The BFF, has our back 100%, and the voice of reason most of the time.

Felix He/Him - Class President, pain in our butt, but also gives me that enemies to lovers trope that I crave.

Others:

Kat She/Her - The last third of the best friend trio and who always speaks her mind and we love her for it.

Gallagher He/Him - Sus.

Each character is so different and distinct when it comes to design and personality that you can’t help but fall in love with them. Even if you don’t want to romance them there’s a part of you thinking “Huh, I wonder what they would do in this situation.” Except Gallagher. We don’t talk about him more than we have to.

I played the original demo (not the extended version) so I can only comment on the fraction of the game that I saw. I think the dialogue is dynamic and the choices that are available so far are really fun and make some great conversations, my favorite being when you have to vote for who’s partner you want to be on a group project. The first few chapters (which is what the demo covers) really lays a solid foundation of intrigue and gives you a slight taste for what each character can offer you in terms of romancing them. 

That being said, I do wish I didn’t have to wait so long to romance the character that I want. The game gives you lots of chances with Enoch making him the easy romance in my opinion, with Lucas being next, and Felix being the hardest of the three. Can you tell which one I chose?

Other things to note:

The art quality is amazing throughout with the CGs being exceptionally beautiful.

A bit of mystery teased in Enoch’s backstory as well as some dangerous intrigue at the very end to really hook us for the main game release.

While there is no clear “This is the romance option” when it comes to dialogue choices, there is a numerical counter that shows if the player chose a bad, neutral, or good option.

65,000+ words making 5-8 hours of gameplay in the demo alone.

Developer is really responsive to feedback, especially quality of life comments.

With a kickstarter just around the corner, I’m very excited to see what all will be in the full game as well as what stretch goals will be offered. 

If I’ve piqued your interest, check out the demo HERE and then come back and leave me a comment on if you liked it or not.

Also let me know if you think I should go back and play the extended demo!

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2024-02-12

The sun is slowly coming back

Listening: Vienna Teng, because she posted a thing about the start of her Germany tour and I'm going to the tail end of that in March. I like how especially the Dreaming Through the Noise songs are often about relatively mundane modern things. Like "1br/1ba", which is about finding an okay but kinda crappy apartment for yourself, or "City Hall" which is about getting gay married in San Francisco in 2004.

Reading: While flipping through my Wishlist on Kobo, I saw they had Bloodchild available for free. Bloodchild is so good. It's a sci-fi love story. It's about commitment and responsibility and anxiety. It's about power dynamics. It's about mpreg. There are bugs.

Bloodchild especially lands because at no point does it other the Tlic. They're people, which makes them way, way more interesting.

Also, started rereading Gideon the Ninth because I should reread that series so I can see all the secrets and hoo boy are there secrets. God damn this is a whole different book. Dulcinea was like kind of vaguely ominous on a first read but she is so much more now. Almost done with that.

Watching: Good Bad Movie night was Yellow Submarine, the Beatles musical animated movie. It's absolutely bizarre but it's also very pretty, every frame is a worthwhile desktop wallpaper. Big bold colours and some very extravagant design.

Also more Gundam, and catching up to Gundam on Mobile Suit Breakdown, a Gundam watch-along-and-research podcast.

Playing: Oops All Dark Souls. Found my way back out of Blighttown, visited the Undead Asylum, went through Sen's Fortress and up into Anor Londo, but now I am trapped in the Painted World. I killed the dragon but there appears to be another dragon in my way so now I have to go around and deal with the fucking wheel skeletons.

It's great how Dark Souls makes you go from "ugh this is impossible" to "why was I having such a hard time" in like two hours, it took several tries for me to figure out the toxic hollows in Ariamis but by the time I took down the dragon I was literally sprinting through the level clobbering them with light running attacks.

Making: Parts for the NAS system are arriving so I am busy designing the case. Lots of sketching things, transferring them into CAD, and then throwing it out because it doesn't quite line up. I think I've got a good idea but it has yet to go into CAD.

I'm busy printing a dummy hard drive so that I can get a physical sense for the items because I don't want to heft my very expensive real drives around. Testing out Lightning Infill, a plastic-saving infill that is non-structural but can support solid upper layers with a minimal amount of plastic.

Tools and Equipment: ACPICA is a weird little software tool for Linux made by Intel that you can use to dump, rewrite, and patch ACPI entries on your system. Dealing with ACPI is a goddamn pain in the ass but this dramatically simplifies it to just a pain in the ass. Here's a little doc on how to do patching specifically that I am busy dealing with at work.

[corvuscorona]

shopping for a laptop. obviously I will be slapping linux on it immediately if it comes with anything else. checked out a bunch of brands; asus lenovo whatever they happen to have at costco (I don't believe people who say dell is worthwhile in 2023, tho). checked out everywhere that does linux-first machines (there are a handful of these places now!). most of them are more expensive and/or in europe but at least the configuration interface makes it slightly easier to understand what specs you'll be working with. (SLIGHTLY.)

I approach these with an amount of skepticism because, like, whatever, but also laptops seem like largely unpredictable nightmares compared to PCs you build yourself [1] and it's not like I DON'T want to give money to someone who's doing Linux Computers TM instead of someone shipping windows god damn fucking eleven. But also I don't want fucking 13th gen (THEY RUN TOO HOT. LEAVE ME ALONE) and it's easier to get older [2] processors when you're not shopping on a website catering specifically to nerds? [3]

This post is actually not "about" "this" but my point is I kind of landed on the system76 pangolin, which IS a Linux-first object (with 12th-gen hardware right now altho it is AMD which I say not because I'm an intel-head or anything but just because I Have Never Had Thos, but then again I have never shopped for a laptop before either so whatever), and also is like REALLY affordable compared to everything else in its general class I've been looking at, which is neat but anyway my POINT

is that in multiple places now I have seen ppl mention that the biggest downside. they perceive. of this computer. is that it has a barrel charger instead of thunderbolt, which.

IT'S TIME FOR ME TO BE OLD FOR ONE SECOND.

BARREL CHARGER: round. nondirectional. easy to locate the port. bending it would take a feat of on-purpose strength.

THUNDERBOLT: thinnest fucking flimsiest fucking roundtangle I've ever met; can only be plugged in 2 ways; port is TINY and the weight of the cord makes it feel like I'm bending the fucking plug JUST by having it do its ONE JOB.

I GENUINELY FAIL TO SEE THE PROBLEM.

[1] I say this as someone who had The Stupidest Driver Problem On Planet Earth immediately upon starting her newly-built PC + did not solve it for like a week or two. I think about the potential for Weird Laptop Problems and I Become Scared.

[2] Literally I just want alder lake. To Be Honest With You; "older" I hate computers.

[3] I'd say "SYSTEM76 I AM LOOKING AT YOU" but, well !!!

[talenlee]

Game Pile: I Was A Teenage Exocolonist

Watch this video on YouTube

Script and Thumbnail below the fold!

I was a Teenage Exocolonist is a game from Northway Games that came out in 2022, a year when I am more and more feeling like media production did something weird to affect me, personally, deliberately. It launched on Basically Everything, including macOS and Linux, which speaks to a desire to include people in this big sprawling game that Wikipedia calls an RPG, that the Steam copy calls a Narrative RPG and which I keep thinking of as a dating sim.

[pops, neutral expression]

In this game, you’re going to play a character that starts out as a ten year old on a colony ship, which then lands and explores the story of a human colony on an alien world, for the first time in history. You follow the character across a sequence of years, confronting challenges, learning about who you are and who you want to be, developing experiences with other people, which you will save and slot into a deck of cards you then use to overcome challenges later. This is a game I find incredibly exciting and I like playing and I like enjoying is experiences it offers me and that’s great. Especially if you know me and my personal challenges grappling with playing and enjoying visual novels.

[scrolls]

When I say it’s a ‘visual novel’ or ‘dating sim’ I want to do that in a way that properly puts respect on the term. Because I think it’s very reasonable to describe I Was A Teenage Exocolonist as being in the same genre as Roommates, in the same way that Wolfenstein 3D and Battlefield 1941 are games in the same genre. There’s a lot of fundamental ideas that are lined up, but one of them has access to a lot more different ways to express their ideas.

There’s a pre-emptive sneer in the critical space around visual novels and dating sims. When Dokidoki Literature Club was The Topic, there were a lot of people like me, who don’t play many games in the genre, talking about one game that was doing something remarkable that they hadn’t seen before, and used that to suggest this game elevated the form. I found this discourse tiresome, because the game didn’t really do anything that surprised me, which was I think a byproduct of my being aware that it wasn’t doing anything new in the genre. That whole period made me cautious about talking too decisively, too seriously, about what the game genre does or has in it, because what I’m mostly aware of is the things I don’t know about. Ahah, people muse, what about these interesting ideas of a game that tells you it doesn’t want to play with you? Isn’t that interesting? Isn’t that something new? All while ignoring that the game is very much not doing that, and also, that this is something games have been doing for decades in that genre.

I’m not saying I’m a better critic than people who were impressed by Dokidoki Literature Club mind you.

(Maybe a little)

Point is, that it’s very possible to describe IWATE as a visual novel and dating sim and have that feel like I’m presenting it in the wrong way. I could just as much try and call it a deck builder, or a life simulator, or yes, a roleplaying game and those wouldn’t be wrong ways to describe it otherwise. Thing is, why NOT describe it as a dating sim? It’s a game where the mechanics of romances and relationships are front-and-centre, with room for players to explore them, and it seems to me that they’re as important as any amount of shooting Geth is to Mass Effect. If you want to define ‘dating sim’ and ‘visual novel’ down to the point where this game can’t be included you’re kind of paring down what those genres can even be in a way that’s deliberately designed to exclude almost every form of those games that doesn’t fit a very narrow band. Basically, it’s saying ‘these things are boring because anything that isn’t boring isn’t one of them, definitionally.’

And if you know me, you know how much I don’t tend to buy definitional arguments when it comes to game experiences.

So.

IWATE is a dating sim.

It’s a really, really good one.

It’s a visual novel.

It’s a really, really long one.

I am not a big reader, as may surprise those of you who see the amount of words I put out or the books I have to engage with for my study. I do not, typically speaking, like reading a lot, and it’s partly because I need to do A LOT of reading. My reading is compulsory and it’s slow and it’s difficult. When I don’t have to read – not BOOKS at least – I do kinda try and do that instead for my leisure time.

There’s a lot of reading in IWATE. It is honestly so vast a reading task that I do not feel confident – a mere twenty four hours of playing through the game – being confident about what is or is not in the text. I can’t say that there’s not some plot spur or some specific idea that I personally wouldn’t like, because there’s just so much of it. And what’s more, as a game, any given play through is going to show you just one particular version of it.

A text where there are multiple versions that you’re expected to experience in multiple different iterations is a hypertext. Some pre-digital hypertexts include things like ambigrams, sentences that change meaning when read backwards, or mystery novels. It’s not a new thing, it’s just a thing we needed terms for when we started talking about videogames, and then realised that, once again, videogames were connecting to a longer, greater culture of engagement with art.

Point is, that IWATE is an extremely hypertextual game; it’s full of different choices and ways to engage with its problems, and I think it shaped my experience of the game trying to imagine what it might be doing or might be about to do. I thought it was really interesting, and I didn’t want to just list to you, hey, here’s stuff I cared about in this game, in a way that meant when you played the game (because I think odds are good you will like this game). Part of what I liked about IWATE’s experience was the way that the game I engaged with in the beginning wound up presenting totally reasonable changes to my expectations. Basically, stuff I thought I’d care about in ten years when I was ten, I did not care about the same way – my relationships were shaped by randomness and circumstances and I wound up feeling entangled in a story in a way I wouldn’t have chosen to be.

This enmeshing is really interesting and I know when I loop back through this story, I’m going to do it without these changes being unexpected. It’s going to change how I relate to things in this game, and for that reason… I kind of don’t want to show you too much about what’s in the game. Hence this video being full of slow pans across promotional art and uh, me.

But I don’t want this to just come across as a sort of token effort of a video, I don’t want you to look at this and come away with ‘wow, IWATE is a big game and Talen hasn’t played all of it yet, because that would take ages.’ What I want to talk about instead, and what I keep thinking about as I play IWATE is the work of one Roger Caillois.

<intro to Caillois>

Roger Caillois or ROGER KY-LOIS for those of you who’ve only ever read his name rather than heard it said aloud, was a French intellectual whose career started out before World War 2 and kept on publishing until he died in 1978 and then, because he was influential and wrote a lot of stuff that’s still being translated and published, kept publishing until 2006, which is pretty good running for a dead guy. If you want to frame him as positively as possible, Caillois was part of an academic tradition that sought to involve as many people as possible from as many different places, and founded the academic journal Southern Cross, which helped introduce authors like Jorge Luis Borges and Victoria Ocampo to French-speaking audiences. If you want to be a little less charitable, he was an advocate for western oppressive and exploitative colonialism as a necessary good to correct the failings of all other cultures that existed at a level of civilisational quality below the level of white western Europeans.

What can one say, of course, but yikes.

I could spend a lot of time talking about different criticisms of Caillois from the funny (he hated clowns) to the vague (he was very good at intellectualising what was ultimately only his personal experience and generalising that out) to the deeply damaging (he didn’t respect women or nonwhite people at all). But instead I want to talk about one of his most well-known contributions to academic culture, with the proper framing up front so you know full well that these ideas did come from someone who needs to be considered with a degree of scrutiny. He’s responsible for the book Man Play and Games, which is probably? his most influential book.

In Man Play and Games, Caillois describes a lot of ideas. He talks about the idea of cultures’ destiny, reflected in their games, and about the distinction between types of play as expressive or rules structured – a paradigm of ludic play, versus paidic play. Then he describes a model of game classification, for considering different games not based on the components that are in them, or their length or size or form or outcomes, but instead about what experience motivates people to play them. And I want to talk about this model, because I think it can be a great way to look at IWATE, a game that can offer you everything.

First up, the summary: Caillois considers games to be broken into four basic motivating factors, reasons people play them, things they play them for. They are agon, alea, ilinx and mimicry.

Agon refers to competitive overcoming of obstacles. Agonic games are games where difficulty are important, games where you’re meant to be able to test your skill. You might recognise good examples of agonic games such as the Indian game chaturanga or the Japanese game go, games with a lot of open information and correct forms of play building around strategic windows. You might recognise it, but Caillois didn’t – he didn’t think Asian games produced meaningful examples of Agonic play.

Alea refers to games of chance, where your best choices are going to be consigned to the whims of fate. Caillois liked to connect this to his existing ideas of the sacred and divine, like there’s some part of people that just wants to give up offerings, but we don’t need that here, not really. I just think Aleatic games are games where players need a random, chance-based element, because they are looking for that feeling of getting lucky.

Ilinx refers to games of vertigo, of the voluptuous panic of a loss of control of the senses. This is your games where you’re losing the ability to perceive and experience things correctly. If you’re having a hard time thinking of games of ilinx, then think about things you see little kids doing: Spinning on the spot, rolling down hills, swinging on ropes. Or maybe that’s monkeys. Caillois argued that adult games of ilinx didn’t exist until the invention of the roller coaster. I argue that this means nobody invited Caillois to any really good parties. Drinking games, playing videogames while stoned, these are ilinx experiences, and you play in part to enjoy that experience of not being in control of your experiences and perception.

Then there’s Mimicry, which refers to games about being or pretending to be another person. These are games of simulation, of recreated experiences, which you may recognise from almost every videogame you’ve ever played in the past twenty years, since these days it’s very common for videogames to include some kind of character for you to inhabit as an agent. But most keenly you’ll see this stuff in play experiences like roleplaying games or life simulators.

And then there’s a secret, fifth thing.

Now, Caillois believed that games were fundamentally games of these traits. Chess is an agonic game, because it’s played for a winner and a loser with open information and people are trying to get better at it. If you’re not doing that you’re not playing chess. Which betrays one of the ways Caillois’ thinking was kinda bent at odd angles to mine. I don’t think games are agonic, I think you play games in agonic ways. There are absolutely people who play Chess in ways that aren’t agonic, they’re thinking about some other way to play, they’re looking at rules systems and aiming for a particular vibe, a joke to pull, or whatever. Chess is not agonic, it’s just we culturally, assert that chess should be treated as if it is only agonic.

And it’s that distinction – that you can use these tools to experience games in different ways – that brings me to IWATE.

IWATE is a game of Agon. There’s a lot of reading to do but at its beating heart is a resolution system that operates as a good-faith puzzle game where you spend time getting yourself the best puzzle pieces that are meant to function together in as optimal a way as you can. Your cards are known to you – you can refine them with currency and you can amplify them with stats you build up through carefully chosen processes. The game pieces are not random and do not ask of you to guess what they do in any given interaction. If you want to, you can math out layers upon layers of game strategy, and optimal play involves correct routing and correct execution. It can even be unlocked into a harder mode so that you need to do this to push through the game’s challenges. While losing isn’t the end of the story, you can always, always approach problems with a mindset that this is somehow winnable. It competes with you, it defies you, and it keeps escalating and demands you escalate with it. And then when you feel like you’ve failed, you can loop back through and do it all again, harder, and armed with more knowledge.

IWATE is an game of Alea. There is a constant presence of gambling in the game, where sometimes all you can do is consign your fate to the cards presented to you. You are going to accumulate cards (if you don’t try and stop it) and that means you’re going to wind up over the course of the story naturally building up a collection of memories that are at the very least, unreliable or weird or don’t fit together well, and the ways to approach and experience as much of the game as is possible mean you’re going to wind up believing in the heart of the cards and stacking a lot of Ls when they don’t come through for you. This is setting aside the social elements of the game too – there are a lot of things that have a chance to just go wrong because the game is unpredictable in a lot of deliberate ways. Keeps you on your toes. You need to capitalise on random respawns and lucky encounters because you won’t always get the best versions of things you want. You need to be at least a little bit lucky.

IWATE is a game of ilinx. Oh sure the game doesn’t reach in through your USB port and get you high, and there’s no playing with proprioception that you might get from a VR game or, try to scramble your brains through nonsexual sissy hypno like 1995’s Zoop — [annoyed]what do you mean I’m the only person who remembers Zoop? — but the character you play is constantly being thrown through a series of experiences that are about a sudden and panicking loss of control. The helplessness of being a child in a truly alien space aside, there are numerous encounters in the story that are about an immediate and wholehearted loss of control over your own body regardless of what the rules say. And your character does kinda get high a few times, as their consciousness is expanded by other’s actions. This is a really interesting thing to consider, because the game’s only recourse to make you experience this ilinx is not to deprive you of agency or information, but to instead instil in you what it feels like to feel this way, with metaphor and simile.

IWATE is a game of mimicry. It’s a life simulator game, where you get to settle into the identity of this kiddo in space who is going to go through the weirdest thing in their life (so far). You’re going to choose what they prioritise, who they prioritise, what they do with their limited time as a child and what those priorities mean for you. Are you a planner? Do you have set goals? Or do you just handle what comes your way? How well do you stick to the plan if you have one? Do you think you can stick to it even when confronted with an ugly, unpleasant choice? What, and who, and how do you care about things? Not just the character but you, as that character?

…

What’s that?

Why, that’s Astrid Ensslin’s music!

Yeah, so the history of games studies is a lot of white dudes in privileged positions deciding hey, you know, games are pretty much like this and not connected to anything else, and then women, queers, and people of colour (and queer women of colour) showing up afterwards to say hey, no, actually, people’s material conditions do matter here. In Caillois’ model, he conceived of those four reasons people might engage with a game, but that is missing a category that Ensslin describes in Literary Gaming: Rhythmos.

Rhythmos is engaging with a game because of the pure intersection of its rules as systems. It’s the kind of people who find the way that game behaviour all slots together neatly satisfying, the people who like finishing their turns with no leftover points, or pare a speedrun down to its minimum frames. Rhythmos is the play experience of liking the interaction of rules in interlocking systems for their own beneficial form. Rhythmos is using all eight letters on your first turn in Scrabble and it is ghost-running a Dishonored level without using any stun darts. Rhythmos cares about the things that can be done in the rules and the ways those executions can be done perfectly…

And IWATE is a game of Rhythmos, because of just how everything in its vast sprawling spread of interactions beckons to you with the idea of a perfect run. You can tell there are choices to be made, you can see there are places you waste investment and overflow and if you can just talk to everyone in the right order, if you can approach this system in the right way, map out the right direction next time, you should be able to unlock all these things and hit this goal and successfully make the whole thing fit together like a puzzle box of numbers.

Thing is, IWATE has a lot of different reasons to want to engage with it. You can approach it in a lot of different ways. Some of those ways are going to be incredibly engaging. I know I found it got its hooks in me hard and I had to literally assign myself homework with a post-it note on my desk to make sure I didn’t just open it up and vaporise a second day on it.

And there’s something else that’s covertly missing from IWATE.

See, growing up, you are going to have decisions about yourself, about your priorities, that you’re going to make and things that are going to change. You might find, like I did, at some point, that one of the people you assume is just as good as everyone else needs to get hit with a brick. Something that IWATE has space for and doesn’t do is a grapple with your own sexuality or gender, too. At any point in IWATE you can decide you want to try out some new pronouns, a new appearance, just pivot your slider over to the side and things are different now.

It’s interesting because it’s a reminder that for all there are things about your character that are a little bit defined, bumpers you bounce against on the way to your end of the story, they are also details that the game leaves entirely up to you to express. You get to choose if that’s a thing you want your exocolonist to do during the story. There is a room for where you play, where there are rules, but also there is a space for individual expression

It’s this space that Caillois – who died shortly after the first videogames were being made – describes:

This latitutde of the player, this margin accorded to his action is essential to the game and partly explains the pleasure which it excites. It is equally accountable for the remarkable and meaningful uses of the word ‘play,’ such as are reflected in such expressions as the playing of a performer or the play of a gear, to designate in one case the personal style of an interpreter, in the other the range of movement of the parts of a machine.

Roger Caillois, Man Play and Games, page 8

IWATE is an amazing game.

And it wants you to play with it.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#GamePile #Games

[cloudatlasinc]

Accelerating transformation with SAP on Azure

Microsoft continues to expand its presence in the cloud by building more data centers globally, with over 61 Azure regions in 140 countries. They are expanding their reach and capabilities to meet all the customer needs. The transition from a cloudless domain like DRDC to the entire cloud platform is possible within no time, and a serverless future awaits. Microsoft gives the platform to build and innovate at a rapid speed. Microsoft is enhancing new capabilities to meet cloud services' demands and needs, from IaaS to PaaS Data, AI, ML, and IoT. There are over 600 services available on Azure with a cloud adoption framework and enterprise-scale landing zone. Many companies look at Microsoft Azure security compliance as a significant migration driver. Microsoft Azure has an extensive list of compliance certifications across the globe. The Microsoft services have several beneficial characteristics; capabilities are broad, deep, and suited to any industry, along with a global network of skilled professionals and partners. Expertise in the Microsoft portfolio includes both technology integration and digital transformation. Accountability for the long term, addressing complex challenges while mitigating risk. Flexibility to engage in the way that works for you with the global reach to satisfy the target business audience.

SAP and Microsoft Azure

SAP and Microsoft bring together the power of industry-specific best practices, reference architectures, and professional services and support to simplify and safeguard your migration to SAP in the cloud and help manage the ongoing business operations now and in the future. SAP and Microsoft have collaborated to design and deliver a seamless, optimized experience to help manage migration and business operations as you move from on-premises editions of SAP solutions to SAP S/4 HANA on Microsoft Azure. It reduces complexity, minimizes costs, and supports end-to-end SAP migration and operations strategy, platform, and services. As a result, one can safeguard the cloud migration with out-of-box functionality and industry-specific best practices while immaculately handling the risk and optimizing the IT environment. Furthermore, the migration assimilates best-in-class technologies from SAP and Microsoft, packed with a unified business cloud platform. 

SAP Deployment Options on Azure

SAP system is deployed on-premises or in Azure. One can deploy different systems into different landscapes either on Azure or on-premises. SAP HANA on Azure large instances intend to host the SAP application layer of SAP systems in Virtual Machines and the related SAP HANA instance on the unit in the 'SAP HANA Azure Large Instance Stamp.' 'A Large Instance Stamp' is a hardware infrastructure stack that is SAP HANA TDI certified and dedicated to running SAP HANA instances within Azure. 'SAP HANA Large Instances' is the official name for the solution in Azure to run HANA instances on SAP HANA TDI certified hardware that gets deployed in ‘Large Instance Stamps’ in different Azure regions. SAP or HANA Large Instances or HLI are physical servers meaning bare metal servers. HLI does not reside in the same data center as Azure services but is in close proximity and connected through high throughput links to satisfy SAP HANA network latency requirements. HLI comes in two flavors- Type 1 and 2. IaaS can install SAP HANA on a virtual machine running on Azure. Running SAP HANA on IaaS supports more Linux versions than HLI. For example, you can install SAP Netweaver on Windows and Linux IaaS Virtual Machines on Azure. SAP HANA can only run on RedHat and SUSE, while NetWeaver can run on windows SQL and Linux.

Azure Virtual Network

Azure Virtual Network or VNET is a core foundation of the infrastructure implementation on Azure. The VNET can be a communication boundary for those resources that need to communicate. You can have multiple VNETs in your subscription. If they weren't connected, we could call them Pierre in Azure wall; there will be no traffic flow in between. They can also share the same IP range. Understanding the requirements and proper setup is essential as changing them later, especially with the running production workloads, could cause downtime. When you provision a VNET, The private blocks must allocate address space. If you plan to connect multiple VNETs, you cannot have an overlapping address space. The IP range should not clash or overlap with the IP addressing in Azure while connecting on-premise to Azure via express route or site-site VPN. Configuring VNET to the IP address space becomes a DHP service. You can configure VNET with the DNS server's IP addresses to resolve services on-premise.VNETS can be split into different subnets and communicate freely with each other. Network security groups or NSGs are the control planes we use to filter traffic. NSGs are stateful but simple firewall rules based on the source and destination IP and ports.

 Azure Virtual Gateway

 For extensive connectivity, you must create a virtual gateway subnet. When you create a virtual gateway, you will get prompted for two options: VPN or Express Route Gateway; with VPN, you cannot connect to the Express Route Circuit. If you choose the Express Route Virtual Gateway, you can combine both.

 There are two types of VPN;

1) The point-to-site VPN is used for testing and gives the lowest throughput.

2) The site-site VPN connection can offer better benefits by bridging networks.

This VPN offers zero support for SLA and uses this connection as a backup for the recommended connection on Azure, called the express route. Express route is a dedicated circuit using hardware installed on your data center, with a constant link to ‘Microsoft Azure Edge’ devices. Express route is inevitable for maintaining the communication between application VNET running in Azure and on-premise systems to HLI servers. The express route is safer and more resilient than VPN as it provides a connection through a single circuit and facilitates second redundancy; this helps route traffic between SAP application servers inside Azure and enables low latency. Furthermore, the fast path allows routine traffic between SAP application servers inside Azure VNET and HLI through an optimized route that bypasses the virtual network gateway and directly hops through edge routers to HLA servers. Therefore, an ultra-performance express route gateway must have a Fast Path feature.

SAP HANA Architecture (VM)

This design gets centered on the SAP HANA backend on the Linux Suse or RedHat distributions. Even though the Linux OS implementation is the same, the vendor licensing differs. It incorporates always-on replication and utilizes synchronous and asynchronous replication to meet the HANA DB requirements. We have also introduced NetApp file share for DFS volumes used by each SAP component using Azure site recovery and building a DR plan for App ASCs and the web dispatches servers. Azure Active directory is used in synchronization with on-premises active directory, as SAP application user authenticates from on-premises to SAP landscape on Azure with Single Sign-On credentials. Azure high-speed express route gateway securely connects on-premises networks to Azure virtual machines and other resources. The request flows into highly available SAP central, SAP ABAP services ASCS and through SAP application servers running on Azure virtual machines. The on-demand request moves from the SAP App server to the SAP HANA server running on a high-performance Azure VM. Primary active and secondary standby servers run on SAP-certified virtual machines with a cluster availability of 99.95 at the OS level. Data replication is handled through HSR in synchronous mode from primary to secondary enabling zero recovery point objective. SAP HANA data is replicated through a disaster recovery VM in another Azure region through the Azure high-speed backbone network and using HSR in asynchronous mode. The disaster recovery VM can be smaller than the production VM to save costs.

SAP systems are network sensitive, so the network system must factor the design decisions into segmenting the VNETs and NSGs. To ensure network reliability, we must use low latency cross-connections with sufficient bandwidth and no packet loss. SAP is very sensitive to these metrics, and you could experience significant issues if traffic suffers latency or packet loss between the application and the SAP system. We can use proximity placement groups called PGS to force the grouping of different VM types into a single Azure data center to optimize the network latency between the different VM types to the best possible.

 Security Considerations

 Security is another core pillar of any design. Role-based Access control (RBAC) gets accessed through the Azure management bay. RBAC is backed up through AD using cloud-only synchronized identities. Azure AD can back up the RBAC through cloud-only or synchronized identities. RBAC will tie in those cloud or sync identities to Azure tenants, where you can give personal access to Azure for operational purposes. Network security groups are vital for securing the network traffic both within and outside the network environment. The NSGs are stateful firewalls that preserve session information. You can have a single NSG per subnet, and multiple subnets can share the same energy. Application security group or ASG handles functions such as web servers, application servers, or backend database servers combined to perform a meaningful service. Resource encryption brings the best of security with encryption in transit. SAP recommends using encryption at rest, so for the Azure storage account, we can use storage service encryption, which would use either Microsoft or customer-managed keys to manage encryption. Azure storage also adds encryption in transit, with SSL using HTTPS traffic. You can use Azure Disk Encryption (ADE) for OS and DBA encryption for SQL.

Migration of SAP Workloads to Azure

The most critical part of the migration is understanding what you are planning to migrate and accounting for dependencies, limitations, or even blockers that might stop your migration. Following an appropriate inventory process will ensure that your migration completes successfully. You can use in-hand tools to understand the current SAP landscape in the migration scope. For example, looking at your service now or CMDB catalog might reveal some of the data that expresses your SAP system. Then take that information to start drawing out your sizing in Azure. It is essential to ensure that we have a record of the current environment configuration, such as the number of servers and their names, server roles, and data about CPU and memory. It is essential to pick up the disk sizes, configuration, and throughput to ensure that your design delivers a better experience in Azure. It is also necessary to understand database replication and throughput requirements around replicas. When performing a migration, the sizing for large HANA instances is no different from sizing for HANA in general. For existing and deployment systems you want to move from other RDBMS to HANA, SAP provides several reports that run on your existing SAP systems. If migrating the database to HANA, these reports need to check the data and calculate memory requirements for the HANA instances.

When evaluating high availability and disaster recovery requirements, it is essential to consider the implications of choosing between two-tier and three-tier architectures. To avoid network contention in a two-tier arrangement, install database and Netweaver components on the same Azure VM. The database and application components get installed in three-tier configurations on separate Azure Virtual Machines. This choice has other implications regarding sizing since two-tier, and three-tier SAP ratings for a given VM differs. The high availability option is not mandatory for the SAP application servers.

You can achieve high availability by employing redundancy. To implement it, you can install individual application servers on separate Azure VMs. For example, you can achieve high availability for ASCS and SCS servers running on windows using windows failover clustering with SIOS data keeper. We can also achieve high availability with Linux clustering using Azure NetApp files. For DBMS servers, you should use DB replication technology using redundant nodes. Azure offers high availability through redundancy of its infrastructure and capabilities, such as Azure VM restarts, which play an essential role in a single VM deployment. In addition, Azure offers different SLAs depending on your configuration. For example, SAP landscapes organize SABC servers into different tiers; there are three diverse landscapes: deployment, quality assurance, and production.

Migration Strategies:- SAP landscapes to Azure

 Enterprises have SAP systems for business functions like Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP), global trade, business intelligence(BI), and others. Within those systems, there are different environments like sandbox developments, tests, and production. Each horizontal row is an environment, and each vertical dimension is the SAP system for a business function. The layers at the bottom are lower-risk environments and are less critical. Those towards the top are in high-risk environments and are more critical. As you move up the stack, there is more risk in the migration process. Production is the more critical environment. The use of test environments for business continuity is of concern. The systems at the bottom are smaller and have fewer computing resources, lower availability, size requirements, and less throughput. They have the same amount of storage as the production database with a horizontal migration strategy. To gain experience with production systems on Azure, you can use a vertical approach with low-risk factors in parallel to the horizontal design.

 Horizontal Migration Strategy

 To limit risk, start with low-impact sandboxes or training systems. Then, if something goes wrong, there is little danger associated with users or mission-critical business functions. After gaining experience in hosting, running, and administering SAP systems in Azure, apply to the next layer of systems up the stack. Then, estimate costs, limiting expenditures, performance, and optimization potential for each layer and adjust if needed.

Vertical Migration Strategy

The cost must be on guard along with legal requirements. Move systems from the sandbox to production with the lowest risk. First, the governance, risk, compliance system, and the object Event Repository gets driven towards production. Then the higher risk elements like BI and DRP. When you have a new system, it's better to start in Azure default mode rather than putting it on-premises and moving it later. The last system you move is the highest risk, mission-critical system, usually the ERP production system. Having the most performance virtual machines, SQL, and extensive storage would be best. Consider the earliest migration of standalone systems. If you have different SAP systems, always look for upstream and downstream dependencies from one SAP system to another.

Journey to SAP on Azure

Consider two main factors for the migration of SAP HANA to the cloud. The first is the end-of-life first-generation HANA appliance, causing customers to reevaluate their platform. The second is the desire to take advantage of the early value proposition of SAP business warehouse BW on HANA in a flexible DDA model over traditional databases and later BW for HANA. As a result, numerous initial migrations of SAP HANA to Microsoft Azure have focused on SAP BW to take advantage of SAP HANA's in-memory capability for the BW workloads. In addition, using the SAP database migration option DMO with the System Migration option of SUM facilitates single-step migration from the source system on-premises to the target system residing in Azure. As a result, it minimizes the overall downtime. In general, when initiating a project to deploy SAP workloads to Azure, you should divide it into the following phases. Project preparation and planning, pilot, non-production, production preparation, go-live, and post-production.

Use Cases for SAP Implementation in Microsoft Azure

 Use  cases

How  does Microsoft Azure help?

How  do organizations benefit?

Deliver  automated disaster recovery with low RPO and RTO

Azure  recovery services replicate on-premises virtual machines to Azure and  orchestrate failover and failback

RPO  and RTO get reduced, and the cost of ownership of disaster recovery (DR)  infrastructure diminishes. While the DR systems replicate, the only cost  incurred is storage

Make  timely changes to SAP workloads by development teams

200-300  times faster infrastructure provisioning and rollout compared to on-premises,  more rapid changes by SAP application teams

Increased  agility and the ability to provision instances within 20 minutes

Fund  intermittently used development and test infrastructure for SAP workloads

Supports  the potential to stop development and test systems at the end of business day

Savings  as much as 40-75 percent in hosting costs by exercising the ability to control  instances when not in use

Increase  data center capacity to serve updated SAP project requests

Frees  on-premises data center capacity by moving development and test for SAP  workloads to Microsoft Azure without upfront investments

Flexibility  to shift from capital to operational expenditures

Provide  consistent training environments based on templates

Ability  to store and use pre-defined images of the training environment for updated  virtual machines

Cost  savings by provisioning only the instances needed for training and then  deleting them when the event is complete

Archive  historical systems for auditing and governance

Supports  migration of physical machines to virtual machines that get activated when  needed

Savings  of as much as 60 percent due to cheaper storage and the ability to quickly  spin up systems based on need.

  References

n.d. Microsoft Azure: Cloud Computing Services. Accessed June 13, 2022. http://azure.microsoft.com.

n.d. All Blog Posts. Accessed June 13, 2022. https://blogs.sap.com.

n.d. Cloud4C: Managed Cloud Services for Enterprises. Accessed June 13, 2022. https://www.cloud4c.com.

n.d. NetApp Cloud Solutions | Optimized Storage In Any Cloud. Accessed June 13, 2022. http://cloud.netapp.com.

[b3balancedsims]

Alright I don't own the game yet. I might need to buy a windows computer. I use Linux. I want it to work via steam.

Background:

I played simcity long ago along with the sims 1 and 2 in college. I had children started a few businesses, got a divorce. Just life stuff. A few months ago my 13 year old son discovered he could get the sims 4 on his 11 year old brothers Xbox.

Down the rabbit hole I leapt. It is winter so not much to do but watch YouTube. I started with my old fave pleasant sims because we have similar play styles. I was thinking I might have build wars with my son.

After watching sims 4 videos for like two hours I was over it. I was more interested in the sims 3 open world. I vaguely remembered being excited for its release. But then I got married and had some kids. You know, I got side tracked.

In the beginning:

I played an uberhood in sims 2. I loved how all the playable families got to know each other plus I didn't have to marry too many townies. My goal was to get everyone related by the tenth generation. I made it to six before real life.

Sims 3 seemed so perfect except no open for business, as I loved interacting with the customers, it was my favorite part of the game. Hey I am a home based business owner in real life so it was the best in sims 2 hands down. Granted sims 3 has a less hands on version, which will allow more time to do other things, I think I will love Sims 3 more.

Hail great modder simstatedude.

I initially wanted to go back to sims2 but the open world was calling me. Story progression is awesome from what I can see. All the mod creators have outdone themselves. Now I can afford to pay you all. EA is not worthy

So after going back and forth between should I go back to the Sims 2 or should I play The Sims 3 I finally landed on I want the open world in The Sims 3 bugs be damned. Plus of course I haven't had a Windows computer in about 15 years so I just realized that my ultimate collection through origin won't launch anymore and I really don't feel like going through all of that to make it work. Maybe one day long long in the future when I decide that you know, since I paid for that game like six times, I want to play it again.

I have all the files!!! And discs!!!

I'll just play The Sims 3. But I need my uberworld. I have searched high and low on the internet and I have not discovered an Uber world that comprises all of The Sims2 hoods. I found large custom worlds that had all of the terrain that would allow me to have all of the hoods in one place but they didn't actually look the way that I wanted them to. Then I found Tedhi's Tumblr after I looked at one of her YouTube videos and as a construction manager myself, I really enjoyed her architectural style. We have similar ideas on planning builds and worlds. When I saw her new pleasant view video, it was just like she was in my head and added a few things, like her pool I never thought of, that's what I wanted.

Now when it comes to the Sims 2 world and having all of the premade Sims, Pleasant Sims was in my head. I don't think I will have the time to recreate them all but I want a place for all the Sims 3 versions to move to in order to play out their stories.

I took pleasant Sims idea on how the military base is up on the ridge and I was like oh this is perfect that's where I can have strange town, veronaville, and riverblossom hills. You know Verona ville is a mythical town so it would be perfect to have it up there next to strangetown as if the aliens terraformed the area created some test tube Sims and let them grown as they observed them. Riverblossom hills has the bridge that connected to the top of another mountain and I was like oh my goodness Blue water village has that large mountain at the tip of the peninsula that it sets on and my brain just went crazy as the map puzzle pieces fell into place. I was like oh my goodness I could literally have all 7-8 hoods, to some degree, in one place. Obviously I'm not going to make them as big as they were initially meant to be because I don't want to have like 80 billion lots in one Hood but I could have that feel of all of those lots like Tedhi did. she made pleasant view with a couple of extra lots in it but she had the most important ones so I want to have the feel of those neighborhoods like the strange town crater and have it be like arid and desert cuz it's going to be on top of a mountain obviously and then Verona ville is going to be where the fairies live cuz I mean they were honestly fairies in the first place. I don't have any idea what it's going to look like in CAW but right now I think I'm going to have the two Bridges I'm going to have what I'm going to call crater falls coming from strange town crater through veronaville since it has that River and it's going to go past River blossom hills to make the waterfall between the two Bridges.

I was initially going to call it SimCity but then I figured that would be copyrighted so I decided well two Bridges and a waterfall - Twin Bridge Falls.

I did a search online and I haven't found anything that says twin bridge falls so I was like let me put this up here on the internet as public notification of copyright, before somebody comes up with it and then my world will be lost forever to oblivion. This Tumblr is going to document my foray into building Two Bridge Falls for The Sims 3. My Uber world homage to The Sims 2.

[resourcebazaar1]

PHP Training in Noida: Unlock Your Web Development Potential

Are you looking to build a career in web development or enhance your skills in backend programming? PHP, a widely-used server-side scripting language, is a great choice for aspiring web developers. Known for its versatility, speed, and ability to power dynamic websites, PHP is a crucial skill in today’s tech industry. If you're in Noida and seeking the right training, you're in luck. PHP training in Noida is highly sought after, and several institutions, including Resource Bazaar Training Company, offer comprehensive courses tailored to both beginners and experienced developers.

Why Learn PHP?

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is one of the most popular programming languages for web development. It’s the backbone of millions of websites, including major platforms like Facebook and WordPress. Learning PHP opens the door to a vast array of job opportunities in web development, software engineering, and backend programming. Here's why learning PHP is beneficial:

Easy to Learn: PHP’s syntax is straightforward, making it easier to pick up compared to other programming languages.

Open-Source: PHP is free to use, making it accessible to everyone.

Versatility: PHP is compatible with major operating systems like Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Support for Databases: PHP works seamlessly with various databases, particularly MySQL, enabling developers to build dynamic and data-driven websites.

Community Support: PHP has a large and active community, ensuring continuous updates, security patches, and vast resources for learning.

PHP Training in Noida: What to Expect

Noida, a rapidly growing IT hub, is home to numerous training institutes that provide high-quality PHP courses. Resource Bazaar Training Company is among the leading institutions offering comprehensive PHP training in Noida. Whether you're a beginner looking to learn the basics or an experienced developer aiming to sharpen your skills, the training is designed to suit various levels of expertise.

Here’s what you can expect from PHP training in Noida:

1. Structured Curriculum

A well-structured curriculum ensures that students learn PHP step by step, from basic concepts like variables and loops to more advanced topics such as working with databases and building complex web applications. The course usually covers:

PHP basics and syntax

Working with forms and data

File handling

MySQL database integration

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) in PHP

Error handling and debugging

Building dynamic websites and web applications

2. Hands-on Learning

Practical learning is essential in programming. PHP training in Noida typically includes hands-on projects where students get to build real-world applications. This practical approach ensures that learners can apply the theoretical knowledge they acquire during the course. Institutions like Resource Bazaar Training Company emphasize hands-on experience to prepare students for real-world challenges.

3. Experienced Instructors

One of the key advantages of joining PHP training in Noida is access to experienced and industry-certified instructors. They bring real-world experience into the classroom, helping students understand industry best practices, common challenges, and how to solve them effectively.

4. Flexible Learning Options

Many training institutes in Noida, including Resource Bazaar Training Company, offer both online and offline learning options. This flexibility allows students to learn at their own pace, fitting their education around their existing schedules. Whether you prefer in-person classroom training or the convenience of online learning, there's an option for everyone.

5. Job Placement Assistance

PHP training in Noida often comes with job placement support, helping students land internships or full-time positions upon completion of the course. Institutions work closely with local companies to provide students with valuable connections and career opportunities.

Career Opportunities after PHP Training

Once you’ve completed your PHP training in Noida, a wide range of career opportunities opens up. Some potential job roles include:

PHP Developer: Develop dynamic websites and web applications using PHP.

Backend Developer: Manage the server-side of web applications, ensuring security and functionality.

Full-Stack Developer: Combine PHP with front-end technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build complete web applications.

CMS Developer: Customize and extend content management systems like WordPress, which rely on PHP for backend operations.

Freelancer: Many PHP developers choose freelancing, offering web development services to clients worldwide.

Conclusion

PHP training in Noida offers an excellent opportunity to build a strong foundation in web development. With expert instructors, hands-on learning, and job placement support, institutions like Resource Bazaar Training Company are helping students unlock new career possibilities in the tech industry. Whether you're new to programming or an experienced developer looking to expand your skills, PHP is a valuable tool for your career growth.

[estirose]

A quick early-game review of the Rusty's Retirement demo

It more or less works on Linux, but it doesn't have the "have this game reside at the bottom of the screen" aspect that it has on Windows/Mac machines. There's a workaround for me so that's not the end of the world, but well, Proton has quirks!

Oh, yes, actual review!

I'm still fumbling my way through it, but I'll definitely be buying it when the full version comes out. I have an underpowered Win11 machine that it actually plays really well on (I guess because it's only 1/3 the screen + it doesn't strain things all that much).

Anyway, the plot is that Rusty, an old robot, has retired to do gardening/farming. Just like any farming sim (that's just plants) , you sow a variety of crops. It's an idle game in the vein of Cookie Clicker, so all you do is place seeds; Rusty does all the watering and harvesting for you.

Here's the notes I've taken so far:

Growing crops: You start with a 4x4 grid, a well, and a bunch of cleared ground. Rusty isn't going to be chopping wood or breaking stones here. You also have access to three initial crops. Once you've grown a certain amount of these crops you get access to the 4th crop and so on. Each new crop requires you to grow a certain amount of other ones - these vary. Some crops can be picked a couple of times before they have to be replanted.

Currency: There are two. One is "spare bits", which you gain by harvesting crops, and the 2nd is "biofuel", which you create with one each of three different crops using a biofuel converter (one is already placed on your farm for you. You'll need both to buy certain things, as well as use certain conveniences. Currently, you can sell biofuel for about 10 spare bits.

Building things: You can build plots, but also conveniences for Rusty. For example, you can put together a robot that will help water your crops, or another one that helps with the harvest. (The harvest one is a spider, so if you're phobic... yeah.) You can also build another well, a storage, a bench for Rusty, or homes for other characters.

There is a small amount of land that you can use in the demo; presumably you'll be able to expand this land in the full game.

You can also build houses that will get you, for example, a companion that helps out with the gardening, a shop where you can buy decorations, or a shop that will improve your helper robots. There's even supposedly one that will seed your gardens for you.

Right now you can't move buildings. If you have to move something, you have to demolish and rebuild it and lose everything you paid for it. You also can't move Rusty's house.

All in all, despite the issue with Linux (which is not the dev's fault), I'm really enjoying this and can't wait for the full release!

Edit: Found out why the behavior was weird on Linux. The dev basically set up a full-screen game, then make the top 2/3 of the screen transparent and the stuff behind it clickable. Proton doesn't know how to handle this so give you a black screen for the top 2/3rds.

[linuxgamenews]

Beyond The Edge Of Owlsgard is classic gaming on Linux

Beyond The Edge Of Owlsgard adventure game coming in hot on both Linux and Windows PC. All due to the creative minds of WatchDaToast. Available on both Steam and GOG. Along with 100% Positive reviews. Beyond The Edge Of Owlsgard is an old-school point and click adventure game. Thanks to Kickstarter support and hitting its funding goal on March 2022. A game that is due to be similar to the animated movies and Saturday morning cartoons. While it is obviously taking a nod from LucasArts and Sierra classics. The game is due to create its own style and identity. Doing so by returning to the original “adventure” aspect of the genre. Aside from solving the typical inventory-based puzzles, this means a heavy focus on exploring mysterious lands. So players can uncover secrets and deal with all kinds of dangers.

Beyond The Edge Of Owlsgard - Gameplay Teaser

Strange things are happening in the animal kingdom of Velehill. Unknown shadows of large appearance are roaming through the forests. Also making the ground shake with every step of their steel feet. Houses and trees are ruined and one animal after the other seems to disappear strangely. In Beyond The Edge Of Owlsgard you play as Finn, a young roebuck. One who soon finds out about the disappearance of his family as well. Without haste, he goes on a journey to find them, not knowing he and his new friend Gwen the owl will soon uncover a dark secret. One that should have been kept hidden for all eternity. Which you can try for yourself via the games Demo on Steam.

Features:

An immersive story told through hand-drawn landscapes and countless animations!

A return to the “adventure” aspect of the genre – a big focus on exploring whimsical places, uncovering secrets, and dealing with tense and dangerous situations

Cinematic cutscenes, reminiscent of hand-drawn animated movies, mixed with a pixel art aesthetic

Atmospheric soundtrack, inspired by the old midi classics everyone knows and loves

6-8 hours of gameplay

Beyond The Edge Of Owlsgard old school point and click adventure game is out on Steam and GOG. Along with Linux and Windows PC support. Priced at $24.99 USD / £20.99 / 24,50€.