#Deterministic Matching

[hanasatoblogs]

The Role of MDM in Enhancing Data Quality

In today’s data-centric business world, organizations rely on accurate and consistent data to drive decision-making. One of the key components to ensuring data quality is Master Data Management (MDM). MDM plays a pivotal role in consolidating, managing, and maintaining high-quality data across an organization’s various systems and processes. As businesses grow and data volumes expand, the need for efficient data quality measures becomes critical. This is where techniques like deterministic matching and probabilistic matching come into play, allowing MDM systems to manage and reconcile records effectively.

Understanding Data Quality and Its Importance

Data quality refers to the reliability, accuracy, and consistency of data used across an organization. Poor data quality can lead to incorrect insights, flawed decision-making, and operational inefficiencies. For example, a customer database with duplicate records or inaccurate information can result in misguided marketing efforts, customer dissatisfaction, and even compliance risks.

MDM addresses these challenges by centralizing an organization’s key data—referred to as "master data"—such as customer, product, and supplier information. With MDM in place, organizations can standardize data, remove duplicates, and resolve inconsistencies. However, achieving high data quality requires sophisticated data matching techniques.

Deterministic Matching in MDM

Deterministic matching is a method used by MDM systems to match records based on exact matches of predefined identifiers, such as email addresses, phone numbers, or customer IDs. In this approach, if two records have the same value for a specific field, such as an identical customer ID, they are considered a match.

Example: Let’s say a retailer uses customer IDs to track purchases. Deterministic matching will easily reconcile records where the same customer ID appears in different systems, ensuring that all transactions are linked to the correct individual.

While deterministic matching is highly accurate when unique identifiers are present, it struggles with inconsistencies. Minor differences, such as a typo in an email address or a missing middle name, can prevent records from being matched correctly. For deterministic matching to be effective, the data must be clean and standardized.

Probabilistic Matching in MDM

In contrast, probabilistic matching offers a more flexible and powerful solution for reconciling records that may not have exact matches. This technique uses algorithms to calculate the likelihood that two records refer to the same entity, even if the data points differ. Probabilistic matching evaluates multiple attributes—such as name, address, and date of birth—and assigns a weight to each attribute based on its reliability.

Example: A bank merging customer data from multiple sources might have a record for "John A. Doe" in one system and "J. Doe" in another. Probabilistic matching will compare not only the names but also other factors, such as addresses and phone numbers, to determine whether these records likely refer to the same person. If the combined data points meet a predefined probability threshold, the records will be merged.

Probabilistic matching is particularly useful in MDM when dealing with large datasets where inconsistencies, misspellings, or missing information are common. It can also handle scenarios where multiple records contain partial data, making it a powerful tool for improving data quality in complex environments.

The Role of Deterministic and Probabilistic Matching in MDM

Both deterministic and probabilistic matching are integral to MDM systems, but their application depends on the specific needs of the organization and the quality of the data.

Use Cases for Deterministic Matching: This technique works best in environments where data is clean and consistent, and where reliable, unique identifiers are available. For example, in industries like healthcare or finance, where Social Security numbers, patient IDs, or account numbers are used, deterministic matching provides quick, highly accurate results.

Use Cases for Probabilistic Matching: Probabilistic matching excels in scenarios where data is prone to errors or where exact matches aren’t always possible. In retail, marketing, or customer relationship management, customer information often varies across platforms, and probabilistic matching is crucial for linking records that may not have consistent data points.

Enhancing Data Quality with MDM

Master Data Management, when coupled with effective matching techniques, significantly enhances data quality by resolving duplicate records, correcting inaccuracies, and ensuring consistency across systems. The combination of deterministic and probabilistic matching allows businesses to achieve a more holistic view of their data, which is essential for:

Accurate Reporting and Analytics: High-quality data ensures that reports and analytics are based on accurate information, leading to better business insights and decision-making.

Improved Customer Experience: Consolidating customer data allows businesses to deliver a more personalized and seamless experience across touchpoints.

Regulatory Compliance: Many industries are subject to stringent data regulations. By maintaining accurate records through MDM, businesses can meet compliance requirements and avoid costly penalties.

Real-World Application of MDM in Enhancing Data Quality

Many industries rely on MDM to enhance data quality, especially in sectors where customer data plays a critical role.

Retail: Retailers use MDM to unify customer data across online and offline channels. With probabilistic matching, they can create comprehensive profiles even when customer names or contact details vary across systems.

Healthcare: In healthcare, ensuring accurate patient records is crucial for treatment and care. Deterministic matching helps link patient IDs, while probabilistic matching can reconcile records with missing or inconsistent data, ensuring no critical information is overlooked.

Financial Services: Banks and financial institutions rely on MDM to manage vast amounts of customer and transaction data. Both deterministic and probabilistic matching help ensure accurate customer records, reducing the risk of errors in financial reporting and regulatory compliance.

Conclusion

Master Data Management plays a crucial role in enhancing data quality across organizations by centralizing, standardizing, and cleaning critical data. Techniques like deterministic and probabilistic matching ensure that MDM systems can effectively reconcile records, even in complex and inconsistent datasets. By improving data quality, businesses can make better decisions, provide enhanced customer experiences, and maintain regulatory compliance.

In today’s competitive market, ensuring data accuracy isn’t just a best practice—it’s a necessity. Through the proper application of MDM and advanced data matching techniques, organizations can unlock the full potential of their data, paving the way for sustainable growth and success.

[xenodelic]

To all the alterhumans / nonhumans who dont know what to do: now is the time for you to start putting your money where your mouth is.

If youre an animal, it's time for you to be a goddamn animal. Be feral, Be aggressive, fight for your life.

If you're a dragon, then be a terror to Kings, and start burning down the halls of power like the dragons of yore.

If you're a mythical creature, have no concern for the social constructs of man. Stand proudly outside what people even believe is possible.

If you're plural, know you're never alone. Fight against individualism that seeks to divide each body into deterministic boxes.

If you're a fictional character who saved the world, believe that you can save any world. Don't back down now.

Now is the time to really believe that you are what you say you are. People in power are going to try to take that away from you. Don't fall for it.

It's time shed any preconceptions you have about what you're capable of. If you're an animal it's time to fight like one. A dragon that uses gasoline and matches is still a dragon.

All bets are off. If they want to treat us like dogs in a cage then im gonna start ripping fascists' throats out like one. And I'd better see y'all there with me, on G-d.

[djarins-cyare]

I have so many questions about "Din needs an iphone charger to find out what Pedro Pascal looks like" 🤣 Is Din in a modern-day AU? Are we in a wormhole where the Mandalorian, iphones, and Pedro exist together? Is this code for an upgrade on his helmet tech?

Hey Cas! Thanks for asking about this one; it’s one of my favourites!

I love all your ideas, but this is your classic “Earthling in the SWU” story, except with a kind of… meta twist, I guess. I’ll do my best to explain.

Usually, when you get an Earthling in the SWU fic, it’s just assumed that Din would look like Pedro because that’s what he looks like on our screens. But what does that say about the universe our Earthling Reader has ended up in? Have they been sucked into the TV? Are they now in an entirely fictional universe? How can it exist? Or have they been transported into an AU?

To my mind, there are three possibilities:

Yeah, our Earthling Reader has been transported into the fictional realm created by George Lucas and specifically crafted by John Favreau and Dave Filoni, and Din does indeed look like Pedro. It’s like the movies Last Action Hero and Pleasantville – they’re literally sucked inside the movie or TV. This is uncomfortably deterministic since every event is crafted by writers, so essentially, it makes Favroni into gods. Everything that happens to our Earthling!Reader in that realm is predetermined since we know how Star Wars turns out. I don’t like this option much.

Although Star Wars began as fiction, our Earthling!Reader wanted to be part of it so badly that they somehow wished it into existence. So now, a new universe exists IRL, and they have been transported into it. Since it started as fiction, Din does indeed look like Pedro. This universe is a brand new offshoot and not subject to the fictional rules of Star Wars, so our Earthling!Reader can manipulate events to change the outcome of things. I like this option!

The Star Wars Universe exists as a real alternate universe somewhere alongside ours, and somehow (let’s say via the Force or some lowkey Earthly version of it), George Lucas and other prominent Star Wars writers have dreamed/sensed the events occurring over there and have woven them into stories. They think they have great imaginations, but they’re actually Force-sensitive or as close as you can get to it in this universe. Perhaps Favreau cast Pedro as Din specifically because, in his mind’s eye, that actor looked the most like the person he saw in his visions/imagination. In this scenario, the version of Din that our Earthling!Reader meets may not look precisely like Pedro at all. Similar, yes, all the features match up on paper, but somehow slightly different. This is an intriguing option.

In this fic (which I have now given the hasty title: Face Reality), Earthling!Reader has no idea which of the above options applies, although she has been very honest with Din about where she comes from. She explains that in her “universe” (for want of a better word since she doesn’t know if it’s an actual AU), his story and the stories of others he knows are told as fiction for entertainment. In an effort to spare him the existential crisis of “OMG, I’m just a character in someone’s narrative, I’m not a Real Boy”, she continues with the idea of this place being an already-existing universe that people in her world can sense (i.e. option number 3 above), but the question of whether he looks like Pedro or not comes up…

…particularly when Din discovers that some of the stories are visual. He freaks out. He worries an entire universe of people might have seen him without his helmet, and his creed is now in tatters. So, he becomes obsessed with finding out precisely what Pedro looks like and whether or not they’re identical. The trouble is, everything that Earthling!Reader tells him seems to fit him exactly.

So yeah. He’s having an existential crisis… she’s having an existential crisis… and, oh yeah, they both fancy the fuck out of each other.

Lots going on!

I actually have several scenes of this written already, but most are pretty piecemeal. I’ve got bits of the one where they meet, and everything I explained above comes out, but it’s very raw and unedited. Fortunately, the one where they talk about the iPhone charger was pretty solid already, so I’ve decided to give you the whole of that one, which is like 1k words (admittedly, I polished it up a little first and tweaked it to make it self-contained). Enjoy!

This WIP Folder game is really helping me get some of my WIPs in shape, I’m loving it!

Face Reality

“Tell me what he looks like,” Din asks. “Describe him.”

Not this again. He’s been relentlessly interrogating you about Pedro’s appearance for two days now.

“I already did. How many times do you need to hear it before you quit asking?”

He shakes his helmet. “However many it takes to figure this out. Your description could fit millions of humans across the galaxy – me included.”

You know he’s prevaricating. You’ve described the man’s teeth, for fuck’s sake – there are definitely not millions of humans with an extra tooth in front of their lower right lateral incisor. No, the problem is less about your descriptive skills and more about his increasing panic with every new detail you offer.

You’ve tried reassuring him. You’ve tried arguing with him. This time, you take a futile stab at redirecting him. “Well, at least we’ve established you don’t look like Brendan Wayne. That’s a win.”

The withering look Din sends your way comes through the barrier of his visor loud and clear.

“I need more,” he insists, desperation edging his tone. “If he looks like me, and you’ve seen my face….”

A strangled sound of irritation escapes you as you press your palms against your closed eyes. For a guy who’s recently learned his entire existence is considered a work of fiction in your reality, he’s freakishly hung up on his religious adherence. Or maybe it’s the fact that if he does look like Pedro, he’ll need to face the fact that he’s essentially a copy of someone else and not a Real Boy in his own right.

And you get it; you do. But it’s also fucking frustrating when you’ve got some pretty insurmountable problems of your own. After all, you still don’t know how you got here, nor where ‘here’ actually is. Were you sucked into your TV and all this is fiction, or are you in an independently existing alternate universe that George Lucas has dreams about that he makes into movies?

Your companion is not the only one having an existential crisis here.

“There must be more you can tell me. Be specific,” Din demands, and his unyielding insistence triggers your frayed nerves to finally unravel. You miss home, and being stuck in a possibly fictional universe is enough of a headfuck without this endless back-and-forth.

“I’ve been as specific as I can be!” you snap. “I’ve described everything about him in extreme detail, right down to the epic combination of sexy nose scar and cute little heart-shaped beard patches. I don’t know what more you want. It’s just Pedro being his usual gorgeous self, only extra sad and broody. I get that you’re scared about this, but can you please just give it a rest?”

It takes a couple of seconds for your brain to catch up with your mouth, but when it does…

Shit. You got a little carried away there. Please, God – or whatever deities rule over this galaxy far, far away – don’t let him notice how much you’re practically drooling over Pedro.

“You think he’s… gorgeous?” Din ventures hesitantly.

Fucksticks.

Backpedal! Reverse thrusters! Fall back to base camp!

“I mean….” You screw your eyes shut, searching for a way out of this latest living nightmare, but there’s no denying it now. “Yeah?”

A heavy silence descends. You can’t tell whether Din remains hung up on his potentially broken creed or if he’s moved on to wondering how your attraction to Pedro might translate to him if it turns out they do look alike. Become an apostate but gain an admirer… probably not a fair trade in his eyes.

Well, you wanted him to shut up. Mission accomplished. Except it looks like you now have the opposite problem.

If anything, you’ve made things worse.

Fuck, he still hasn’t said anything. Thor? Or is Odin the one in charge? Wait, wrong franchise. Maker? You’re pretty sure only droids pray to the Maker in Star Wars, but at this point, you’ll gladly supplicate a damn space toaster if it’ll end this awkward silence.

And then suddenly, an idea strikes. Whether it’s divine intervention or sheer desperation oiling your overtaxed, still-weirded-out brain into gear, you can’t be sure. What you do know is that you feel like a prize idiot for not thinking of it sooner.

“My phone!” you exclaim, rifling through your bag until you find your iPhone at the very bottom. You present it with a flourish. “The battery’s been dead for days, and it’s not like this galaxy has 5G, so I didn’t even think about it before.”

Din’s visor locks onto the black slab, and you self-consciously flick away some lint clinging to the curling edges of your screen protector. His helmet tilts inquisitively – still mute, still mysterious.

“It’s like a comlink, but it does a lot more, including capturing different types of images. There’s an image of Pedro as Din on here, but I have no charger with me. Not that there’s anywhere to plug in an iPhone charger in this universe. Y’all seriously need to install some USB-C ports.”

His visor tilts back down to the device, interest apparently piqued.

“If you can find a way to recharge the battery, I can show you what he looks like,” you explain, holding out the phone. “Then you’ll know if your creed is intact.”

He accepts the proffered device, turning it over in his gloved hands, and you point out the charger port at the base.

“Do whatever you need to – take it apart if you really have to – but just… don’t break it. I don’t have much left from home. There are photos of my friends and family on there too, so if you can get it powered up….”

Cradling the battered piece of your heart with a tenderness you know he typically reserves for Grogu, Din nods and rumbles, “Thank you. I’ll look after it.”

There we go. Tension diffused, problem solved. Or partially solved. Or… vaguely moving in the direction of being solved.

Whatever. At least now you can get back to fantasising about what’s under that helmet in peace.

[edinburghtohell]

Hi, it's nearly 2 AM here. I have work in the morning but I also have big feelings and a lot of thoughts to process. I originally posted it on Reddit, but I wanted to archive it here, too.

There are spoilers for both tape 1 and 2 beyond this point. You have been warned.

So, while reading the board these past couple of months, I've been seeing a lot of references to Bloom and Rage as being something akin to a coven of witches. This view is based upon both explicit references in the text and implicit readings of the text.

For an example of the former, in Tape 2, Kat describes a dream she's had recently where she saw a group of witches (but from like a long time ago) and where she's a part of them -- which to be honest is probably a premonition of the end of the game. Meanwhile, for an example of the latter, we can see the way in which the band casts a curse on Corey in Tape 1 and the way in which the band comes together after freeing the deer.

This reading of the text is perfectly valid and I celebrate it. What I would like to propose, on top of this interpretation, is that Lost Records: Bloom and Rage can also be read as a feminist interpretation of Peter Pan by JM Barrie, with Kat taking the role of Peter himself. Like the original reading, this interpretation is based upon explicit references in the text and an implicit analysis of the text.

Explicit References in the Text

Kat's Peter Pan Poster

The main in-textual reference to Peter Pan in the game comes from the Peter Pan Poster in Kat's room, which can be found when we're sneaking into the Mikealsen Ranch in Tape 2. This poster is noticeable for two reasons.

We see it as soon as we first see Kat in Tape 2

It's the only thing in the room that doesn't match Kat.

I'd like to discuss this second point a little bit.

Most of Kat's stuff is well, frankly, Kat's. It's either punk as hell, modified, customised, or torn asunder in the case of her dolls -- which could be interpreted as Kat refusing to look back at her own childhood.

In contrast, this poster is an anomaly. It's not punk, it's not adult, it's not feminine. It's a poster dedicated to a very male character in a very traditional, very male, very problematic story. Not something Kat would like at all.

I think this is an important clue. From hereon, though, we have to dig a little deeper into the text.

Implicit Interpretations

Rejection of the Future, Peter Pan's Androgynous History, and Kat's Haircut

I'm going to start here because it's potentially the most problematic.

Peter Pan, as a stage character, has often been played by female actors, particularly before the advent of film. The reason for this is simple: Peter is not a man, he is a boy, a child who has rejected his own masculinity in favour of eternal youth and innocence -- neither male or female. He doesn't look to the future the way other people do, he's just there for the here and now.

We can see this same point of view in Kat. Because of her illness, Kat doesn't look towards the future -- she's fully invested in having a great summer and actively wishes that it would go on forever -- something which she says multiple times in both Tape 1 and 2.

Turning back towards my earlier point about androgyny in Peter Pan's representation, I must turn to Kat's haircut in Tape 2 . Before moving forward, I want to make two things clear:

Within the text, t his haircut is presented as Kat's decision -- an effort to maintain her own agency in a difficult situation wherein Kat has no control. It's possible to read this haircut a number of different ways, especially if you're familiar with abuse victim behaviour. I'm not well-versed enough to discuss this interpretation, but it is valid.

My following analysis is based upon western cultural stereotypes only and I would ask you not to read into it as a support of a deterministic or prescriptivist model of gender conformity. Only you can determine your gender -- not me, not the British government, only you. Anyone who says any different can fix their hearts.

Although still a cutie pie, Kat's haircut pushes her representation between these two binary points, to a similar space that a Peter Pan occupied in the audience of those early 20th century plays -- neither man nor woman.

I'd like to make it clear that I'm not trying to make a point about Kat's own view, or anyone else's view, on their own or anyone else's gender. Likewise, having long or short hair doesn't make you any less a man, woman, or whichever gender you identify as.

Kat as the Girl Who Never Grew Up

Moving past the above point, I would like to bring to your attention the Kat's lines to Autumn near the end of Tape 2. Kat describes herself as someone who will 'never get to grow up.' By itself, this could be a reference to Peter Pan (or I might just be digging too far) but I think we need to go a bit further.

In the game, Kat is shorter than everyone else, and she's less developed than everyone else -- in Tape 1, we learn that she still wears a training bra. In universe, the reason for this is that Kat's cancer treatments have most likely interfered with her growth. However, I think another meta textual reason for this is because the game is already presenting Kat as someone who, like Peter Pan, hasn't grown up.

Taking this a step further, we have to analyse Kat's fashion sense in comparison to the rest of Bloom and Rage, particularly Autumn and Nora. 90s "punk fashion" (in quotation marks because punk is, by its nature, both fashion and anti-fashion) can generally be divided in three stages:

Grunge

Skater

Emo

Kat, Autumn, and Nora each represent one of these three eras in punk.

Kat represents the heavy denim of early 90s grunge fashion -- made famous by Nirvana, Pearl Jam and other members of the Seattle Scene. This type of fashion was also commonly associated with the Riot Grrl scene because of similar climate/culture.

Autumn represents the baggy shirts and jeans of the Skater Scene. This style of fashion was popular with a lot of bands coming out of California and owes a lot to the Skate scene there, as well as California's Hardcore Scene. You get a lot of pop punk and ska punk bands from this era.

Nora represents Emo, or at least the modern idea of what Emo was. Popular with bands from the mid-west and Washington DC, Emo is often associated with dark colours, dyed hair, and fondness for gothic adjacent aesthetic.

Now, the thing is, by 1995, grunge was already over. Following Kurt Cobain's suicide the year before, the Seattle Scene had largely fizzled out, and most of the most famous Riot Grrl bands had broken up.

By summer 1995, Skate Punk was already starting to take over the airwaves while Emo was starting the long slow march to cultural relevance. From a fashion standpoint, Kat was already something of an anachronism, a call back to a scene fizzled away.

She never grew up with the rest of the punk scene.

Fawn's Rest/Curse as Neverland

Another out of time area is Fawn's Rest/Fawn's Curse. Like Neverland, it's a place out of time and seemingly defiant of directions unless you know what you're looking for it -- in Tape 1, one of the girls mentions that surely they would have noticed it previously.

Like Neverland, Fawn's Rest/Curse is an area just for the protagonists -- just like Corey tries to invade Fawn's Rest/Fawn's Curse, Hook tries to take over Neverland. Likewise, just as Corey is swallowed by the Abyss, Hook is swallowed by the jaws of the crocodile.

Kat and Swann's Ages Post Game

At the end of the game, when Swann is about to enter the Abyss to find Kat, she is much older than Kat. This matches the epilogue of Peter Pan -- When Wendy Grew Up -- where Wendy Darling is a grown woman while Peter Pan still hasn't. In the story, Wendy's daughter goes off with Peter.

Such a narrative isn't possible in Lost Records (as far as we know) but I think the similarity in ages between Swann and Wendy and Peter and Kat is noteworthy nonetheless.

Kat and Stars

Throughout Tape 1 and 2, Kat has an association with stars and other stellar phenomena. In her diary, she describes a time where she, Dylan, and their mom went to watch a meteor shower. Likewise, in Tape 2, you attempt to rescue Kat to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower. Finally, through both Tape 1 and 2, Kat will wear stars on her clothing. This is most apparent during the concert, where Kat will have several fake stars on her arm.

Peter Pan also has an association with the stars. To find Neverland you have to follow the 'second star to the right and then straight on until morning.'

Bloom and Rage as Lost Girls

For my final point, I'd like to raise the idea that Bloom and Rage are, in a sense, 'lost girls' -- similar to Barrie's lost boys but also uniquely feminine. Where as the lost boys were children who never grew up, I'd argue that to some extent Bloom and Rage are lost girls who could never grow up.

Because the events of Summer 1995, they all lost something.

For Nora, she eventually lost that amazing self-confidence that she had when she was a teenager. Instead of staying weird and being herself, she became, well, an influencer, someone who is to some extent a slave to trends.

For Autumn, she eventually lost her principles that had her protesting the Iraq War. Instead of putting her foot down with her boss, she coddled him all during the night.

And Swann, at least in my play through, lost her love and passion. She never really put herself out there again after 1995. If you romanced her, Swann never really put herself out there after Kat. She lost her love of making movies. To paraphrase a line Swann says to Autumn in Tape 1, she went from someone bold and passionate, to someone 'waiting out the clock.'

They are lost girls in the sense that they are girls who lost something.

What Does any of This Mean?

Ultimately, it's unclear whether any of this has any deeper meaning to the larger Lost Records universe -- we just don't know. I think this reading might influence the story of the next game (if there is one) but I wouldn't like to speculate at this stage.

Even if it doesn't mean anything, it's still fun to note all the similarities between the two texts.

I hope you liked this post. Please let me know what you think.

Edit: I forgot the difference between AM and PM

[wirewitchviolet]

They sell the sizzle, but don't people need to buy the steak?

I'm seeing people passing around a video today of someone showcasing some predictive software "version of Quake" which I'll get around to, and people are having a good laugh at how they previously did a "version of Doom" with this, and now they're moving on to a newer game to try and convince people they're "improving" when the way this scam works, it doesn't matter at all how technically impressive the game it's trying to mimic works, because all its doing is looking at screenshots and trying to guess which comes next.

But that isn't entirely true. Because the FIRST time con artists were trying to wow people with this particular trick, they were using Pac-Man:

And I will admit. When I FIRST saw footage of this... weird moldy version of Pacman where dots you just ate kinda slowly fade back into existence, I was really impressed, because there was narration from a tech nerd who I hope didn't actually understand what was going on trying to explain it and just getting everything wrong. The way this crap actually works is just... looking at screenshots and active input values.

Pac-Man is a single-screen game with EXTREMELY limited inputs, and completely deterministic enemy behavior. If you look at a screenshot of Pac-Man from a video, and you have a stack of other videos of Pac-Man you can look through frame by frame, it is very easy to find an identical frame to what you are looking at, and if you look at the next one in that other video, you can guess what's next in the one I'm showing you. For instance!

I'm pretty sure you, without even having access to a bunch of Pac-Man "training data" can guess what comes in the next frame of the random youtube video I screengrabbed this from, right? The ghosts are all gonna move a little in the directions they're looking, Pac-Man's gonna continue to the left, that mouth is either gonna open or close a little more and that dot that's just a pixel away is going to be eaten. The only way that isn't going to be the case is if the joystick's getting held to the right in the next frame, in which case OK yeah Pac-Man would flip around.

Hey, look at that! I was actually slightly wrong because I forgot Pacman's mouth doesn't actually move on every single frame. That actually helps a lot to explain why in the video above anything with any animation to it looks all moldy. Because the way this works it really is just looking at its sequenced screenshots and trying to find a match, it can't quite make a solid guess on how any animated bits are going to animate and it does this gross smeary average thing. Can't for the life of me figure out why all the dots are smeary too. Maybe when they fed in the source footage like 1 in 10 videos was slightly off-center to the right and it's just averaging that in? But that's how this technology works.

And again, it also has access to current inputs. It needs that to be "playable," right? Otherwise all it would be able to do is show you a video of someone else playing Pac-Man. But yeah if we have it both looking at screenshots AND inputs, then we presumably have a pile of screenshot pairs where Pac-Man continues to the left here, and some smaller set where someone hits right on the next frame, creating the only possible situation where there is another possible result, and that is the only option there.

Assuming, of course, the source footage includes any examples of anyone turning around at that point. Which honestly might not be the case? People rarely just randomly turn around in the middle of a hallway in Pac-Man if there's no ghosts nearby, so honestly odds are really good the "AI generated version" here would just completely ignore your inputs there... or do another weird smeary thing. And it'd definitely probably start getting squirrely if you kept like partially eating rows of dots and turning around, because then you're giving it screenshots that are increasingly far from anything in the database and it's gonna toss out mud or something.

There's other old single-screen arcade games used in early demos of this, which can maybe be more impressive, but if you look at old footage of these things, you'll see stuff like versions of breakout that very explicitly have a trail of pixels behind the ball for an after-image so looking at a single screenshot let's you actually tell which way it's going. Without that, that ball's going basically anywhere.

Anyway these demos of single-screen arcade games from freaking five years ago now are something I can see people investing in. They're BASICALLY functional, for a bit, until you get to situations where there isn't an exact match in the "training data" to present the obvious followup, because really those games don't have a whole hell of a lot of moving parts.

So now that I've explained how this is working, let's see how it handles a game that isn't a simple single screen sort of thing! Actually, can I embed a bluesky post in here these days?

Sorta! Click through, unmute it, and hopefully you can guess what you're gonna see.

Yeah, so there's some stuff that's very consistent. In any recorded footage if someone hits the shoot button, a shot comes out of the gun and a number changes (do I mean the ammo count decrements? Haha no!) so that's pretty consistent. There's gonna be plenty of footage of heading down a hallway, maybe backing up, shifting side to side in this specific starting screen, so yeah, matching one screenshot to the next is consistent-ish. But the second you have a single frame of facing a wall or a dark area you're screwed, because there's no actual game running. Just piles of frames from videos. Any black screen is going to look the same, so we're looking for the next image from any source image that has one, and... the whole thing falls apart. The UI at the bottom theoretically having health and ammo also don't actually do anything, just, every frame of every video consistently has those. If you watch carefully you'll notice that firing the gun changes the health total... for a bit, and then it just kinda drifts back to 100ish, quietly, eventually. Because that's what's there in most of the footage. We don't actually have any values being tracked. It's literally just a game of, find a screenshot in any of the sample footage matching the current frame, then here's the next one best matching the currently held inputs.

Pretty sure I'm preaching to the choir that this is the most pathetic dead end. AT BEST, what this would do is correctly play back a let's play if you had a TAS recreating all the inputs from it properly, but it's probably still going to mess that up (especially if two frames of that video happen to look identical), and if you change one input, well, now we're on another timeline, and if we don't happen to have a video just like that in the pile, it's gonna break. This is why these demos always have strict time limits. Longer it runs the harder it is to find video footage matching every possible set of inputs.

So yeah, if we have infinite monkies hitting infinite inputs eventually we're going to have the footage to simulate playing Quake, as long as there's never an identical hallway or facing a wall or a shadow... but like, why not just take the copy of Quake one of those monkeys has and just play that, and have it actually work right 100% of the time?

The scam being sold of course is the "AI" can spin up a whole game without needing anyone to actually make a game first, and the reality is no, we definitely need someone to make the game first, and then also make a ton of TAS recordings to steal screenshots from (oh and we can't do any sound because you don't want to be trying to predict a "frame of sound." Recreating a music track, sure, having sounds playing over that, don't try this at home).

But here's my real point with this. People have kept this scam going for what, 5 years now? And every time they release a new demo to try and sell it as doing what they claim, it's even more obvious that this is COMPLETELY USELESS GARBAGE, requiring even less expertise and familiarity, and for that matter time, to see how it just completely falls apart.

So I have to ask, how are we still here? If you have carefully curated footage from a specific angle for 10 seconds you can maybe use this snake oil to make something that looks kind of OK if you aren't paying attention, but like... if you convince someone to buy anything based on that, they are going to immediately get their hands on... unusable garbage. And there's no way they're going to convince themselves otherwise, this tech can't do what it promises or really anything else. So I was confused for a second as to how in the world people have kept this scam running as long as it has.

But then it hit me. They aren't selling this to anyone. They're JUST making demos. And they're showing those to venture capitalists who are just dumb as a sack of rocks, and will never listen to a single person who actually gets hands on experience with what they're throwing money at. It really is the thing where you sell the sizzle not the steak, and then just... doing everything they can to make sure nobody ever gets anywhere near a steak because it will just kinda burble and blur out and fade into the ether if they do.

So HOPEFULLY the entire U.S. economy completely collapsing will at least make venture capitalists gun shy enough to quit investing in these con artists and FINALLY the rest of us will get some peace, as a silver lining, from this naked emperor shaking his junk in our faces at all hours for five freaking years at this point?

[greenerteacups]

do you have any thoughts on luna and harry as a potential couple post-canon? i was reading your post on harry/ginny and i really loved your perspective on it, especially when you said your vision for harry post war was basically just lots and lots of big dogs (i LOVE that mental image and i agree it would be SO good for him!!) but i was wondering if you'd consider luna and harry to be a good match for each other? personally i have a sort of soft spot for the pairing because of how fond harry is of her in canon, and i think if anyone was going to understand and be unfazed by all the difficult trauma responses and long healing process he's going to be dealing with for years after the war, luna seems like a good fit :)

My love for Harry as a character is kind of unusual to me, considering I go pearl-diving for ships when I read things, and I fall in love with dynamics as a conduit to falling in love with characters. That said, I don't really ship him with anybody. I just genuinely adore That Weird Little Dude. Same with Ron; I'm just as pleased to see them with a range of people, because (A) I believe they're good partners and can have great relationships with many people (Ron Weasley get behind me they could never make me hate you Ron Weasley), but also (B) I don't see either of their canon relationships as Definitive. Some characters I ship together because I sincerely believe they are (non-deterministic) soulmates, in that they bring out parts of each other that make them the freshest, happiest, most interesting versions of themselves. With other characters, I'll look at a couple and go: "Huh. Could work!" and smack my giant rubber [APPROVED] stamp on it, then get back to work on my blorbos.

Luna and Harry are one of those couples for me. As I mentioned in that other post, I think Harry's primary requirement in a partner is someone who can treat him normally, i.e. will be generally chill about the Became Wizard Jesus Twice situation. Which is a big ask. Luna is uniquely capable of doing that because Luna is not normal at all, and so treats all things, extraordinary and ordinary both, as uniformly dazzling and delightful. I believe this is why Harry enjoys her so much in their friendship, because he gets to feel valued and treasured without feeling unusual or othered — a hard line to toe, and one even Ron and Hermione occasionally trip up on. He seems to like hanging out with her a great deal, and I think it says something sweet that he asks her to the Slug Club party instead of any of the girls in Gryffindor from his year, whom he'd ostensibly know better.

Luna is a bit of a cipher to me, I admit. We know she's the daughter of an eccentric and probably traumatized single father, raised without a mother; deeply lonely, because of how she's been ostracized for her beliefs and hobbies, and the victim of some degree of bullying for it; and yet full of a passionate, almost effortless wonder and joie de vivre. She's also intensely loving (cf. painting her friends' faces on her bedroom ceiling) and very hard to embarrass. She likes Harry for understandable reasons; they share most of those qualities (Harry's more sensitive to others' opinions, understandably so), and the only point where they diverge is their actual hobbies and interests. Harry seems pretty fond of her nonsense, and I bet she could sell him on crumple-horned snorkacks given some time — maybe if Hermione took a vacation to Switzerland and left them alone together.

In general, what I find sweet about the idea of these two is they're so chill. These are two people whose chief ambition is to hang out, enjoy their hobbies, and see some cool magical shit. Date night is so fucking easy for these two. Plus, Harry is a hothead a lot of the time, and Luna just... vibes. Literally never bothered. Insane levels of not fussed at all times. Very helpful for Harry, who has a bad tendency to bottle up his feelings and then blow up at the first person to sneeze at him. Conversely, I'd hope that Harry would age into the kind of genial, confident dude who would be able to rock up with a function where people were talking shit about Luna and be like :) My wife? You mean my wise and beautiful wife? Surely you are not talking about my wise and beautiful wife. :) instead of doing what he'd do from age 15-17, which is get mad and stomp around sulking. Which, again: teenager. Orphan. Non-stop trauma gauntlet from age 2-18. Excuses are made. But still. Would think it best if Luna's husband were not perhaps so keenly sensitive to gossip, for Luna's sake.

Anyway, these are just some dissembled thoughts. There's also something in there about Harry, boy under the staircase, falling in love with the magical world and ending up the Most Magical person, i.e., the person who took believing in magic to such an extreme that she imagines magic that doesn't exist yet. And Luna ends up with the one person who's inarguably stranger than she is.

[mentalisttraceur-long]

Prediction trees is still by far the biggest game-changer I have ever found for understanding, predicting, and healing people - both myself and others.

Prediction trees was the biggest broadening my empathy and compassion, because asking "what prediction trees would make this make sense?" is (in principle) a purely deterministic process which is guaranteed to eventually reach at least one sympathetic angle on why someone is a certain way or did something.

Ever struggle to see how a behavior or reaction could be rational? Prediction trees. If it's not obviously rational, and it's not obviously naturally selected rational game theory (either at the individual level or only for the benefit of a cooperating collective), prediction trees always makes this tractable and generates at least one possible answer ("if you had such and such life experience, this and this would be predictive of that, and if you have enough probability of that, it's rational to react that way").

Ever struggle to understand why you feel a certain way? Prediction trees, probably. Again, always yields at least one possible answer. The only problem is that sometimes the actual causes are "you have an untreated medical/physical issue", so merely generating a possible answer isn't enough. But prediction trees lets you prune and weigh possible answers - where before you might've needed to just directionlessly shrug, you now can just use actual logical inference to compare the likelihood of forming a given prediction tree, how you could get a given prediction tree from lossy optimization of a better prediction tree, the feasibility/complexity of a given tree, and so on.

Ever struggle to change how you feel or react to better match your values or what you think is rational? Prediction trees, sometimes (either unblocks the change, or reveals some way it's not as values-aligned or rational as you thought).

[galacticsand]

Movelang #001 - Phonology and Sound System

Nophhurra, and hello again everyone! It's time for another post showing off my experimental conlang, Movelang! This time around, I'll be going over Movelang's sound system: the consonants and vowels used, along with a currently loosely-defined syllable structure, as well as allophony!

Admittedly, the Phonology has been one of the aspects of Movelang which has been altered several times over, and has gone through several iterations before reaching the point at which it exists in the present. Since the emphasis for this conlang was moreso on grammar than on the phonoaesthetic, I had largely loosely defined it at the start, with only a vague idea of what Movelang would sound like. At the start, I took a lot of inspiration from the Coptic Language, as well as several African and Caucasian Languages. Later on as I began being more deterministic about the phonetic inventory of the language, it did change from this original vision in several ways, but I ended up ultimately with something I really like!

(My charts tend to prioritize neatness over exactness, so if there's a sound somewhere that doesn't exactly describe it completely correctly, please don't fight me 😭)

Phonemically, the consonant inventory consists of 2 nasals, 15 plosives, 4 fricatives, 2 liquids, and 1 tap. The plosives are split three ways by mode of articulation, where 5 stops are unaspirated: /p t t͡ɕ k q/, 5 stops are aspirated: /pʰ tʰ t͡ɕʰ kʰ qʰ/, and 5 are voiced: /b d d͡ʑ g ɢ/. Each mode of articulations contains a labial, dento-alveolar, palatal, velar, and uvular stop respectively. This was a choice inspired by both Ancient Greek, as well as the Coptic and Caucasian influence I mentioned earlier, and in an earlier version of the phonology, the palatal affricates were instead alveolar affricates: /t͡s t͡sʰ d͡z/. Accompanying the stops are 4 fricatives that roughly match 4/5 of the same manners of articulation: /s ɕ x ħ/. These were selected mainly for that reason, that they lie in the same POA as their stop counterparts, but I decided to throw in an oddball for the fricative furthest towards the back of the mouth. Originally, this was /h/ phonemically, but I was intrigued by Maltese's presence of /ħ/ as the sole voiceless fricative closest to the back of the mouth, so I decided to do this for Movelang, and I do love how it sounds! I personally think /x/ and /ħ/ pair nicely with each other! The Approximants and Nasals then weren't that hard to reckon, I simply filled in the gaps in the chart respectively. When I got to my /l/ sound though, I decided to make this a little bit different as well, and follow the lead of Mongolian, and make it /ɮ/ instead. I also made the decision to omit /w/ or any similar sound, since I have a habit of using this sound a lot whenever I make new sound systems, as a bit of a monkey-wrench to try and make myself work with.

For Allophony, most of this deals with the pronunciation of consonants. There are 3 major rules that come into effect when pronouncing consonants in particular places within a word. First, the nasals, /m n/, devoice to /m̥ n̥/ whenever they are preceded by a syllable that has an aspirated plosive in the coda, any of /pʰ tʰ t͡ɕʰ kʰ qʰ/. Secondly, /ɮ/ may devoice to /ɬ/ when next to any voiceless sound: a voiceless plosive or fricative. Finally, the alveolar tap /ɾ/ becomes trilled /r/ when it is geminated. These rules as you'll notice mostly depend on a sound's locale within a syllable, which I'll explain in greater detail when discussing syllable structure...

As for the vowels, these are quite simple. Movelang consists of seven phonemic vowels, which compliment the front and the back of the mouth. Movelang contains no phonemic length, tone, nasality, or anything else that would affect vowel quality in this way, at least phonemically, and only has these 7 plain oral vowels. There are 3 front vowels: /ɛ e i/, all of which are unrounded, and 4 back vowels: /ɑ ɔ o u/, all of which are rounded, except for the open back vowel.

In terms of vowel allophony, nothing really major happens to vowels. The only major rule which takes place with vowels, is that /ɑ/ goes to /a/ when near a palatal sound.

Additionally, the syllable shape in Movelang is pretty straightforward, it's pretty much CVC, but with a few additional caveats. The main difference, is that /j/ cannot be a coda consonant, which is reflected by the use of D for the coda consonant in my syllable shape notation, and additionally, only 6 consonants can end a word: /m t k q s r/, which is reflected by the use of K for a word-final coda consonant.

In addition to these tactical features, hiatus is permitted in Movelang, meaning that the onset consonant in syllables is optional even word-internally, and when this happens, the parallel vowels flow together smoothly, rather than having some epenthetic consonant placed between them, like a glottal stop. Gemination also happens quite frequently in Movelang, especially in compounds, and it is under these circumstances when /j/ technically can appear in the coda of a syllable, but only as a part of a geminate /j:/.

=-=-=-=

Alright! Well, that's pretty much it for phonology, at this point I'm going to try and stick to this phonology and not impulsively change it again, but knowing me, I can't make any promises XD. I hope you all enjoyed this look at the sound system! I look forward to posting some lexical samples in the next post, with these sounds intact, where I'll be showing you Movelang's class system in action! More on that later of course... Until then, I look forward to it, and I hope you all enjoyed this post! If you all have any questions, feel free to leave me a comment, or an ask!

[docilepillow]

April 2024 Media diary

yea im good thanks PSEUDOREGALIA

by part this game and by part not really this game's kinda burning me out lol like the games objectively good i think its just the game style and some of the design choices that kind of abbrasively make me not like this game as much as i should like i love goats i love platformers i love metroidvanias but after finishing this game i dont really say i lik it persay but at the end i can only bring myself to only hate aspects of it , more then anything? like the ccombats ok its nothing flashy. and like. the main mechanic of this is wall kicking, whicch feels cool as hell . the movement in this game is great. but with how hands-off it is , and in combination with the nonlinearity and intended sequence breaking you can do, it is * horrifically * easy to get lost. i hear an earlier version of this game didn't even have a map, which is awful for this genre in my opinion. id describe this game as very frustrating and it feels like 90 percent of the time you're hitting your head against a wall trying to go anywhere, which, for some people, is absolutely fantasstic. im sure trying to fedangle around with this moveset is awesome. but i spent most of the game just wanting to get the full moveset as soon as possible, because, allthough a completely deterministic game as far as i'm aware, progressing from place to place feels really convoluted. i feel like in between grunting " ugh " and " I want this to be over with " and " god i wish there was an upgrade for this " and " i'm SO lost..! " the game has great ambiance and area design and theres plenty to do, i just kinda wish you had like . a few more quality of life features in the game. like . idk. like an area completion counter for each area, or a cursor for where you're located on the map.... Then again , i dont think thiss game was designed with that in mind, so i think it's just a shame or for people that just aren't like me. Yea, sybil is cute, i guess. ill give credit for that. i just cant really see that over what's , for the bulk of it, a stressful affair that feels like guesswork and trail and error. if this game ever gets a big qol update, i'd probably love it a whole lot more, but once again, i'm pretty sure thats an intentional artistic decision to reflect the era it's from . i went into this wanting to like it a whole lot more, i promise, but this is like a 5 out of 10 game ( for me personally ) ... i basically spent alot of it mentally appologizing to nmh2 for some reason. i need a break for today. i'm kind of really dissapointed right now THE CROODS video game movie

its cool

Also, on the topic of mario maker 2, which, technically, i finished last month, i DID in fact finish mario maker 2's story mode! i simply neglected to before andd i think it's okay. i think its a little bit better then the 3ds version's array of levels, and, playing them so close together, i'm honestly surprised they didn't try to impliment the acheivements you can get in those levels in this game, given the fact that so much is tracked by clear conditions in MM2. i wonder if that was a prototype feature they tried early in 3ds before implimenting it in the sequel? Oh well. i'm glad they just ddint implliment the clear condition where you cant get grabbed by claws, those are just the absolute worst..!

Daemonis Algebra

https://gothbingarbage.itch.io/daemonisalgebra

This one's actually nice and special, because i can say some friends of mine made it! It's for a gamejam, so it's pretty simple, but i think it's relatively effective for the kind of hectic gameplay they were going for with it. I'm actually a little bit clumsy when it comes to assembling the little " creature " you're putting together by running around the map, and, i get the sense they're supposed to match,but, given my luck / level of coordination, my creatures usually end up looking something like this --

Oops. It very much affectionately reminds me of older styled flash games you'd find on coolmath, though it's definitely a lot more polished then most of the ones i think of aestetically and mechanically. You just kind of dash around and collect charming little monster parts. It's a little hard to figure out what part's a leg or an arm or the like sometimes ( I actually thought my animal's head was an arm ); but i'm really confident in saying thats a genuine creative decision- it's kind of like a cute little cartoon dilema. i absolutely love this game's cute spritework and music!!!!!!!!!! go play it right now stupid!!!!!

( I Got Sidetracked And Am Doing The Entries For Everything Below At The Last Minute Because Of Nocturne ) THE PRINCESS BRIDE

I've seen this movie before, but i think it still holds up good. An overall solid movie with basically everything you could want from a classic film. Very very watchable with people or alone. You can't really complain with the film at all but i dont havve any new thoughtss on it or anything pokemon scarlet violet epilogue

TLDR; techniiicallly i've finished scarlet-violet a long, long time ago, and i mostly just.... forgot about it up until decently recently, after the prior movie i think, and was prodded to give it a try by a friend. I think some of the writing at the start is charming enough and it's not completely a waste like the rest of the game , but i'm still of the strong opinion that this dlc isn't even half the bar set by Swoshi's entire DLC lineup, which is a little bit sad.... I guess that's what happens when you rush out an open world supermassive entry in a series known for scopecreep and capital interest..? That seems a bit cynical, but I don' t really remember much of my thoughts about it in retrospect, now. It's a little out of the way, but i'd hate to see what happens to this event when servers go down and you can't get pecharunt's item anymore.

POKEROGUE

There isn't really a good image to represent this game, so just the logo will do, i guess. TLDR, I think this is a fangame with a cute idea, and psudo-decent execution , but it's definitely still a work in progress. the earlygame grind where you're just trying to get started is absolutely brutal in a way that is simply just---- timeconsuming and not that much fun at all. If you want to check out the game yourself, I reccomend catching a paldean tauros as soon as possible so you can use it at the start of future runs. The basegame is set to last around 200 rounds, so it's definitely a massive time commitment to try, but once you do get a run going, it can be fun. I still think the earlygame needs ironing out and some of the moves aren't fully implemented yet because it's still new. I'll be honest and mostly say i jumped on this one out of a bandwagon. If you're curious to see me try a run, this clip might still be up for anyone to watch, but i wouldn't count on it forever - https://streamable.com/44j2v2 STRONG BAD'S COOL GAME FOR ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE

( The first 4 episodes, out of 5 . I ran out of time, once again, thanks to nocturne. Oops! )

SBCGFAP on wiiware is a game based around homestar runner, which i've mostly come to appreciate only recently this year. I got into it around February, where me and my boyfriend incidentally started watching it around the tail end of our trip. A few months later, and i'm super endeared by this show's writing style! It sort of feels like how something like Castlevania or Spore feel like to me now, in that it's not really a thing that's upkept anymore that much, with sparing crumbs of new stuff to see thrown out in little rations . So, when i got home, and, having recently re-modded my wii u ( And, with a Vwii setup, in part due to my sister wanting to play the overseas unreleased Mystery Dungeon games, the means to play wiiware in a way that i'm sure would've been fine to set up, actually, because dolphin is also awesome, just, more convenient for me because it wouldn't be taking up my laptop's storage space ) ; i proposed playing this game with him in call , which we did for a while! I'd say as a complete novice to the Point N' Click and also Telltale Game genre that the writing was pretty suitable. The scenarios are mostly just standard homestar runner stuff, and it did keep a big smile on my face. I actually think my favorite episode so far was the first one, looking back on it, considering how much Homestar is in it and how the puzzles ended up being lighter, but that's to my own preference. I think these games are worth looking into if you have a modded Wii U around, which im sure some people do. I imagine most people getting into HSR would've already watched a lets play or something on youtube already..! Anyway, i think this is good. i think people should give it a try even outside the inherit fact that this game is nearly lost media. I didn't get to finish the trogdor episode more then halfway before getting sidetracked by college preperation stuff. Sorry.. PORTAL 2 - COOPERATIVE TESTING INITATIVE ( technically properly capitalized! )

I've actually never finished any of the portal games! I'm too stupid to finish them ! But my boyfriend is hella into it and I know the story stuff already! And we both haven't done the co-op stuff before! So we did ! On a whim ! And i don't QUITE feel comfortable putting it on my backloggd until i at least finish the singleplayer campaign as well, so that puts me in a neat spot! id like to think i wasnt ccomplete dead weight in this playthrough but i was a little dumb. this game leads to fun banter and silly fun though it lends itself well to being coop and it's not as confusing as it would be when you're working with someone compitent who can backseat you as you completely misinterpret his directions. I'm honestly shocked how high the steam statistic for clearing this mode is , look at this ---

Do a fifth of people really play this???? I can kind of believe that but really ? damn! ! ! ! thats pretty cool you dont usually see numbers like this for modes like this. I'm a little bit sad there aren't more multiplayer co-op experiences like this, but that's kind of what makes them special in the first place. SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI III - NOCTURNE

This game has been one i've been procrastinating on trying since finishing SMT IV and IV-A nearly a year ago now, just in part because of it's reputation as a brutal, arduous journey of an RPG. I've heard many good things about this game. I've heard many bad things about this game. I've heard many things about this game's remaster, and I have it bought on both Steam and PS4. I dunno. Just because it was an SMT game on PS4. The primary thing that's making me finish it now is mostly just in part due to the only game i'm looking forward to, shin megami tensei V - Vengeance, coming out in around a little over a month as of typing this-- and, considering V on switch was how i got into the game, i MOSTLY know what to expect. Though, i never got to finish the DLC in that game . AND if i finished nocturne, i could confidently tackle every ounce of that game's new content under a fresher lens then JUST a series newcomer. I have really high hopes for V-V, but that's not really what this game is about. I knew already in advance that i would need to section off a very large period of time for this game going in , so I basically ended up sticking to logging in a couple of hours over the whole month when not fixating on anything else media wise or when not doing important college preperation shit that I need to get done and in fact STILL HAVE THINGS TO DO FOR. And still i only just barely about had enough time to do it!!! SMT nocturne , for the most part, and as long as you have some expectation and experience in the traditional RPG genre, isn't actually that bad difficulty wise. Like, as long as you're prepared, you'll actually fare way better then in some of the other games in the series that i've played, which is nice. Like, outside something like a super unlucky light / dark magic oneshot hitting you once and a while, as long as you're dilligent and prepare and use the systems you're given, you'll live. Like, i'm not gonna say this is how you get into SMT, but it's reputation is only MOSTLY overblown as unfair and stupidly difficult. But, because i'm stupid, and dont understand the ramifications of my actions, i went for the best ending on my first playthrough, cus, once again, i'm using it as a thing to do before SMT 5 V comes out so i can fully enjoy both. Now, apparently, for most people, it takes 110 hours or so to do the " true demon " ending, but i mostly went in , i dont wanna say rushing, but i mostly went through the game with as little as i'd need to thrive, i guess. optimized? Idk. I think most of the game is very intuitave and very enjoyable. its very somber and very dungeon crawly, and i think its gameplay rules. i think i like IV more still but i think this game is cool most of the time when you don't get cosmiclly unlucky . but like. the final bosses of this game are just fucking cheaterss that kill you . the last dungeon of this game took me like 10 hours by itself its insane thats like my only gripe. like. sometimes id pull up a guide when a boss has like null physical and it kills me because the game doesn't let you double check matchups like the games after it, or when theres a particularly convoluted way forward ( Note - by convoluted, i mostly just mean, i'm too stupid to navigate most 3d games without getting lost at some point unless it's perfectly linear ), or just for convenience, but it's a very fair level of challenge for most of the way if you know what to look out for. my only regret with this game is i'm sorry about any friend discussions ive completely halted by bringing this game up all the time in conversation. oops... That and it takes a surprising amount of effort to go through alos idkd idkd ddikd i just wnana get this log done its way too late at night also i was assuming naively that Nocturne would be my 100th logged game since i've started documenting my own media diaries, but because of how things turned out, it's closer to the 97th on backlogged. Oops! That's an arbitrary achievement only i care enough about! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aloi9Cj6wFA

[hanasatoblogs]

Deterministic vs. Probabilistic Matching: What’s the Difference and When to Use Each?

In today's data-driven world, businesses often need to match and merge data from various sources to create a unified view. This process is critical in industries like marketing, healthcare, finance, and more. When it comes to matching algorithms, two primary methods stand out: deterministic and probabilistic matching. But what is the difference between the two, and when should each be used? Let’s dive into the details and explore both approaches.

1. What Is Deterministic Matching?

Deterministic matching refers to a method of matching records based on exact or rule-based criteria. This approach relies on specific identifiers like Social Security numbers, email addresses, or customer IDs to find an exact match between data points.

How It Works: The deterministic matching algorithm looks for fields that perfectly match across different datasets. If all specified criteria are met (e.g., matching IDs or emails), the records are considered a match.

Example: In healthcare, matching a patient’s medical records across systems based on their unique patient ID is a common use case for deterministic matching.

Advantages: High accuracy when exact matches are available; ideal for datasets with consistent, structured, and well-maintained records.

Limitations: Deterministic matching falls short when data is inconsistent, incomplete, or when unique identifiers (such as email or customer IDs) are not present.

2. What Is Probabilistic Matching?

Probabilistic matching is a more flexible approach that evaluates the likelihood that two records represent the same entity based on partial, fuzzy, or uncertain data. It uses statistical algorithms to calculate probabilities and scores to determine the best possible match.

How It Works: A probabilistic matching algorithm compares records on multiple fields (such as names, addresses, birth dates) and assigns a probability score based on how similar the fields are. A match is confirmed if the score exceeds a pre-defined threshold.

Example: In marketing, matching customer records from different databases (which may have variations in how names or addresses are recorded) would benefit from probabilistic matching.

Advantages: It handles discrepancies in data (e.g., misspellings, name changes) well and is effective when exact matches are rare or impossible.

Limitations: While more flexible, probabilistic matching is less precise and may yield false positives or require additional human review for accuracy.

3. Deterministic vs. Probabilistic Matching: Key Differences

Understanding the differences between deterministic vs probabilistic matching is essential to selecting the right approach for your data needs. Here’s a quick comparison:

4. Real-World Applications: Deterministic vs. Probabilistic Matching

Deterministic Matching in Action

Finance: Banks often use deterministic matching when reconciling transactions, relying on transaction IDs or account numbers to ensure precision in identifying related records.

Healthcare: Hospitals utilize deterministic matching to link patient records across departments using unique identifiers like medical record numbers.

Probabilistic Matching in Action

Marketing: Marketers often deal with messy customer data that includes inconsistencies in name spelling or address formatting. Here, probabilistic vs deterministic matching comes into play, with probabilistic matching being favored to find the most likely matches.

Insurance: Insurance companies frequently use probabilistic matching to detect fraud by identifying subtle patterns in data that might indicate fraudulent claims across multiple policies.

5. When to Use Deterministic vs. Probabilistic Matching?

The choice between deterministic and probabilistic matching depends on the nature of the data and the goals of the matching process.

Use Deterministic Matching When:

Data is highly structured: If you have clean and complete datasets with consistent identifiers (such as unique customer IDs or social security numbers).

Precision is critical: When the cost of incorrect matches is high (e.g., in financial transactions or healthcare data), deterministic matching is a safer choice.

Speed is a priority: Deterministic matching is faster due to the simplicity of its rule-based algorithm.

Use Probabilistic Matching When:

Data is messy or incomplete: Probabilistic matching is ideal when dealing with datasets that have discrepancies (e.g., variations in names or missing identifiers).

Flexibility is needed: When you want to capture potential matches based on similarities and patterns rather than strict rules.

You’re working with unstructured data: In scenarios where exact matches are rare, probabilistic matching provides a more comprehensive way to link related records.

6. Combining Deterministic and Probabilistic Approaches

In many cases, businesses might benefit from a hybrid approach that combines both deterministic and probabilistic matching methods. This allows for more flexibility by using deterministic matching when exact identifiers are available and probabilistic methods when the data lacks structure or consistency.

Example: In identity resolution, a company may first apply deterministic matching to link accounts using unique identifiers (e.g., email or phone number) and then apply probabilistic matching to resolve any remaining records with partial data or variations in names.

Conclusion

Choosing between deterministic vs probabilistic matching ultimately depends on the specific needs of your data matching process. Deterministic matching provides high precision and works well with structured data, while probabilistic matching algorithms offer flexibility for dealing with unstructured or incomplete data.

By understanding the strengths and limitations of each approach, businesses can make informed decisions about which algorithm to use—or whether a combination of both is necessary—to achieve accurate and efficient data matching. In today’s increasingly complex data landscape, mastering these techniques is key to unlocking the full potential of your data.

[lifesteal-headcanons]

Zam wears gems on his crown to represent his teammates. He currently has 5 different ones in it, including his own.

Red Apatite, a red gem which is believed to help the wearer achieve their goals. This one represents mapic, as I feel like he puts his goals first above other peoples goals.

Black Epidote, a black gem which represents strength, courage and determination. This one represents spoke as he is clearly a very deterministic person.

Purple Saphire, a purple gem which is said to increase spiritual power and consciousness. This one represents subz as I just thought it made sense to make him one to do with spirts since he's yk... dead and stuff. Subz used to be Purple Jasper, which is meant to represent bonding of multiple energys aswell as honor, dignity and respect.

Purple Tormaline, a purple gem which is believed to promote serene energy, ground its user and help them relax. It can also release emotional attachments which no longer serve you. This one represents Ro, which zam is no longer really teamed with yet can't bring himself to get rid of a gem for ro. I haven't decided on one for when they were still teamed.

Finally Lemon Jade, a gem which is meant to promote positive energy of those who wear it or those who keep it nearby. This one is zam's, since he always trys to make others happy, especially those who he completely trusts.

Zam also gives each person a matching gemstone to represent them and since he got subz a new one after his death, it is buried in his grave on the island.

-🪐

.

[luxurybrownbarbie]

What’s the criteria for strength you’re talking about? Like presence or the actions they take?

The way there are six different messages in my inbox asking for the criteria… exactly besties. I love scholars. 👩‍🏫 I love the need for a critical analysis.

Here’s the setup: Imagine Bad Girl’s Club. Each team goes into the house, and the last person standing wins it for the team. Before each match, there’s a coin flip to see if there’s an audience or not. This is critical, because the presence of an audience can be the deciding factor for certain matchups. And when we say no audience, the implication is that no one, outside of those in the matchup, will ever know what was said. Again, critical.

Now, for the deterministic criteria: We have four categories. 1) Offense/Tenacity, 2) Individualistic/Hive Mind, 3) Patience, 4) Critical Hits.

1) Offense/Tenacity: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius get boosts here. The fire signs will walk in and immediately go on the offensive. Whoever they’re going against will start off on the back foot. A strong start will take them far. Gemini also gets a moderate boost here. Taurus, Virgo, and Scorpio take moderate losses here.

2) Individualistic vs. Hive Mind: Are they going to link up and fight together, or will they leave their brethren out to dry? The air signs have it. Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius will link up with one another and go after a common enemy and relish in their downfall. Cancers get a small boost here. Capricorn takes severe losses here; unfortunately, the goats will cannibalize each other if they feel they’re in enough danger. Leos also take minor losses here.

3) Patience: Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn get massive boosts here, but Taurus especially. Taurus is the reason the matches can’t be 12 rounds with specific time limits, because they’ll simply wait everyone out and win it all. Unless they get flustered enough to take the bait, they will remain chilled and let everyone else burn themselves out. Pisces gets a minor boost here.

4) Critical Hits: Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces have it. They’re going to say something so clinically evil and below the belt while giving you this look: 🥺, and it will sway the entire match. If they get you good and you stumble, they’re taking it all. It’s also a catch 22 because if you hurt their feelings back, they’re going to go even further and take it straight to hell. Sagittarius gets a minor boost here. Taurus gets a boost, but it takes them a while to get there, so it gets nullified.

But like I said, the presence of an audience changes things. An October Libra/July Leo battle’s outcome changes solely based on if there’s an audience watching. No audience? The Libras are taking it. Audience? The Leos win.

Aquarius takes major losses when there’s no audience, because they need people to see how smart and unbothered they are. Leos too. Virgos get a boost because it thrills them to be validated when they know they’re correct.

Now, the reason the final match will almost always be between a March Aries and a July Cancer? March Aries simply has too much offensive power and July Cancers are extremely balanced. Unless there’s an upset earlier on, most likely by Gemini, they’re going to the finals.

[this-week-in-rust]

This Week in Rust 509

Hello and welcome to another issue of This Week in Rust! Rust is a programming language empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software. This is a weekly summary of its progress and community. Want something mentioned? Tag us at @ThisWeekInRust on Twitter or @ThisWeekinRust on mastodon.social, or send us a pull request. Want to get involved? We love contributions.

This Week in Rust is openly developed on GitHub and archives can be viewed at this-week-in-rust.org. If you find any errors in this week's issue, please submit a PR.

Updates from Rust Community

Newsletters

This Week in Ars Militaris VII

Project/Tooling Updates

actix-contrib-logger v0.1.0: drop-in replacement for the Actix Web HTTP Logger middleware

Observations/Thoughts

Rust 1.71.1

Exploring the Rust compiler benchmark suite

Pre-RFC: Sandboxed, deterministic, reproducible, efficient Wasm compilation of proc macros

RustShip: a new Rust podcast

Rust Walkthroughs

Delightful command-line utilities with Rust

ESP32 Standard Library Embedded Rust: Analog Temperature Sensing using the ADC

Bare Metal Space Invaders

[series] Distributed Tracing in Rust, Episode 2: tracing basics

Secure database access using Ockam

Research

Fixing Rust Compilation Errors using LLMs

Miscellaneous

Shuttle Launchpad #6: A little CRUD

[video]I failed to build multiplayer pong in Rust

Crate of the Week

This week's crate is document-features, a crate to extract documentation for the feature flags from comments in Cargo.toml.

Thanks to Zicklag for the suggestion!

Please submit your suggestions and votes for next week!

Call for Participation

Always wanted to contribute to open-source projects but did not know where to start? Every week we highlight some tasks from the Rust community for you to pick and get started!

Some of these tasks may also have mentors available, visit the task page for more information.

ZeroCopy - CI step "Set toolchain version" can fail without stopping CI job 1

ZeroCopy - Prevent panics statically 1

RON - Rusty byte strings in RON, deprecate base64 (byte) strings

heed - create guides on ways to use heed

Ockam - Use a user-friendly name for the shared services to show it in the tray menu

Ockam - In the Share a service window, the Port should be renamed to Address and support such format

Ockam - In the Share a service window, the Name attribute should not have the /service/ prefix

Hyperswitch - remove unused function for merchant connector account

If you are a Rust project owner and are looking for contributors, please submit tasks here.

Updates from the Rust Project

342 pull requests were merged in the last week

Restrict the parsing of count (RFC #3086)

custom_mir: change Call() terminator syntax to something more readable

add MIR validation for unwind out from nounwind functions + fixes to make validation pass

add missing Clone/Debug impls to SMIR Trait related tys

add projection obligations when comparing impl too

add the relocation_model to the cfg

avoid side-effects from try_coerce when suggesting borrowing LHS of cast

check projection args before substitution in new solver

const-eval: ensure we never const-execute a function marked rustc_do_not_const_check

couple of global state and driver refactors

deny FnDef in patterns

do not mark shallow_lint_levels_on as eval_always

fix a stack overflow with long else if chains

fix argument removal suggestion around macros

fix bad suggestion when wrong parentheses around a dyn trait

fix suggestion for attempting to define a string with single quotes

improve invalid_reference_casting lint

instantiate response: no unnecessary new universe

interpret/miri: call the panic_nounwind machinery the same way codegen does

match scrutinee need necessary parentheses for structs

normalize before checking if local is freeze in deduced_param_attrs

normalize return type of deduce_future_output_from_obligations

only consider object candidates for object-safe dyn types in new solver

point at return type when it influences non-first match arm

point out expectation even if we have TypeError::RegionsInsufficientlyPolymorphic

probe when assembling upcast candidates so they don't step on eachother's toes in new solver

separate consider_unsize_to_dyn_candidate from other unsize candidates

speed up compilation of type-system-chess

stabilize thread local cell methods

synchronize with all calls to unpark in id-based thread parker

upgrade std to gimli 0.28.0

usage zero as language id for FormatMessageW()

use unstable_target_features when checking inline assembly

warn on inductive cycle in coherence leading to impls being considered not overlapping

we are migrating to askama

miri: C mem function shims: consistently treat "invalid" pointers as UB

miri: avoid unnecessary Vec resize

miri: on out-of-bounds error, show where the allocation was created

miri: pin a version of serde without intransparent unreproducible binary blobs

miri: replace hand-written binary search with Vec::binary_search_by

miri: tree borrows: more comments in foreign_read transition

miri: when reporting a heap use-after-free, say where the allocation was allocated and deallocated

only run MaybeInitializedPlaces dataflow once to elaborate drops

optimize DroplessArena arena allocation

optimizing the rest of bool's Ord implementation

don't panic in ceil_char_boundary

expose core::error::request_value in std

fix UB in std::sys::os::getenv()

cleaner assert_eq! & assert_ne! panic messages

inline strlen_rt in CStr::from_ptr

cargo-credential-gnome-secret: dynamically load libsecret

cargo: crate checksum lookup query should match on semver build metadata

cargo: credential-providers: make 1password no longer built-in

cargo: credential: rename cargo:basic to cargo:token-from-stdout

cargo: fix: change the defaults to always check-in Cargo.lock

cargo: improve error message for when no credential providers are available

cargo: login: allow passing additional args to provider

cargo: make cargo-credential-gnome-secret built-in as cargo:libsecret

cargo: print environment variables for cargo run in extra verbose mode

rustdoc: udd warning block support in rustdoc

rustdoc: add lint redundant_explicit_links

rustdoc: fixes with --test-run-directory and relative paths

rustfmt: prevent ICE when formatting item-only vec!{}

rustfmt: remove newlines in where clauses for v2

rustfmt: use OR operator in Cargo.toml license field

clippy: iter_overeager_cloned: detect .cloned().map() and .cloned().for_each()

clippy: new_without_default: include where clause in suggestions, make applicable

clippy: useless_conversion: only lint on paths to fn items and fix FP in macro

clippy: allow calling to_owned on borrowed value for implicit_clone

clippy: check that the suggested method exists in unwrap_or_default

clippy: correctly handle async blocks for NEEDLESS_PASS_BY_REF_MUT

clippy: new lint: should_panic_without_expect

rust-analyzer: add status bar button to toggle check on save state

rust-analyzer: implement extern crate completion

rust-analyzer: record import aliases in symbol index

rust-analyzer: fix help text for rust-analyzer.check.invocation{Strategy,Location}

rust-analyzer: fix signature help of methods from macros

rust-analyzer: fix auto-import (and completions) importing #[doc(hidden)] items

rust-analyzer: rewrite DeMorgan assist

rust-analyzer: start hovering default values of generic constants

rust-analyzer: increase the buffer size for discover project command

rust-analyzer: suggest type completions for type arguments and constant completions for constant arguments

rust-analyzer: the "add missing members" assists: implemented substitution of default values of const params

rust-analyzer: upgrade lsp server

Rust Compiler Performance Triage

A week with very few real regressions and some good improvements through work done by @cjgillot who found a few spots where the compiler was doing unnecessary work.

Triage done by @rylev. Revision range: e845910..d4a881

Summary:

(instructions:u) mean range count Regressions ❌ (primary) 1.4% [0.5%, 2.6%] 13 Regressions ❌ (secondary) 0.6% [0.3%, 0.8%] 8 Improvements ✅ (primary) -0.7% [-1.4%, -0.3%] 59 Improvements ✅ (secondary) -0.8% [-1.3%, -0.3%] 38 All ❌✅ (primary) -0.3% [-1.4%, 2.6%] 72

3 Regressions, 2 Improvements, 2 Mixed; 2 of them in rollups 28 artifact comparisons made in total

Full report here

Approved RFCs

Changes to Rust follow the Rust RFC (request for comments) process. These are the RFCs that were approved for implementation this week:

No RFCs were approved this week.

Final Comment Period

Every week, the team announces the 'final comment period' for RFCs and key PRs which are reaching a decision. Express your opinions now.

RFCs

No RFCs entered Final Comment Period this week.

Tracking Issues & PRs

[disposition: merge] Tracking Issue for const [u8]::is_ascii (const_slice_is_ascii)

[disposition: merge] Implement From<[T; N]> for Rc<[T]> and Arc<[T]>

[disposition: merge] Tracking Issue for Saturating type

[disposition: merge] Implement From<{&,&mut} [T; N]> for Vec<T> where T: Clone

[disposition: merge] Tracking Issue for os_str_bytes

[disposition: merge] Tracking Issue for io::Error::other

[disposition: merge] impl TryFrom<char> for u16

[disposition: merge] rustdoc: show inner enum and struct in type definition for concrete type

[disposition: merge] Replace old private-in-public diagnostic with type privacy lints

[disposition: merge] Implement PartialOrd and Ord for Discriminant

[disposition: merge] stop adding dropck outlives requirements for [T; 0]

[disposition: merge] make Cell::swap panic if the Cells partially overlap

[disposition: merge] Add note that Vec::as_mut_ptr() does not materialize a reference to the internal buffer

[disposition: merge] Document lack of panic safety guarantees of Clone::clone_from

[disposition: merge] Command: also print removed env vars

[disposition: merge] impl Step for IP addresses

New and Updated RFCs

[new] RFC: expose-fn-type

Call for Testing

An important step for RFC implementation is for people to experiment with the implementation and give feedback, especially before stabilization. The following RFCs would benefit from user testing before moving forward:

No RFCs issued a call for testing this week.

If you are a feature implementer and would like your RFC to appear on the above list, add the new call-for-testing label to your RFC along with a comment providing testing instructions and/or guidance on which aspect(s) of the feature need testing.

Upcoming Events

Rusty Events between 2023-08-23 - 2023-09-20 🦀

Virtual

2023-08-23 | Virtual (Linz, AT) | Rust Linz

Rust Meetup Linz - 32nd Edition

2023-08-24 | Virtual (Charlottesville, NC, US) | Charlottesville Rust Meetup

Crafting Interpreters in Rust Collaboratively

2023-08-24 | Virtual (Ciudad de México, MX) | Rust MX

Macros Procedurales y Metalenguajes en Rust

2023-09-05 | Virtual (Buffalo, NY, US) | Buffalo Rust Meetup

Buffalo Rust User Group, First Tuesdays

2023-09-05 | Virtual (Munich, DE) | Rust Munich

Rust Munich 2023 / 4 - hybrid

2023-09-06 | Virtual (Indianapolis, IN, US) | Indy Rust

Indy.rs - with Social Distancing

2023-09-07 | Virtual (Charlottesville, NC, US) | Charlottesville Rust Meetup

Crafting Interpreters in Rust Collaboratively

2023-09-12 - 2023-09-15 | Virtual (Albuquerque, NM, US) | RustConf

RustConf 2023

2023-09-12 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust

Second Tuesday

2023-09-13 | Virtual (Boulder, CO, US) | Boulder Elixir and Rust

Monthly Meetup

2023-09-13 | Virtual (Cardiff, UK)| Rust and C++ Cardiff

The unreasonable power of combinator APIs

2023-09-14 | Virtual (Nuremberg, DE) | Rust Nuremberg

Rust Nürnberg online

Asia

2023-09-06 | Tel Aviv, IL | Rust TLV

RustTLV @ Final - September Edition

Europe

2023-08-23 | London, UK | Rust London User Group

LDN Talks Aug 2023: Rust London x RNL (The next Frontier in App Development)

2023-08-24 | Aarhus, DK | Rust Aarhus

Rust Aarhus Hack and Learn at Trifork

2023-08-31 | Augsburg, DE | Rust Meetup Augsburg

Augsburg Rust Meetup #2

2023-09-05 | Munich, DE + Virtual | Rust Munich

Rust Munich 2023 / 4 - hybrid

2023-09-21 | Bern, CH | Rust Bern

Third Rust Bern Meetup

North America

2023-08-23 | Austin, TX, US | Rust ATX

Rust Lunch - Fareground

2023-08-24 | Mountain View, CA, US | Mountain View Rust Meetup

Rust Meetup at Hacker Dojo

2023-08-30 | Copenhagen, DK | Copenhagen Rust Community

Rust metup #39 sponsored by Fermyon

2023-09-06 | Bellevue, WA, US | The Linux Foundation

Rust Global

2023-09-12 - 2023-09-15 | Albuquerque, NM, US + Virtual | RustConf

RustConf 2023

2023-09-19 | San Francisco, CA, US | San Francisco Rust Study Group

Rust Hacking in Person

Oceania

2023-08-24 | Brisbane, QLD, AU | Rust Brisbane

August Meetup

2023-09-13 | Perth, WA, AU | Rust Perth

Rust Meetup 2: Lunch & Learn

If you are running a Rust event please add it to the calendar to get it mentioned here. Please remember to add a link to the event too. Email the Rust Community Team for access.

Jobs

Please see the latest Who's Hiring thread on r/rust

Quote of the Week

[...] there's no benefit to haranguing people.

Unless they use three spaces for indentation. Those people need to be relentlessly mocked and publicly harassed until they see sense and use five spaces like all proper, civilised people do. Damn barbarians...

– Daniel Keep on rust-users

Thanks to Jonas Fassbender for the suggestion!

Please submit quotes and vote for next week!

This Week in Rust is edited by: nellshamrell, llogiq, cdmistman, ericseppanen, extrawurst, andrewpollack, U007D, kolharsam, joelmarcey, mariannegoldin, bennyvasquez.

Email list hosting is sponsored by The Rust Foundation

Discuss on r/rust

[three-blogs-in-a-trenchcoat]

Okay so my optimal strategy: scale the percentages by ten, then count the milestones: 5, 5+3=8, 5+3+1=9, 5+3+1+1=10. Look at the time, and take the last digit. (Minutes is fine, seconds is better if you wanna overensure it.) If It's less than 5, vote the first option. At least five but less than 8, second one. If it's 8, third; 9, last.

Assuming that the last digit of the current time when you look at this is uniformly distributed between 0 and 9, this will ensure that you have exactly 50% probability of voting for the option with 50%. Which means that with enough votes, the outcome should be within rounding error.

EDIT: while the above strategy is statistically optimal (meaning it will provide a valid distribution), with small probability it can make an arbitrarily large mistake. A deterministic improvement would be to use the last digit of the vote count, instead of the current time. Assuming that increments by one with every vote*, this would ensure that the percentage of votes is as close to the desired percentage as possible. (And after every tenth vote, it would be an exact match.)

*I'm assuming this isn't actually the case, since it would be cached and not incremented live, but with some delay; nevertheless, I think that adds less noise than looking at the time, especially if the overall vote count is small.

this is entirely me being very curious about how well people can guess what others will do and self sort. so to that end:

PLEASE DO NOT TELL PEOPLE PERCENTAGES OR GIVE ANY HINTS IN THE NOTES

and pls reblog for sample size :)

[maximuswolf]

Games with a puzzle mode

Games with a puzzle mode Do you know any? I mean games that aren't puzzle games, but have a mode where you'll be dropped into a pre-designed scenario using most or all of the mechanics from the regular game, and you have to complete some challenge like "win in 1 turn"Some genres that do this are tile matching games (numba, tidalis, lumines) and trading card games (eternal, magic duels of the planeswalkers)A couple of games stand out because the puzzle mode helps you learn strategies you can use in the regular game:Desktop Dungeons is a roguelite casual turn-based RPG where you explore new tiles to regain health and mana (though in the puzzle mode the map is usually revealed from the start). In the regular mode you will find shops with useful items and spells randomly scattered around the map. One technique you might learn from the puzzles is to start fighting a big enemy, then fight something else to level up and regain your health and mana, then return to the first enemyPrismata is a deterministic PvP strategy game (except for the initial randomization of units like in chess960) inspired by RTS like Starcraft. Puzzles can introduce you to counterintuitive situations like not defending with your strongest defender because you'll get screwed by discrete math on a future turn. Some of the puzzles are extremely hard and you could enjoy the game without ever playing a skirmish, just trying to solve them Submitted May 07, 2025 at 07:35AM by Lttlefoot https://ift.tt/FYc3T0H via /r/gaming

[avsmismatchcards]

Is a Deterministic or Probabilistic Matching Algorithm Right

Data matching is a process used to improve data quality. It involves cleaning up bad data by comparing, identifying, or merging related entities across two or more sets of data. Two main matching techniques used are deterministic matching and probabilistic matching. ​

Deterministic Matching

Deterministic matching is a technique used to find an exact match between records. It involves dealing with data that comes from various sources such as online purchases, registration forms, and social media platforms, among others. This technique is ideal for situations where the record contains a unique identifier, such as a Social Security Number (SSN), national ID, or other identification number. ​

Probabilistic Matching

Probabilistic matching involves matching records based on the degree of similarity between two or more datasets. Probability and statistics are usually applied, and various algorithms are used during the matching process to generate matching scores. In probabilistic matching, several field values are compared between two records, and each field is assigned a weight that indicates how closely the two field values match. The sum of the individual field’s weights indicates a possible match between two records. ​Melissa

Choosing the Right Algorithm

Deterministic Matching: Ideal for situations where data is consistent and contains unique identifiers.

Probabilistic Matching: Better suited for situations where data may be inconsistent or incomplete, and a degree of similarity is acceptable.​

Probabilistic algorithms will generate more profile matches compared to deterministic ones. When aiming for broad audience coverage rather than accuracy, probabilistic algorithms have an advantage. ​

SITES WE SUPPORT

AVS Mismatch Cards – ​​​Wix