#Get balance API

[electronicgoateewasteland]

People are looking to promote or advertise their products and services via SMS. Though the various modes of communication tools are present in the market still no one can replace “Bulk SMS services“. For that, you need the best bulk SMS service provider that should be reliable and affordable.If you’re planning to jump in the business of bulk SMS reseller is a good idea to sell SMS services under your brand name with the MsgClub reseller panel.

[wip]

How effective have the login walls on individual blog urls been in getting new people to sign up? I find them pretty annoying when I'm trying to catch up on friends' blogs or read a post someone sent me while logged out, and it also seems like it would cut down on ad views for y'all. Is it worth it?

Answer: Hello there, @mezzodical!

We are glad to answer this one, as it feels important to address. 

While we concede that login walls can indeed be pretty annoying, they were a significant driver of growth for Tumblr in 2022. And it is growth that we need above all else right now. 

We are still working on them, however, and tuning them to be less disruptive and more effective. After all, we do not want to completely erode the ability to surf Tumblr content without having to log in—and it’s a balance we are still working through.

For what it’s worth, we don’t like walled gardens either—which is why we still have (and never intend to remove) things like RSS support for blogs and our public API.

We hope this helps answer your question, and thanks for getting in touch with this question.

Best,

—Zandy, Cyle, and Marina

[watchnrant]

Interior Chinatown: A Sharp Satire That Challenges Stereotypes and Forces Self-Reflection

Interior Chinatown is a brilliant yet understated reflection of the world—a mirror that exposes how society often judges people by their covers. The show captures this poignantly with the scene where Willis Wu can’t get into the police precinct until he proves his worth by delivering food. It’s a powerful metaphor: sometimes, if you don’t fit the mold, you have to prove your value in the most degrading or unexpected ways just to get a foot in the door. The locked precinct doors represent barriers faced by those who don’t match the “majority’s” idea of what’s acceptable or valuable.

While the series centers on the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community and the stereotypical roles Hollywood has long relegated them to—background extras, kung fu fighters—it forces viewers to confront bigger questions. It makes you ask: Am I complicit in perpetuating these stereotypes? Am I limiting others—or even myself—by what I assume is their worth? It’s not just about API representation; it’s about how society as a whole undervalues anyone who doesn’t fit neatly into its preferred narrative.

The show can feel confusing if you don’t grasp its satirical lens upfront. But for me, knowing the context of Charles Yu’s original book helped it click. The production team does an incredible job balancing satire with sincerity, blurring the line between real life and the exaggerated Hollywood “procedural” format. They cleverly use contrasting visuals and distinct camera work to draw you into different headspaces—Hollywood’s glossy expectations versus the grittier reality of life.

Chloe Bennet’s involvement (real name Chloe Wang) ties into the show’s themes on a deeply personal level. She famously changed her last name to navigate Hollywood, caught in the impossible middle ground of not being “Asian enough” or “white enough” for casting directors. It’s a decision that sparks debate—was it an act of survival, assimilation, or betrayal? But for Bennett, it was about carving a space for herself to pursue her dreams.

This theme echoes in one of the show’s most poignant scenes, where Lana is told, “You will never completely understand. You’re mixed.” It’s a crushing acknowledgment of the barriers that persist, even when you’re trying to bridge divides. Lana’s story highlights how identity can be both a strength and an obstacle, and the line serves as a painful reminder of the walls society creates—externally and internally.

Interior Chinatown doesn’t just ask us to look at the system; it forces us to examine ourselves. Whether it’s Willis Wu at the precinct door or Lana trying to connect in a world that sees her as neither this nor that, the show unflinchingly portrays the struggle to belong. And as viewers, it challenges us to question our role in those struggles: Are we helping to dismantle the barriers, or are we quietly reinforcing them?

[multidimensionalsock]

REST APIs

REST (Representational State Transfer) is a type of API where all the information needed to perform an action is passed to the API at the time the request needs fulfilling. The server does not need previous knowledge of the clients session in order to fulfill their request.

The alternative to this is that the client having a 'session' with the server, where the server keeps information on the client while it's active, which can take up a lot of server processing power and memory. For large services handling possible hundreds of thousands of clients at a time, keeping a 'connection' can take up a lot of server processing and memory.

REST speeds up processing time for both the server and client. With sessions, they can end up split over multiple servers, meaning servers have to communicate to get data which can slow down response time. Because the server needs no prior knowledge of a client, any client can handle any client's request easily, which also makes load balancing easier, a request can be sent to any server that can handle it which is currently the least busy.

All REST APIs use HTTP methods. A client sends a request via HTTP to a specific endpoint (location on the web), along with all of the information needed to complete that request. The server will then process it and send back a response.

Core features of REST:

Client-Server Architecture - a client that sends requests to a server, or set of servers via HTTP methods.

Stateless - client information is not stored between requests and each request is handled as separate and unconnected.

Cacheability - data that is expected to be accessed often can be cached (saved for a set amount of time) on the client or server side to make client and server interactions quicker.

Uniform interface - no matter where an endpoint is accessed from, its requests have a standard format. Information returned to a client should have enough information and self description that the client knows how to process it.

Layered system architecture - calls and responses can go through multiple intermediate layers, but both the client and server will assume they're communicating directly.

Code on demand (optional) - the server can send executable code to the client when requested to extend client functionality.

[macademiastudies]

December 6th, 2024

Studying for the GMAT exam day 6/150

I'll be going to the library to study again tomorrow, so I also created an action items list that I need to get done. Over the weekend I feel so productive and motivated but then when I get to having to balance work and studying on the weekdays it's hard not to lose that motivation. I feel as though it's a bit easier when I actually have a routine- such as on in person days when I get to work 2 hours early so I can study and then leave 2 hours late so I can study again. I've also been trying to get other parts of myself together including doing tons of skin care and actually setting up a routine every morning that involves skin and hair care, which helps me feel put together even when I'm working from home.

Today was a pretty quiet day, had my tea and went back to the questions I bookmarked before that I got wrong. I bookmark all the questions differently-based on if I got it wrong before, if I struggled, or if I decided it would be best to do it later on (ie. the diagnostic test, since i'd rather start from scratch).

What I got done today:

Re-did everything I bookmarked as I got wrong before

Read a few more chapters with the 'Pumpkin Plan'

Completed a CS50P assignment about APIs/libraries

Found a simpler way to do a task at work that's been bothering me

Binge watched desperate housewives

The playlist for today:

[brehaaorgana]

What if I just become an annoying ADHD money blogger sometimes

#adhd adult money liveblogging

If you have problems saving money (especially emergency savings money) because you always spend it on too many impulse purchases, or take money out of your savings to cover your fun money:

you need to open a savings account with a new bank. The more impulsive you are, the more I recommend a small credit union or online only bank, or a really local bank. Someone whose online fund transfers to other banks takes three whole business days, so you literally can't just instant transfer money from savings to your checking account to spur of the moment buy things. If you're afraid this defeats the point of an emergency savings fund in the case of, well, an emergency, set up a small checking account with a minimal amount at this bank too, and just set aside the debit card somewhere you won't frequently use because it won't have much money until you pull it from emergency savings and put it in the checking account.

Look for one with a high APY relative to having basically no deposit minimum (mine is like 3%) and no minimum deposit or monthly fees. The APY is basically when bank sometimes pays you money for not spending money. It will be like, cents at first. Change in the sofa cushions. But over time, it will be more. Don't worry about it. It's just surprise money for later. Not a lot, mind you. But you're a competitive winner and every cent they give you FREE is a success to zap your brain with dopamine. (Eventually if you have enough money you can do this by like, investing in shit or buying CDs and they just give you MORE MONEY. BUT!!! BABY STEPS.)

This is crucial: if you have some kind of direct deposit paycheck set up, see if you can SPLIT the direct deposit between multiple accounts. The company my job uses to pay people allows us to choose between depositing a fixed dollar amount to certain accounts (with "remainder of paycheck balance" being automatic for one account), OR depositing a percentage of my paycheck to certain accounts. (Percents of a paycheck tend to be higher to start). If you don't get paid this way, figure out a good date to set a recurring transfer from your checking to your savings for an amount so it won't sit in your spendy account long. The goal is to pretend like you just actually never had the savings money in that paycheck. Poof. Gone. Disappeared. It got saved before you became aware of the money.

Feel free to start with a small amount. It can be $5 or whatever. Once you start doing this for a few paychecks look at your money. If you're not genuinely struggling to stay afloat after 2-3 months and are still comfortable, try increasing the number a little. Repeat as needed.

Now you've saved money. 🎉

This is genuinely how I managed to save money more consistently than anything else I've ever tried. Savings money goes in the secret money account. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Incredibly silly but it works.

[moneymasteryhub]

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[brrnedoutbrrista]

meta topic - fire as a form of symbolism

((this is in the context of Agni and I'm probably misinterpreting the prompt like usual; I probably yapped about nothing again.))

Agni, despite being partly named after the South-West Deity, isn't what most people would consider a typical Fire Gym Leader (or specialist overall if we're comparing them to canon trainers such as Flint or Crispin); they're nice and they're passionate about something (fighting games) and sure they can be energetic when they have the energy...Except whereas some of the other Fire Specialists have strong emotions across the board, Agni's wanes and ebbs (mostly due to depression and other undiagnosed mental illnesses, partly because of how much shit they get from their family and colleagues)--

They're like a volcano: dormant feeling most of the time, but when they're angry...their anger is like a raging inferno. There's a reason why their 'hidden' title is 'She Whose Flames Hurt Even Those Closest to Her': they lashed out so hard that they managed to hit rock bottom; they lost their bonds with their ex-friends and their ex-partner because the pain from everything was so great they they just...couldn't hold it in anymore. And so they erupted, burnt everything into a crisp, and nearly died at least twice: once due to heartbreak, the other...well. We don't talk about it. Needless to say, their so called flame was nearly put out until they were pressured to take their uncle's place as Gym Leader. The South-West Deity managed to make Agni feel alive again, but at the cost of their soul slowly rotting away. People who can see auras can tell that Agni's cherry red soul is slowly decaying away--gaining speed each birthday. They're still alive, but who knows when their soul will snuff out (dying and rotting--dirtying their sputtering embers).

Their family has been Fire Specialists for generations, so it's expected that Agni follows their footsteps of 'stoking the fire of life in people' whether that be being in healthcare, business, or literally anything else except what they are right now: a tournament organizer working at a cafe down in the pits. But whatever, Agni enjoys seeing competition and wants to grow a scene; they want to see money matches, see the community grow, see trainers and players bring each other up. That kind of passion? That their way of stoking the fire of life in people. Literal lives are important yes, and sometimes we need to smoke out the competition (via the free market and such) but for Agni that means nothing if you can't hold something in your heart. Fighting games are one of the only things that can get their heart and mind going and they want to share that with people. Maybe if they can come together for competition, learning, or casual matches...perhaps those players and Trainers can pass that on to the next generation and so on. Ashes of Agni's mark on the Jaluran FGC and the Api City Gym would be nice to see.

As for people...there was an idol that once compared supporting them to a heater: don't be so close that you'll get burned but don't be too fare to be cold. For Agni, that's a bit of a balancing act; they already hurt and burned people...they're so scared of having that happen again. So they put on a mask, one that's wound up so tight they they're practically suffocating--to the outsiders, Agni is this bundle of anxiety who has to bend ass over backwards to please people. The Gym Leader who is kind to beginning trainers and always offers advice or practice matches or even food and drinks! The Tournament Organizer who won't take any shit from players ranging from 0-2'ers to top players like themselves, the T.O that prioritizes safety and fun above all. A Priest who's supposed to be clean and holy who serves the people and the South-West Deity first. The gamer who tries their best in life, who stumbles and falls, who means well and does too much for people but shies away from them at the same time. Because that mask makes people receptive of them, that makes them feel warm and happy and Agni has to prioritize people's happiness and expectations because that's their way of having bonds with people--to keep them warm. Agni is the campfire and the people they interact with are the onlookers because if they get too close, if people look under the mask...

All they can see is red hot rage mixed in with a desperate plea for everything to stop, time slowly crumbling and rumblings of a breakdown--because the only thing holding this gamer together is preventing that forest fire that caused them to lose everything. Going rock bottom again would surely kill them this time.

And well, if they went rock bottom again. If they lost all their friends and family and everything they worked for with what little fire they have left in their heart.

Agni would cease to exist, and all that's left is a pile of ash and no one bothering to remember them))

[dollsonmain]

RE: this again

Did some digging online to look at local banks and their interest rates are barely better while their fees are VERY MANY.

$2 per debit + $7 to get a physical monthly statement, fees if your account drops below a certain amount (fee and minimum balance varies by account type), $0.05% APY starting out with up to 2% if you top $1M.

I think the complete lack of fees of any kind are one way USAA gets away with such a low interest rate on their accounts, and in this case having lots of money in an account does you more good at USAA.

I may still have to open a local account just to deal with all of this cash, though.

[izzymaekgaem]

IzzyCraft - Devlog 0

First off, let's start with an introduction.

Hey! Name's Isabel. I'm a Comp Sci student in her 20s living in Portugal. I've wanted to try making a Minecraft mod for a while now, and I decided that right now's a good a time as any to start. I wanna keep track of my progress by making one of these every now and then. I'm gonna try to keep this something that I do… every two weeks maybe? But I'm not gonna hold myself to any specific posting schedule for now. Keeps me from going insane.

So, what's this about?

This blog will be a development log of my attempt at making a Minecraft mod. It's something I've always been curious about trying, and I figured I could start learning instead of just sitting on my ass wondering what it's like. I have decided to try the Fabric API out, because it's the one I've spent the most time actually playing on, and I've never really had many stability issues with it. Since this is Minecraft, I will also have to learn more Java, which, coming from someone who learned Python first… is gonna take some getting used to.

I want this development log to serve as practice for any potential attempts at game development in the future, hence the blog name. I guess you could say that everyone reading this is part of my little experiment.

Basic Idea for the mod

The working title is "IzzyCraft", for no other reason than I think it rolls off the tongue well.

The end goal of the mod is to introduce a fantasy rpg flair to minecraft by adding a bunch of your traditional fantasy species to the game. They will replace villagers in their respective biomes, and the player will also be able to chose what species to play as, similar to the origins mod, but with more mechanical balance tailored for online play.

So far, these are my concepts for playable species:

Underground (Found in Cave biomes in the Overworld)

Dwarf:

Darkvision: You see better in the dark.

Size: You are noticeably shorter than the base game model, and can fit through 1.5 block tall gaps without crouching.

Unshakeable Stance: Knockback has less effect on you.

Sky sickness: If you spend more than one day without sleeping with a roof over your head, you will become Skysick. Weapons and tools will take longer to draw, and you will restore health slower. To cure Sky sickness, you must sleep with a roof over your head.

Dark Elf

Darkvision: You see better in the dark.

Size: You are noticeably taller than the base game model, and need spaces to be 2.4 blocks tall to be able to fit without crouching.

Iron stomach: consumables with harmful effects (poison potions, suspicious stew, rotten flesh, etc.) have a reduced effect on you. You can eat raw mushrooms, including nether wart.

Sky sickness: If you spend more than one day without sleeping with a roof over your head, you will become Skysick. Weapons and tools will take longer to draw, and you will restore health slower. To cure Sky sickness, you must sleep with a roof over your head.

Surface (Found in the surface of the Overworld)

Human:

Base player.

Wood Elf (Found in Jungles and Old Growth Taiga biomes):

Nimble: Weapons and tools have a slightly faster draw speed. You have a higher sprint speed.

Size: You are noticeably taller than the base game model, and need spaces to be 2.4 blocks tall to be able to fit without crouching.

Bark skin: Negative effects on throwable and lingering potions, as well as potion tipped arrows, have a reduced effect on you.

Fast metabolism: Your hunger bar decays faster.

High Elf (Found in Flower and Birch Forests):

Arcane: Level caps on the enchanter are lowered (can make higher enchants with less bookshelves).

Size: You are noticeably taller than the base game model, and need spaces to be 2.4 blocks tall to be able to fit without crouching.

Ward: Enchanted weapons deal slightly less damage to you.

Slow learner: Killed creatures drop less experience.

Catfolk (Found in Deserts and Mesas):

Agile: You have a higher jump height, and a faster sprint speed. You take less fall damage.

Size: You are the same size as the regular player.

Claws: Unarmed attacks deal slightly more damage.

Fast metabolism: Your hunger bar decays faster.

Halfling (Found in the Plains Biomes):

Sneaky: Weapons and tools have a slightly faster draw speed. You can walk without triggering skulk sensors.

Size: You are noticeably shorter than the base game model, and can fit through 1.5 block tall gaps without crouching.

Lucky: Your critical hits have a chance of dealing double damage.

Light build: You have less health.

Minotaur (Found in Savannas):

Charge: Your critical hits deal slightly more damage.

Size: You are noticeably taller than the base game model, and need spaces to be 2.5 blocks tall to be able to fit without crouching.

Bulky: you have slightly more health.

Horns: You can't wear helmets.

Nether

Piglin (Found in Crimson Forests and Nether Wastes):

Netherspawn: You spawn in the Nether.

Charge: Your critical hits deal slightly more damage.

Size: You are the same size as the regular player.

Piglin Reputation: You do not need to wear gold to keep other piglins from attacking you. Piglin brutes are not hostile to you, unless you attack them first.

Overworld sickness: If you spend more than one day without sleeping in the Nether you will become sick. Weapons and tools will take longer to draw, and you will restore health slower. To cure Overworld sickness, you must sleep in the Nether.

Tiefling (Found in Warped Forests and Basalt Deltas):

Netherspawn: You spawn in the Nether.

Borne of Fire: Fire enchantments deal slightly more damage.

Size: You are the same size as the regular player.

Lava skin: You are immune to fire damage (swimming in lava still damages you). You can stand on magma blocks without taking damage.

Nether Metabolism: Your hunger bar decays faster. You can eat nether wart, as well as crimson and warped fungus.

The End

Enderfolk (Found in the End Islands):

Enderman Reputation: You can stare at an Enderman without angering them. They are still hostile if you attack them.

Teleport: You can Teleport short distances without needing to use an ender pearl.

Size: You are noticeably taller than the base game model, and need spaces to be 2.5 blocks tall to be able to fit without crouching.

Silky hands: You can collect grass and leaf blocks without special tools.

Hydrophobic: Touching water damages you. This also applies to rain (but not snow)

next: IzzyCraft - Devlog 1 - Doing the Thing

[canmom]

VR observations, 10 months in

I've been a game dev for 10 months now. It's pretty great, I'm enjoying it a lot, I get to spend my days doing crazy shader shit and animations and voxels and visual effects. Hopefully the game that will come out of all this will be one people enjoy, and in any case I'm learning so much that will eventually come back to the personal ~artistic~ side of things. I can't talk about that game just yet though (but soon it will be announced, I'm pretty sure). So this is a post about other games.

Mind you, I don't actually play very many VR games, or games in general these days, because I'm too busy developing the dang things. but sometimes I do! And I think it's interesting to talk about them.

These aren't really reviews as such. You could project all sorts of ulterior motives if it was. Like my livelihood does sorta depend on people buying VR headsets and then games on them. This is more just like things I observe.

Headsets

The biggest problem with VR at the moment is wearing a headset for too long kinda sucks. The weight of the headset is all effectively held on a lever arm and it presses on your face. However, this is heavily dependent on the strap you use to hold it to your head. A better balanced and cushioned strap can hold the headset still with less pressure and better balance the forces.

The strap that comes with the Quest 3 is absolute dogshit. So a big part of the reason I wouldn't play VR games for fun is because after wearing the headset for 30-60 minutes in the daily meeting, the absolute last thing I'd want to do is wear it any longer. Recently I got a new strap (a ~£25 Devaso one, the low end of straps), and it's markedly improved. It would probably be even better if I got one of the high end Bobo straps. So please take it from me: if you wanna get into VR, get a decent strap.

I hear the Apple Vision Pro is a lot more comfortable to wear for long periods, though I won't have a chance to try it until later this month.

During the time I've been working at Holonautic, Meta released their Quest 3, and more recently Apple released their hyper expensive Vision Pro for much fanfare.

The Quest 3 is a decent headset and probably the one I'd recommend if you're getting into VR and can afford a new console. It's not a massive improvement over the Quest 2 - the main thing that's better is the 'passthrough' (aka 'augmented reality', the mode where the 3D objects are composited into video of what's in front of you), which is now in full colour, and feels a lot less intrusive than the blown out greyscale that the Quest 2 did. But it still has some trouble with properly taking into account depth when combining the feeds from multiple cameras, so you get weird space warping effects when something in the foreground moves over something in the background.

The Vision Pro is by all accounts the bees knees, though it costs $3500 and already sold out, so good luck getting one. It brings a new interaction mode based on eye tracking, where you look at a thing with your eyes to select it like with a mouse pointer, and hold your hands in your lap and pinch to interact. Its passthrough is apparently miles ahead, it's got a laptop tier chip, etc etc. I'm not gonna talk about that though, if you want to read product reviews there are a million places you can do it.

Instead I wanna talk about rendering, since I think this is something that only gets discussed among devs, and maybe people outside might be interested.

Right now there is only one game engine that builds to the Vision Pro, which is Unity. However, Apple have their own graphics API, and the PolySpatial API used for the mixed reality mode is pretty heavily locked down in terms of what you can do.

So what Unity does is essentially run a transpilation step to map its own constructs into PolySpatial ones. For example, say you make a shader in Shader Graph (you have to use shader graph, it won't take HLSL shaders in general) - Unity will generate a vision pro compatible shader (in MaterialX format) from that. Vertex and fragment shaders mostly work, particle systems mostly don't, you don't get any postprocessing shaders, anything that involves a compute shader is right out (which means no VFX graph), Entities Graphics doesn't work. I don't think you get much control over stuff like batching. It's pretty limited compared to what we're used to on other platforms.

I said fragment shaders mostly work. It's true that most Shader Graph nodes work the same. However, if you're doing custom lighting calculations in a Unity shader, a standard way to do things is to use the 'main light' property provided by Unity. On the Vision Pro, you don't get a main light.

The Vision Pro actually uses an image-based lighting model, which uses the actual room around you to provide lighting information. This is great because objects in VR look like they actually belong in the space you're in, but it would of course be a huge security issue if all programs could get realtime video of your room, and I imagine the maths involved is pretty complex. So the only light information you get is a shader graph node which does a PBR lighting calculation based on provided parameters (albedo, normal, roughness, metallicity etc.). You can then instruct it to do whatever you want with the output of that inside the shader.

The upshot of this is that we have to make different versions of all our shaders for the Vision Pro version of the game.

Once the game is announced we'll probably have a lot to write about developing interactions for the vision pro vs the quest, so I'll save that for now. It's pretty fascinating though.

Anyway, right now I've still yet to wear a Vision Pro. Apple straight up aren't handing out devkits, we only have two in the company still, so mostly I'm hearing about things second hand.

Shores of Loci

A few genres of VR game have emerged by now. Shooting and climbing are two pretty well-solved problems, so a lot of games involve that. But another one is 3D puzzles. This is something that would be incredibly difficult on a flat screen, where manipulating 3D objects is quite difficult, but becomes quite natural and straightforward in VR.

I've heard about one such game that uses 3D scans of real locations, but Shores of Loci is all about very environment artist authored levels, lots of grand sweeping vistas and planets hanging in the sky and so on. Basically you go through a series of locations and assemble teetering ramshackle buildings and chunks of landscape, which then grow really big and settle into the water. You can pull the pieces towards you with your hand, and then when you rotate them into roughly the right position and orientation relative to another piece, they snap together.

It's diverting, if kinda annoying when you just can't find the place the piece should go - especially if the answer turns out to be that there's an intermediate piece that floated off somewhere. The environments are well-designed and appealing, it's cool to see the little guys appearing to inhabit them. That said it does kinda just... repeat that concept a bunch. The narrative is... there's a big stone giant who appears and gives you pieces sometimes. That's it basically.

Still, it's interesting to see the different environment concepts. Transitions have this very cool distorted sky/black hole effect.

However, the real thing that got me with this game, the thing that I'm writing about now, was the water. They got planar reflections working. On the Quest! This is something of a white whale for me. Doing anything that involves reading from a render texture is so expensive that it's usually a no-go, and yet here it's working great - planar reflections complete with natural looking distortion from ripples. There's enough meshes that I assume there must be a reasonably high number of draw calls, and yet... it's definitely realtime planar reflections, reflections move with objects, it all seems to work.

There's a plugin called Mirrors and Reflections for VR that provides an implementation, but so far my experience has been that the effect is too expensive (in terms of rendertime) to keep 72fps in a more complex scene. I kind of suspect the devs are using this plugin, but I'm really curious how they optimised the draw calls down hard enough to work with it, since there tends to be quite a bit going on...

Moss

This game's just straight up incredibly cute.

Third person VR games, where you interact with a character moving across a diorama-like level, are a tiny minority of VR games at the moment. I think it's a shame because the concept is fantastic.

Moss is a puzzle-platformer with light combat in a Redwall/Mouse Guard-like setting. The best part of Moss is 1000% interacting with your tiny little mousegirl, who is really gorgeously animated - her ears twitch, her tail swings back and forth, she tumbles, clambers, and generally moves in a very convincing and lifelike way.

Arguably this is the kind of game that doesn't need to be made in VR - we already have strong implementations of 'platformer' for flatscreen. What I think the VR brings in this case is this wonderful sense of interacting with a tiny 3D world like a diorama. In some ways it's sorta purposefully awkward - if Quill walks behind something, you get a glowing outline, but you might need to crane your neck to see her - but having the level laid out in this way as a 3D structure you can play with is really endearing.

Mechanically, you move Quill around with the analogue stick, and make her jump with the buttons, standard stuff. Various level elements can be pushed or pulled by grabbing them with the controllers, and you can also drag enemies around to make them stand on buttons, so solving a level is a combination of moving pieces of the level and then making Quill jump as appropriate.

The fact that you're instantiated in the level, separate from Quill, also adds an interesting wrinkle in terms of 'identification with player character'. In most third person games, you tend to feel that the player character is you to some degree. In Moss, it feels much more like Quill is someone I've been made responsible for, and I feel guilty whenever I accidentally make her fall off a cliff or something.

A lot is clearly designed around fostering that protective vibe - to heal Quill, you have to reach out and hold her with your hand, causing her to glow briefly. When you complete some levels, she will stop to give you a high five or celebrate with you. Even though the player is really just here as 'puzzle solver' and 'powerful macguffin', it puts some work in to make you feel personally connected to Quill.

Since the camera is not locked to the character, the controls are instead relative to the stage, i.e. you point the stick in the direction on the 2D plane you want Moss to move. This can make certain bits of platforming, like moving along a narrow ledge or tightrope, kinda fiddly. In general it's pretty manageable though.

The combat system is straightforward but solid enough. Quill has a three button string, and it can be cancelled into a dash using the jump button, and directed with the analogue stick. Enemies telegraph their attacks pretty clearly, so it's rarely difficult, but there's enough there to be engaging.

The game is built in Unreal, unlike most Quest games (almost all are made in Unity). It actually doesn't feel so very different though - likely because the lighting calculations that are cheap enough to run in Unity are the same ones that are cheap enough to run in Unreal. It benefits a lot from baked lighting. Some things are obvious jank - anything behind where the player is assumed to be sitting tends not to be modelled or textured - but the environments are in general very lively and I really like some of the interactions: you can slash through the grass and floating platforms rock as you jump onto them.

The story is sadly pretty standard high fantasy royalist chosen one stuff, nothing exciting really going on there. Though there are some very cute elements - the elf queen has a large frog which gives you challenges to unlock certain powers, and you can pet the frog, and even give it a high five. Basically all the small scale stuff is done really well, I just wish they'd put some more thought into what it's about. The Redwall/Mouse Guard style has a ton of potential - what sort of society would these sapient forest animals have? They just wanted a fairytale vibe though evidently.

Cutscene delivery is a weak point. You pull back into a cathedral-like space where you're paging through a large book, which is kinda cool, and listening to narration while looking at illustrations. In general I think these cutscenes would have worked better if you just stayed in the diorama world and watched the characters have animated interactions. Maybe it's a cost-saving measure. I guess having you turn the pages of the book is also a way to give you something to do, since sitting around watching NPCs talk is notoriously not fun in VR.

There are some very nice touches in the environment design though! In one area you walk across a bunch of human sized suits of armour and swords that are now rusting - nobody comments, but it definitely suggests that humans did exist in this world at some point. The actual puzzle levels tend to make less sense, they're very clearly designed as puzzles first and 'spaces people would live in' not at all, but they do tend to look pretty, and there's a clear sense of progression through different architectural areas - so far fairly standard forest, swamp, stone ruins etc. but I'll be curious to see if it goes anywhere weird with it later.

Weak story aside, I'm really impressed with Moss. Glad to see someone else giving third person VR a real shot. I'm looking forward to playing the rest of it.

...that's kinda all I played in a while huh. For example, I still haven't given Asgard's Wrath II, the swordfighting game produced internally at Meta that you get free on the Quest 3, a shot. Or Boneworks. I still haven't finished Half Life Alyx, even! Partly that's because the Quest 3 did not get on well with my long USB A to C cable - for some reason it only seems to work properly on a high quality C to C cable - and that restricts me from playing PCVR games that require too much movement. Still though...

Anyway, the game I've been working on these past 10 months should be ready to announce pretty soon. So I'm very excited for that.

[thebrokeasfinvestor]

I apologize for not posting for a while but things got crazy at my day job.

I got a promotion to manager at Retail Job. It’s a little more responsibility and crazy hours but I got a pay raise, which is nice.

This extra income isn’t a ton but it’s enough that I can contribute even more to my aforementioned brokerage account. Time will tell with this, watch this space.

I’ve also signed up for two new credit cards: Venmo and BrightWay. Venmo gave me a $300 credit limit and BrightWay gave me $500. You math whizzes will know that’s an additional $800 in credit. That’s obviously not a ton of credit it but it’s $800 more than I could qualify for a year ago; I’ll consider that progress.

Venmo’s credit card is pretty no-frills except for the cash-back program, which gives you 3% on the category you charge most.

BrightWay’s is also no-frills. Their cash-back is a flat 1% without categories but there is an extra benefit. Six consecutive monthly payments will get you either a credit limit increase (with a max line of $15k) or an APY decrease (with a floor of 19.99%). I’ve only done one payment so far but I think I’ll choose the credit limit increase first. That will impact my credit utilization (and therefore my score). When you consider this card is used once a month and I’m paying off the balance in full every time, an APY decrease wouldn’t help me much–if at all. I’ll use that option once my increases max out (because that is dependent on income.

I’m pretty stoked I got the BrightWay card. OneMain is a subprime lender but this card offers a simple path to more credit and less interest. This is the type of card you don’t max out (well that’s all of them) but you buy one thing a month on and pay it off ASAP.

My suggestion for new credit users is find any card that doesn’t charge an annual fee. Once you get approved, you should add a monthly bill which doesn’t fluctuate to that card such as your phone bill or favorite streaming service. This way, you know how your credit will be used every month, the utilization stays the same every month, and if it gets paid on time, your score will go up.

If you’re like me and have been successfully rebuilding for a while, you’ll have several cards you do this with. Right now, I have one credit card for Lyft, one for Spotify, one for groceries, and one for emergencies. I also have two secured credit cards I don’t use anymore (no rewards) but refuse to close (because that’ll change my average account age).

I know juggling this many cards can be daunting to some but I’ve done this for years. My credit got messed up due to unauthorized charges when my Discover got stolen (which is my I hate them) but before that, I was sitting pretty because of this method.

I could’ve used one card for all those monthly expenses but I figured spreading charges around would do two things: keep utilization per card low and make multiple accounts put something positive on my credit report every month.

This post is getting long and I apologize again for not posting more, readers, so here’s a pretty sunset 🤙

[rubalotl]

I've been contemplating how I want my 2024 to go. There are three pillars of my life that I want to focus on and balance.

______________________________________________________

Lifestyle 🥦🏃🕉 • I want to get stricter with what I eat again and go back to more strict keto like I used to do and set a schedule for when I eat. • I want to start running once we approach spring because it's a fantastic way to do HIIT workouts. • I want to meditate more and start learning more about spirituality again.

______________________________________________________

Art 🎨 • Get the script to Lotl Life to feel complete and easy to follow when making comic pages. • Make references for AT LEAST Lotl and Api, preferably more Toonocosm OCs too. • Do things to make art FUN. The tricky thing is getting myself to WANT to sit down and spend my time drawing, how do I do that? I want to build something up and feel like I'm making progress, and NOT stagnate. It's the stagnation that makes me feel burnt out. I want to feel seen and appreciated and feel like what I create has value for myself and others.

______________________________________________________

Gaming 🎮 • I want to play through: Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak, Coromon, Faefarm, and Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth. • Possibly also: Moonstone Island, Paleo Pines, and Little Kitty Big City. I'm sure there will be some surprise drops throughout the year. • I'm going to continue playing Guild Wars 2 because I love it, and I still want to play more Planet Zoo. • Low priority goal, but I want to shiny hunt the legendaries I don't have as shinies in USUM and Shining Pearl. I also gotta shiny hunt VC Crystal Celebi, that's high priority.

______________________________________________________

Other things 📝 • Dad and I are going to restructure their entire kitchen garden this spring and plant fun stuff. • I'm going to contact LSS and see if I can get a contact person to help break my isolation and help me deal with agencies.

[mariacallous]

The open internet once seemed inevitable. Now, as global economic woes mount and interest rates climb, the dream of the 2000s feels like it’s on its last legs. After abruptly blocking access to unregistered users at the end of last month, Elon Musk announced unprecedented caps on the number of tweets—600 for those of us who aren’t paying $8 a month—that users can read per day on Twitter. The move follows the platform’s controversial choice to restrict third-party clients back in January.

This wasn’t a standalone event. Reddit announced in April that it would begin charging third-party developers for API calls this month. The Reddit client Apollo would have to pay more than $20 million a year under new pricing, so it closed down, triggering thousands of subreddits to go dark in protest against Reddit’s new policy. The company went ahead with its plan anyway.

Leaders at both companies have blamed this new restrictiveness on AI companies unfairly benefitting from open access to data. Musk has said that Twitter needs rate limits because AI companies are scraping its data to train large language models. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has cited similar reasons for the company’s decision to lock down its API ahead of a potential IPO this year.

These statements mark a major shift in the rhetoric and business calculus of Silicon Valley. AI serves as a convenient boogeyman, but it is a distraction from a more fundamental pivot in thinking. Whereas open data and protocols were once seen as the critical cornerstone of successful internet business, technology leaders now see these features as a threat to the continued profitability of their platforms.

It wasn’t always this way. The heady days of Web 2.0 were characterized by a celebration of the web as a channel through which data was abundant and widely available. Making data open through an API or some other means was considered a key way to increase a company’s value. Doing so could also help platforms flourish as developers integrated the data into their own apps, users enriched datasets with their own contributions, and fans shared products widely across the web. The rapid success of sites like Google Maps—which made expensive geospatial data widely available to the public for the first time—heralded an era where companies could profit through free, mass dissemination of information.

“Information Wants To Be Free” became a rallying cry. Publisher Tim O’Reilly would champion the idea that business success in Web 2.0 depended on companies “disagreeing with the consensus” and making data widely accessible rather than keeping it private. Kevin Kelly marveled in WIRED in 2005 that “when a company opens its databases to users … [t]he corporation’s data becomes part of the commons and an invitation to participate. People who take advantage of these capabilities are no longer customers; they’re the company’s developers, vendors, skunk works, and fan base.” Investors also perceived the opportunity to generate vast wealth. Google was “most certainly the standard bearer for Web 2.0,” and its wildly profitable model of monetizing free, open data was deeply influential to a whole generation of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

Of course, the ideology of Web 2.0 would not have evolved the way it did were it not for the highly unusual macroeconomic conditions of the 2000s and early 2010s. Thanks to historically low interest rates, spending money on speculative ventures was uniquely possible. Financial institutions had the flexibility on their balance sheets to embrace the idea that the internet reversed the normal laws of commercial gravity: It was possible for a company to give away its most valuable data and still get rich quick. In short, a zero interest-rate policy, or ZIRP, subsidized investor risk-taking on the promise that open data would become the fundamental paradigm of many Google-scale companies, not just a handful.

Web 2.0 ideologies normalized much of what we think of as foundational to the web today. User tagging and sharing features, freely syndicated and embeddable links to content, and an ecosystem of third-party apps all have their roots in the commitments made to build an open web. Indeed, one of the reasons that the recent maneuvers of Musk and Huffman seem so shocking is that we have come to expect data will be widely and freely available, and that platforms will be willing to support people that build on it.

But the marriage between the commercial interests of technology companies and the participatory web has always been one of convenience. The global campaign by central banks to curtail inflation through aggressive interest rate hikes changes the fundamental economics of technology. Rather than facing a landscape of investors willing to buy into a hazy dream of the open web, leaders like Musk and Huffman now confront a world where clear returns need to be seen today if not yesterday.

This presages major changes ahead for the design of the internet and the rights of users. Twitter and Reddit are pioneering an approach to platform management (or mismanagement) that will likely spread elsewhere across the web. It will become increasingly difficult to access content without logging in, verifying an identity, or paying a toll. User data will become less exportable and less shareable, and there will be increasingly fewer expectations that it will be preserved. Third-parties that have relied on the free flow of data online—from app-makers to journalists—will find APIs ever more expensive to access and scraping harder than ever before.

We should not let the open web die a quiet death. No doubt much of the foundational rhetoric of Web 2.0 is cringeworthy in the harsh light of 2023. But it is important to remember that the core project of building a participatory web where data can be shared, improved, critiqued, remixed, and widely disseminated by anyone is still genuinely worthwhile.

The way the global economic landscape is shifting right now creates short-sighted incentives toward closure. In response, the open web ought to be enshrined as a matter of law. New regulations that secure rights around the portability of user data, protect the continued accessibility of crucial APIs to third parties, and clarify the long-ambiguous rules surrounding scraping would all help ensure that the promise of a free, dynamic, competitive internet can be preserved in the coming decade.

For too long, advocates for the open web have implicitly relied on naive beliefs that the network is inherently open, or that web companies would serve as unshakable defenders of their stated values. The opening innings of the post-ZIRP world show how broader economic conditions have actually played the larger role in architecting how the internet looks and feels to this point. Believers in a participatory internet need to reach for stronger tools to mitigate the effects of these deep economic shifts, ensuring that openness can continue to be embedded into the spaces that we inhabit online.

WIRED Opinion publishes articles by outside contributors representing a wide range of viewpoints. Read more opinions here. Submit an op-ed at ideas@wired.com.

[loginvenmo]

Everything You Need to Know About Venmo: A Detailed Guide

Venmo is a popular peer-to-peer payment service that simplifies the way we handle financial transactions. Whether you're adding funds, integrating with other payment systems, or understanding customer service options, this guide covers it all. Let’s dive into the details using some key topics and questions.

Send PayPal to Venmo

Currently, there isn't a direct way to send money from PayPal to Venmo. However, you can transfer funds between the two platforms through a linked bank account. Here’s how:

Transfer from PayPal to Bank: Move the desired amount from your PayPal balance to your linked bank account.

Transfer from Bank to Venmo: Once the funds are in your bank account, transfer them to your Venmo balance.

This method might take a few business days, but it's effective for moving money between PayPal and Venmo.

Venmo Add Funds

To add funds to your Venmo account:

Open the Venmo App: Log in to your account.

Navigate to Settings: Tap on the menu icon (☰) and select "Manage Balance."

Add Money: Tap "Add Money" and enter the amount you want to transfer.

Choose Bank Account: Select the linked bank account to transfer funds from.

Confirm: Review the details and confirm the transfer.

The funds will typically appear in your Venmo balance within 3-5 business days.

Venmo API

Venmo provides an API for developers to integrate Venmo payments into their applications. The API allows businesses to request and receive payments, handle refunds, and more. You can access the Venmo API documentation on the Venmo Developer site to get started with your integration.

Venmo Apple Pay

While Venmo and Apple Pay are separate services, you can use your Venmo card with Apple Pay. Here’s how:

Open Apple Wallet: On your iPhone, open the Wallet app.

Add Card: Tap the "+" sign to add a new card.

Enter Venmo Card Details: Either scan your Venmo card or manually enter the card information.

Verify: Follow the on-screen instructions to verify your card with Venmo.

Once added, you can use your Venmo card through Apple Pay for purchases wherever Apple Pay is accepted.

Venmo ATMs Near Me

To find ATMs that accept Venmo, follow these steps:

Use the Venmo App: Open the Venmo app and navigate to the "Venmo Card" section.

Find ATMs: Look for the "Find ATMs" option, which will help you locate ATMs nearby that accept Venmo.

Check Fees: Venmo offers free ATM withdrawals at certain ATMs (typically within the MoneyPass network). Out-of-network ATMs may charge a fee.

Venmo Call

If you need to contact Venmo customer service by phone, you can reach them at their venmo call official customer service telephone number. Visit the Venmo website or app for the venmo customer service telephone number most up-to-date contact information.

Venmo Chat

Venmo offers a chat feature for venmo chat customer support. To use Venmo chat:

Open the Venmo App: Log in and go to the menu (☰).

Select "Get Help": Tap on "Get Help" or "Contact Us."

Choose Chat Option: Select the chat option to start a conversation with a Venmo support representative.

Venmo Customer Service Telephone Number

For direct assistance, you can contact Venmo’s customer service via their official telephone number. Always refer to the Venmo website or app for the current number to ensure you reach the correct support line.

Venmo Email

To get in touch with Venmo via email, you can use their customer support email address. This can be found in the “Contact Us” section of venmo email the Venmo website or app. Email support is useful for detailed queries or issues that require documentation.

Venmo Free ATM

Venmo offers free ATM withdrawals at ATMs within the MoneyPass network. To venmo atms near me find a free ATM:

Use the Venmo App: Navigate to the "Venmo Card" section and use the "Find ATMs" feature.

MoneyPass Network: Look for ATMs that are part of the MoneyPass network to avoid withdrawal fees.

Venmo IRS

Venmo transactions may be subject to IRS reporting. If you receive $600 or more for goods and services, Venmo will issue a Form 1099-K for tax purposes. It’s important to report this income on your tax return. Consult a tax professional if you have questions about how Venmo transactions affect your taxes.

Venmo Limits Per Day

Venmo imposes certain limits on transactions:

Unverified Accounts: $299.99 per week.

Verified Accounts: Up to $4,999.99 per week for person-to-person payments and up to $6,999.99 per week for authorized merchant payments.

To increase your limits, you must verify your identity by providing personal information such as your Social Security number and date of birth.

Venmo Login for Android

To log in to Venmo on an Android device:

Download the Venmo App: Available on the Google Play Store.

Open the App: Tap the Venmo icon to open the app.

Enter Credentials: Enter your email or phone number and password.

Two-Factor Authentication: Complete any additional security steps, such as entering a verification code sent to your phone.

Once logged in, you can manage your Venmo account, send and receive payments, and more.

Conclusion

Venmo is a versatile payment platform that offers a range of features to manage your finances easily. Whether you’re adding funds, understanding limits, or contacting customer service, this guide provides all the information you need to use Venmo effectively. Stay informed and make the most out of your Venmo experience!

[edutech-brijesh]

Best Practices for Designing RESTful Services

RESTful services are integral to modern web applications, enabling seamless system communication via HTTP. Effective design involves clear resource naming (e.g., /users), correct use of HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE), and plural nouns for collections (/users). Consistent naming conventions, graceful error handling (e.g., 404), versioning (e.g., /v1/users), comprehensive documentation, robust authentication (OAuth, JWT), performance optimization (caching, pagination), scalability design (load balancing, indexing), HATEOAS for dynamic navigation, and API usage monitoring ensure reliability and security. These practices ensure APIs are robust, secure, and user-friendly.