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fuckinglovemanga · 3 years

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Yes, I hate Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist.

Ok this is a bit random for my blog but I just have to say this shit somewhere cause since I first saw this film last year I have yet to find anyone with my take on it who has reviewed it.

Ok so a common criticism of this movie is that it’s misogynistic. And it definitely is. But not for the surface level reasons that people seem to think. I don’t see a lot of people trying to engage with the thematic core of the film. Lots of feminists have criticized it for depicting fgm but it goes way deeper than just that. The reviews I have seen seem to take one of two routs: 1) This film is a masterpiece of cinema, a mystery that we will never know the answer to or 2)The film is weird and gross and I don’t like it.

Nature

So what’s the movie about? Well, here’s my interpretation, and I think it makes quite a bit of sense given what the Trier presents us with. I think this film is trying to make a statement about “human nature”, and the nature of men and women. Eve’s road towards insanity begins when she prioritizes her orgasm over her child. That starts a downward spiral of insanity, which culminates in her castrating her husband, and then herself. This demonstrates an inability to reconcile a woman’s sexual desires with her motherly instinct. Also, the famous scene in which Eve becomes “one with the green” is symbolic of her letting her natural instincts take over. What follows is her spiraling into insanity and acting completely irrationally while her husband’s attempts to reason with her fail. So women= irrational and men=rational. And then Adam sees a fox that tells him “chaos reigns”. In the end of the movie, chaos (aka the natural instincts of humans) does end up taking over, as Adam kills Eve by burning her (we’ll come back to that). If all that talk of humans’ biological instincts reminds you a bit of Freud, that’s intentional. The film namedrops him at some point, saying that he has been debunked. However, the film’s narrative seems to be in support of his ideas. Unless of course the whole thing is being sarcastic. We’ll come back to that too.

Witches

During Adam and Eve’s stay in the cabin, Eve is working on a paper on the burning of witches, which she calls “Gynocide”. For context, there are a number of academic writings, most notably Silvia Federici’s “Caliban and The Witch” claiming that the witch hunts were in a way, the beginning of modern misogyny, as they set traditional gender roles in stone by marking everything women did that wasn’t related to breeding and child rearing as immoral and “satanic”. The witch, as a figure in our culture, represents a woman out of line, grotesque, insane, the opposite of what a woman ideally should be. Not only is the witch infertile (old, unattractive and generally disgusting), she also murders babies (see?) and uses their blood in satanic rituals that allow her to fly. The broom is a symbol of domesticity used in a twisted and unnatural way. I think it’s safe to say that, within the contest of “Antichrist”, Eve is the witch. As the name Eve suggests, the character is meant to be an avatar for all women, her witchiness an underlying element of all women. But Trier doesn’t present this in such a one- dimensional fashion.

Eve’s internal struggle

Eve seems to have two sides to her. Her sexuality is demonstrated as contradictory to her motherhood, a contradiction she herself cannot reconcile. She hates herself for putting her sexuality over her child. In fact, the sheer amount of self- hatred leads her to cut her own clitoris. Notably, she says: “The witches deserved to die”. Now, this is where the core of the film’s misogyny lies. Trier is projecting his own misogyny onto the character of Eve. It is men who are unable to reconcile sexuality with motherhood, because they perceive women in general based on their perception of their mother. Preforming fgm on women, is a result of the patriarchy, of man’s desire to castrate women, to remove their sexual pleasure, in order to control them. There never were any witches, men created the concept of the witch, and killed millions of innocent women in the process. Eve’s self hatred doesn’t make sense if we go with this interpretation, as it’s not internalized misogyny. It comes from her, not from male influence. Essentially, Trier absolves himself of misogyny by projecting it onto his female character.

Freud

So, the reason why Freud’s theories are no longer considered legitimate is because they take societal things (such as women's’ desire to escape a misogynistic society by adopting male social roles) and attribute it to “nature” (women have a subconscious desire for a penis in order to sexually subjugate their mother the same way their father does). Freud took social roles for granted and tried to explain them with some bonkers conflict between instincts (id) and society (superego). But humans’ biological instincts are a load of bullshit, as they have are not acknowledged by sociologists and social anthropologists, and there is zero scientific proof for their existence. This narrative is actually pretty dangerous because it leads us to believe that opressive social roals are fundamentally unalterable, a product of nature.

Conclusion

The film ends with a bunch of modern women walking in the woods after Adam’s burning of Eve. The whole thing is meant to signify that, after Adam and Eve followed their “natural” paths, the modern woman was born. And the critics gasp “Oh my how unbelievably deep and profound”. So, as I have hopefully demonstrated, it is none of the above. Rather, it’s shallow, stupid and dangerous in terms of its messaging. But is Trier trolling everybody and being sarcastic throughout the whole film? He did say he enjoyed seeing people get angry at the film. I did some digging, and fond out that Trier actually wrote the film during a time of depression, while he was struggling with various mental illnesses. That doesn’t seem like a state of mind that produces a sarcastic work for trolling the masses. Also, the filmmaking echoes serious emotion to me. But hey, I don’t know. In fact, we’ll never know. But I had to say all this, someone had to. We must redeem the witches.

#antichrist #lars von trier #horror #analysis

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impalementation · 4 years

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so i just finished rhonda wilcox's essay on hush, and she comments that - much like angel the episode predicts what will happen to buffy and angel - hush predicts that riley will go on to rip buffy's heart out by becoming part of a patriarchal institution (wilcox does a lot of work establishing what the gentlemen represent and focuses on the moment in buffy's dream where riley turns into one of them). (1/2)

(2/2) so my question for you is do you see that any one episode cleanly predicts the path spike and buffy eventually go down together? and if there isn't, how does that deviation from the pattern affect the reading of the spuffy dynamic, if it does at all?

hmm, really interesting question. sorry it took me a while to answer! the thing about the spike/buffy dynamic is that we know a lot of it wasn’t planned out. i don’t have links to interviews at the tip of my fingers, but it’s something i’ve seen mentioned multiple times. that they didn’t know that spike would fall in love with buffy until starting season five, but that it was like they’d been writing to it all along. which means that we’d need to look to season five to find a thesis statement episode for the relationship. in which case, as obvious as it might sound, i think the episode we’re looking for is fool for love.

here’s why. i’ve talked about the spike/buffy storyline as being about both boundaries and the id before. but actually perhaps the more obvious thing to say their relationship is about, is power dynamics. and what power dynamics mean for love. and fool for love is all over that.

first, what fool for love does is it establishes spike as someone who wants two different things. he wants power and confidence, and he wants to be loved. when he becomes a vampire, he is able to find that power and confidence through violence. instead of caring about the opinions of his peers, he puts railroad spikes through their heads (or is implied to, anyway). his relationship to love and women is also all wrapped up in violence. heartbreak leads directly to him becoming a vampire, and therefore a soulless killer. drusilla turns him (a violent act), delights in his violence, and sexually responds to him killing the chinese slayer. more importantly, i don’t think you can or should get away from the imagery of slayer-killing as well, the violent conquest of powerful women. i see people claim that if slayers were men, then spike would be just as obsessed with killing them, that he just loves violence for the sake of violence. but whether or not that claim is accurate, i think it misses the fact that this is buffy, in which so much of the horror is various, more or less supernatural, versions of violent misogyny. so while i agree that spike is a person who takes glee in destruction of all kinds—his love of killing demons, “a little violence before bed time”, etc—and is not specifically obsessed with destroying women for being women the way, say, the trio (or ted, or pete, or etc) are…he does, nonetheless, relate to women in ways that we are meant to see as bitter and resentful or otherwise messed-up. his treatment of harmony, his frustration at dru leaving him, and of course everything in crush. that’s sort of the contradiction of him. he genuinely loves women, and makes himself abject to them and to the act of loving, but he also genuinely has a messed-up relationship to all of that. in other words, whether or not spike at all cares about killing slayers because they’re women, it still matters, in terms of symbolism, that he is a man killing women. his relationship to killing slayers is undeniably sexually coded, too. everything from his innuendo and sexually loaded gazing in school hard, to him asking nikki if “this is good for [her]”, to him asking buffy if she’ll “like it as much as [nikki] did.”

with that in mind, i would say that the problem the show is trying to have spike resolve, and the reason that he’s the id of the later seasons, is that he has this sincere desire to love and be loved, as well as to generally be confident and appreciated, but the only tool he has—especially when it comes to slayers—is violence. ie, acts of domination and power. or at least, violence is the only tool that’s ever rewarded him. he was a doting caretaker to drusilla, yes, but he only got drusilla in the first place by becoming a murderous creature. and later lost her by “going soft.” killing a slayer made drusilla sleep with him, while helping a slayer made her leave him. so in total, you have this character with all of these very human yearnings, but who has them repeatedly frustrated, and so tries to fulfill them through monstrous, vampiric behavior—through acts of power. his instinct when he is in love is to be a doting, romantic lover, but his instinct with slayers is to kill them. so by loving buffy he is made to confront the contradictions in his attitudes towards women, love, and power.

one of the fundamental questions of buffy is “how do you act when you feel like you have no control?” and in fool for love, both buffy and spike are feeling out of control. buffy feels out of control of her mortality, and later out of control of her mother’s mortality. meanwhile spike feels out of control of his deviant feelings for a good person that he cannot have. both characters have a tendency to assert control through violence, which is one of the reasons that spike is such a good id for buffy. buffy is used to protecting herself and the people she loves by physically fighting things, and struggles every time that’s not an option (but also struggles with what she thinks it says about her, that she is so intimate with violence). so in fool for love she goes to spike hoping that he’ll give her some sort of violence-related answer to her problem. she wants to know how he killed the other slayers, so that she can physically protect herself. moreover, she repeatedly manhandles him to get that information. meanwhile spike tries to seductively intimidate her, playing up his physical dangerousness, and ends up offering her a violence-related answer that she realizes she doesn’t actually want: him killing her. except that answer is as much about him as her. spike doesn’t really want to kill buffy, he wants to kiss her (or to be fair, let’s say he at least wants both), but when it comes to interacting with slayers, all he has is that language and mindset of violent conquest. so spike tries to assert control over buffy (“you know you want to dance”) and buffy responds by asserting control right back (“you’re beneath me”). she wins the contest of wills, and establishes herself as the person with more power in their dynamic. for all spike’s posturing all evening, buffy ultimately stands over him, dismissively tossing cash at him.

but the episode does not finish on that note. instead, it finishes with buffy feeling powerless yet again in the face of her mother’s sickness. spike goes to buffy, standing over her with a gun, intending to reclaim his power in the way he knows best: killing a slayer. but ends up as powerless in the face of his emotions as ever. instead of ending on an unbalanced power dynamic, the episode ends with buffy and spike on the same level, equally bowed by the weight of the feelings that they can’t control. neither standing over the other. neither asserting power over the other.

all of which is, in my opinion, their entire arc in microcosm. their story is the story of two people who struggle to relate to each other in a way that isn’t fraught with issues of power, especially sexual, gendered power. and who eventually, with up and downs, succeed. over the course of season five, spike lets go of more and more of his control. in crush, he’s tempted to return to his vampiric ways—keep in mind that for spike vampirism is associated with empowerment—and tries to literally shackle up the women he loves. which ends badly. in intervention he tries to cheat by only controlling a fake version of buffy. but that ends badly too. it’s only when he gives up control in the gift and doesn’t try to get in buffy’s house, that buffy begins the process of equalization by letting him in. using fool for love as a model, you might say that spike spends the season learning over and over how to set down his gun, to let go of the idea of an upper hand, and respond with his more humane and caring half.

but their dynamic is still very uneven. spike letting go of his power is not the same as them being equal. and season six digs into why that’s a problem if two people are involved. if fool for love is the spike/buffy arc in microcosm, then i would say that the alley scene is their season six arc, and the porch scene is their season seven arc. in season six, both spike and buffy feel out of control the way they felt in fool for love, and try to regain that control by playing violent power games with each other. even if it’s not what they actually want. spike’s intimidation/seduction during the alley scene reminds me a lot of his attempts to keep buffy at his level during their sexual relationship, because he thinks he can’t have her otherwise. buffy having a death wish, buffy belonging in the dark, etc. the ambiguity about whether spike fully believes what he’s saying, and is trying—in his vampiric way—to be helpful, or whether he’s bullshitting, seems similar in both situations too. meanwhile buffy’s flustered violence towards him (slamming him against things, choking him), reminds me of her side of their sexual relationship. she feels freaked out about her mortality, just as she feels freaked out about her “deadness” in season six, and turns that into conflict with spike (note how in both instances spike is a figure of a death, and buffy is reckoning with death). the scene then ends, just as their season six relationship does, with spike pushing buffy because he thinks she feels something (“come on, i can feel it slayer”), and buffy decisively pushing him away. revealing to spike that he’s misread their interaction.

season seven then is about the mutual laying down of arms. if season six is about love as a power struggle, then season seven is about love in the absence of power struggles. the implication is that letting go of power struggles and uneven dynamics is necessary for genuine and healthy love to develop. i’m very interested in the choreography of buffy and spike’s scene in touched. spike starts out above her, standing while she sits on the bed. then he kneels so he’s below her. then they end up on the same level on the bed together. much as they ended up on the same level on the porch in fool for love. they are not trying to take power from each other. spike gives his power. and so she stops looking down on him, stops trying to keep him at a hierarchal distance, and invites him to her level.

(there’s a parallel there with smashed, too. both scenes take place in an abandoned house, but instead of crashing to the basement and missing any sort of bed, they are in an upper-level bedroom together. and the next day she returns home—ie, returns to herself—empowered, rather than bruised and ashamed. in other words, their interaction was an affirmation of self rather than a destruction of self. in a relationship that is a power struggle, people will end up dragging each other down to the basement, in a race to the bottom. whereas in a relationship that is not, people elevate each other.)

honestly, for all that i understand why people don’t like it, i do think it’s a pretty potent storyline for a season that claims it’s “about power,” but turns out to be about sharing power. the bait-and-switch of thinking that power is about violence and control, when it’s actually about generosity, is basically the whole spike and buffy dynamic. both spike and buffy often think that violence is the only way to solve their problems, but yearn for things that don’t involve violence in the slightest. so for them to finish the season and the show peaceably sleeping in each other’s arms, on the same level? it strikes me as a very coherent resolution of their arc as a whole.

so, there’s your answer. fool for love. i also think it’s telling that in fool for love spike noticeably supplants riley in importance, and occupies buffy’s attention. which predicts the fact that he will ultimately replace riley as a sexual/romantic interest.

#spike #buffy #s5 #s6 #s7

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hydrus · 4 years

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Version 422

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🎉🎉 It was hydrus's birthday this week! 🎉🎉

I had a great week. I mostly fixed bugs and improved quality of life.

tags

It looks like when I optimised tag autocomplete around v419, I accidentally broke the advanced 'character:*'-style lookups (which you can enable under tags->manage tag display and search. I regret this is not the first time these clever queries have been broken by accident. I have fixed them this week and added several sets of unit tests to ensure I do not repeat this mistake.

These expansive searches should also work faster, cancel faster, and there are a few new neat cache optimisations to check when an expensive search's results for 'char' or 'character:' can quickly provide results for a later 'character:samus'. Overall, these queries should be a bit better all around. Let me know if you have any more trouble.

The single-tag right-click menu now always shows sibling and parent data, and for all services. Each service stacks siblings/parents into tall submenus, but the tall menu feels better to me than nested, so we'll see how that works out IRL. You can click any sibling or parent to copy to clipboard, so I have retired the 'copy' menu's older and simpler 'siblings' submenu.

misc

Some websites have a 'redirect' optimisation where if a gallery page has only one file, it moves you straight to the post page for that file. This has been a problem for hydrus for some time, and particularly affected users who were doing md5: queries on certain sites, but I believe the downloader engine can now handle it correctly, forwarding the redirect URL to the file queue. This is working on some slightly shakey tech that I want to improve more in future, but let me know how you get on with it.

The UPnPc executables (miniupnp, here https://miniupnp.tuxfamily.org/) are no longer bundled in the 'bin' directory. These files were a common cause of anti-virus false positives every few months, and are only used by a few advanced users to set up servers and hit network->data->manage upnp, so I have decided that new users will have to install it themselves going forward. Trying to perform a UPnP operation when the exe cannot be found now gives a popup message talking about the situation and pointing to the new readme in the bin directory.

After working with a user, it seems that some clients may not have certain indices that speed up sibling and parent lookups. I am not totally sure if this was due to hard drive damage or broken update logic, but the database now looks for and heals this problem on every boot.

parsing (advanced)

String converters can now encode or decode by 'unicode escape characters' ('\u0394'-to-'Δ') and 'html entities' ('&'-to-'&'). Also, when you tell a json formula to fetch 'json' rather than 'string', it no longer escapes unicode.

The hydrus downloader system no longer needs the borked 'bytes' decode for a 'file hash' content parser! These content parsers now have a 'hex'/'base64' dropdown in their UI, and you just deliver that string. This ugly situation was a legacy artifact of python2, now finally cleared up. Existing string converters now treat 'hex' or 'base64' decode steps as a no-op, and existing 'file hash' content parsers should update correctly to 'hex' or 'base64' based on what their string converters were doing previously. The help is updated to reflect this. hex/base64 encodes are still in as they are used for file lookup script hash initialisation, but they will likely get similar treatment in future.

birthday

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

On December 14th, 2011, the first non-experimental beta of hydrus was released. This week marks nine years. It has been a lot of work and a lot of fun.

Looking back on 2020, we converted a regularly buggy and crashy new Qt build to something much faster and nicer than we ever had with wx. Along with that came mpv and smooth video and finally audio playing out of the client. The PTR grew to a billion mappings(!), and with that came many rounds of database optimisation, speeding up many complicated tag and file searches. You can now save and load those searches, and most recently, search predicates are now editable in-place. Siblings and parents were updated to completely undoable virtual systems, resulting in much faster boot time and thumbnail load and greatly improved tag relationship logic. Subscriptions were broken into smaller objects, meaning they load and edit much faster, and several CPU-heavy routines no longer interrupt or judder browsing. And the Client API expanded to allow browsing applications and easier login solutions for difficult sites.

There are still a couple thousand things I would like to do, so I hope to keep going into 2021. I deeply appreciate the feedback, help, and support over the years. Thank you!

If you would like to further support my work and are in a position to do so, my simple no-reward Patreon is here: https://www.patreon.com/hydrus_dev

full list

advanced tags:

fixed the search code for various 'total' autocomplete searches like '*' and 'namespace:*', which were broken around v419's optimised regular tag lookups. these search types also have a round of their own search optimisations and improved cancel latency. I am sorry for the trouble here

expanded the database autocomplete fetch unit tests to handle these total lookups so I do not accidentally kill them due to typo/ignorance again

updated the autocomplete result cache object to consult a search's advanced search options (as under _tags->manage tag display and search_) to test whether a search cache for 'char' or 'character:' is able to serve results for a later 'character:samus' input

optimised file and tag search code for cases where someone might somehow sneak an unoptimised raw '*:subtag' or 'namespace:*' search text in

updated and expanded the autocomplete result cache unit tests to handle the new tested options and the various 'total' tests, so they aren't disabled by accident again

cancelling a autocomplete query with a gigantic number of results should now cancel much quicker when you have a lot of siblings

the single-tag right-click menu now shows siblings and parents info for every service, and will work on taglists in the 'all known tags' domain. clicking on any item will copy it to clipboard. this might result in megatall submenus, but we'll see. tall seems easier to use than nested per-service for now

the more primitive 'siblings' submenu on the taglist 'copy' right-click menu is now removed

right-click should no longer raise an error on esoteric taglists (such as tag filters and namespace colours). you might get some funky copy strings, which is sort of fun too

the copy string for the special namespace predicate ('namespace:*anything*') is now 'namespace:*', making it easier to copy/paste this across pages

misc:

the thumbnail right-click 'copy/open known urls by url class' commands now exclude those urls that match a more specific url class (e.g. /post/123456 vs /post/123456/image.jpg)

miniupnpc is no longer bundled in the official builds. this executable is only used by a few advanced users and was a regular cause of anti-virus false positives, so I have decided new users will have to install it manually going forward.

the client now looks for miniupnpc in more places, including the system path. when missing, its error popups have better explanation, pointing users to a new readme in the bin directory

UPnP errors now have more explanation for 'No IGD UPnP Device' errortext

the database's boot-repair function now ensures indices are created for: non-sha256 hashes, sibling and parent lookups, storage tag cache, and display tag cache. some users may be missing indices here for unknown update logic or hard drive damage reasons, and this should speed them right back up. the boot-repair function now broadcasts 'checking database for faults' to the splash, which you will see if it needs some time to work

the duplicates page once again correctly updates the potential pairs count in the 'filter' tab when potential search finishes or filtering finishes

added the --boot_debug launch switch, which for now prints additional splash screen texts to the log

the global pixmaps object is no longer initialised in client model boot, but now on first request

fixed type of --db_synchronous_override launch parameter, which was throwing type errors

updated the client file readwrite lock logic and brushed up its unit tests

improved the error when the client database is asked for the id of an invalid tag that collapses to zero characters

the qss stylesheet directory is now mapped to the static dir in a way that will follow static directory redirects

downloaders and parsing (advanced):

started on better network redirection tech. if a post or gallery URL is 3XX redirected, hydrus now recognises this, and if the redirected url is the same type and parseable, the new url and parser are swapped in. if a gallery url is redirected to a non-gallery url, it will create a new file import object for that URL and say so in its gallery log note. this tentatively solves the 'booru redirects one-file gallery pages to post url' problem, but the whole thing is held together by prayer. I now have a plan to rejigger my pipelines to deal with this situation better, ultimately I will likely expose and log all redirects so we can always see better what is going on behind the scenes

added 'unicode escape characters' and 'html entities' string converter encode/decode types. the former does '\u0394'-to-'Δ', and the latter does '&'-to-'&'

improved my string converter unit tests and added the above to them

in the parsing system, decoding from 'hex' or 'base64' is no longer needed for a 'file hash' content type. these string conversions are now no-ops and can be deleted. they converted to a non-string type, an artifact of the old way python 2 used to handle unicode, and were a sore thumb for a long time in the python 3 parsing system. 'file hash' content types now have a 'hex'/'base64' dropdown, and do decoding to raw bytes at a layer above string parsing. on update, existing file hash content parsers will default to hex and attempt to figure out if they were a base64 (however if the hex fails, base64 will be attempted as well anyway, so it is not critically important here if this update detection is imperfect). the 'hex' and 'base64' _encode_ types remain as they are still used in file lookup script hash initialisation, but they will likely be replaced similarly in future. hex or base64 conversion will return in a purely string-based form as technically needed in future

updated the make-a-downloader help and some screenshots regarding the new hash decoding

when the json parsing formula is told to get the 'json' of a parsed node, this no longer encodes unicode with escape characters (\u0394 etc...)

duplicating or importing nested gallery url generators now refreshes all internal reference ids, which should reduce the liklihood of accidentally linking with related but differently named existing GUGs

importing GUGs or NGUGs through Lain easy import does the same, ensuring the new objects 'seem' fresh to a client and should not incorrectly link up with renamed versions of related NGUGs or GUGs

added unit tests for hex and base64 string converter encoding

next week

Last week of the year. I could not find time to do the network updates I wanted to this week, so that would be nice. Otherwise I will try and clean and fix little things before my week off over Christmas. The 'big thing to work on next' poll will go up next week with the 423 release posts.

#release

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mystech-master · 4 years

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Annon-Guy: What are you personal thoughts on Nu-13 and Lambda-11 In terms of gameplay and personality? You can talk about their character designs too id you want too.

Okay, I need to first summarize what I know of Nu and Lambda at the moment before I give my personal thoughts. A lot of shorthanding and maybe some errors may be involved so plz forgive me.

long post bellow, beware.

Nu-13 and Lambda-11 are both Prime Field Devices, artificial humans made for the purpose of exploring the boundary. Specifically, they are Murakumo Units: PFD’s outfitted with the Nox Nyctores Lux Sanctus: Murakumo as full-on weapons.

When Ragna’s siblings were captured, because of Saya’s innate gift with seithr, she was used as the basis for creating all of these Units. There are usually referred to as “clones” which means everyone treats them as either the same as Saya or also sisters, leading to a lot of incest jokes and rants in the fandom. More on this later but I feel like it has to be brought up.

we first meet Nu-13 as the final boss of the first game Calamity Trigger, where we learn that this is technically the 3rd time she and Ragna have met, since before this Ragna was blowing up NOL branches and cauldrons to stop more Murakumo Units from being made, as they are all just fake copies of his sister who was tortured for their creation.

Nu-13 has a full-on yandere crush on Ragna due to 2 factors I believe, 1. she is constantly viewing him through the lens of the fragment of Saya’s soul saying “Ragna is the big brother who loves me”, and 2. Ragna killing her again and again. This causes her to see Ragna killing her as loving her. Not helping is her being made in the Boundary which completely fucks up your mental state when near it.

At the end of almost every ending in CT, Nu defeats Ragna, skewering them both on her sword, they fall into the Cauldron and travel back in time 100 years to become the Black Beast that ravaged the world in the Dark War, creating a time loop. As when a Murakumo does an imperfect fusion with an Azure Grimoire (or at least a piece of the Azure) it becomes a Black Beast, with a perfect fusion resulting in a Kusanagi: the God Slayer (which is what Noel becomes and what the villains were trying to do to take down Amaterasu (the god of Blazblue world). Fitting as a Murakumo, with the Kusanagi being a super version of it, has a Nox capable of resisting Phenomenon Intervention, which is the Mater Unit’s main Power. So when they say God Slayer they do not mean gods in general they mean a SPECIFIC god. Just need to say that).

Anyways, Nu kills Ragna every now and again for like 725 loops before Noel steps in during the true ending and manages to grab Ragna before he and Nu fall into the Cauldron.

In Continuum Shift, the second game taking place right/ a week after the first game, Nu’s body is recovered from the bottom of the Cauldron (yes those things apparently have a bottom they aren’t just portals) by Sector Seven and Kokonoe proceeds to ake Nu’s soul and put it in the body of another Murakumo Unit, Lambda-11 to use as a puppet and fight for her. Her weapons are made of titanium alloy instead of Hihi'irokane (the mythical Japanese metal which is also in the Susano’o Unit and is also the name of a Soul cutting sword in Blazblue), and she is outfitted with an IDEA Engine, an improved version of the Artificial Causality Phenomenon Weapons: a scientific counterpart to the Nox Nyctores using Atomic Power rather than souls.

Lambda’s memories are still in there and she recalls the torture she had to endure by all the scientists creating her, which I assume all Murakumos underwent including Nu, so Kokonoe has to erase her memories to make her an effective tool, even if she regrets it.

They don't really explain where the soul starts and the mind/memories begin and vice versa though, this is another thing I will tackle later.

She sends out Lambda in the second game to do things, she like Tager for the most part just acts as Kokonoe’s proxy, until the climax of the true ending where Ragna is fighting Terumi at the top of the NOL branch. Just as Terumi is about to kill Ragna, Lambda takes a lethal blow for Ragna, and in her final moments, Nu’s soul comes to the surface and is glad she got to see Ragna again, him having recently gone through the character development of not seeing Murakumos as things but as people after interacting with Noel. As she dies and fades into sparkles, weird for a science thing, she grants Ragna her Idea Engine, giving him the power boost he needs to defeat Terumi and later save Noel who was smelted into the Kusanagi.

Now in the third game, because Ragna and Nu have a Life Link, which means one cannot die permanently without the other being killed in a short time frame, Nu is now able to come back as she couldn’t before with Kokonoe shoving her soul into Lambda. She mostly just acts as the villains' combat android until she copies Noel’s power to summon the Master Unit (as both are Saya fragments and also fragments of The Origin, the first PFD who made contact with the Master Unit and sort of.....became it?). Then in the climax, the villains summon Take-Mikazuchi, a giant titan satellite laser thing, and make Nu the core of it. Once the body is destroyed Ragna goes inside to deal with Nu. She proceeds with her usual shtick of telling Ragna they will “become one” and to kill her and all that, saying the backstory of pretty much every Murakumo about how she was made to be a weapon and how she was tortured and shit, this is also her saying Noel’s backstory since Noel ‘Observed” Nu as her which is SORT of true since they are both Saya but not really, it’s confusing as hell. But, basically, she is saying the shared Murakumo Backstory and Ragna sees this as her cries to be saved, while Nu, who only sees her and Ragna’s relationship as a mutually sadomasochistic one, goes bonkers and tries to kill Ragna, not out of yandere lust, but actual anger and hatred. Ragna wins and brings her out of Take-Mikazuchi, where Izanami takes control of her and makes her stab Ragna and he goes berserk and loses control of the Azure Grimoire.

the fourth game Central Fiction is a mess so I know the least here but from what I recall:

Nu is now growing to be her own person, she is less robotic but that means Yandere Ragna mode is on all the time. She is going around absorbing Nox Nyctores to get power so she can kill Ragna and do the merge. Near the climax, she is fighting Jubei and when she almost kills Tsubaki, Hakumen steps in and wrecks her shit. (In a previous time loop Tsubaki was killed by Nu b/c Noel didn’t exist and wasn’t Jin’s secretary instead of Tsubaki, so she went after Jin in the first game who was going after Ragna, she got caught in the crossfire, with Nu’s yandere mind hating any female in the same room as Ragna, and dies. Jin then falls into the cauldron after Ragna and Nu to become Hakumen during the Dark War. More time loop BS).

Meanwhile due to the Embryo, BS plot device, Lambda just.....comes back to life. Even though her soul was technically never a part of the story as it was NU’S soul in the body during CS. Anyways she is basically “good Nu” she is fighting the villains through sheer Power of Love and just wants to see Rgana again, she is pretty unimportant in the overall scheme of things.

After the world is remade Noel and Lambda move into the rebuilt church where Ragna and the siblings grew up and became nuns, looking after the comatose Nu who is kind of a vegetable with her sole reason for existing, Ragna, now no longer existing and all memory of him being erased.

Okay so after that lengthy summary, here are my thoughts.

1. the sister thing.

In spite of them being “clones” of Ragna’s little sister Saya, that hasn't stopped a shit load of ship teasing with the Murakumos by both the writers and the fandom.

Part of me thinks it’s because they go too far in the “They are their own unique people, they aren’t just fake copies of Saya” to which the fans mostly agree, but that just means while they aren’t Saya they are still related/connected to her. It isn't like Ragna can only have ONE sister.

Also, the reveal of Izanami being Saya at the end of CS also factors into this.

My only way to do mental gymnastics around this is saying that by “clone” they just mean copy/looks like her and has the same abilities, but genetically they are different.

I mean, we have no idea how Murakumos....work. They can't have any mechanical bits because we see them get zapped in-game and they have no metal, Noel CERTAINLY would've known she wasn't human if she didn't grow like a normal human or eat, sleep, produce waste, etc.

To me, Murakumos seem to be like software/computer programs given physical form via seithr. More like the Valentines in Guilty Gear, “robots” made up of information.

Plus, the story only ever points out the sibling connection with Ragna and Noel, and that’s in the LAST game and until then she’s just a stranger to him, with Lambda and Nu NEVER being treated the same.

And before anyone goes “BUT THE SCIENTIFIC DEFINITION OF CONE MEANS ‘HUR DE DUR, SAME DNA’ AND THEY USE THE WORD CLONE TO DESCRIBE THEM IN CANON! MEH!”, that could just be an over-simplification as to what they are, and I feel like a lot of series just rely on an oversimplification of terms. Like how Black Holes mostly work in fiction is NOT how they work IRL.

Now, does this mean I would’ve wanted Ragna to get with Noel or Lambda or Nu? Fuck no. I can appreciate cute little one-shots that have nothing to do with canon, but in terms of looking this train wreck of a story and trying to fix it they have other issues that make me not want to ship them.

I might go into why I wouldn't want Ragna x Noel in another post later, but I’ll stay on topic with Nu and Lambda.

Both are kind of boring

Lambda is basically Nu with less personality and is just a plot device for the most part.

As for Nu, even if you redeem her and keep her loving Ragna qualities without the yandere murder, it is still boring. because all her interests are Ragna she has nothing else going for her. Outside of the most generic romance shit what can you see Nu doing with him? it’s a bit upsetting because Nu seems like the type of person who’d have Ragna’s back and punch Jin in the dick if he insults or threatens Ragna, which is something I would LOVE in an S.O. for Ragna. But without her own interests and character, she is just......boring. And yeah you could theorize that she gains an interest outside of Ragna post-redemption but that is too broad of a statement that I can’t really do anything with it.

So frankly, even IF we ignore the sister thing or do weird mental gymnastics about it, Ragna/Nu and Lambda would just be BORING as they are in canon outside of the most generic BS.

2. The connection between Nu and Lambda

Really Lambda was just made to keep Nu’s gameplay in while killing her in canon, that is a dumb excuse.

Some people like to see Lambda s Nu but redeemed temporarily but then come to CP and it’s like none of the Lambda stuff mattered. You’d think that at least Ragna would use Lambda’s death as an ace for his argument on using the Azure Grimoire as when he wasn't able to use it he got his shit kicked in and someone had to DIE for him because of that. But NOPE.

Then she is revived for bullshit fanservice reasons in CP Extend and is barely a thing in Story Mode

A while ago I made a post showing 3 ways they could've gotten rid of Nu that would’ve made good character moments. I will be focusing on number 3 here: Have Nu and Lambda be the same person.

Instead of Lambda being brought back via Embryo Bullshit, have Nu and Lambda be a split personality deal. Like Nu is the CS Mu to Lambda’s Noel. Say during Ragna’s Arcade mode or Nu’s Arcade mode Nu slightly hesitates when about to kill Ragna, reality flickers a bit revealing Lambda’s color scheme on Nu, showing that Lambda is within her. Nu’s soul spending time in Lambda has given her an alternate identity.

This doesn't just have to affect just Ragna, maybe Lambda remembers that Kokonoe mind-wiped her and tried to make her into a puppet thus making her no better than the villains.

During the climax, instead of Nu’s yandere rage, we have that mixed in with Lambda’s hysterical cries begging for death due to the torture of Nu’s memories. Both side tr and kill Ragna out of rage or trying to force him to kill them in self-defense. Ragna, of course, doesn’t and saves them, thus allowing Nu-Lambda to be brought back to Kokonoe and redeemed.

Maybe her hair is a mix of Nu and Lambda’s making it a Platinum Blonde (making it a mixture of Nu’s white hair and Lambda’s blonde hair), and the tanner skin complexion and red eyes further separate her from Noel.

3. Story roles

The first two games are fine for the most part but I have some ideas for the last two.

For the 3rd game, an idea I had was instead of Nu being the one to summon the Master Unit via stealing Noel’s power, have Amane do something important in this game instead of having him chase Carl.

he is said the be the “Uzume” like the god who stripped and made Amaterasu come out of the cave after her sibling fallout with Susano’o. Simply have Amane be the “herald of Amaterasu”, possibly being a being similar to Terumi, a spirit of a god unit. maybe not AS powerful as the Sankishin, but just under. This means that Nine’s Hino Kagutsuchi would fall under this category as well. Or maybe he simply has a story connection with Noel in accepting the part of her connection to the Origin and the Azure or something.

To go off of the shipping thing above, maybe to at least use the Saya soul thing, she is struggling with her feelings towards Ragna because how much of these feelings are her own, and how many are born from an isolated sibling’s misplaced love? This is probably something a villain taunts her about

I kind of theorize that Saya’s fear of other people instilled in her during the siblings’ days as lab rats and Ragna protecting her made her develop an unhealthy sister crush on him, this, of course, isn't helped by the Origin (who she is based on) wanting Ragan to be her knight in shining armor.

Again, more on this later possibly.

Anyways, so Lambda can get her own feelings in order and prove that she isn’t just a copy of Saya or Noel, she tries to make her own identity. maybe cutting off that large Murakumo ponytail in the process, b.c that’s an Asian culture thing about cutting hair to symbolize the beginning of a new stage in her life. Maybe after forgiving Kokonoe, she joins Sector Seven not as a field agent like Tager, but as Kokonoe’s new assistant and friend, showing that she isn't going to be used as a tool or a weapon.

I still need to get on with drawing Lambda in a lab coat styled after her Murakumo cloak.

As for at least Nu’s connection with Ragna. It is weird because I generally either hate or have enormous contempt for almost everyone Ragna has interacted with for the pettiest reasons. For Nu, while she is crazy towards Ragna and tries to kill him, it's due to her own psychosis and insanity, which is partially Ragna’s fault. Everyone else who gives Ragna shit is either a villain (in which case it’s fine because it is a VILLAIN, which Nu sort of counts as), or an arrogant asshole who KNOWS what they are doing for the lols. So I SORT OF give Nu a semi-pass. But like I stated above I can’t see what she would be if she were redeemed, so I do feel like if she wasn't going to be used as a way to bring Lambda back, she should've been killed.

The point is, the Murakumos have a lot of potential for smaller things but they are incredibly mishandled in a lot of ways too, including showing up where they really shouldn't a lot of times. Shipping is okay so long as you are capable of doing mental gymnastics to ignore the sister shit, and don’t look at a whole lot of other issues.

These are just my thoughts and maybe I didn’t explain things enough, or I did it weirdly, or I have some different opinions, IDK. This series gives me a lot of feelings

#blazblue #nu-13 #lambda-11 #my thoughts #long post

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lizzodorito · 4 years

Text

quick vent

because i legit have no where else to put this sort of feeling and just.. writing it in a book or a doc just... isnt as cathartic. Hope this just fades into the void, please dont bother reading it.

Hey. screw proper grammar and spelling I just need to get thihis out.

my name is liz and hoenstly fuck this website because last time i actively used it for something other than mandolorian memes or sims mods/cc my ex boyfriend was fucking stalking me on it and catfishing me and comfort me by sending me those ask lists and i... i dunno if im over that. Fuck you Sven.

not the point, just wha t I have to think about every single damned time I find myself here no matter what.

I am so lonely. I dont have many friends at all and the ones I do are out to use me or not Get Into It with me, thouhg fair because im a shit load of a lot to deal with i guess. other friends i have are pretty backstabbing and they refuse to properly grow up and LIVE and THINK FOR OTHERS AND ALSO THINK FOR THEMSELVES WITHOUT IT HAVING TO BE DEFINED BY HOW PROUDLY TERRIBLE THEIR MENTAL HEALTH IS FUCK

And then i get shit for it

love being used guys hell yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah no i dont i hate it so much literally when was the last time anyone loved me right outside of my family and even so its not like my parents treat me well. mother you may have improved drastically, but similar to my self esteem, its still very much BELOW PAR and i hate having to witness both.

I am so lonely.

I go so long without saying any word sometimes, its a wonder i stil breath, although sometimes when i was young id forget to.

why is it that i get more depressed when i come back to the family home

does anyone else understand being family oriented to a family that really for the majority doesn’t treat you the same?

The voice in my head wont stop. it wont stop telling me all the ways i have potentially fucked my budding friendships with my new friends isha and matt

how am i a person who shares so little yet so much

BUT MY LORD THANK YOU these are people who... who are considerate and are processing what i am saying and are thinking of me

but how fucked up am i

and will that push them away

im often distasteful but all the same complex and layered and so useful and so interesting

and that’s why often enough it seems people dont put in the effort, or frankly, dont give a shit about me once i requrie effort, though their “care” for me beofre then was only for their own benefit.

im exhausted

One of my best internet friends was raped and i was the one who revealed that to her and she just didnt realize it yet and i havent been able to fall asleep without thinking about it

i have needed to cry for over a week now and i haVent gotten to still i am so sad i am SO SAD

I am so charming yet cannot help being alone no matter how enjoyable i am for others to have around

Matt

He makes me question if im asexual

But I am only a human

porbably deifntieyl still asexual

but too much all the same

Im just lonely and touch starved probably (more than usual to be clear) and want to be hugged and loved and he’s so smart and we talk for hoours and comfortably, for me, occupy eachothers’ space we talk for

hours.

this is becoming poetry.

I feel like i am beginning to sound like a hobo johnson broken record

stop being poetic fuck off liz

he;s so

I havent been hopeful like this in people for a long time

we went to a museum to support isha (she had to do a project that invovled socializing so ya know the inrovert crew (though i dont know fi matt considers himself one)) and we just were togeter (in rather close proximinity) just speaking in accents, partly hoping to excite the strangers crowding everywhere about “foriegners” being here at the exhibit... but i think it was mostly just for us. for our fun

because voices is what we like to do

i love voice acitng

he committed to it, i fell out of it more times than he did and he gets more specific with accents than i do

he likes what i do

he loves the characters and my many talents

he loves my writing

he wants me to join his dnd campaign over the summer with his friends

is it for me?

does he want... me

or just my character maggie that everyone loves

he wants me to join the campign he’s in npw with his friends, as he’s a player character and not a dm as he would be over the summer

he doesn’t quite get how lonely i am

i worry i made him and isha uncomfortable last night... i joked about actually being loved properly

he immediately looked at me strange, me not realizing the joke was taken as truth

“Liz, is there something you need to talk about?”

“Oh! Oh, well, um...” hi i come from an abusive family and you both dont realize how much it meant to me that you wanted me to come and are consitently telling me and thanking me for coming because... you’re telling me im good company and its been so long since i have had real friends or gone out with friends and ACTUALLY FULLY AND COMPLTELY HAD A GOOD TIME OH MY GOSH YOU DONT EVEN KNOW I AM SO SHY ABOUT ALL OF THIS BECAUSE HOLY FUCK I CANT EVEN ASK HOW I BECAME SUCH A BASKET CASE BECAUSE I ALREADY KNOW I ALRWADY KNOW I ALREADY KOW I ALRADY KNOW AND I HAVENT’ GOTTEN TO REALLY TELL ANYONE IN SO LONG WITHOUT THEM LEAVING ME

its been so long since ive been understood by a peer

(hi my name is liz and i am weepign right now)

“No, not yet at least.”

*isha laughs and it joined by matt soon. I’m smiling comfortably. I genuinely have a soft, contented hope i might get to tell them at least some of it one day.*

“not yet at least! sorry matt you have to be at least a level 4 friend to learn the tragic backstory”

thank you isha for lightening the mood

thank you for making the joke so many people who gave less than a fuck about me got offeneded at and confused when i made it so often years ago.

my comment was laughed off, we continued to watch the critical role espidoe i had missed

soon it was just matt and i. isha was to bed.

just him and i, and i, like id been all night (concious but making the decision to pipe down and trust the people around me), was all curled up, very relaxed and off my posture, sinking into the couch. MAtt was always upright ish. sometimes hed sink a bit or rest his hips on their side curl a little rest his head, but not as intesely as i did

sometimes he’d scoot closer to me, sometimes hed scoot away. sometimes hed move his legs so our knees would touch. i dont mind (not because i was finding it romantic, im not twelve, i just am understadning of the small situation we are in and its a knee for crying out loud) i wonder if i was taking up too much space with the way i’d sit comfortaly. I wonder if he thought so.

i would be lying if i said i didnt imagine us actually having contact with eachother. cuddling platonically.. on multiple occassions.

I have an imagination that thinks of everything and so many scenarios all at once and all the time after all

i was comfortable with the idea but

it would be a bigger lie to say i wasnt absolutely and perfectly content wiht the way it did go.

i dont thiink i will ever know if he was comofrtable on that couch or more so if it was me he was comfortable or uncomfrtoable with.

I will respect him to tell me.

he;s good at eyecontact and its comfrotable enoguh where i dont have to look away (it’s been a problem i never used to have recently)

I’d peek up at him when he’d talk to me

i felt young again

when the stream was over he got up to leave.

i dont know if we daudled. dawdled? yep thats the word

i dont know if we did

we made small talk

shitty jokes that he declared wouldn’t be the last thing we said to eachother that evening

i agreed.

the last words that night were goodnights.

me with my raspy evening voice from a day full of talking and him with a look over the shoulder from the hall as the door closed behind him

he was obviosuly very slap happy sleepy as he was talking about the light not being too bright in the hall (to his happiness)

it was a nice night

when was the last time i went to bed so happy? thanking God over and over and praying for my friend i mention way earlier

i didnt even have to drown my insomnia with a youtube video

i just went to sleep

2 am

i hope the weather continues

- jaques cruzio, pink panther

now im just in bed

at the family home

not my dorm

fighting my depression (its been three hours, i was getting exhausted by 9:30 due to it) as i rest

i was curled in a ball, slumped and face planted, arms slumped when i decided i need to talk to someone, or say something mroe than what i vented to my little sister (small bits about how lonely i feel and how i worry ive fucked things up) hours ago

and here we are

12:14 am

just some broken twenty something asexual with a mind that’s usually over sixty talking about the amazing people i met two weeks ago while in the background i think about the girl i used to be the boss of (online moderator work) and how she’s essentially in love with her idea of me and how i make her feel... and not just for me.

i am mysterious and cool and smart and hot and talented and useful to her.

I want to be complex and dedicated and helpful and pretty and so skilled and hardworking and wanted for me.

i want to be considered and deserving and im hoping that isha, matt and my other two roommates can help start to fill that hole in my life

because, God, so far they have so much potential for it in my eyes

(so far)

thanks for listening, void.

actually feeling quite a bit better. the misery is still lingering, i wonder if i should cry more. But, i can breathe easier and my eyes dont feel dead. I just am tired and am prepared to enjoy things again.

proabbly will watch claire from BA make jelly beans.

or the Noel Miller guy isha told me about.

I dont know if it’s appropriate if i downloaded matt’s contact into my phone from when isha put us both in a groupchat together and i hope its not weird and i hope maybe he did the same, but by God i dont think i’ll be texting him first.

i like in person better.

with anyone.

always have

i have so much more on my mind

#me

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cosmicblog985 · 3 years

Text

Lego Port Devices Driver

When you plug the device into your USB, Windows will look for the associated driver, if it cannot find this driver then you will be prompted to insert the driver disc that came with your device. Common USB Device errors are ‘usb port not working‘, ‘device descriptor request failed error’ or ‘bugcodeusbdriver’ issues. See the The lego-port Subsystem for information on how to manually load the correct driver. (1, 2, 3) The automatic detection algorithm detects this sensor as an I2C sensor and the port is automatically put into I2C mode. Find the Bossa Program Port device. Right click the device and select 'Uninstall'. Disconnect the NXT brick from the computer, wait a few seconds. Reconnect the NXT brick to the computer and wait a minute or two for the system to find and install the correct NXT firmware update driver for it.

Ukuaji usb devices driver download software. When you plug the device into your USB, Windows will look for the associated driver, if it cannot find this driver then you will be prompted to insert the driver disc that came with your device. Common USB Device errors are ‘ usb port not working ‘, ‘device descriptor request failed error’ or ‘bugcodeusbdriver’ issues.

Intro

The LEGO Dimensions game makesuse of NFC technology to allow some interaction between physical LEGO creations(characters, vehicles and gadgets) and the videogame.

The LEGO Toy Pad is in fact just a custom USB triple NFC reader that can readNFC tags (not only the LEGO Toy Tags but also several other tags including thoseused in other games like Disney Infinity) and change the color of the RGB lightassociated to each reader.

Credits

Since the beginning of 2015 several people have been reverse engineering theLEGO Toy Pad.This tutorial is strongly based on @woodenphonework available at GitHub.

Requirements

You will need:

a proper LEGO Dimensions Toy Pad

a Mindstorms EV3

an available USB port

python and pysub

udev rule

Several people reported a difference between PS3/PS4/Wii devices and Xbox sothis tutorial most probably will not work with the Xbox type.

You don’t really need a Mindstorms EV3 as this tutorial can be used on almost anyrecent linux system (like my Ubuntu laptop or my Raspberry Pi). If using ev3dev,just be sure to use a recent version - this tutorial was tested with kernel4.4.15-13-ev3dev-ev3.

Of course, you need an available USB port so if you’re already using the MindstormsEV3 with an USB Wi-Fi dongle you will also need an USB Hub.

After you connect the LEGO Toy Pad it should be recognized as an HID device:

You can also check with lsusb:

You also need python and pyusb. Most Linux distributions alreadyinclude python as default so you probably only need to install the pyusb librarywith:

To allow python script to access USB without running with root privileges we needto add an udev rule:

with the following rule inside:

then unplug and replug the LEGO Toy Pad again. Pcp drivers to avoid admissions.

Initializing

Lego Port Devices Driver Windows 7

The following script will check for the presence of a LEGO Toy Pad and initializesit, turning the middle (round) pad red for one second:

If everything was OK the output should be:

and of course the center pad should stay red for one second.

Prosilica driver download for windows 10. Download prolific driver for windows 10 for free. System Utilities downloads - PL2303 Windows Driver by Prolific Technology Inc. And many more programs are available for instant and free download. Contains the ROS driver and the SDK for AVT/Prosilica cameras. This code was originally developed by Willow Garage and has been edited by Allison Thackston. This software is released under a BSD license. Downloads: SmartView v1.14.2, User Guide, Release Notes. 1394 BusDriverPackage. The 1394 BusDriverPackage enables Allied Vision IEEE1394b cameras to run at S800 data rate (800Mbps) under Windows Vista and XP (SP2/SP3). Downloads: 1394 Bus Driver Package v1.0, User Guide.

Usb-com driver port devices driver. Windows standard driver will be loaded if you inserted the USB device in the USB port of the PC with Windows® 10 which does not install Active USB-COM Port Driver. The USB device does not support the operation with the Windows standard. For most devices, the Ports device setup class and the Serial function driver provide the functionality required to operate serial ports and COM ports. To install serial ports and COM ports using these system-supplied components, do the following.

Changing pad colors

In the above script we’ve seen that all commands sent to the LEGO Toy Pad havethe same size: 32 bytes.

The first bytes define the command, some other bytes the arguments and theremaining bytes are just to assure proper communication (checksum).

I’ll show just how to change the color of each pad but there are some othercommands available (switch on/off, fade, flash…). You can see these commandsin @woodenphone’s lego_dimensions_gateway.py script.

Reading tags

Whenever a tag is inserted or removed the LEGO Toy Pad sends a 32-byte messagestarting with 0x56. The message also contains:

the number of the pad affected

the UID of the tag inserted or removed

the action itself (tag was inserted or removed)

So if we already know the UID of a tag we can track it with the LEGO Toy Pad (Iuse my Android phone to read my tags but we can also use the LEGO Toy Pad).For the next script we’ll track Darth Vader from Disney Infinity 3.0 (a MifareClassic Mini tag) but we can track several types of NFC tags - LEGO Toy Tags areMifare Ultralight C (also known as NTAG213) and Nintendo amiibo are also MifareUltralight (but not C, so NTAG215).

Action actina costa e series driver download for windows 10 windows 7. The script also tracks unknown UIDs. So:

if it recognizes Darth Vader, it turns the corresponding pad RED;

if it doesn’t recognize the tag, it turns the pad GREEN;

whenever a tag is removed it turns the pad OFF:

Authors

(SAMBA = SAMBoot Assistant)

Lego Port Devices Driver Updater

In device manager the brick had a device description Bossa Program Port. It should be LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT.

Uninstalling the driver and reinstalling it still shows Bossa Program Port.

So I found the hardware ID of the Bossa Program Port from device manager (USBVID_03EB&PID_6124).

Then I went to the c:Windowsinf directory and searched for that ID.

That ID appeared in two INF files oem11.inf and oem42.inf.

oem11.inf has the device description 'LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Firmware Update Mode' and oem42.inf has the description 'Bossa Program Port'.

So that's why it installed the wrong driver.

Knowing that, I renamed oem42.inf to oem42.inf.bak and then uninstalled 'Bossa Program Port' from device manager and repluged the NXT

Lego Port Devices Driver Download

It's actually the Arduino IDE itself.. Their Arduino Due uses a Atmel 32-bit processor, similar to the NXT, and the same controller (ATMEGA328P)

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an-infinity-of-possibilities · 3 years

Note

every odd number for the weird asks, darling 🥂

Hey darling :) always happy to see you in my notes

1. coffee mugs, teacups, wine glasses, water bottles, or soda cans? Coffee mugs... Coffee addict here and my addiction also applies to coffee mugs

3. bubblegum or cotton candy? Bubblegum :)

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups? I don't really drink soda in general but when I do I prefer in glass cups :)

7. earbuds or headphones? Headphones :)

9. favorite smell in the summer? Hmm... That's a good one. I'll say sea side and rain? I don't know haha maybe my apple trees too

11. what you have for breakfast on an average day? On average? coffee which isn't really breakfast but yeah... Sometimes smoothies

13. lanyard or key ring? Lanyard. I always lost my keys so I actually have three lanyards just so I won't lose them or let them out of my sight

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment? As a school assignment? Either Mrs Dalloway or a book from Québec called Marie-Tempête

17. most frequently worn pair of shoes? Cheap black shoes from walmart. They are really comfortable but nothing special

19. sleeping position? On my left side? BUt I do move a lot in my sleep so yeah

21. obsession from childhood? Harry Potter, Anne of Green Gables and Princess Diaries

23. strange habits? I don't know ? NOthing comes to mind right now haha Bringing a book with me at all times?

25. first song you remember hearing? Either Bed of Roses or Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi... It definitely was a BOn Jovi song

27. favorite activity to do in cold weather? Staying inside with my blanket, a good book and hot cocoa. I shouldn't be Canadian.... I absolutely hate the cold. Can't stand it

29. best way to bond with you? Sharing music, book, movies :)

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names? Oh dear... Hmm power suits? I absolutely love suits. I probably have too many of them tbh

33. most used phrase in your phone? Probably "idk" haha or like sorry. Something like that

35. average time you fall asleep? When do I ever fall asleep? haha probably 2 am if I had to say an hour but my sleep schedule is a little messed up

37. suitcase or duffel bag? Suitcase

39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie? Lemon meringue pie :)

41. last person you texted? My friend about a book she told me to read a while back

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket? Can I say two? hahah I mean I am more often wearing hoodies because it's considered more appropriate to wear inside and I am always cold... But when I am outside I always have one of my leather jackets

45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero? All three? But if I had to pick only one absolutely? Fantasy

47. favorite type of cheese? I don't think I have a favourite type of cheese? I don't eat that much of it tbh

49. what saying or quote do you live by? It's actually a A.A Milne quote from Winnie the Pooh. Please don't judge. My mum surrounded me with Winnie stuff when I was younger. It's " You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." Something I try to remind myself everyday.

51. current stresses? Life hahah Nah but seriously a bunch of little nothings. My flat, I am stressed my grades won'T be good this semester. My car ( which is fine and has been for over a month), my cat having difficulties getting used to the new place... Loads of small little things.

53. what is the current state of your hands? They are clean and I just put lotion on them so they smell like vanilla. B But also A mess? Haha Up until two weeks ago I was working not only a very physical job but also one that messed up my hands. I have cuts everywhere on them and even a new scar cause of it. They will be fine in a week or two :)

55. favorite fairy tale? Oh gosh that is a difficult one.... I would probably go with... The little mermaid tho? But it changes depending my mood

57. the three biggest struggles you’ve overcome? Hmm.... That's a good one. Accepting who I am is one of them for sure. Standing up for myself ( I am better at it but still I could improve). Choosing my health over what I was expecting of myself. OVer my plans when I dropped out of uni

59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be? :O No idea, I don't feel I have any real catchphrase? I'D probably the sude character who curses a lot tho hahah

61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.? Again good one. There's so many. I love quotes. I'll go with... " We accept the love we think we deserve" from Perks of being a wallflower. I mean... It's true. Anyways... In my experience it is. When my self esteem was at its lowest.... I dumped my very good girlfriend cause I thought I didn't deserve her love. That she was too good for me.. To end up with a guy who was a violent narcissistic asshole... I didn't wanna leave him cause I thought that was exactly what I deserved that I could never do better. I did leave him in the end. but yeah...

63. five songs that would play in your club? - Dancing Queen by Abba -Poor Some Sugar on me - Def Leppard -Every Time We Touch - Cascada ( Don't judge I have good party memories with that song ahah ) - The Ketchup Song - Las Ketchup (Cause memories hahah) - Believe - Cher

65. any permanent scars? Loads ahah I have a big one on my back that almost goes from side to side from my heart surgery. I have one on my right side... again that surgery. It almost looks like a star. I have on my lip from when I was learning how to climb table when Mum wasn't looking. One on my finger from work when I was working in dried cranberries factory. One on my ankle from whe I fell in the ditch when learning how to bike without the little wheels. One on my knee cause I am just that talented that I fall over nothing x) A new one on my hand from work... Seriously the list goes on hahha but I do have scars.

67. good luck charms? My necklace. I never take it off unless I absolutely have to. It used to be my mum's but she gave it to me when I was going through a rough patch in high school.

69. a fun fact that you don’t know how you learned? Hmm... Nothing comes to mind? Sorry If I ever think of something I will be sure to let you know

71. least favorite pattern? Polka dot? I don't know hahha

73. favorite weird flavor combo? Cheese and maple syrup? haha

75. when did you lose your first tooth? I don't remember? I was in elementary school for sure... But I do remember the dentist had to take it out himself cause I had waited too much before I told anyone my tooth was moving hahha

77. best plant to grow on a windowsill? My cacti? haha

79. which looks better, your school id photo or your driver’s license photo? School. On my Driver's license I look like a murderer

81. fireflies or lightning bugs? Fireflies

83. writing or drawing? Both? hahaha BUt writing if I have to choose

85. fairy tales or mythology? Mythology. Both are great but... Mythology is the best

87. your greatest fear? Spiders? But if we're talking about like... Life fears? NOt being enough

89. who would you put before everyone else? My little brother. My little sister ( sometimes) and my parents.

91. boxes or bags? Boxes

93. nicknames? Fae, Fa, Fancy, Fancy Rodger, Roger.

95. favorite app on your phone? Music app haha I mean I cannot live without music soooo

97. how many phone numbers do you have memorized? At least a dozen? Mostly cause everyone in the family has the same phone number since forever.... I have no memory whatsoever so I am even surprised I know these ones.

Thank you for these asks Darling :) There was a lot but I enjoyed writing them haha Took me a while. I had an hectic week but I promise I love these things I am just very bad at timing my stuff haha

#Again thank you #As always I adore you #Hope it doesnt bore you to death haha

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herides · 6 years

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E3 2018 Summary

To be completely honest this is probably the worst E3 i’ve ever seen. While the games that stand out are absolutely god damn incredible, its such a short list, so in no particular order (disclaimer: this is all personal opinion, if you disagree that’s ok, I just want to share credit where credit I feel is due):

1. Anthem: The definite theme for this years E3, instead of battle royale, is co-op and shared world. I do like how all these games within that category offer solo play, maybe i’ll stop being a hardass and play with strangers. What I think Anthems greatest selling point is, is the mech suits. 4 different mech suits (with plenty of room to add more) have so much potential for aesthetic customization, load out choices, modification slots, etc. The game can basically be “pimp my mech” and you get to test it out on a fantastic game world that look gorgeous and has cool looking enemies. The combat game play look downright solid, though I feel the story isn’t going to be that intensive or the focus. I want to see more in terms of customization and UI’s, because I think what they need to do is take mech customization and combat and turn that focus up to 11. Otherwise, I am excited for Anthem.

2. Rage 2: Despite how non relevant the first game became, I had a lot of fun with it and I am super happy that its getting a very supercharged sequel. More Id Studios style first person shooting is always good and this looks like its gonna be a blast. My one criticism is that as far as really unique or new things, it seems a little dry, but graphically the game looks good, it promises a great open world with a good sense of humour and brilliant gun play. I just hope they don’t put as much focus on racing as they did last time. Maybe focus more on unique car mods ala mad max.

3. DOOM Infinite: It’s a sequel to what was my personal game of the year for 2016 and I've been asking for it for so long and i’m so glad it’s coming. Rage is great and all but really its serving as a supplement for until I can get to rip and tear again.

4. The 2 Wolfenstein games/dlcs/what ever they are: Wolfenstein the New Colossus, while focusing a lot on shock value for it’s plot, had really strong gun play and game play, so more of that is exactly what i’m ok with. More dead nazi’s is always a good thing.

5. Fallout 76: Who doesn’t love more fallout? My only fear is that it is an always online game and of course griefing is a terrible risk with this kind of game but fortunately there will be some way to play solo. Despite this, a completely new fallout game with plenty of new features is a great idea and I am excited for more information on how it’s gonna work.

6. Elder Scrolls 6 and Star Field: We don’t know shit but given Bethesda Studio’s reputation and talent leading Starfield and the Elder Scrolls History guiding the new game, I can tell already that both of these will be fantastic and potentially revolutionary when their time comes. I will always appreciate and be excited for a Bethesda rpg.

7. Cyberpunk: It definitely look like a cyberpunk setting. It definitely looks cool. Time can only tell what the actual game will be like. I am actually really excited for it. I really really liked Witcher 3 so I have complete faith that CD Projekt Red make this game outstanding. I just need gameplay and i’ll feel even more confident. I just hope they don’t pull the same shit with the multiple endings like they did in Witcher 3.

8. Assassins Creed: Odyssey: I love the Greek Setting. I love the new RPG elements. I love the 2 different characters. I really liked the new engine in Origins. I like Assassins Creed in general. I really really like what i’m seeing with this game and it’s gonna be a load of fun.

9. Ghost of Tsushima: This game looks RAD AS HELL!!!! I’ve always been a huge fan of the Feudal Japan setting and the combat game play looks so fucking strong in this game. I wish we could have seen the hud (if there even is a hud) so we could get a better idea of how the game will actually play out but as far as the way it looks and vicariously feels, this game is a very very very strong contender. Graphically its definitely one of the most impressive games i’ve seen this E3, and most of that is from the gorgeous leaf physics.I cannot wait at all for more info.

10. Spiderman: We’ve seen it for 3 years in a row now I believe, it still looks fantastic with great looking combat mechanics, amazing animation, and a strong cast of villains. I wish we could have seen something new like what you do when you're not fighting but this is fine too I guess, though this one is bitter sweet since it is more of the same.

These 10 games really are diamonds in the rough. 10 games in the entirety of the E3 press conferences managed to spark excitement in me. A really disappointing year, but at least what is coming out is looking damn brilliant. In my personal opinion, Bethesda absolutely dominated this E3. They came out swinging, out for blood, and with a sense of humour that I hope (with futility) people wont misanalyze as so called “cringe”. They seemed to be the only people having fun with a convention for Geeks and they have the best and most numerous line up of games. Here’s hoping these games come out on time and in as good of a shape as they looked at this E3 and lets hope that next year is even better (though that shouldnt be too hard).

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shaffaansalam · 4 years

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Most Important HTML Tags For Search Engine Optimization

Tags are small snippets of html coding that tell engines how to properly read your content. In fact you can vastly improve search engine visibility by adding S-E-O tags in html. When a search engine's crawler come across your content , it takes a look at the html tags of the site .This information helps engines like google determine what your content is about and how to categorize the material.

Some of them also improve how visitors view your content in those search engines. And this is in addition to how social media uses content tags to show your articles. In the end it's html tags for S-E-O that will affect how your website performs on the internet. Without these tags you are far less likely to really connect with an audience.

1)Title Tags

Title tag is your main and most important anchor. The <title> element typically appears as a clickable headline in the S-E-R-P's and also shows up on social networks and in browsers.Title tags are placed in the <head> of your web page and are meant to provide a clear and comprehensive idea of what the page is all about. The page's title still is the first thing for a searcher to see in S-E-R-P-'s and decide if the page is likely to answer the search intent.

A well written one may increase the number of clicks and traffic which have at least some impact on rankings.

Best Tips

Give each page a unique title that describes the page's content accurately.

Keep the title's up to 50-60 characters long . Remember that long titles are shortened to about 600-700px on the S-E-R-P.

Put important keywords first ,but in a natural manner, as if you write titles for your visitors in the first place.

Make sure of your brand name in the title ,even if it ends up not being shown on the S-E-R-P's it will still make a difference for the search engine.

Use your title to attract attention like inserting it in title tab in your web browser.

2)Meta Description Tags

Meta description also resides in the <head> of a web page and is commonly displayed in a S-E-R-P snippet along with the title and page U-R-L.

The description occupies the largest part of a S-E-R-P snippet and invites searchers to click on your site by promising a clear and comprehensive solution to the query.The description impacts the no of clicks you get , and may also may improve ctr and decrease bounce rates if the page's content indeed fulfills the promises. That's why the description must be as realistic. If your description contains the keywords a searcher used in their search query, they will appear on the S-E-R-P in bold. This goes a very long way in helping you standout and inform the searcher exactly what they will find on their page .

A good way to figure out what to write in your meta description , what works best for your particular topic right now is to do some competition research. Look for how your competitors make their own descriptions to get an idea about it.

best tips

Give each page a unique meta description that clearly reflects what value the page carries.

Google's snippet typically max out around 150-160 characters(including spaces).

Include your most significant keywords so they could get highlighted on the actual S-E-R-P, but be careful to avoid keyword stuffing .

Use an eye catchy call to action

3)Heading Tags(H-1 to H-6)

Heading tags are html tags used to identify headings and subheadings within your content from other types of text (example :paragraph text). While H-2 TO H-6 tags are not considered as important to search engines proper usage of H-1 tag has been emphasized in many industries. Headings are crucial for text and content optimization.

best tips

Keep your headings relevant to the data of the text they are describing.

Always have your headings reflect the sentiment of the text they are placed over.

Don't overuse the tags and the keywords. keep it readable.

4)Image ALT Attributes

The image ALT attribute is added to an image tag to describe it's contents. ALT attributes are important for on-page optimization because alt text is displayed to visitors if any particular image cannot be loaded. And alt attributes provide context because search engines can't see images. For E-Commerce sites images often have a crucial impact on how a visitor interacts with a page . Helping search engines understand what the images are about and how they go with the rest of the content may help them serve a page for suitable search queries.

best tips

Do your best to optimize the most prominent images (product images, info graphics or training images )that are likely to be looked up in google images search.

Add ALT text on pages where there is not too much content apart from the images.

Keep the alt text clear and descriptive enough ,use your keywords reasonably, and make sure they fit in page's content.

5)No Follow Attributes

External/Outbound links are the links on your site pointing to other sites. These are used to refer to proven sources, point people towards other useful resources , or mention a relevant site for some reasons.

These links matter a lot for S-E-O. They can make your content look like a well defined one or a link with not so much content. Google may treat the sources you refer to as the context to better understand the content on your page.By default all hyperlinks are followed , and when you place a link on your site you basically cast a vote of confidence to the linked page.

When you add a no follow attribute to a link , it instructs search engine's bots to not follow the link .Keeping your S-E-O neat , you must ensure a healthy balance between followed and non followed links on your pages.

best tips

Links to any resources that in any way can be considered as untrusted content.

Any paid or sponsored links

Links from comments or other kinds of user generated content which can be spammed beyond your control.

Internal sign in and register links following , which is just a waste of crawl budget.

6)Robots Meta Tag

Robots tags is a useful element if you want to prevent certain articles from being indexed. These can stop crawlers from sites like google from accessing the content. In some cases you may want certain pages to stay out of S-E-R-P's as they feature some kind of special deal that is supposed to be accessible by a direct link only. And if you have a site wide search options google recommend closing custom results pages, which can be crawled indefinitely and waste bot's resources on no unique content.

best tips

Close unnecessary/unfinished pages with thin content that have little value and no intent to appear in the serp's

Close pages that unreasonably waste crawl budget.

Make sure carefully you don't mistakenly restrict important pages from indexing.

7)Rel="Canonical" Link Tag

The rel="canonical" link tag is a way of telling search engines which version of a page you consider the main one and would like to be indexed by search engines and found by people. It's commonly used in cases when the same page is available under multiple different U-R-L's or multiple different pages have very similar content covering the same subject. Internal duplicate content is not treated as strictly as copied content as there's no usually manipulative intent behind it. Another benefit is that canonicalizing a page makes it easier to track performances stats associated with the content.

best tips

Pages with similar content on the same subject

Duplicate pages available under multiple url's.

Versions of the same page with session id's or other url parameters that do not affect the content .

Use canonical tag for near duplicate pages carefully: if the two pages connected by a canonical tag differ too much in content, the search engine will simply disregard the tag.

8)Schema Markup

Schema markup is a specific technique of organizing the data on each of your web pages in a way that is recognized by the search engines.having a structured schema markup is a great boost to your U-X and it carries huge S-E-O value . Structured data markup is exactly what helps search engines to not only read the content but also understand what certain words relate to.

If one is about to click a rich snippet,with a nice image, a 5-star rating, specified price-range, stock status, operating hours, or whatever is useful – is very likely to catch an eye and attract more clicks than a plain-text result.

Assigning schema tags to certain page elements makes your S-E-R-P snippet rich in information that is helpful and appealing for users.

best tips

Study available schema's on schema.org

Create a map of your most important pages and decide on the concepts relevant to each.

Implement the markup carefully.

Thoroughly test the markup to make sure it isn't misleading or added improperly.

9)Social Media Meta Tags

Open graph was initially introduced by Facebook to let you control how a page would look when shared on social media. It's now recognized by LinkedIn as well. Twitter cards offer similar enhancements but are exclusive to Twitter. Main open graph tags are:

og:title=Here you put the title which you want to be displayed when your page is linked to.

og:url=Your page's U-R-L.

og:description=Your page's description. Remember that Facebook will display only about 300 characters of description.

og:image=Here you can put the U-R-L of an image you want to be shown when your page is linked to.

Use the specific social media meta tags in order to boost how your links look to your following.

best tips

Add basic and relevant meta data using Open graph protocol and test the U-R-L's to see how they will be displayed

Setup twitter cards and validate them once done.

10)View Port Meta Tag

View Port meta tag allows you to configure how a page would be scaled and displayed on any device. View Port meta tag has nothing to do with rankings directly but has a tone to do with user experience. It's especially important considering the variety of devices that are being used nowadays and the noticeable shift to mobile browsing.

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globalmediacampaign · 4 years

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MySQL: ALTER TABLE for UUID

A question to the internal #DBA channel at work: »Is it possible to change a column type from BIGINT to VARCHAR ? Will the numbers be converted into a string version of the number or will be it a byte-wise transition that will screw the values?« Further asking yielded more information: »The use-case is to have strings, to have UUIDs.« So we have two questions to answer: Is ALTER TABLE t CHANGE COLUMN c lossy? INTEGER AUTO_INCREMENT vs. UUID Is ALTER TABLE t CHANGE COLUMN c lossy? ALTER TABLE is not lossy. We can test. mysql> create table kris ( id integer not null primary key auto_increment); Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.16 sec) mysql> insert into kris values (NULL); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec) mysql> insert into kris select NULL from kris; Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec) Records: 1 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0 ... mysql> select count(*) from kris; +----------+ | count(*) | +----------+ | 1024 | +----------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> select id from kris limit 3; +----+ | id | +----+ | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | +----+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec)Having a test table, we can play. I am running an ALTER TABLE kris CHANGE COLUMN command. This requires that I specifiy the old name of the column, and then the full new column specifier including the new name, the new type and all details. Hence the “id id ...” mysql> alter table kris change column id id varchar(200) charset latin1 not null; Query OK, 1024 rows affected (0.22 sec) Records: 1024 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0 mysql> select count(*) from kris; +----------+ | count(*) | +----------+ | 1024 | +----------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> select id from kris limit 3; +------+ | id | +------+ | 1 | | 1015 | | 1016 | +------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> show create table krisG Table: kris Create Table: CREATE TABLE `kris` ( `id` varchar(200) CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_swedish_ci NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci 1 row in set (0.00 sec)We can see a number of things here: The conversion is not lossy: We have the same number of records, and the records are still sequences of decimal digits. The order of the output is somehow different. The records which previous showed up in ascending integer order are now showing up in ascending alphabetical order. Given that they are now strings, this is partially logical (if there is an order, it should be alphabetical for strings), and partly mysterious (why is there an order and what happened?). Let’s go through that step by step. Expensive ALTER TABLE ALTER TABLE tries to do changes to the table in place, without rewriting the entire table, if possible. In some cases this is not possible, and then it tries to do it in the background. In some cases not even that is possible, and then the table is locked, rewritten in full, and unlocked. Our table change was of the third, most expensive kind. An ENUM change that extends the ENUM at the end is the least expensive possible change. We just add a new value at the end of the list of possible values for the ENUM. This is a change to the data dictionary, not even touching the table. An ENUM change in the middle of the list requires recoding the table. Turning an ENUM(“one”, “three”) into an ENUM(“one”, “two”, “three”) is expensive. Turning ENUM(“one”, “three”) into ENUM(“one”, “three”, “two”) is cheap. MySQL stores ENUMs internally as integer, so the expensive change re-encodes all old “three” values from 2 to 3. The cheap change stores “three” as 2, and adds 3 as an encoding for “two” in the data dictionary. Some ALTER TABLE t ADD index variants are examples for things happening in the background. They still cost time, but won’t lock. The index will become available only after its creation has finished. There cannot be multiple background operations ongoing. In our case, we internally and invisibly lock the original table. Create a temp table in the new format. Read all data from the original table, write it into the new table as an INSERT INTO temptable SELECT ... FROM oldtable would do. RENAME TABLE oldtable TO temptable2, temptable TO oldtable; DROP TABLE temptable2; unlock everything and are open for business again This process is safe against data loss: If at any point in time this fails, we drop the temptable and still have the original table, unchanged. This processes for some time doubles disk storage: The table converted will for some time exist in both variants. It requires an appropriate amount of disk space for the duration of the conversion. This process can be emulated. Locking a production table for conversion for an extended amount of time is not an option. Online Schema Change (OSC) does the same thing, in code, while allowing access to the table. Data changes are captured in the background and mirrored to both versions. Multiple competing implementations of this exist, and we have institutionalized and automated this in the DBA portal at work. This process does the INSERT ... SELECT ... thing internally (and so does OSC). That is why the conversion works, and how the conversion works. The rules are the MySQL data type conversion rules, as documented in the manual. There is an order, and it changed When looking at the test-SELECT we see there seems to be an order, and it changed. There is an order, because the column I changed was the PRIMARY KEY. The MySQL InnoDB storage engine stores data in a B+-Tree. A B-Tree is a balanced tree. That is a tree in with the path length of the longest path from the root of the tree to any leaf is at most one step longer than the shortest path. So assuming a database with a page size of 16384 bytes (16KB), as MySQL uses, and assuming index records of 10 byte (4 Byte integer plus some overhead), we can cram over 1500 index records into a single page. Assuming index records of 64 byte size - quite large - we still fit 256 records into one page. We get an index tree with a fan-out per level of 100 or more (in our example: 256 to over 1500). For a tree of depth 4, this is good for 100^4 = 100 million records, or in other words, with 4 index accesses we can point-access any record in a table of 100 million rows. Or, in other words, for any realistic table design, an index access finds you a record with at most 4 disk accesses. 4 (or less): The number of disk accesses to get any record in any table via an index. In the InnoDB storage engine, the PRIMARY KEY is a B+-Tree. That is a B-Tree in which the leaves contain the actual data. Since a tree is an ordered data structure, the actual data is stored in primary key order on disk. Data with adjacent primary key values is likely stored in the same physical page. Data with small differences in primary key values is likely stored closer together than data with large differences in primary key values. Changing a primary key value changes the physical position of a record. Never change a primary key value (Never UPDATE t SET id = ...). For an AUTO_INCREMENT key, new data is inserted at the end of the table, old data is closer to the beginning of the table. MySQL has special code to handle this efficiently. Deleting old data is not handled very efficiently. Look into Partitions and think about ALTER TABLE t DROP PARTITION ... for buffer like structures that need to scale. Also think about proper time series databases, if applicable, or about using Cassandra (they have TTL). We remember: In InnoDB the primary key value governs the physical layout of the table. Assuming that new data is accessed often and old data is accessed less often, using primary keys with an AUTO_INCREMENT value collects all new, hot records in a minimum number of data pages at the end of the table/the right hand side of the tree. The set of pages the database is accessing a lot is minimal, and most easily cached in memory. This design minimizes the amount of memory cache, and maximizes database speed automatically for many common access patterns and workloads. That is why it was chosen and optimized for. Random, Hash or UUID primary key Consider table designs that assign a primary key in a random way. This would be for any design that uses a primary key that is an actual random number, the output of a cryptographic hash function such as SHA256(), or many UUID generators. Using an integer auto_increment primary key, we are likely to get hot data at the right hand side, cold data at the left hand side of the tree. We load hot pages, minimising the cache footprint: AUTO_INCREMENT integer primary key controlling data order. Hot data in few pages to the “right” side of the tree, minimal cache footprint But with a random distribution of primary keys over the keyspace, there is no set of pages that is relatively cold. As soon as we hit a key on a page (and for hot keys, we hit them often), we have to load the entire page into memory and keep it there (because there is a hot key in it, and we are likely to hit it again, soon): Primary Key values are randomly chosen: Any page contains a primary key that is hot. As soon as it is being accessed, the entire 16KB page is loaded. So we need a comparatively larger (often: much larger) amount of memory to have a useful cache for this table. In MySQL, numeric integer primary key auto_increment optimizes memory footprint for many workloads. MySQL provides a way out: UUID_TO_BIN(data, 1) Unfortunately, MySQL itself produces UUID() values with the UUID function that sort very badly: mysql> select uuid(); +--------------------------------------+ | uuid() | +--------------------------------------+ | 553d5726-eeaa-11ea-b643-08606ee5ff82 | +--------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> select uuid(); +--------------------------------------+ | uuid() | +--------------------------------------+ | 560b9cc4-eeaa-11ea-b643-08606ee5ff82 | +--------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> select uuid(); +--------------------------------------+ | uuid() | +--------------------------------------+ | 568e4edd-eeaa-11ea-b643-08606ee5ff82 | +--------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)MySQL provides the UUID() function as an implementation of RFC 4122 Version 1 UUIDs. The manual says: The first three numbers are generated from the low, middle, and high parts of a timestamp. The high part also includes the UUID version number. The fourth number preserves temporal uniqueness in case the timestamp value loses monotonicity (for example, due to daylight saving time). The fifth number is an IEEE 802 node number that provides spatial uniqueness. A random number is substituted if the latter is not available (for example, because the host device has no Ethernet card, or it is unknown how to find the hardware address of an interface on the host operating system). In this case, spatial uniqueness cannot be guaranteed. Nevertheless, a collision should have very low probability. Having the timestamp in front for printing is a requirement of the standard. But we need not store it that way: MySQL 8 provides a UUID_TO_BIN() function, and this function has an optional second argument, swap_flag. »If swap_flag is 1, the format of the return value differs: The time-low and time-high parts (the first and third groups of hexadecimal digits, respectively) are swapped. This moves the more rapidly varying part to the right and can improve indexing efficiency if the result is stored in an indexed column.« TL;DR So if you must use a UUID in a primary key Choose MySQL 8. Make it VARBINARY(16). Store it with UUID_TO_BIN(UUID(), 1). Access it with BIN_TO_UUID(col, 1). See also: MySQL Server Team Blog on UUID support for MySQL 8. MySQL Server Team on the pain of pre-MySQL 8 UUID (Article from 2015). https://isotopp.github.io/2020/09/22/alter-table-for-uuid.html

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siva3155 · 4 years

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300+ TOP Crystal Reports Interview Questions and Answers

Crystal Reports Interview Questions for freshers experienced :-

1. What is Crystal Report? Crystal report is a report generation tool. Generally have interface with VB6. Crystal report basically generates dynamic data. You can format the data in whichever way you feel like. 2. Can we use Crystal report as a stand-alone application? Generally we use Crystal Reports with VB6. However we can make crystal report stand-alone application also. But for that limitation is for viewing the report user should have crystal reports installed on his/her PC. 3. How do we connect to the database? There are two ways of creating the report: - Use crystal report built in query. Use the tool ‘ Crystal SQL Designer’ provided by crystal report. When you create report using crystal report built in query then it asks for the data source name that you have created. When you run the report, then for the first time it will ask for the user id and password. After that it will store the same. When you create ‘.qry’ using ‘Crystal SQL’ Designer then at that time it will ask for the user id and password. When you run the report for the first time instead of asking for the user id and password it will ask for the ‘.qry’ file location. You can change the query location also. For that open the report, select ‘Set Location’ option in Database menu item, and set the location. 4. How do we format field? For formatting any field just right click on it and you will get many options like ‘Format Field.’ ‘Browse field data’ etc. Click on ‘Format Field.’ You can align data, suppress, make it multiline, change the font size, style, and type, make it hyperlink etc. If it is an amount field then you can display currency symbol also. Right click on the field select ‘Format Field’. 5. Can we give parameters to the report? We can very well give parameters to the report. For creating parameters select ‘Parameter Field’ in Insert menu item. ‘Create Parameter Field’ dialog box will popped up, it will ask for the name of parameter, prompting text and datatype. Now when you run the report it will prompt for these parameters. 6.Can we create our own formulas in reports? We can create our own formulas in reports. Select ‘Formula Field’ in Insert menu item. Write the formula in ‘Formula Editor’. Here you will get ‘Field Tree’, ‘Function Tree’, and ‘Operator Tree’, which will display the report fields, functions that are supported by crystal reports (like CDATE () etc.), operators (arithmetic, strings etc.) respectively. 7. Can we create report using more than one database? We can create report using more than one database like Oracle, Access. Create data source name for both the databases. Select tables from them and create the report. Only restriction is if you use two databases then you cannot see the SQL generated by crystal reports. 8. Can we export data of reports into other format like in world doc etc? Generated data can be exported to word doc, or in rich text format. Just click on ‘Export’ icon in the menu. Export dialog box will be popped up. It will ask for the ‘Format’ like comma-separated value (csv) etc and the ‘Destination’ like disk, application etc. After that it will ask for the file name and save the data. Only restriction is formatting of data will be lost, but crystal report will try to maintain as much formatting as it can. 9. Can we use our own SQL for creating a report? We can also make our own query using ‘Crystal SQL Designer’ tool provided by SQL. Here you can insert your SQL statement as such. It will save this file as ‘.qry’ . And when you create a report instead of using ‘Database’ button use ‘Crystal SQL Statement’ button. 10. Can we edit SQL made by Crystal reports? We cannot edit the SQL made by crystal reports. However we can view the SQL. For that select ‘Show SQL Query’ in Database menu item. Limitation is if you are using only one database. If you use two databases then you can’t even view the SQL prepared by crystal report.

Crystal Reports Interview Questions 11. Are there any limitations in crystal reports? There are certain limitations in crystal reports. They are: - If database is having field whose length is more than 255 characters, then you cannot make formula using that field. While exporting data formatting is lost. When you browse data just by right clicking on the field then it displays that is there in the database not the data selected by the query. 12. Can we suppress printing in crystal reports if 0 records are fetched? Yes, we can suppress printing if no records are fetched. Select ‘Report Options’ in File menu item. ‘Report Options’ dialog box will pop up. In that there is one option ‘ Suppress printing if no records’ Check this option. If no records are found then nothing will be printed on the report. 13. What are the sections that we have in Crystal reports? Report has got standard sections like ‘Page Header’, ‘Page Footer’, ‘Report Header’, ‘Report Footer’, and ‘Details’. However you can add other sections also. Select ‘Sections’ in the Insert menu item. You can insert group sections also. If you don’t want to show any section just right click on that section and suppress that. 14. Can we add any database field once we have chosen ‘Close’ button? Yes, we can add any database field afterwards also. Select ‘Database Field’ in Insert menu item. If you are using crystal report built in query then it will display the tables that you have selected. And you can select whichever field you want to display on the report. But if you are using ‘.qry’ file then it will display Query and you can select only those field, which are there in the query. 15. Does Crystal Report support all the functions that we have in Oracle? No, Crystal report does not support all the functions. Like Decode function is there in SQL but not there is crystal report. You need to convert that in crystal report format (in if and else etc.). However if you use ‘.qry’ files then it take the SQL as such. There is no need of changing any syntax. 16. Can we use stored procedure for creating the report? Yes, we can use stored procedure. 17. Is there any feature like summing total in crystal report? Crystal reports provide features like grand total, sub-total, running total etc. You can select any of these features in Insert menu item. You can sum up records on the basis of each record or on change of group using ‘Running Total ‘ option in Insert menu item. 18. I am using two tables one is of access database and other is of oracle database, I am getting an error saying that ‘SQL odbc error’ what should I do? If you are getting such an error then click the icon for ‘Report Expert’. It will give a warning saying that formatting will be lost. Ignore this you will get ‘Standard Report Expert’ dialog box. Reverse the links of access database table and it will work. 19.How do we connect to the database? Use crystal report built in query. Use the tool Crystal SQL Designer provided by crystal report. 20.Can we use Crystal report as a stand-alone application? We can make crystal report stand-alone application also. But for that limitation is for viewing the report user should have crystal reports installed. 21.How to “Print” in Crystal Reports while using ASP DOT NET Platform? Using Crystal Decisions. SharedCrystalReport1 cr= new CrystalReport1;’here crystalreport1 is crystal report which we design.CrystalViewer1.ReportSource = cr; OR we can directly print the report without showing reportCrystalReport1 cr= new CrystalReport1;cr.PrintToPrinter(1,False,1,1); 22.What are the advantages or disadvantages of using Crystal? Reports in a Windows Forms application as opposed to say rolling our own reports as HTML and displaying them in the Internet Explorer control Advantages : Secure as End user cannot modify the data which is appear in the report if we use crystal report to show the report but in HTML, user can modify the report data Report layout is not transparent, so that end user will not know about how we design the report. But in HTML, anybody can study the report layout and can copy the technology Can export into different format like PDF, HTML, XML, etc, and many more. Disadvantages : End user need to have the crystal report viewer in his PC in order to see the crystal report output. But this can be overcome if you export the report as PDF/HTML You need to buy Crystal Report license for each pc you are used to design the crystal report. Must buy the version which allows you to install run time components in end user PC Crystal Report is slow as compare to Active Reports If we have 100 pages report then crystal will need to process all pages and then it shows the output. and many more. 23.What are Crystal Reports and Crystal Reports Explorer? With Crystal reports explorer one can quickly create and modify reports on the web, and since its built on the trusted Business object enterprise platform, it can easily manage massive user loads, individual access, and application customization. 24.How to conditionally suppress a field based on whether a page number is odd or even? Select the field –>Click FORMAT–>Click FORMAT FIELD–>Select the COMMON tab–>Click the FORMULA BUTTON to the right of SUPPRESS (Don’t click the suppress check box)To suppress a field on odd numbered pages PageNumber MOD 2 = 1To suppress a field on even numebred pages PageNumber MOD 2 = 0 –>Click SAVE Icon–>Close the formula editor–>Click OK on the FORMAT screen 25.How to pass stored Procedure Parameters to the report? Choose File–>Options menu. In the Options dialog box –>Click the Database tab and ensure that Stored Procedures is selected. Selecting “”Stored Procedures”” automatically displays any available stored procedures when you log on to an SQL database.–>Click OK to exit the Options dialog box. –>On the Start Page, click Blank Report.–>Locate and select the SQL Server data source that contains the stored procedure you want to use.–>Click Next to go to the Connection Information dialog box–>Enter the required information to log in.–>Click Finish–>Highlight an SQL stored procedure in the Stored Procedures folder, and click the–>arrow to add it to the Selected Tables list.–>The Enter Parameter Values dialog box appears.–>Highlight a parameter in the Parameter Fields list–>Assign a value by typing into the Discrete Value box and then click OK–>You are returned to the Database Expert–>Click OK and create your report using the fields in the stored procedure. 26.What is the “refresh” button suppose to do on the crystal Report viewer? When you use Refresh Button in crystal report viewer, it refreshes the report data. When you refresh data from the Preview tab, the Refresh Report Data dialog box appears Select the “Use current parameter values” option to use the current parameter value, Select the “Prompt for new parameter values” option to enter a new parameter value. When you select this option and click OK, the Enter Prompt Values dialog box appears. The program now runs the report using the new value(s) you specified. 27.Is there a way to export a report definition without writing code? Yes. The following steps work assuming you have Crystal Reports on the machine and the appropriate export dlls loaded. Open the report Preview it Click the EXPORT envelope Select REPORT DEFINITION for the format Select DISK FILE Click OK Enter a file name or accept the default Click SAVE. The file is a text file and can be viewed with NOTEPAD. 28.Is there a way to export the report formulas, like totals to excel? Yeah we can do that using crystal report 29.What does it mean when we get the error message “Invalid report version” when try to open a Crystal Report? Crystal in its evolution has changed the report file format several times. In most cases the file format is FORWARD-compatible. By this I mean a file created in Crystal 6 can be opened in Crystal 6 or higher. When the file format changes were major the format is not BACKWARD compatible. By this I mean a file created in CR 9 cannot be opened in CR 8 or before. Crystal changed the report file format with CR 8 and CR 9. The CR 9 change was because of the introduction of Unicode support. CR 8 has the ability to save a file in CR 7 format. Because of the support for Unicode CR 9, 10, and XI cannot save the file in previous formats. 30.How to write a formula to change a font based upon data? Select the field Click FORMAT Click FORMAT FIELD Select the FONT tab Click the FORMULA BUTTON to the right of FONTif ({YourField} = Value) then “Arial”else “Times New Roman Click SAVE Icon Close the formula editor Click OK on the FORMAT screen 31.How many sub-reports can report can have? 0-256 32.Where is the “save data with report” option? You can find File menu. 33. How to refresh the crystal report from the application? calling crystalreportcontrolname.reset (by selecting Report menu under Refresh the report menu item at design time) will refresh the report Crystal Reports Questions and Answers Pdf Download Read the full article

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thehalfworld · 7 years

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Fanfic MST: ITS MY LIFE!, a Portal fanfic [part 12]

Oh yes, friends, it’s back! It’s been entirely too long (two years too long, to be exact) and I hope you’re all ready for some more vaguely Portal-flavored nonsense.

No real warnings for this chapter, just typical MarissaTheWriter ridiculousness. And canon character death, maybe, depending on whether or not you take the events of this chapter at face value (and, if I remember this story correctly, you probably shouldn’t).

Recap: Chell and GLaDOS have fused into one entity, P-body is pregnant, and Marissa for some reason decided that Rattman is the only one who can prevent disaster even though dude is strictly a non-action guy. She located him and now the two of them are planning on taking down the Chell/GLaDOS fusion.

Chapter 1

Previous chapter

AN YOU GUYSARE ALL SO WEIRD! YOU WERE GIVIN ME GOOD REVIEWS THEN YOU SAY IM A TROLL AN THAT YUR GONNA KILL ME AN PUT SALT IN MY THINGS?

That is pretty weird, yeah.

(I’m not even sure what she’s referencing. Maybe a play on “assault”?)

IF IT WERENT FOR THE PEPOLE HOO REALLY LICK MY STORY LIKE THE BUZINESS GUY AN SEPHRAL AN CAT NOT BOUNCY ID STOP IT RITE NOW!

I dunno who Sephral is, but “the buziness guy” is user ASBusinessMagnet (later a recurring character in MarissaTheWriter’s stories; I’m pretty sure we got married at one point), and “Cat Not Bouncy” is Tumblr user catbountry, who was going by “Not Cat Bountry” on Fanfiction dot net and who did a dramatic reading.

PS - I NO THAT GLADOS IS SPELLED GLADOS I CALLED HER FUSION CHELLGADOS BECOS CHELL ALREADY HAS THE LS AN IT SOUNDED MORE COOLER!

See, I told you she’d explain that. All makes sense now, right? Perfectly logical writing decision.

ITS MY LIFE!

CHAPTER TWELF: THE FINAL BATTLE

Bit of a misnomer, since this is not, in fact, the final chapter.

(Actually, if I remember correctly, MarissaTheWriter may have been writing by the seat of her pants; it’s possible she initially intended this as the True and Honest Final Battle.)

Ratman an I were goin thru the air ducks to get to CHELLGADOSs layer were the final show down wold be.

Oh my god, she means her lair, not her layer. That literally took me years to figure out. Holy fuck.

Wheatly was growlin an tryin to be scarry becos he didant have weapons so he was lick are cheer leader.

Considering what happens when Wheatley actually tries to be the bad guy, I think this is preferable.

We intered the layer an saw CHELLGADOS buildin turrents but these ones was speshal becos they cold walk a round an shoot an stuff!

Hey, I played Portal 2, I saw the turret assembly line. It’s pretty much autonomous. She doesn’t have to build them herself, and honestly I think she’d find it beneath her.

But maybe things have changed since I left the building.

"INTURDER!" One of the turrents called to CHELLGADOS. CHELLGADOS looked at me with all the angry she ever had.

That’s a phenomenal amount of anger. Surprised Marissa didn’t combust on the spot.

"Marrissa Roberts you have interfeared with my plans for the last time becos now I will kill you."

All right! Time for some murder!

Then she seed Ratman an got more angry. "RATMAN IS A LIFE? NOW YOU WILL BOTH DYE!"

I doubt she cares about killing Rattman, considering that she didn’t do so before and that he poses basically no threat on his own. Like I said… non-action guy.

CHELLGADOS taked out her portal gun wich was modified to shoot bullets lick a reel gun but cold shoot portals to just in case.

Okay, but does it really shoot bullets? I ask because the turrets use spring-loaded action in order to fire the entire bullet, which is obviously a hell of a lot less effective despite delivering more bullet per bullet. Explains why Chell can take so many hits without dying.

Point being, there’s no evidence Aperture Science knows how guns are supposed to work.

She fired the portal gun an it hit Ratman with a boom an I thot he was dead for sure.

But Ratman gotted up!

What? Is he still alive?

"Silly CHELLGADOS you cannt hurt me becos..." He pulled down his pants an I saw that he had replased his man thingys with... the space an rick cores!

…I know we’re leading up to a “balls of steel” joke, and I shan’t comment on that, but this raises so many goddamn questions. How do you replace your testicles with personality cores? A personality core is a hell of a lot bigger, and heavier, than a human testicle. Also, Space Core is in space, so how did Rattman get ahold of him? Did he shrink the cores somehow? How did this make him immune to bullets? How did he fit two personality cores in his pants? Why did he need to flash everybody?

My brain is hurting over this and I know it’s only in the story because the author wanted to make a stupid pun. Moving the hell on.

"IVE GOT BALLS OF STEEL!" (Thats from a game called Duke Nukum Forever its funny) The space core was still thing he was in space but Rick was mad at been one off Ratmans tentacles.

One of his tentacles? Are we in a hentai now?

"Well then ill just portal you into space like Wheatly an see how you like it you wont!" CHELLGADOS shooted a nother portal unner Ratmans feet an he was sucked into s space. "No dont you are my dotter Chell!" Ratman yelled as he got sucked in.

Uh… what? How? I thought Marissa and Chell were both Cave and Caroline’s kids in this story. Wasn’t that established several chapters ago?

"OMG HOW?" CHELLGADOS an me said at the same time to gether. "It all storted a long time ago..." Ratman gave us the down lo as he was just barely hanging on to the portal. "I used to work for Gabe Jonson affer he changed his name to Cave in onor of his dead brother. Caroline was got shot as you no Marrissa an was put in a robot body that was called... GLaDOS!"

Right, we know. How is he hanging on to the portal? Can you do that? I don’t think you can do that.

CHELLGADOS o-mouthed at his shockin words.

Did she forget she spent the beginning of this story being a goth emo over the revelation that she used to be human? Like… this isn’t news anymore.

"Gabe new he wold have to dotters named Marrissa an Chell but since GLaDOS was a prototip she an Cave coldnt make baby normal way an instead used the artificial enseamanation an grew test toob babys.

Hey, what the fuck is the “normal way” to have sex with a giant robot? Seriously, please inbox me if you know. It’s for a friend. I swear.

But there was a miksup an my dna got used instead of Gabes for one of the toobs that toob was... CHELL!" Then Rutman coldnt hold on any longer an fell into space an died.

Why did Aperture Science have a sperm sample from Rattman on file? How did they get DNA from Caroline, since her physical human body no longer exists? How does Rattman know about the mixup? Who carried the baby to term? How did two white people birth a woman of color? How did two white people birth a woman of color? I don’t know if I brought this up earlier in the MST, but I am directing that question at every “Chell is Cave and Caroline’s daughter” theorist too. You’re not off the fucking hook.

Then CHELLGADOS started shackin an looked funny. Chell was fightin back a gainst GLaDOSs control! "Marrissa there is not much time left you must kill me to stopped GLaDOS once and four all!"

Okay, but we know what happens when Marissa kills Chell — thanks to having consumed the “zombie taters,” Chell will just turn into a zombie. You don’t want the most tenacious woman in the world after your brains, but especially not when she’s fused with the most massive collection of wisdom to ever exist, who also hates you.

I o-mouthed becos Chells brane damage was cured so now I coldnt put her out of MISERY lol.

That’s actually not the concern I expected Marissa to have. She has no problem killing disabled people, but being fused with a homicidal AI who is using your body as her puppet is A-OK, even when the victim is begging for death?

Man, this girl could use some new priorities.

"But I cannt kill you Chell yur my sister there must be a nother way! Chell got sad "Hurry GLaDOS is takin control!" An she started lollin with evil. There was no way I cold kill Chell an then I rembered that GLaDOS used to be Carlion an that made me not want to kill herr neither.

Yeah, and remember how she used to be a well-written and complex character who cannot be reduced to a mere villain and who actually likes Chell so much she keeps writing songs about it?

Sorry, there I go talking about canon again.

"Bloody hell Marrissa shes powerin up!" Wheatly screemed from inside my jump soot an I looked up an saw CHELLGADOS was floatin in air an electric stuff was comin out off her. "THANKS MARRISSA YUO REMINDED ME THAT I USED TO BE CARALIN SO I REMBERED THAT I HAVE POWERS TOO!"

Hey, uh, what the fuck?

I o-mouthed, that dumb ingineer forgot to make it so only I gotted the powers! I didant no what to do now an it seemed hope less when a herd a sound. "Hey b**** were heer for backup!" It was... ATLAS AN P-BODY!

Who are they here to back up?

"OMG why are you jersk helpin me?" I asked while o-mouthin from the shock. "Becos CHELLGADOS is half yur sister an we dont lick you so we dont lick Chell neither!" Atlas eksplained. "An I rembered that you gave us the drugs an beer in the first place so if it wasnt for you we woldnt have drugs an beer!" P-Body added an Atlas nodded like yeah!

I guess that’s reasonable. I, too, feel indebted to those who give me drugs and beer.

We started ti fire are portal guns at CHELLGADOS an the portals combined to make a big portal black hole.

Co-op mode would benefit from the inclusion of this feature, I think.

"OH SH**!" CHELLGADOS screamed as the GLaDOS parts were all sucked out off Chell.

Should have attached them better, I guess.

Ones all of GLadOS was gone we closed the portal an Chell falled down on the ground. "Chell I safed you!" I rant to my sister an gave her hug. "Marrissa Im sorry, but the damaje from GLaDOS was to much..."

“…not to mention, having my butt sliced off after someone used their powers a little too recklessly…”

An she dyed in my arms. "Nooooo Chell my sister you are died!" I cried soooo much an Whealty cried to becos they was frends even Atlas an P-Body looked kinna sad.

Isn’t Chell gonna turn into a zombie now or are we not doing the zombie stuff anymore? Was that only because she was brain-damaged? This fic is confusing.

I put down Chells body an stand up when there was a clikclak nose be hind me.

Oh no! Not a clikclak nose!

"LOL we tricked you to get yur guard down Marrissa! Now die b****!" An Atlas an P-Body lolled an shot me in head.

I’ve probably mentioned it before, but I love that the author of this mess has no problem writing over-the-top violence but feels the need to censor the word “bitch.”

"Marrissa!" Wheatly screamed an ever thing got really black an I died.

Love the prose.

TO BE CONTINUED?

Yes, indeed, we’re not done with this fic yet!

OH NO MARRISSA IS DIED!

Oh, yes.

CAN WHEATLY SAFE HER?

Well, seeing as she’s dead, I think it may be a bit late for that.

FIND OUT IN THE NEXT ONE PS IM THINKIN OF MAYBE WRITIN A SPINNOFF A BOUT TEEN FORTRESS 2 AN GABE JONSON AN CARALION LIVIN IN PORTAL HIGH SCHOOL WHAT DO YOU GUYS THIN?

She actually did write that spinoff, by the way. I’ll put my MST of it up on this blog at some point.

Next chapter

#itsmylife.mst #fandom:portal #halfworld.mst

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audreils · 7 years

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ohhh you dont like The Raven Boys? why? im really curious! I read them and i really liked them, the only thing id say i didnt like is the pacing, sometimes it was sooo slow and there were several scenes that could have been cut out, and sometimes id get irritated by the characters lol hello from México:) (it was a total pain to write this bc my autocorrector is in spanish omg)

helloo anon i think ur new here at audreil dot tumblr dot com so i’ll try to make this as simple for u as possible (bc i’ve talked about this loads of times)

i agree with u on the pacing issue, sometimes things happened much faster/slower than they should’ve been and the series as a whole feels a bit jumpy tbh. i got irritated with the characters when they made racist jokes at henry’s expense and weren’t called out for it, but apart from that my beef with the books actually ties to the author

1. there is no (positive) poc rep in trc. you’ve got henry who’s the only kinda main canonically poc character as far as i can remember and he’s got a shit ton of internalized racism that is never properly addresses or resolved. (i think orla is a woc but i cant remember)

2. blue is written as a white girl who isn’t like the others and that annoys the hella outta me for many reasons. one - blue isn’t white. there is no way that she can be white if u read the books and u think blue is white idk what to tell u. two - blue is supposed to be a strong independent feminist chick who takes no prisoners (and im all for that) but she shits on orla all the time - orla who is canonically more feminine and does typically feminine things. that’s now what a feminist is, maggie. three - blue has no essentially no development whatsoever. she’s the same blue at the end of trk as she was at the beginning of trb. so much lost potential

3. adam’s bisexuality is never explicitly acknowledged, and the author has blocked ppl for asking about it. nowhere does it canonically say that ronan is gay. using those words isn’t going to hurt anyone

4. NOAH CZERNY IS TREATED LIKE FILTH. HE ISN’T EVEN MENTIONED ON THE RAVEN CYCLE WEBSITE WHAT TEH FUCK HE FUCKING DIED TWICE ONLY TO BE SHAT ON BY THE AUTHOR

5. blue is a tree. like she is literally part tree and no one mentions it no one finds it strange they just accept it in a heartbeat and move on no one discusses the main protagonist being a tree wow i cannot believ

6. glendower isn’t fucking there and there is no resolution everything just falls apart at the end wow. gwenllian serves no purpose at all and is a literal walking schizo stereotype like why is she there

7. maura sargent is given two unnecessary love interests - first a fucking tree and then a hitman

8. who is the villain? kavinsky is treated like one from the first time he enters the story and then he’s killed off. after that i genuinely have no fucking idea who the bad guy is and what happens to them

9. gansey has no development

10. blue and gansey still cant kiss,,,,why the fuck did they spend four books together why did gansey die what was the point

#im sure if i reread teh books once i'll have more material but this is the summary for now #trc #trc wank #anonymous #answered

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ciathyzareposts · 4 years

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Missed Classic: Trinity – Won! (And Final Rating)

Written by Joe Pranevich

We finally made it to the end of Trinity, but the ending was a lot longer than I expected. The trip through New Mexico is the longest sequence in the game and it’s a lot of fun, even if I bit off more than I could chew for one week. As such, this post is more-than-double-length but even that seems insufficient: this game rewards exploration and introspection in a way that few games have. A few years ago, I stumbled on the term “first-person thinker (in contrast with “third-person shooter”) to describe adventure games. That label doesn’t fit many games as well as it fits Trinity; I have spent many sleepless nights recently thinking about this game and what it means. That is high praise!

I am getting ahead of myself. Where we left off last time, I explored six of the seven mushroom realms spread across our sundial “wabe”. This included an amazing magnet-assisted trip through space in a soap bubble, as well as a less-than-spectacular bout of trial and error where I killed a lizard in a number of incorrect ways. Last week ended with my discovery that the two gems (the ruby from the beginning of the game and an emerald from the end) could be used to create a pair of magical speed boots. With those, I am finally able to explore the Trinity site in the desert, the last of the seven realms at the dawn of the nuclear age. Something has caused the “primitive” first atom bomb to vaporize New Mexico. I need to find out what it is.

The base of the tower at Trinity, with the “gadget” (bomb) being loaded into place.

Woosh! It’s just text, but there is something visceral about careening around the desert at superhuman speed. Previous times that I had come here, the game would end in just a few turns as simply walking from place to place took more time than we had left. I did not write much about my failed attempts to explore, but it feels good that we’re able to do it for real now. Super boots make all the difference!

Traveling with the boots is fun, but there are some drawbacks that I discover quickly. The desert acts a bit like a maze. As long as you follow the roads, you can explore pretty well. Once we step off the roads however, the monotony of the desert means that we can speed right past a road that we were looking for without seeing it. This means that going northeast into the desert and then west doesn’t actually have you always notice a north road in the middle. Mapping becomes a pain, but fortunately it’s not that hard to work out a path and keep to it. The other thing to bring up immediately is that this exploration involved a lot of reloading. Even with speed boots, there isn’t enough time to explore well and I had to reload frequently just to take stock of the place. Everything is more difficult than my narration will suggest, but in the interests of brevity we’ll just take that as a given and move on.

The included map is helpful, but not so helpful that I didn’t have to draw my own.

The Lay of the Land

Looking at the map of the Trinity site, we immediately identify a few areas to explore. Obviously, the McDonald Ranch will be key given that we even have a breakout map, but there are many other potentially important areas in the vicinity. Near the tower is a spot just to the west labeled “Jumbo” and an impact crater to the southeast. Going further afield, we have a northwest road leading to “Able”, a southwest road leading to “Pittsburgh”, and a south road leading to “Baker”. I’m curious as to why we have “Pittsburgh” instead of “Charlie”, but as a native son of the Steel City, I will not complain much! To the southeast, not on a road, is the ranch. A final arrow to “Scorro” is off from a secondary road to the west, running parallel to the one leading to Able. I plan to explore the labeled locations first, before scouring the desert for more hidden gems.

Since it is nearby, I head to “Jumbo” first. That contains a suspended barrel that looks like a cold capsule:

Why would anyone hang a giant barrel in the middle of nowhere like this? There doesn’t seem to be any openings, windows, or markings of any kind; as far as you can tell, the thing is utterly useless.

This is obviously our character’s voice; Moriarty would have known that this useless thing was an abandoned plutonium reclamation system that would allow the fuel to be recovered in the event that the bomb was a dud. I have no idea how it would have worked and I cannot see anything that I can do with it.

The bomb crater to the southeast is similarly boring, at least for now. That was created when with traditional explosives during a “rehearsal” of the nuclear blast. There’s nothing in the crater, but perhaps I can hide in it or something down the road.

A real map of the Trinity site. Moriarty may have based his map on one like this.

Able and Baker

I explore south first to discover “Baker”, an open shelter with a number of guards. When I arrive, I immediately (and automatically) hide behind a shed so that the guards do not see me. A general steps out of the shelter and asks one of the jeep drivers to take him back to Base Camp, far to the south. The guard/driver is relieved to not be anywhere near the coming fireball and takes him immediately. Another guard, half asleep on his feet, arrives to take his place. Can I sneak past the guard by helping him sleep? Even with my super speed, I cannot get into the shelter or do much of anything here. Any attempt to leave my hiding place gets me captured and killed. Is this area included because it was there in real life or because there’s a puzzle to solve. I do not see any way to get to Base Camp, so I restore back to the tower.

I discover an abandoned jeep on the northern road to “Able” . Someone left in such a hurry that they dropped their wallet on the floor. I peek in to find a black-and-white snapshot of a smiling kid. I would have expected an ID card or something that I could use, but the wallet is otherwise empty. I check out the jeep’s radio, but it is bolted to the floor. I must be on the right track because I gain three points just for noticing that it was set to channel 39. Do walkie-talkies from the 1950s work on the same wavelengths as jeep radios from the 1940s? Apparently, yes! When I tune my walkie-talkie to that channel and extend the antenna, I get even more points and can hear the chatter of the various bases talking to each other as they get ready for the countdown. Most of it is Greek to me, but maybe something there is useful.

Even in the 1940s, Pittsburgh wasn’t all steel mills and pollution. The Cathedral of Learning towered over the University of Pittsburgh, although it was used as a military barracks during the war.

Pittsburgh

Southwest of the tower is “Pittsburgh”, a military blockhouse and the source of the searchlights that scour the landscape looking for spies and saboteurs. I might be a bit of both. I have been killed more than once by trying to climb back up the tower while the searchlights were on; this may be where I deal with that problem. Although I am told that there are no doors or windows on “this side”, there does not seem to be any way to circle around the building to get in. Instead, the only thing that we can interact with here is a giant sleeping German Shepherd. If he’s supposed to be a guard dog, he’s not doing a tremendously good job.

As I explore, the road runner arrives. Up to this point, he has been following me around the desert at high speed, but every now and then he disappears for a bit and then catches up later. As soon as the bird arrives, it gives me a mischievous look and then jumps on the dog’s head! It feels very “cartoonish”. The roadrunner nibbles on the fleas behind his ears until he wakes up and flips out. The dog then sees me and tries to attack, but its chain prevents him from ripping me limb from limb. The sound alerts the guards who capture me and I die in the usual way. I feel like this might be a reference to a Looney Tunes cartoon, but if it is I do not get it.

The final place on the map is Scorro, but it too is too far for me to get to. The map not only fails to mention that it is 30 miles away, it also has San Antonio in front of it. Up to this point, the maximum distance that I have been running is around 6 miles, the distance from the tower to each of the sites according to the “real” map that I found. Just for giggles, I calculate that I cover that distance in 2 minutes and 15 seconds of game time for an approximate speed of 150 miles per hour! Math is fun!

That fence is surprisingly unpassable in the game.

A Swim in the Reservoir

Finding the ranch house is easy: although there is no road to it on the Trinity site map, there is a southeast road at the impact crater. I’m not sure if the house is occupied so I explore the outside first. A reservoir and an old windmill are to the east. I climb up the windmill to discover that someone left a pair of binoculars at the top. I do not get a lot of time to think about who might have left them there, because the tower collapses when I attempt to pick them up. Instead of dying, we are plunged into the cold water of the reservoir. All of my stuff sinks to the bottom and that’s that. I restore.

Next time around, I drop all of my stuff first. Even though I am lighter, the tower still collapses but at least I didn’t lose anything. I swim down to find the lost binoculars, but it is too dark to see. Oh, damn. I left the lantern back in the “wabe” before I started New Mexico so I have to restore all the way back and play this all again. (I have to leave my axe behind this time.) I repeat the process and retrieve the binoculars from the reservoir bottom. Hooray!

I feel good about this for about five seconds because when I get back to my stuff, I discover that the roadrunner ate my bag of crumbs. I’ve played enough adventure games at this point to suspect that I will need them, but it turns out to be impossible to get the binoculars without losing something. If the bag is left on the ground, the roadrunner eats them. If I take the bag with me, the crumbs dissolve in the water. If I lock the roadrunner up in the birdcage, the lemming runs away. As nice as getting the binoculars is, I restore. I’llI return later.

Someone once loved this house.

Hall of the Mountain King

I explore the house, starting from the screen door at the northwest corner. Inside the spare room is the “map that is included in your Trinity package”, which is great but I had not realized that I was not supposed to look at it until now. Oops?

Exploring the house feels like a horror film. The place is abandoned and empty, but signs of a former human life remain. As we walk from room to ruined room, we expect a jump scare at any moment. The bathroom contains only a filthy sink with no tap, let alone running water. The attached bedroom is empty except for a less dirty rectangle on the floor where the mattress had once been. There’s a dining room and a kitchen with a discarded knife in a cabinet. Just outside is an “ice house” which I suppose is what passed for a refrigerator in the rural 1900s. Unless I have to keep an ice cream from melting, I don’t immediately see anything I can do there.

The final room in the house is the “Assembly Room” with that long awaited jump scare. I’ll let Moriarty set the scene for you:

Assembly Room

Whomever used this room was paranoid about dirt. The floor is swept spotless, and the edges of both windows are carefully sealed with tape. A closed front door leads east, and there’s an open closet door in the north wall. Other exits lead south and west.

A workbench covered with loose sheets of brown paper runs along the north wall. You see bits of wire and other debris scattered across the paper.

You turn to face an urgent noise behind you. Your heart skips a beat. Two tiny eyes, bright with hunger, black with menace, are glaring at you from only a few feet away.

You hear the noise again. It’s like a pebble in an empty can.

The rattlesnake rears its wedge-shaped head. It looks as if it’s about to strike!

The roadrunner trots into the room and freezes. Tension mounts as snake and bird study one another, their eyes bright with familiar hatred.

Suddenly, the roadrunner explodes into action! It dances around the snake, fluttering off the walls as it tries to grab the hissing reptile in its beak. But the room isn’t big enough to support this style of attack; and after a few very close calls, the roadrunner abandons the fray and retreats with a squall of frustration.

The lemming sees the rattlesnake and begins to tremble.

Yeah, Mr. Lemming. I don’t like snakes either.

Maybe I am thinking too deep about this, but the “bird vs. snake” moment here feels like an homage to the “Hall of the Mountain King” puzzle in the original Colossal Cave. At the end of the introductory area of that game, you hit the first real “magical realism” puzzle where you have to get by a poisonous snake. If you read the help, you know that the bird (which you discovered a handful of rooms prior) didn’t like the snake. Dropping it causes an epic combat where the bird is victorious and the snake is driven away. This feels like Moriarty took that idea, wrote it better, and then still had the bird lose. It’s a nice touch. I’ll need to find another way.

I attack the snake with the knife but fail utterly. It bites me and slithers away. I have only a few minutes to live, which actually may be fine considering that New Mexico will be nuked in a few minutes anyway. Unfortunately, I collapse a turn or two later as the poison floods my system and lay in agony until nuclear armageddon strikes. I restore and try again, but I am not sure which approach I should take:

Am I supposed to let the snake bite me and then heal or prevent the poison from killing me in some way?

Or, am I supposed to find a different way to drive off or kill it?

The first seems unlikely, but not impossible. I recall that I left a bandage near the beginning of this section so restore back to grab it and play forward. Unfortunately, we cannot make a tourniquet or similar to keep us alive any longer. Let’s focus on killing it.

Maybe the knife wasn’t the correct approach? I restore back and play it all again to bring the axe with me, but I have no better luck with it or the spade. I try going around the house first and opening the eastern door to give the snake an easy escape route, but that doesn’t work either. I get exactly one turn after seeing the snake to do something before he bites me; I need to make it count.

Dasvidania, old friend.

My next approach is to try to get the lemming to do something, but all he does is cower in the cage if the snake is present. If I let him out anywhere else in the house, he will flee out any open door. If I am careful and close every door, he still escapes because he can nose open the screen door in the back. And yet, I am positive that I am on to something precisely because Moriarty has gone to great lengths to script all the different ways that the lemming can flee. It’s clever. The break comes when I realize that not only can I use my one turn to flee the rattlesnake by running out of the room, but that I can also use it to quickly hide in the closet and shut the door. Doing so traps me in pitch black, but it buys me time. I use my lantern and see nothing of interest. As soon as I open the door again, the snake strikes.

The solution is slightly evil, but I hit on it quickly. If I release the lemming in the closet, it runs around trapped. If I then open the door, the snake sees him first and strikes, killing my little friend then slithering off to enjoy his meal. As usual, Moriarty makes you feel the death– I’m not going to forget his description of the little body twitching as the poison takes effect– but it’s done and I can explore the final room in the house. Hidden among the debris and papers on the table is a single screwdriver. As it was one of the ones used to assemble the bomb, it almost certainly is the one that I will need to open it up again. Score! Unfortunately, there is no way back up the tower to experiment as the searchlights now cover it completely and any attempt to climb up is met with an immediate reaction from the guards. I’ll have to solve that puzzle before long.

Since I no longer have the lemming in the cage, I can grab the roadrunner and put it inside. That lets me re-do the reservoir segment as well without the bird eating all of my crumbs. I therefore end this sequence with a screwdriver and a pair of binoculars. At this stage, inventory weight is a huge problem as I can only carry exactly what I need and no more. I’m also down to seven minutes left and that isn’t enough time. I can barely even get to the dog again, let alone solve whatever puzzles are left. I end up playing it all over again and optimizing my moves every step of the way. With a few tries, I am able to get back to where I am by 5:16 AM (14 minutes left) and I hope that will be enough.

Not the kind of dog that I want to cross.

Stupid Roadrunner Tricks

I return to “Pittsburgh” and take another pass at the moving the search lights. I still do not find any way into the building and while that is a terrible thing for realism, it does focus my problem-solving just on the sleeping canine. I cannot kill it. I discover that if I let the roadrunner taunt the dog as before, but he away before the guards come out, it causes a panic and the search lights are moved momentarily away from the tower. That’s progress! Unfortunately, the timing just doesn’t work. If I start running immediately back to the tower the moment the roadrunner starts to do his thing, I only get halfway up before the crisis is managed and the lights return, catching me in the act. I’m on the right track, but I don’t have the solution yet.

At this point, I am at a loss. I don’t believe there is anything left to do at the ranch house or the jeep. I will need to distract the dog or otherwise affect the searchlights at “Pittsburgh”. I am uncertain what, if anything, there is to do at “Baker”. I already missed the General leaving and may have to restore to follow him somehow or something, but there could be something else.

I give in and take another hint to learn that I completely misjudged a puzzle. At “Baker”, I was supposed to notice that we can look inside the compound using the binoculars. Doing that shows us not only some of the men that we overhear on the walkie-talkie, but also a box “similar to the one you saw under the tower” with a silver key. Unfortunately, I cannot find any way to grab the key and I end up taking another hint: we have to ask the roadrunner to get it for us. I would not have considered the bird to be nearly intelligent enough for that. The bit earlier in the game with the dolphin and coconut at least seemed plausible as we see dolphins obeying simple commands at SeaWorld and similar parks, but a roadrunner? Not really. In any event, doing that gets us lots of points. Yay? I feel like I completely dropped the ball on this one.

I race back to the tower and can open the box at the base to reveal a circuit breaker. I flip it and the base goes nuts. They immediately suspect sabotage and scrub the launch, but it doesn’t take them long to catch me and the game still ends in a nuclear explosion, just a slightly later one. If I flip the breaker off and then on again, I am rewarded by another point and a brief dialog on the walkie-talkie. What was the point? I have no idea since I didn’t gain anything obvious by the exchange.

Classical music swells…

The Final Puzzles

Everything is lining up now, but I realize that I need more time to get back to the tower. I conduct an experiment: I drop the bag of crumbs next to the sleeping dog. If I do so and wait for the roadrunner to show up, he pauses to eat them before torturing the dog! While I am enroute to the tower, he apparently finishes and begins his taunts because we hear the distant sound of barking and see the spotlight move. I can climb up successfully! We made it back to the bomb and it’s only 5:23 AM. I have seven minutes to spare to do… something. I’ll pause to note that this sequence may pay homage to the 1953 Merrie Melodies short, Zipping Along, or one of the later ones. This is the first time that Wile E. Coyote nearly entrapped his nemesis using a conveniently placed container of free birdseed. Unfortunately, Moriarty does not list Chuck Jones in his extensive bibliography…

Once I get back inside, I open the panel with the screwdriver and peek inside. It’s dark and I didn’t bring my lantern. I end up restoring back and playing again, this time keeping the lantern in my inventory after the ranch house but discarding the unneeded birdcage. I have the guide on the piece of paper so I cut the detonator wire and that’s the wrong one. I die. I restore and cut other wires and still die. I die and die and die. What am I missing?

I take yet another hint to learn that I needed to wait until the final countdown to cut the wire, so as to not give the team enough time to react and call off the launch. I have no idea how I was supposed to infer that. This becomes trickier because the lantern has a limited remaining charge, but I’m used to optimizing at this point. I finally cut the correct wire with the kitchen knife (on my second attempt) and…

You slide the blade of the steak knife under the striped wire and pull back on it as hard as you can. The thick insulation cracks under the strain, stretches, frays and splits…

Snap! A shower of sparks erupts from the enclosure. You lose your balance and fall backwards to the floor.

“X-unit just went out again,” shouts a voice.

“Which line is it, Baker?”

“Kid’s board says it’s the informer. The others look okay. We’re lettin’ it go, Able. The sequencer’s running.”

The walkie-talkie hisses quietly.

“Congratulations.”

You turn, but see no one.

“Zero minus fifteen seconds,” crackles the walkie-talkie.

“You should be proud of yourself.” Where is that voice coming from? “This gadget would’ve blown New Mexico right off the map if you hadn’t stopped it. Imagine the embarrassment.”

A burst of static. “Minus ten seconds.”

The space around you articulates. It’s not as scary the second time.

“Of course, there’s the problem of causality,” continues the voice. “If Harry doesn’t get his A-bomb, the future that created you cannot occur. And you can’t sabotage the test if you’re never born, can you?”

The walkie-talkie is fading away. “Five seconds. Four.”

The voice chuckles amiably. “Not to worry, though. Nature doesn’t know the word ‘paradox.’ Gotta bleed off that quantum steam somehow. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a good-sized bang every time they shoot off one of these gizmos. Just enough fireworks to keep the historians happy.”

The scene shifts back to Kensington Gardens and it is the beginning of the game again. I explore and it goes almost exactly like before. I buy the crumbs and help the old woman with the umbrella. The game ends with a cute scene: this time, we’ve made friends with the roadrunner and we are off to find a soccer ball to do it all over again. The end.

I’m frustrated by how many questions were left unanswered, but that may have been the point. Who was that voice in our ear that made “gnomon” puns the whole game? Am I supposed to recognize his “folksy” speech patterns? I have no idea. And if the game is a time loop, how and when do I die so that the next me can find my body in the crypt? So many questions, but it’s time for the final rating.

Time played: 6 hr 05 min Total time: 16 hr 15 min Score: 100 of 100

So much text until the actual ending.

Final Rating

Since writing the above, I have given a few days for my “victory” to settle in, but I have been unable to stop thinking about this game. Judging by the comments, several of you at least have had the same experience. I am sure that there are hundreds of details that I missed and I almost want to play it over again immediately, but at the same time I don’t really want to put myself through that again. I cannot quite articulate how I feel about this game, except to say that it both hurts and feels good at the same time. Take that as you will.

Puzzles and Solvability – This game is nearly a masterclass in puzzle design, with the showpiece puzzles among the best that Infocom has ever done. Puzzle difficulty increases gradually as you exit Kensington Gardens, explore to the various time zones, and finally fight through the timing and “did you bring the right tools?” puzzles of the Trinity site. In the end, I found the final round of puzzles too difficult for me. I absolutely did not understand the “what wire to cut” puzzle while playing the game. Only after reading the hints did I learn that I needed to use the information from when we pulled the breaker to know which wire I was supposed to cut. Even with the crushing difficulty at the end– I lost track of how many times I had to reload and play everything all over again to bring a different item with me– this is still one of the greatest set of puzzles I have experienced in a game. My score: 7

My final map of the Trinity site. I never did map all of the desert.

Interface and Inventory – I’ve commented so many times on the standard Infocom interface that to do so again would be redundant, but of course it is best in class for the era. This the second “Interactive Fiction Plus” title and supports some basic use of color (both for background and text color) as well as the nice jump-quotes that appear at the top of the screen. Those alone do not add up to an extra point so I will go with the Infocom-standard score. My score: 4.

Story and Setting – I’m torn on this one because while the setting is fantastic and the connections between the worlds make a certain internal sense, the story did not stick the landing. Introducing the time loop is fun, but the more you think about it the less sense it makes. How would your actions affect future nuclear bombs? If you are in a time loop forever, how does your dead body end up in the crypt? Still, you cannot but admire the amazing worlds that Moriarty has built. My score: 6.

Sound and Graphics – As you probably expect, we have a zero here. The additional color (which was also present in A Mind Forever Voyaging) doesn’t add enough for a point. My score: 0. Environment and Atmosphere – This is a game that it is hard to stop thinking about. I’m still making new connections in my head days after playing it the last time. The wabe is amazingly designed and each of the other environments are fun and unique. This game also gave me nightmares and that has to count for something. It takes great writing to affect me so much! My score: 8.

Dialog and Acting – Moriarty’s text is amazing and the game showcases a couple of great characters. The roadrunner comes alive and the little scratch you give him behind the ears as we (and he) re-enter the time loop brings a smile to my face. The narration over the Trinity segment, which I read dozens of times, still never got old– in part because it was based on real-life transcripts. I also loved the dolphin, the bubble boy, and so many other little touches. I have no idea who the mystery voice was, but he was well-written with nice colloquial touches that made him seem familiar somehow. The jump quotes were also insightful and well-selected. My score: 7. Let’s add those all up: (7+4+6+0+8+7)/.6 = 53.

That is an amazing score for an Infocom game, beating out The Witness as our top scoring Infocom game! (It has been said that I am a lower scorer than Ilmari; if so, that makes this victory all the more impressive.) This places it in good company with graphics games of the period such as Space Quest I and Kings Quest III. In fact, it is our highest scoring “Missed Classic” so far. If you remove the penalty because the game doesn’t have graphics, it would have scored 64 and just missed our top ten. It is absolutely my “favorite” game of the Infocom marathon, even though I hope not to play it again for a long time.

The average guess was 44 so I suspect that most of you felt that I wouldn’t like this as much as I did. With a perfect landing, Adam Thornton got the bullseye with his guess of 53 points! Congratulations! CAPs will be distributed with the next mainline game.

Up next for me is still one final Trinity post wrapping up this series as I play Leather Goddesses of Phobos. TBD already covered it for the site so I am playing it only for my own experience, although I may write a bonus post and put it up someplace. As a bit of an homage to Leather Goddesses, I will do a very quick “Missed Classic” in a few weeks about a much less well-written “mature” game before picking up again with Moonmist. I’d really like to knock that out before I play Space Quest V, but we’ll see whether the scheduling gods smile down at me. Adios!

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/missed-classic-trinity-won-and-final-rating/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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