#controller/GUI software

[tacticalhimbo]

[steevejr]

truly so baffling to me to hear people complain about their electronics like my coworker was complaining that her 2017 Mac was so slow its barely functional and it’s like what do you MEAN your 8 year old Mac is dead? mine is from 2013 and runs flawlessly?? what are you doing to your $1000 machine ??? filling it with peanut butter and TikTok viruses?????

[im-the-mfing-batman]

Opinions on Bruce Wayne and his giant family? They are like celebrities here and was wondering what a person new to Gotham thinks on the whole situation. ^_^.

Having your own private Kardashians is kind of crazy. Gothamites seem to be obsessed with them because I swear he breathes and the WHOLE city has to report on it. I could care less about what business he endorsed, what the whole family wore to the met gala, but I’ve heard some things from the line cook here (she’s obsessed with that phallic name sounding guy). That time where Bruce Wayne was spotted at a local gay bar, numerous rumours about the actual number of children he has and even some crazy conspiracy theories…

BUT HE DID PAY MY WHOLE UNIVERSITY TUITION SO WOOOO I LOVE THE WAYNE FAMILY!! (Wayne Tech let me intern with you PLEASE)

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

if I've learned anything from grad school it's to check your sources, and this has proven invaluable in the dozens of instances when I've had an MBA-type try to tell me something about finances or leadership. Case in point:

Firefox serves me clickbaity articles through Pocket, which is fine because I like Firefox. But sometimes an article makes me curious. I'm pretty anal about my finances, and I wondered if this article was, as I suspected, total horseshit, or could potentially benefit me and help me get my spending under control. So let's check the article in question.

It mostly seems like common sense. "...track expenses and income for at least a month before setting a budget...How much money do I have or earn? How much do I want to save?" Basic shit like that. But then I get to this section:

This sounds fucking made up to me. And thankfully, they've provided a source to their claim that "research has repeatedly shown" that writing things down changes behavior. First mistake. What research is this?

Forbes, naturally, my #1 source for absolute dogshit fart-sniffing financial schlock. Forbes is the type of website that guy from high school who constantly posts on linkedin trawls daily for little articles like this that make him feel better about refusing to pay for a decent package for his employees' healthcare (I'm from the United States, a barbaric, conflict-ridden country in the throes of civil unrest, so obsessed with violence that its warlords prioritize weapons over universal medical coverage. I digress). Forbes constantly posts shit like this, and I constantly spend my time at leadership seminars debunking poor consultants who get paid to read these claims credulously. Look at this highlighted text. Does it make sense to you that simply writing your financial goals down would result in a 10x increase in your income? Because if it does, let me make you an offer on this sick ass bridge.

Thankfully, Forbes also makes the mistake of citing their sources. Let's check to see where this hyperlink goes:

SidSavara. I've never heard of this site, but the About section tells me that Sid is "a technology leader who empowers teams to grow into their best selves. He is a life-long learner enjoys developing software, leading teams in delivering mission critical projects, playing guitar and watching football and basketball."

That doesn't mean anything. What are his LinkedIn credentials? With the caveat that anyone can lie on Linkedin, Mr. Savara appears to be a Software Engineer. Which is fine! I'm glad software engineers exist! But Sid's got nothing in his professional history which suggests he knows shit about finance. So I'm already pretty skeptical of his website, which is increasingly looking like a personal fart-huffing blog.

The article itself repeats the credulous claim made in the Forbes story earlier, but this time, provides no link for the 3% story. Mr. Savara is smarter than his colleages at Forbes, it's much wiser to just make shit up.

HOWEVER. I am not the first person to have followed this rabbit hole. Because at the very top of this article, there is a disclaimer.

Uh oh!

Sid's been called out before, and in the follow up to this article, he reveals the truth.

You can guess where this is going.

So to go back to the VERY beginning of this post, both Pocket/Good Housekeeping and Forbes failed to do even the most basic of research, taking the wild claim that writing down your budget may increase your income by 10x on good faith and the word of a(n admittedly honest about his shortcomings) software engineer.

Why did I spend 30 minutes to make a tumblr post about this? Mostly to show off how smart I am, but also to remind folks of just how flimsy any claim on the internet can be. Click those links, follow those sources, and when the sources stop linking, ask why.

[lemonbubble]

hate this shit. "your IT administrator" i AM the fucking administrator, piss off.

[xdexesx]

As a 5th-Semester Animation Student, I am surprised at how little I actually yell about the animation of this Show.

You guys-

You guys have no idea the actual genius of 9 Story Entertainment and BrownBag Films (The Production and Animation Studio for the Wild Kratts Episodes)

First of all. This is not traditional 2D animation.

This is Cut-Out Animation, also known as 2D Rigged Animation or Puppet Animation. Other shows you might be familiar with that use this technique are Bluey, Hilda, Rick and Morty, or the Big Hero 6 TV Show. There are more but these came to my mind first.

Cut Out Animation can be very limiting, because you work with 2D sprites in a 3D environment almost. The Tech Artists, sometimes called Character Builders, are the ones that take the design of the characters and creatures and build a 2D skeleton of sorts, putting bones inside of the png drawing and allowing it to move. It might sound easy, but trust me when I say it is a tiring process and the node-view is horrifying, haha.

I don't know if people would care for an actual deep-dive into the animation of the show, because believe me, I can talk a lot about it, as someone who is familiar with the animation technique, the technical/character building aspects of it, as well as someone who has actually access to the Software the Animation Studio is using to make these episodes (I kid you not when I say that I am in possession off all the tools to make my own Wild Kratts episode, minus the backgrounds because I hate doing those)

For those that care, THIS is what the animator sees before the episode gets finished, lol

Say hi to "Chad", he was part of the Shortfilm I made with some others in my third Semester at uni.

The purple plots are controllers with which you move the character around.

The green lines and dots are deformers which make the character able to bend and stretch.

Also, the thing in the right window is the beloved node view, or at least a small aspect of it. All these small squares have meaning and I won't even try to explain

While Cut Out Animation isn't my strong suit (Traditional 2D and 3D animation is) I would still be down to talk more about it if anyone cares to listen, lol. Even beyond the software capabilities, the show is actually very interesting to look at from a production standpoint and I would love to just talk more about the animation in general because let me tell you, it is much better than people give it credit for!

[leyavo]

| I am my fathers daughter | 9 |

💖Dad!Price & Daughter!reader, eventual Soap x reader.

PART NINE: John Price hasn’t seen or heard from his daughter in over a year, but that changes when she calls him one night asking for help. 2.6k+words

[18+] MDNI | TW: hurt/angst/mentions of abuse/ complicated father-daughter relationship/ mentions of drug use

Previous parts of -> [Series Masterlist]

🔈Readers view of John is different, he’s come and gone in her life etc so she thinks he’s not that great. So don’t send me hate

The first of November, you stare at the bank balance on the cash machine. Is this the amount the Captain was sending your mum each month?? No wonder she never gave you a penny. If your mum gave it to you growing up you wouldn’t have struggled so much. Maybe even left a lot sooner than you did. Not that you dared asking for that money, she claimed it was just enough to cover a roof over your head and food in your belly. Never mind the latest man she sponged off and didn’t need to pay rent.

She seemed to always have cigarettes, never going without, whereas you did go without. You had to beg her to buy you new clothes or shoes for school and even then you had to earn it. Going with her to her early morning cleaning job before starting school. You could still smell the bleach on your hands through out the day no matter how hard you scrubbed them in between lessons.

It’s your third day at your new job, every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday you’re in the office inputting data. Staring at a computer screen and typing numbers into software. Easy enough with a little training on your first day. You still needed to wait to get paid on last Friday of the month, joining after the cut off date to get the three days you’re working this week. So the money from the Captain would come in handy with buying some new clothes for work till you got your first pay.

Maybe even give him back his tired old jacket that still hung from your shoulders.

You pry your bank card out of the machine and tuck it back into your purse, then your handbag. The Captain helped you set up an app on your phone to check your money, but you still couldn’t believe the amount and had to look on the machine around the corner from work. A second look doesn’t hurt.

It’s dark, the street lamps dull as they warm to a golden hue. You’d stayed behind an extra hour to sort through some data and take the pressure off the team you’re now part of. It’d be foolish to withdraw money in the evening, especially on your own.

So you circle back round the building, halting at the figure standing beside your dad’s old truck. Your mother checking her reflection in the window, fingers wiping the smudge of lipstick on her front tooth. You wonder if there’s enough time for you to retreat, find the nearest bus stop and go back that way.

Luck has never been on your side though as her head snaps to you. Her hands waving above her head as if you couldn’t see her, you wished it were just a mirage.

“There’s my girl.” Yeah when it suits her. When she wants something.

Lena Marston, your mother. If only you could divorce her too like your father.

She’s tall, slim build thanks to her diet of cigarettes and cans of coke. Her eyes rake up and down your form and you know exactly what she’s thinking. How you’ve filled out, cheekbones no longer sharp but now full, healthy.

“What do you want, Lena.” You don’t bother calling her mum, she doesn’t act like one. If anything you're the one caring for her, picking her up whenever she's decided to kick the latest guy to the kerb. Putting her to bed when she's drunk, laying next to her incase she chokes on her own vomit. Or worse flushing the little baggies of drugs down the toilet and convincing her she already had it all.

Least she’s not twitching, no bloodshot eyes or hurried movements. Her speech controlled, no slur.

She pulls the lapel of your jacket, well your father’s old brown cord one. “I remember this,” Lena says, twisting the thick fabric in her grasp and you closer. You try not to wince, glancing to the passerby's who are glued to their phones as they walk. She won't do anything now. Her hand digs into your pocket and the truck keys dangle from her pointer finger. Lena's signature sharp red nails scraping against the inside of your wrist as you try to snatch them back.

"I'm really not in the mood," you regret the words as soon as you say them, her tongue clicking and head shaking.

Rookie mistake, say nothing and just do whatever she asks. It’ll be over a lot faster then.

Lena shoves you towards the passenger door, “get in sweetie,” she says and you cringe internally at the rare term of endearment she throws at you. A smile playing on her lips as she bats her lashes at the man looking your way. Nothing a pretty face wouldn’t fix, she always said that beauty lets you get away with a lot of things. Shame you don’t have it - also her words.

“You’re not insured…” you muttered under your breath, knowing she wouldn’t listen to reason. You sidestep the door as she opens it for you.

She leans on the truck, “you either get in or I take it. Can’t imagine it’d be nice for you to explain that to the Captain.”

You don’t want to get in, but you do to make it easier for the Captain not you. Can’t have his beloved truck taken away or worse in a ditch, you wouldn’t put it past Lena. You’re used to going along with what she wants to make life easier, but it doesn’t seem like it is for you.

Lena slams the drivers door, truck shaking and all you could hear in your head was the captain yelling don’t slam the bloody doors. The engine stutters to a start on the third try and you lurch forward in your seat as she speeds off down the road.

“Phone.” Lena orders, in a tone that suggests she’s now in charge, she’s the Captain and you better do as she asks. She’s already rummaging in the bag on your lap, other hand on the steering wheel. The contents falling down to the footwell, car swerving as she tries to catch it.

“Just drive!” You yell, pointing to the road in front. She swats you away, stinging slap to back of your hand. You lean down, collecting your notepad and purse, lip balm stuffing it back into your bag. The screen of your phone lights up as you picked it up, Kyle texting you to remind you about tomorrow.

“Of course he got you a new phone, bet he made you keep the location on. Classic captain controlling everyone around him - turn it off.”

Shit, had you really let your guard down that much? Was he checking his phone now and seeing if you were on track, you should be halfway to the house by now. You’d always toggled it on and off, never leaving it on for too long. Even your mum didn’t know where you were ninety five percent of the time.

You turn off the location, eyes flitting out the window at the trees blurring past. The industrial town you were only just starting to memorise gone and you had no idea where you were going now. Your hand clutches the panel of the door, the speedometer on the dashboard pushing higher than you thought possible for the old relic. If she doesn’t crash the truck, you’re sure she’ll run it into the ground.

Lena chuckles, “I warned ya’ what he’s like. Never listen eh.”

You don’t bother answering, knowing either way you’d piss her off. Best to let her ramble on, she likes the sound of her own voice. Hopefully she’ll finally get to the reason she’s ambushed you too. The damned phone location royally screwing you over with both of your parents. You’ll leave that turned off from now on.

“And you wonder why people lose their patience with you. Maybe if you listened you wouldn’t be in this mess,” she said, as if this instance is the excuse for every little thing she’s thrown at you.

Mess, you’re not sure which part of your life she’s talking about or how the conversation managed to turn round on you. A teaching moment that has you leaning as far as you can away from her.

“What da- the captain?” You nearly slip up, but Lena’s too sharp and the corner of her lip tugs. She’s got you now.

“Are you really that dense?” Lena tuts, “I’m talking about Tyler, that boys done nothing but be there for you and you can’t even apologise.”

You scoff. “Apologise? He’s the one -,”

Lena shakes her head, indicator ticking in sync with the click of her tongue. She pulls into the lay-by on a country road. Nothing but the lights of the truck shining the way. Her seatbelt unclasps and she flings it over her shoulder, shifting her body in the seat to face you.

“You’ve always been so difficult you know that?” She hums, plucking your shiny new phone out of your grasp. You don’t fight it though, never worth it. “Tyler knew how to handle you, so what he drinks a bit.” A lot, he drinks a lot.

You’ve said the exact same thing to her, sobbed at her that she’s difficult and only makes your life harder, but it’s normally when she’s in a drunken haze. Even as a kid she told you that you were difficult to love, why else would the Captain leave you behind? Leave you with her.

“I’m not going back.” - you don’t even want to think about what would happen if you gave in and went back to him, if you went back with her. Sometimes you do find yourself wanting to though, it’s easier when you know what to expect. And you’re still trying to figure out the Captain, least you know what you’re getting when it comes to Tyler.

“That’s why I’m here, you don’t want him coming around?” She says tapping away at your phone, reading another of Kyle’s incoming texts. “Gonna cost ya.”

Of course she’s not here for you, she’s here for that monthly stash of cash. Expected the Captain to give it to you without a second thought. Probably why she’s been flooding your phone all week trying to get you to come home on the weekend. Because you’ll have that money she so desperately relies on.

A wave of nausea rolls in your stomach, the worn leather seat creaking as Lena inches closer. Fight or flight, no you freeze like every other time.

“Come on, it’s always been mine.” She leans forward and drapes as arm around the back of your seat. “I’ll even stay out of the Captain’s way. He’ll only disappoint you sweetheart,” she says, her hand tracing your cheek and smoothing your hair back. She doesn’t stop there though, no her fingers tangle in your hair and she pulls you closer, scalp aching at the sudden tug.

Another tug and you squeeze your eyes shut trying to breathe through the pain. “Okay, okay. You can have it,” you snap, exhaling a trembling breath as she releases you from her hold. Pathetic really, how you folded so quickly. You can see it in the way she looks at you too.

You transfer the money via your phone, Lena instructing you on how, as she starts the car up, she removes a cigarette from her pocket and lights the end. The car swerves as she leans forward to spark it up again after her first failed attempt.

"You can't smoke them in here," you snap, knowing that one whiff and the captain would know that your mother had been in the car just by the lingering minty scent her of menthol cigarettes. Doesn’t matter how many air fresheners were tucked away in the glove box, none could mask the smell.

"John smokes like a chimney, leave them in here and tell him they're yours. I don't care what you do." Lena tosses the crumpled empty package in the centre console, blowing the smoke in your direction. She got what she came for and it wasn’t you.

There’s no small talk, no questions. Lena detaches from the role of mother, quick to take from you without giving. Not that you’d want anything from her anymore. Deep down you wished there were an inkling of caring, but even that comes at a price for you. Something to earn or use against you.

Lena parks outside your work again, lighting yet another cigarette before she unfastens the seatbelt and pushes the door open.

She’s half way out of the truck when you dare to ask, “was I a mistake?”

“Of course ya were.” She throws her words over her shoulder like it ain’t a devastating blow.

The door slams and it feels like it shakes you to your core. You drive back in silence, the static of the radio drowning out the thoughts in your mind, but you’re numb. Time isn’t something you’re aware of either, you seem to blink and then you’re waiting for the guy at check point to hand back your pass.

It’s late by the time you get back, you sit in the truck outside the residential house, fingers drumming against the steering wheel. There’s only one light on downstairs, you wonder if they’re all crowded in living room watching some sort of sport on the tv. You don’t think you have the courage to face the Captain. To plaster on a forced smile as he asks you about your day.

There’s no Captain though as you kick off your shoes in the porch and step into the open plan living room. No Kyle or Johnny, but there is Simon standing in the small kitchenette stirring the teabag in his cup. His gaze locks with yours and you swear he can sense the anxious ball of energy thrumming through your body. Like he knows that somethings off, a chemical off balance or some sort of explosion. There might as well have been when it comes to Lena Marston.

Your phone rings and it’s like another kick to the gut. Angie Price’s name lighting up the screen. Reminding you that you are a mistake, your little brother planned not you. You’ve never answered one of her calls and don’t plan to.

“Everthin’ alright?” Simon asks, blonde brow raising beneath the hood covering his mess of hair, skeleton teeth of his mask shifting with the move of his lips. The spoon clinks to the side of his cup as leans to the side to open the fridge and grab a carton of milk, all whilst his molten brown eyes trail your body as if looking for a problem. No he must see it, clear as day written all over you.

You avoid his gaze, “yep, just fine. A little tired,” you rambled on, rushing to the stairs before he can press any further.

In the Captain’s room however you catch your reflection in the mirror and now know why Simon asked if you were alright. Your eyes bloodshot, face puffy from the tears you’d shed on the drive home. That and the torn scrap of fabric, the gaping hole just beneath the lapel of the old cord jacket. Exactly where Lena had grabbed you by earlier.

You’re not sure why you wear the old thing. Like some sort of weighted blanket that keeps you grounded. The oversized jacket keeping you warm, a tiny part of your dad clinging to the fabric too, but it’s tainted by Lena’s minty cigarettes. That even now you don’t get to have something for yourself. Not money, nor your dad.

[Part ten]

Mum reveal and their mother/daughter dynamic - Lena still trying to influence her daughter and plant some things in her head to make her question the Captain’s motives 🫡 please note I am dyslexic so there may be errors/mistakes. I do edit multiple times but miss out things - Leya

Taglist: @unclearblur @enfppuff @elita1 @tired-writer04 @kaoyamamegami @gallantys @leon-thot-kennedy @trulovekay @harley101399 @misshoneypaper @rpgsandstuff @tomatto1234 @lolyouresilly @madsothree @astrothedoll @grandfartvoid @delaynew @mysteriouslydeafeningwerewolf @little-mini-me-world @exitingmusic @majocookie @elegancefr @jesskidding3 @thepowers-kat-be @frangiipanii @ye-olde-trash-panda @sleep101 @bluebarrybubblez @shitaaba @muraaaaaa

[garblegarden]

An updated height chart! Featuring the majority of my confibulans.

"Human Guy" is a stranded human survey pilot residing on Confibula Ba-III/d, an abandoned human colony and homeworld of the palindromes. He was discovered by Patrick and now travels with him. He was born on Earth, briefly worked on the Earth's moon, then Confibula Ba-IV/e's moon named Adam, and finally crashlanded where he is now. He's currently wearing an experimental suit he found in some old wreckage which manages most of his bodily functions and prevents him from getting poisoned.

"Patrick" is a central woodlands palindrome residing in the confibulan plains. He was booted out from his social group and now travels with Human Guy.

"Skunk" is a saltpan phony, an aberrant mutant version of a palindrome that looks like a cartoon pony.

"Snowdrift" is a mixed woodland/tundra palindrome who looks just like a grassland palindrome and lives in the prairies as well, so might as well be one. They're one of Patrick's kids that he abandoned. They now live in a grassland city around a tent.

"Fallstreak" is Snowdrift's sibling. They have a mutation that reduces the amount of stretchy skin they have, so they look distinctly "shrinkwrapped" and have translucent patagia.

"Tear" is a grassland tent with an enormous hole in their side (not pictured). They have difficulty feeding normally but are often fed by passing travelers, especially Human Guy and Patrick who use their body cavity as a shelter.

"Porcelain" is an off-white coralline bifurcator with three base limbs. They are a software developer who lives on a station off-planet.

"Eigengrau" is a cold-black stellate bifurcator with seven base limbs. They work with Porcelain and also live on a station off-planet.

"Tuxedo" is a chimeric vivid-black/cold-white coralline/stellate bifurcator with five base limbs. Unsure what they do for a living, but they probably live on-planet on Confibula Bb-II/b.

"Cloth" is a sophont AI developed by bifurcators who ended up in the hands of Porcelain and Eigengrau and made to mine cryptocurrency for them. It has since escaped and drifted around from station to station, ended up on the human terrestrial base on Adam, and wound up on Confibula Ba-III/d where it can be found aimlessly floating across the landscapes or attempting to possess defunct human vehicles. Pictured is its naked brain, a white sheet of nanotubules finely woven together.

"Hare" is a sophont AI developed by humans, stationed on the Adam base. She has a number of ambulatory "doggy" bodies, one of which is pictured, numerous mobile arms inside nearly each building, and partial control over most vehicles.

None of these are their real names, except maybe Hare's.

[commodorez]

Start Me Up: 30 years of Windows 95 - @commodorez and @ms-dos5

Okay, last batch of photos from our exhibit, and I wanted to highlight a few details because so much planning and preparation went into making this the ultimate Windows 95 exhibit. And now you all have to hear about it.

You'll note software boxes from both major versions of Windows 95 RTM (Release To Manufacturing, the original version from August 24, 1995): the standalone version "for PCs without Windows", and the Upgrade version "for users of Windows". We used both versions when setting up the machines you see here to show the variety of install types people performed. My grandpa's original set of install floppies was displayed in a little shadowbox, next to a CD version, and a TI 486DX2-66 microprocessor emblazoned with "Designed for Microsoft Windows 95".

The machines on display, from left to right include:

Chicago Beta 73g on a custom Pentium 1 baby AT tower

Windows 95 RTM on an AST Bravo LC 4/66d desktop

Windows 95 RTM on a (broken) Compaq LTE Elite 4/75cx laptop

Windows 95 OSR 1 on an Intertel Pentium 1 tower

Windows 95 OSR 1 on a VTEL Pentium 1 desktop

Windows 95 OSR 2 on a Toshiba Satellite T1960CT laptop

Windows 95 OSR 2 on a Toshiba Libretto 70CT subnotebook

Windows 95 OSR 2 on an IBM Thinkpad 760E laptop

Windows 95 OSR 2.5 on a custom Pentium II tower (Vega)

That's alot of machines that had to be prepared for the exhibit, so for all of them to work (minus the Compaq) was a relief. Something about the trip to NJ rendered the Compaq unstable, and it refused to boot consistently. I have no idea what happened because it failed in like 5 different steps of the process.

The SMC TigerHub TP6 nestled between the Intertel and VTEL served as the network backbone for the exhibit, allowing 6 machines to be connected over twisted pair with all the multicolored network cables. However, problems with PCMCIA drivers on the Thinkpad, and the Compaq being on the blink meant only 5 machines were networked. Vega was sporting a CanoScan FS2710 film scanner connected via SCSI, which I demonstrated like 9 times over the course of the weekend -- including to LGR!

Game controllers were attached to computers where possible, and everything with a sound card had a set of era-appropriate speakers. We even picked out a slew of mid-90s mouse pads, some of which were specifically Windows 95 themed. We had Zip disks, floppy disks, CDs full of software, and basically no extra room on the tables. Almost every machine had a different screensaver, desktop wallpaper, sound scheme, and UI theme, showing just how much was user customizable.

@ms-dos5 made a point to have a variety of versions of Microsoft Office products on the machines present, meaning we had everything from stand-alone copies of Word 95 and Excel 95, thru complete MS Office 95 packages (standard & professional), MS Office 97 (standard & professional), Publisher, Frontpage, & Encarta.

We brought a bunch of important books about 95 too:

The Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Design

Microsoft Windows 95 Resource Kit

Hardware Design Guide for Windows 95

Inside Windows 95 by Adrian King

Just off to the right, stacked on top of some boxes was an Epson LX-300+II dot matrix printer, which we used to create all of the decorative banners, and the computer description cards next to each machine. Fun fact -- those were designed to mimic the format and style of 95's printer test page! We also printed off drawings for a number of visitors, and ended up having more paper jams with the tractor feed mechanism than we had Blue Screen of Death instances.

In fact, we only had 3 BSOD's total, all weekend, one of which was expected, and another was intentional on the part of an attendee.

We also had one guy install some shovelware/garbageware on the AST, which caused all sorts of errors, that was funny!

Thanks for coming along on this ride, both @ms-dos5 and I appreciate everyone taking the time to enjoy our exhibit.

It's now safe to turn off your computer.

VCF East XX

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Brother makes a demon-haunted printer

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in RICHMOND TOMORROW (Mar 5) and in AUSTIN> on Mar 10. More tour dates here. Mail-order signed copies from LA's Diesel Books.

You guys, I don't want to bum you out or anything, but I think there's a good chance than some self-described capitalists aren't really into capitalism.

Sorry.

Take incentives: Charlie Munger, capitalism's quippiest pitchman, famously said, "Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome." And here's some mindblowing horseshoe theory for ya: Munger agrees with the noted Communist agitator Adam Smith, whose anti-rentier, pro-government-regulation jeremiad "The Wealth of Nations" contains this notorious passage:

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.

Incentives matter – if you design a system that permits abuse, you should expect abuse. Now, I'm not 100% on board with this: every one of us has ways to undetectably cheat the system and enrich ourselves, but most of the time, most of us play by the rules.

But it's different for corporations: the myth of "shareholder supremacy" has reached pandemic levels among the artificial lifeforms we call corporate persons, and it's impossible to rise through the corporate ranks without repeating and believing the catechism that there is a law that requires executives to lie, cheat and steal if it results in an extra dollar for the investors, in the name of "fiduciary duty":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/18/falsifiability/#figleaves-not-rubrics

And this attitude has leaked out into politics and everyday life, so that many of our neighbors have been brainwashed into thinking that a successful cheat is a success in life, that pulling a fast one "makes you smart":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/04/its-not-a-lie/#its-a-premature-truth

In a world dominated by a belief in the moral virtue and legal necessity of ripping off anyone you can get away with cheating, then, sure, any system that permits cheating is a system in which cheating will occur.

This shouldn't be controversial, but if so, how are we to explain the whole concept of the Internet of Things? Installing networked computers into our appliances, office equipment, vehicles and homes is an invitation of mischief: the software in those computers can be remotely altered after you purchase them, taking away the features you paid for and then selling them back to you.

Now, an advocate for market-based solutions has a ready-made response to this: if a company downgrades a device you own, this merely invites another company to step in with a disenshittifying plug-in that makes things better. If the company that made your garage-door opener pushes an over-the-air update that blocks you from using an ad-free, well-designed app and forces you to use an enshittified app that forces you to look at ads before you can open the garage, well, that's an opportunity for a rival company to sell you a better software update for your garage-door opener, one that restores the lost functionality:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

I'm no hayekpilled market truefan, but I'm pretty sure that would work.

However.

The problem is that since 1998, that kind of reverse-engineering has been a felony under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bans bypassing "an effective access control"

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

There's a pretty obvious incentive at play when companies have the ability to unilaterally alter how their products work after you buy them and you are legally prohibited to change how the product works after you buy them. This is the first lesson of the Darth Vader MBA: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

I've been banging this drum for decades now – like when I got into a public (friendly) spat with the editor of Wired magazine over their reviews of DRM-based media devices. I argued that it was irresponsible to review a device that could be unilaterally downgraded by the manufacturer at any time, without – at a minimum – noting that the feature you're buying the gadget for might disappear without warning after you've shelled out your hard-earned money:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/03/painful-burning-dribble/#law-of-intended-consequences

Of course, companies that get a reputation for these kinds of shenanigans might lose market share to better competitors. Sure, if the company that made your phone or your thermostat or your insulin pump reached into it across the internet and made it worse, you're shit out of luck when it comes to that device. But you can buy your next device from a better company, right?

Well, sure – in a competitive market, that's a plausible theory of "market discipline." Companies that fear losing business to rivals might behave themselves better.

In theory.

But in practice, the world's "advanced economies" have spent the past 40 years running an uncontrolled experiment in what happens if you don't enforce competition law, and instead allow companies to buy all their competitors. The result is across-the-board industrial oligopolies, cartels, duopolies and monopolies in nearly every category of good and service:

https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/learn/monopoly-by-the-numbers

Now, even a duopoly has some competition. If you don't like Coke, there's always Pepsi. But again, in practice, companies in concentrated industries find it easy to "tacitly collude" to adopt one another's worst habits – the differences between the outrageous payment processing charged by Apple's App Store and the junk fees charged by Google Play are about as meaningful as the differences between Coke and Pepsi.

Which brings me to printers.

I know.

Ugh.

Printers are the worst and HP is the worst of the worst. For years, HP has been abusing its market dominance – and its customers' wallets – by inflating the price of ink and rolling out countermeasures to prevent you from refilling your old cartridges or buying third-party ink. Worse, HP have mastered the Darth Vader MBA, bushing updates to its printers that sneakily downgrade them after you've bought them and taken them home.

Here's a sneaky trick HP came up with: they send a "security update" to your printer. After you click "OK," a little progress bar zips across the screen and the printer reboots itself, and then…nothing. The printer declares itself to be "up to date" and works exactly like it did before you installed the update. But inside the printer, a countdown timer has kicked off, and then, months later, the "security update" activates itself, like a software Manchurian Candidate.

Because that "security update" protects the security of HP, against HP customers. It is designed to detect and reject the very latest third-party ink cartridges, which means that if you've just bought a year's worth of ink at Costco, you might wake up the next day and discover that your printer will no longer accept them – because of an update you ran six months before.

Why does HP put such a long fuse on its logic bomb? For the same reason that viruses like covid evolve to be contagious before you show symptoms. If the update immediately broke compatibility with third party ink, word would spread, and some HP customers would turn off their printers' wifi before the "security update" could be applied to them.

By asymptomatically incubating the infection over a long, patient timescale, HP maximizes the spread of the contagion, guaranteeing a global pandemic of enshittiification:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

HP has done this – and worse – over and over, and every time I write about it, people pop up to recommend their Brother printers as the enshittification-free alternative. I own a Brother, an HL3170-CDW laser printer that's basically indestructible, cheerfully accepts third-party toner, and costs almost nothing to run.

But I still don't connect it to my wifi. The idea that Brother is a better company than HP – that is possesses some intrinsic antienshittificatory virtue – has always struck me as a foolish belief. Brother has means, motive and opportunity to push over-the-air downgrades to block third-party ink as HP.

Which is exactly what they've done.

Yesterday, Louis Rossman, hero of the Right to Repair movement, revealed that Brother had just pushed a mandatory over-the-air update that locks out third-party ink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpHX_9fHNqE

Rossman has a thorough technical breakdown of the heist, but it boils down to this. Brother is just as shit as HP. Look from the men to the pigs and the pigs to the men all you want – you will never spot the difference. Take the Pepsi Challenge – bet you won't be able to guess which is which:

https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Brother_ink_lockout_%26_quality_sabotage

This was the absolutely predictable outcome of the regulatory incentives our corporate overlords created, the enormous, far-reaching power we handed to these corporations. With that great power came no responsibility:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/ursula-franklin/#franklinite

Filling our devices with computers that run programs that can be changed in secret, that we're not allowed to inspect or alter? It's a recipe for a demon-haunted world, where the devices we entrust with our livelihood, our privacy and our wellbeing are possessed by hellions who escape from the digital Tartarus and are unleashed upon humanity.

Demons have possessed the Internet of Things. It's in Teslas:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

and in every other car, too:

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

Our devices – phones, pacemakers, appliances and home security systems – are designed to prevent us to find out what they're doing. That means that when malicious software infects them, then – by design – these devices prevent us from knowing about it or doing anything about it:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/18/descartes-delenda-est/#self-destruct-sequence-initiated

This should not come as a surprise to anyone. Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/05/printers-devil/#show-me-the-incentives-i-will-show-you-the-outcome

[smutmind]

Only Once Pt 3: A Game of Control

Sana X M.reader Tags: Sana Smut, Hidden Identity, blackmail

Sana sank into her chair, the warm glow of the screen reflecting in her eyes as she twirled a strand of her hair, a mischievous smile lighting up her face. The snug crop top she wore hugged her curves just right, and she felt a thrill of excitement bubbling inside her. “Tonight’s going to be special,” she thought, teasingly glancing at her reflection.

When Y/N’s familiar face appeared on the video call, that signature smirk had her heart racing. “Hey, Special Once,” she purred, leaning forward slightly to give him an enticing view. “You really think you can handle all of this tonight?”

“Wow, Sana, you look amazing,” he replied, his eyes widening as they roamed over her. “But I want you to show off that body a little more. Stand up for me.”

A giggle escaped her lips, her playful confidence shining through. “Oh, is that what you want, Daddy Once? Just for you, I’ll give you a little preview.” She stood up, letting him savor the sight of her high-waisted shorts, which clung to her curves and showcased her long legs perfectly.

“Damn, you’re stunning!” he said, leaning closer, clearly entranced. “Now, why don’t you run your hands down that beautiful body of yours, nice and slow?”

Sana bit her lip and switched into full flirt mode. “You mean like this, Daddy Once?” she teased, trailing her fingers down her sides, savoring the way the fabric felt against her skin. “But what if I were to—oh, I don’t know—take off my top? Wanna see what’s underneath?”

“Absolutely,” he said, practically leaning into the screen. “But how about you take off those shorts too?”

She raised an eyebrow, a playful grin spreading across her face. “Ooh, you’re getting bold, aren’t you? Okay, let’s see…” Slowly, she peeled off her top, revealing her bare skin, her cheeks flushed with excitement. She glanced at the tracking software running in the background, her plan coming together bit by bit. “How’s that for a tease, Special Once? Want me to take it all off?”

Y/N’s voice dropped lower, filled with urgency. “Yes! I want to see everything, Sana. Just go for it!”

“Alright, since you asked so sweetly, Daddy,” she giggled, feeling a delightful rush of power. She toyed with her waistband, making it a bit of a show before letting her shorts drop. “Look at me now, all bare and ready for you! How does that make you feel?”

“Like I’m the luckiest guy alive,” he murmured, totally lost in the moment. “But what about you? What do you want?”

“Well, I think I’d love to see you, Special Once,” she said coyly, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “Want to give me a little show? Maybe take care of yourself while I watch?”

He took a breath, clearly tempted. “You want me to jerk off for you? Are you sure?”

Sana leaned back slightly, biting her lip to suppress a grin. “Oh, I’m more than sure! Just think about it: I’m here, bare and waiting, and you’re going to make it so special for me.”

As he shifted to comply, Sana felt a thrill of triumph. Every teasing move took her closer to turning the tables while secretly tracking his IP address. She grinned playfully, savoring the delicious blend of flirtation and strategy. With each second, she was in control, and she couldn’t wait to see how it all unfolded. to be continued...

[pennyblossom-meta]

Do you believe L would prefer to be with someone who is smart academic wise or some other brainy smart or would he not mind someone who is “average” but has something outside of academics they may excel at? (history, cooking, art, baking, sports etc)

Hi there anon! Thanks for question. I've actually theorised about this exact topic a couple of times before, and I might actually have an unorthodox opinion about it. But before I start my analysis, I would like to refer you to a few metas that I personally find extremely compelling and which have also shaped my view of L.

Toxic love, by @lunalit-river

An analysis on L's monster speech by lux-mea-lex (lots of great metas in their livejournal)

A short interpretation of the monster speech by @lawlightautismtruther (also check the debate on that one, it's very interesting to see the different opinions across the fandom)

How L and Light judge each other and other people

Just about most of @my-one-true-l 's metas about L, like this one and this one about L's flaws.

@43501 has a great meta about L in a relationship which I agree with wholeheartedly.

Apologies in advance for the length in this rant of mine. I like to analyse L from different angles, as you might've guessed 😛

Short answer:

I think L would appreciate someone who makes an effort to meet him where he's at and accepts him for who he is. Someone he can have a conversation with, but is ultimately kind and trustworthy. These two qualities would be to L like a lifeline, because it's something he's missing on an intimate level. While Watari is loyal to him and cares about his well being, these are different types of relationships.

>>>>>Long answer under the cut

So, one of the things I find that helps me when looking at L from this romantic perspective is to search for clues across canon (manga, anime) and the expanded universe (L:CtW, LA:BB, drama, Spiraling Trap, etc) that explain what's going on in his head and, most importantly, what makes him interested in people.

As per your question:

Do you believe L would prefer to be with someone who is smart academic wise or some other brainy smart or would he not mind someone who is “average” but has something outside of academics they may excel at? (history, cooking, art, baking, sports etc)

Let's approach this in two parts. If we were analysing this from a relationship POV, whether romantic or platonic, I can see two major interpretations:

(Chapter 20: First move) Here's a screenshot of L losing a tennis match to Light. Makes him less daunting, doesn't it? To know even L can lose at not-so-mundane-but-still-quite-normal things he's supposed to be great at.

01: The intellectual allure vs a supportive SO

There's oceans of difference between being a genius and someone who can give L support and companionship, despite not speaking the same "language". This would not be too dissimilar to couples with wildly different career paths (ex: a nurse and a software developer) who meet halfway and actively choose to understand each other. It has to do with common goals and values, your life project together.

Love is something you choose every day. Staying in a long-term relationship is choosing to be vulnerable and to share your life with someone you find kinship with. Unorthodox L may be, but as Fu Takahashi (who plays L in the 2020 musical) said:

(...) despite his superficial image as a smart guy who hates losing, he actually feels lonely and needs affection, I imagine (...) He tries to control his emotions, like the feelings towards his parents, or romantic feelings; that’s why he is sort of dependent on games or battles of the mind.

The above quote is super important, in my opinion, considering how difficult it is to pin down L's true personality. If we go by Spiraling Trap terms, he falls for a main character who pays attention to his (dessert) needs and makes him feel 'seen'. Taken cared of. Someone who is genuinely kind to him and wants to do him a good turn because they care about him. We can extrapolate that this is, perhaps, due to his isolationist tendencies and lack of meaningful contact with the sort who take time to want to know the true L and what he likes. To that kind of person, L isn't just the world's greatest detective or a machine, lacking human emotion --- that person acknowledges that he has feelings, likes and dislikes, and isn't malicious towards him.

Consider that L lies a lot. He'd lie twice saying "good morning" if it suited him, which makes for an unhealthy dynamic. However, for those he truly cares about, I believe he would be far more careful to safeguard the few genuine connections he has in life and thus try to curb some bad behaviours to the best of his ability.

I believe @43501 put it best when they mentioned how L would prefer an [educated, clever partner] but that he'd be drawn to people who are [interesting and offbeat]. I would argue this doesn't mean a double PhD level of intelligence, but rather someone who is curious about the world, who talks to him like an equal (i.e., not as if he's superior or inferior to them). There would need to be something to that person that made them unique to L --- but uniqueness in the context of someone who suppresses their emotions so strongly, and would find themselves to be starving for affection once they found that source of comfort and support, I believe that uniqueness could be kindness.

Accept the man despite his quirks and flaws, in all his intensity, and I believe it would be impossible for L to be indifferent to that kind of genuine devotion. After all, he's been without all his life and likely never thought he'd find it. It's possible that, in his loneliness, a part of him even thought himself to be above such things, but what a tumble it would be, for L to find that he's a man dying of thirst.

...

Now, in manga canon (and throughout the source material closest to it), L and Light find a degree of interest in each other for how similar they are in intellect. This creates a connection, even respect between the two, allowing them to see beyond each other's mask. It's thrilling, a cat and mouse game which they arguably become addicted to. Once L dies, Light even muses how Near is lacking by comparison, undeserving.

However, if we go by what V13:HTR says regarding their relationship, then L does think quite poorly of Light beyond their matching intellect. This is more or less explicit in a couple of scenes in the manga and anime where L muses about how much Light talks, how cheesy he is with his faux morality, putting up an act.

No matter L's interest in the game with Light, he doesn't trust him. Trust is paramount to build a healthy relationship. Theirs would be a toxic, petty relationship standing on foundations of distrust, and a thirst for constant competition.

From this perspective, L arguably wouldn't be in love, but stuck in an addictive powerplay. Very engaging to read about; certainly challenging (and interesting!) to write — but not so good to live through. The best case scenario I can see for such a relationship would be something like the series Vicious with Sir Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi, in which they settle into a constant clash of snark.

I talk here about the prospect of L being 'out of balance' emotionally, which makes him dive into games of the mind to distract himself from his burdens.

02. Appreciation for another type of individual, the average...Sam?

(Chapter 21: Duplicity) Added this one here because this exchange always makes me chuckle.

I'd like to focus on the 2015 drama to establish a parallel with this 'average' Sam concept.

In this adaptation, Light is far more 'normal' than in any other. He diverges from his original canon self in various ways, though the most interesting for me was how the drama tried to show what Light, as a regular young adult, could be if he wasn't an extreme genius, a perfect guy in the eyes of society --- and how this shift would contrast with L.

Drama Light:

Goes to concerts

Is a fanboy

Is clumsy

Gets bullied

He's not the perfect guy with an immaculate reputation. It brings him further down to the ground, like us common mortals.

Both L and Light found solace and appreciation in the differences of their mindset. A more 'average' Light still managed to connect with L, leading to this scene:

If we consider the drama and then extrapolate a few conclusions from these interactions, we can argue that an 'average' but grounding presence in L's life would do him good. An uber genius might be able to follow L's thought process more easily, but they can still become an issue or more easily turn on him for the intellectual competition and to surpass the world's greatest detective.

...

TLDR; I would argue that an average individual would still be a perfect match for L, perhaps far more than an incredible genius. L would value kindness and care far more than super intellect, especially if he was on the receiving end of this kind of genuine connection.

[autolenaphilia]

One thing I noticed talking about Linux and free software is that a lot of people seem afraid of learning things about technology. I constantly read things like "I hate windows, but switching to linux would mean learning a new OS, and you have to be some super-smart programmer-hacker to do that." Or even: "Switching to firefox would mean switching browsers and I don't know how"

And that is precisely the attitude tech companies like Microsoft and Apple try to instill in their users in order to control them. They create these simple and “friendly” user interfaces for their products, but these hide information. From their OS being pre-installed to their settings apps, they keep people from learning things about how their computer works, and letting the companies make the decisions for their users.

I think people are underestimating themselves and overestimating how hard it is to learn new things are. It is like Windows/Macos have taught them some kind of technological learned helplessness. Not knowing how computers work and being afraid to learn how is how companies like Microsoft controls you, and justifies that control.

For example, people hate the forced and automatic system updates on Windows. And Microsoft justifies it as necessary because some people don’t know that their computer needs security updates and therefore don’t update, so they have to force the updates on them. That’s definitely true, and Microsoft’s tech support people is definitely very aware of that but it is a operating system that presumes that the user is incompetent and therefore shouldn’t control their own computer. And of course Microsoft abuses that power to force privacy-invading features on their users. Windows updates are also badly designed in comparison, no Linux distro I’ve used required the update program to hijack the entire computer, preventing the user from doing other things, but Windows does.

This is the dark side of “user-friendly” design. By requiring zero knowledge and zero responsibility for the user, they also take control away from the user. User-friendly graphical user interfaces (GUI) can also hide the inner workings of a system in comparison to the command line, which enables more precise control of your computer and give you more knowledge about what it is doing.

Even GUIs are not all made equal in regards to this, as the comparison between the Windows Control panel and their newer Settings app demonstrates. As I complained about before, Windows have hidden away the powerful, but complex Control Panel in favor of the slicker-looking but simplified and less powerful Settings app for over a decade now.

Of course this is a sliding scale, and there is a sensible middle-ground between using the command line for everything and user-friendly design masking taking control away from the end user.

There are Linux distros like Linux Mint and MX Linux who have created their own GUI apps for tasks that would otherwise use the command line, without taking control away from the user. This is mainly because they are open source non-profit community-driven distros, instead of being proprietary OSes made by profit-driven megacorps.

Still, giving that control to the user presumes some knowledge and responsibility on part of the user. To return to the update example, by default both Mint and MX will search and notify you of available updates, but you will have to take the decision to download and install them. Automatic updates are available in both cases, but it’s opt-in, you have to enable that option yourself. And that approach presumes that you know that you should update your system to plug security holes, something not all people do. It gives you control because it presumes you have knowledge and can take responsibility for those decisions.

All this also applies to the underlying fact that practically all pre-built computers nowadays have an operating system pre-installed. Few people install an OS themselves nowadays, instead they use whatever came with the computer. It’s usually either Windows or MacOS for desktops/laptops, and Android/IOS for smartphones (which are also a type of computer).

Now all this is very convenient and user-friendly, since it means you don’t have to learn how to install your own operating system. The OEM takes care of that for you. But again, this is a convenience that takes choice away from you. If you don’t learn how to install your own OS, you are stuck with whatever that is on the computer you bought. It’s probably precisely this step that scares people away from Linux, few people have installed even Windows, and installing your own OS seems impossibly scary. But again, learning is the only way to take back control. If you learn how to install an OS off an USB stick, you now have choices in what OS to use. (Sidenote: the hard part IMO is not the actual install process, but fiddling with the BIOS so it will actually boot from the distro on the USB stick. This old comic strip illustrates this very well).

That’s how life is in general, not just computers. Having control over your life means making decisions based on your own judgment. And to make sensible, rational decisions, you have to learn things, acquire knowledge.

The only other alternative is letting others take those decisions for you. You don’t have to learn anything, but you have no control. And in the tech world, that means big corporations like Microsoft, Google and Apple will make those decisions, and they are motivated by their own profits, not your well-being.

Computers have only become more and more capable and more important in our lives, and that can enable wonderful things. But it also means more power to the tech companies, more power over our lives. And the only way to resist that is to learn about computers, to enable us to make our own decisions about how we use technology.

[sexhaver]

definitely one of the most difficult moments of my professional career was when i was doing tech support for [REDACTED]'s automated biomed research lab and like. hang on lemme greentext this

>tell them i can fix this issue in half an hour with a remote support session (aka Teamviewer)

>"you want to... control our computers???? over the internet????? like some kind of HACKER???????"

>their IT submits my request to upper management and after two weeks they reluctantly allow me to get remote access to their systems

>by logging into a virtual machine using a 20-digit password and then using a specific program inside of that virtual machine

>while sharing my screen with someone from their IT team the entire time

>finally get remote access to the PC with the issue

>go to open log files to start troubleshooting

>ERROR: User does not have read permissions.

>what the fuck

>ask their IT guy why it's saying that

>"...because we don't want you looking at our stuff, duh?"

>take deep breath before calmly explaining that i need to open files in order to fix their problem

>IT guy submits my request to upper management

>after another week i go through the whole process again but can actually open the log file this time

>cool, it's exactly the issue i thought it was and i know exactly how to solve it

>open the relevant settings file, change a single number, hit Save

>ERROR: User does not have write permissions.

>what the FUCK

>ask IT guy how i'm supposed to fix their system if i can't change literally anything on it

>takes 20 minutes of arguing to get him to admit that maybe i need write access

>he submits the request to upper management

>a week goes by

>upper management denies it

>says i can just verbally tell the IT guy on the call what to type and he'll do it for me

>deep breaths. deep breaths.

>start third remote session

>go to open the relevant .log file in notepad, which isn't the default program it opens with for some reason

>they fucking disabled right clicking

>[REDACTED] has a $118 billion market cap btw

>manage to walk the IT guy through using the command line (which he had never seen before and was scared of) to edit the relevant file

>three weeks go by

>new support ticket in my inbox

>"why didn't your fix fix this completely unrelated issue?"

>they still won't give me write access

>VP of [REDACTED] yells at me in our weekly meeting for taking so long to fix a third unrelated issue they never submitted a ticket for and is also not actually an "issue" but an intended feature of our software that they don't like

>i went to college for this

[linddzz]

(regular disclaimer that I will exaggerate big feelings for effect but at the end of the day this is fandom and in the grand scheme of things Just Ain't That Serious good? good)

okok look while I am obviously SOOO into where Arcane went with the Machine/Arcane Herald, I can get why gamers who liked og LoL Viktor would be Big Annoyed at him being totally retconned and overhauled in game. That is undeniably a totally different guy there and yeah it would be shitty to have the guy you like completely swapped out. I can especially get it if they liked the mechanical cyborg engineering aspects of his character!

BU T I keep seeing iterations of "he didn't choose anything for himself he just had things happen to him" or "he just went mystic. he used to be someone who used his genius to remake himself and now he just meditated himself into a wizard" and I am so so down to meet in the pit on those takes!! I get people not liking the less mechanical aspects of him but hhhhhhohmygod do not be taking my guys agency and genius down like that

Yes the initial full fusing with the hexcore is something that happened to him, that someone who loved him maybe too much did to him (almost like Arcane has themes of people being launched down dark paths by things that happen to them beyond their control hMmMmmmmmm!!!) And btw I still hold that while his brain got changed by trauma (bc trauma DOES THAT) and the hexcore helped amplify and empower him leaning into his worst traits, after Jayce forced that initial fusion everything Viktor did was a choice.

But also!! Jayce used Viktor's notes. Viktor was the one who went down and got shimmer, who lied and experimented in secret. He stumbled into noticing the hexcore responding to biological material but then he pursued that avenue (because LIFE is a lot of stumbling into things and then deciding what to do from there), figured out what interdisciplinary collaborations he needed to make, figured out on his FIRST TRY what runes he would need to put where.

And while they don't lean into the mechanical engineering genius as much as the OG Viktor like...guys that's a software engineer with a big scoop of magic theorist on top of it (who then started a pivot into biomechanical arcane theory like THAT). He made a magic AI! Don't go telling me he didn't use his genius to become the Arcane Herald when he made a magic AI and then I got to watch the hexclaw grabbing and programming runes into spells like the coolest shit ever!!

That man figured out how to make Jayce's ideas into reality. He then used the scant knowledge of the arcane that still exists to figure out and recreate, using technology, what mages do by instinct. He made a MAGIC AI HOLY SHIT. Jayce is STILL referencing Viktor's rune theories to figure out the anomaly!!

He did not use the same type of genius to become the same type of Herald, but my guy invented being a technomancer so hard that he turned himself into a magical supercomputer and was so good at THAT that he made himself a robowizard god and I will not be hearing anything belittling how nuts that is!!

[dandelionjack]

space babies follows one of my favourite doctor who tropes: the bad guy of the episode isn’t a conscious villain at all, but a well-meaning robot or AI gone wrong with good intentions. the chula nanogenes turning everybody into gas mask zombies because they aren’t attuned to human dna and base their “healing” mechanism on the first wounded boy they encounter. repair droids gone rogue on a stranded ship chasing the brain of a 18th century french noblewoman because they’re programmed to think she’s the final piece of the puzzle. the ‘siren’ of the black spot ‘abducting’ pirates into her sickbay to cure them whereas they assume her to be monstrous.

and now — an education software system conjuring up a literal bogeyman to entertain a bunch of abandoned babies because it lost control in the absence of maintenance and wants to care for the kids as best it knows how. nobody’s to blame, nobody’s “evil”. chefs kiss.