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ronnytherandom · 4 years ago

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I forgot to watch content all week so i wrote about games ive been playing

9/2/2021: The Truman Show

You should fear your fears but embrace them and use them to guide you into the unknown, to explore and experience what life has to offer. Fear stands between you and the fullest experience of life so you must pass through it to better yourself. Heed not the walls built about you and the chains made to hold you. Though the architects insist it will preserve your life, containment is anathema to life. Do not take in faith the benevolence of powers that be; instead trust those who would support and liberate you, guide you through fear and into life.

As best I can lay it out, I think this is the philosophy of the Truman show but there is so much more to read into it also. There is critique of systems of commodification and celebrity (i.e. capitalism) reducing human beings to a consumable good as well as encouragement to find and pursue your goals despite adversity and even sensibility which is also tied to the illusion of economic responsibility. You can’t put a camera inside a human head, you can never “know” them without being an active and intrinsic part of their life, but also there is need for reciprocation. If one half exists with ulterior motive then the entire relationship is rotten; sincere humanity is what creates real connections. Without such your world is fake. A world built around one person is a world where no one can truly live. All these actors have given up basically their entire lives for the sake of watching Truman have his life built around him by outside forces, have allowed themselves to be commodified and dehumanised for the good of one man, Christoph. The man at the top has delusions of grandeur and thinks only of his own bottom line, he cares not for his subjects but simply wants them to do as he tells them because it benefits him to commodify their lives and interactions. Even then he cannot stand to lose control and in seeking to demonstrate Truman’s “realness” he structures his life so thoroughly that eventually there’s no reality left, only a script and adverts. But the people watching still empathise with Truman because everyone in the working class understands what it is to be trapped because real life is our own Truman show and one day we must all pass through fear, step out of the dome and create a real life for ourselves outside of the system of commodification which consumes everyone’s life and removes all realness and sincerity and emotional catharsis from it.

I unreservedly love this film.

14/2/2021: Assorted Game Reviews

Horizon Zero Dawn (Unfinished due to technical issues, 45 hours inc. parts of Frozen Wilds): This game is really cool and really fun. I think it is defined by its incredible setting which somehow creates a fresh feeling post-apocalyptic environment. Said environment creates intriguing alt-future lore and some very interesting environments to explore. I love the machine designs (especially tallnecks!) and was very sad to hear one of their contributing artists passed away recently but I’m glad their work lives on in this visually stunning game. I’m a sucker for Ubisoft-style open world games simply because it tickles a certain kind of itch and somehow this non-Ubisoft game has outdone Ubisoft on their own formula, which is hilarious, but also good for me as running around this world exploring and clearing map markers is engaging fun. Not least because of the combat. I have a minor criticism here that the combat feels slightly awkward on mouse and keyboard, the arrows never seem to go where I’m aiming, but aside from that the experience of fighting is a grand one. Enemies never lose their threat and I love the weak spot system the game employs which makes every tool useful in niche circumstance and rewards curiosity. It specifically manages this in a way that I feel the Witcher series could learn from if it ever returns; by making head on assault less viable and encouraging tactical hunting. I do feel this system makes hunting robots so fun that by contrast hunting humans becomes a chore however, though I noted this improves in the dlc with the addition of humans with elemental weaknesses limited in number as they are. I cannot speak for the story in entirety but what I encountered was pretty good, though I feel as if it was only just really getting going at the point where I could not continue. I find Aloy to be a compelling and well portrayed protagonist and though I can guess about her origin and the ultimate end of the alt-future apocalypse I still want to see how it plays out on screen, so will return to this as soon as I’ve fixed it.

Rimworld (122 hours. Familiar with but do not own Royalty Expansion):

Rimworld is one of those super special games that I don’t think I have a single problem with. Fair warning it can be brutal and is heavily dependent on RNG but this allows it to create truly unique and interesting scenarios on a constant basis. In the wider perspective it could be described as formulaic, with regular cycles of managing the settlement between raids and random events, but the devils in the details. Colonist traits, health and skills dictate how you play and sometimes you’ll be forced to adapt as some colonists simply refuse to perform some tasks. The depth of health particularly amuses me, in that each little part of someone’s body is modelled in a way. If you’re in a firefight you may take a single bullet which grazes your finger and you’re fine. Alternately it could pierce your human leather cowboy hat, your skull and kill you instantly and the game will tell you exactly what happened. The risk/reward element is addictive enough, and that’s without accounting for just how cool it is to see your colony slowly expand. Establishing more and more options for crafting is fun and shows off the full range of different items in the game which is fucking extensive. Between clothing, weapons, armour, sculpture and drugs to name only a few you have the opportunity to create many varied production lines either for your colonists or to trade for money and there is a lot of fun to be had here as well as it is quite satisfying to see psychoid you have grown personally become the cocaine your colonists snort to help them stay awake on limited sleep. From an archaeologist’s perspective it is especially cool to look back over your base and see the hints of how and why structures were built and remember the history of your limitations and development through structure. I think the lore of the universe is really cool too, a very 40k-esque kind of place except with far less order, somehow. But the universe does an excellent job of feeling alive and moving constantly on both a planetary and interstellar level. You can fully believe that while you build wooden shacks to shield yourself from terrifyingly low temperatures there are simultaneously rich pieces of shit living it up on the glitterworld that’s one system over. The music does an excellent job of creating the wild west frontier atmosphere the game cultivates to great effect. Ultimately, for just being a grid with a series of different numbers attached, this game does a fantastic job of creating a compelling, brutal and very real colony management experience. I dont think I can properly put into words the grandness and scope of this one. I didnt even mention the modding scene, which is expansive and tailors to basically any need you could have. The Rim is a terrifying place but theres so much fun to be had.

Factorio (86 hours, mostly 1.1): Having completed a game of Factorio I can tell you reliably that this is one of the best games ever made, thoroughly addictive and fun. If you like numbers, logistics, TRAINS, its gonna be your thing. Not to mention its probably the only documented case of a game with no bugs (so far as official forums are concerned). Strictly speaking this games combat is not the most engrossing thing but good lord do you feel it when you acquire a flamethrower. The way each aspect of the game (production, research, logistics, combat, upgrades for everything therein) feeds into the next is a really well constructed balancing act such that you must experience the full game in order to complete it and I always appreciate this kind of design. I think its one of the best tenets of factory game design especially as its something present in Satisfactory too. Beyond all of this generalised good the game is also excellent in its intricacies, the architecture necessary to build a maximum efficiency base, the level of planning and organisation that can be employed is mind-blowing. Not to mention the mod community, factorion is already an extensive experience and some mad bastards have seen fit to complicate it further, hats off to them. This really is a great moment in gaming.

Destiny 2 (198 hours, all expansions, played some post Forsaken release, mostly Season of Arrivals onwards, spent roughly £20 on microtransactions):

This is a very interesting and enjoyable experience, but I must say it can be a bit controversial at times. What its does particularly well is moment to moment gameplay and design in all aspects. The game is stunning; between environments, cosmetics, shaders ships and ghosts there’s a vast range of incredible things to see, all rooted in the “pseudo-magi-science” aesthetic it’s got going on. The class design is excellent and you really do feel like you embody this rampaging madman / agile gunman / space wizard archetype, whichever you choose to play. The abilities, especially supers, are very satisfying. Everything has heft and power behind it which can be felt in all aspects of design; sound and animation is top notch. Movement is cool, you can feel how fast you move both on foot and in vehicles and the navigation has a little fun subtlety depending on your class jump, even if you can bounce unpredictably occasionally. But for the love of god why is the wall kick in there? It has only ever served to push me from a ledge into a bottomless pit. You're looking to remove antiquated content? Start there. Some guns are not so good to shoot but there’s such a great range of guns that are fun its like complaining about one drop in an ocean; and enemies are fun to shoot at, each faction distinct in meaningful ways and presenting an effective challenge. Speaking of oceans, that’s one way to describe the lore. I haven’t dived too deep but it keeps going down forever and everything I’ve read is intriguing. As a former Elder Scrolls lore nut this is something I could definitely sink my teeth into, though its much more of a pulpy sci-fi vibe than a pure nonsense vibe. I do think the game has a bit of a loot problem, primarily in regards to the conflict between high stats and looking good. This should never be a conflict, and yes you can apply ornaments to any purple gear but that’s not enough when I spend the entire time grinding power levels and thus must change armour and weapons on a constant basis to progress. This game needs a true transmog system and if not that, rethink how gear power level works. Perhaps rather than earning new instances of gear you always possess a version of it and the loot you acquire in missions just upgrades your instance to your current overall power level? This would serve to do away with the current upgrade system which I think is a needless additional grind. Perhaps it could be retained in using enhancement cores to empower gear as present but necessitating a whole upgrade module to keep your favourite weapon on hand is kind of painful honestly. There is also at present the issue of sunsetting gear, mildly controversial to say the least. If it’s necessary to streamline the game and make it function moving forward so be it but surely loot pools should be adjusted so you can actually get useful loot from older locations? And why sunset personal instances of gear which can be acquired at the regular power level anyway? I had to throw away my favourite bow and hunt down a new version of the exact same weapon for… what reason? I do think destination navigation leaves a little to be desired also. I get that having a physical hub world is meaningful but Destiny does not have a very extroverted community; I can count the times someone noticed me in the tower on one hand. And its not even like there’s fun activities to be found in the same sense as say Deep Rock Galactic, which really does take advantage of its hub. Perhaps for players who simply want to go about their business all of the vendors could be set into a menu system where just clicking an icon takes you to their menu from anywhere in the system rather than, per se, having to go through an entire loading screen (Which takes you to orbit and back) to reach a location which serves simply as the front for four menus. These are established player problems. As a dedicated PvE player I can say that this game is immensely fun in combat and growing in power does feel really good. It’s something I recommend getting into, there’s just some very large creases that need ironing which the Bungie should really take the time to address rather than pushing out new in game content every three months.

#the truman show #horizon zero dawn #rimworld #factorio #destiny 2 #d2 #film #movies #video games #i dont know what im doing #hzd #opinion

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 years ago

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Documentation Gathering, Sanitization, and Storage: an excerpt from "A Public Service"

[Yesterday, we published my review of Tim Schwartz's new guide for whistleblowers, A Public Service: Whistleblowing, Disclosure and Anonymity; today, I'm delighted to include this generous excerpt from Schwartz's book. Schwartz is an activist whom I've had the pleasure of working with and I'm delighted to help him get this book into the hands of the people who need to read it. -Cory]

Collection

As you collect documents and bring new information to light, be aware that you are in an escalating digital arms race. There will always be new ways that data forensics can identify you, or uncover information based on data that you inadvertently leave in your files, or data that is retained in logs noting who has accessed what files on what network. Recently it was discovered that noise from electrical grids can be used to quite accurately pinpoint when, and potentially where, an audio recording was made. The best way to win this war—or at least to avoid becoming collateral damage—is to work outside the standard methods and find partners who have experience.

Of course, the actual collection of documents has changed dramatically over the years. In 1969, Daniel Ellsberg systematically removed documents, including the Pentagon Papers, from the RAND Corporation in his briefcase, taking them to an advertising agency where he (sometimes with the help of his 13-year-old son) photocopied them, one page at a time. Though this took enormous courage and psychological stamina—and in 1969 all that copying was certainly time-consuming and undoubtedly tiresome—it was also technologically straightforward and relatively safe. As long as the guards didn’t stop and check his briefcase, and as long as no one saw him remove and return the reports, Ellsberg could duplicate the papers undetected.

If Ellsberg was trying to do the same thing in 2019 with physical documents, he would have to be sure there weren’t cameras looking over his shoulder. He would have to make sure that the documents themselves didn’t have watermarks that would lead back to him. And he would have to make sure that the copying method didn’t log his activity. If Ellsberg’s 21st-century counterpart were to take digital documents, there would be many more potential technological risks and traps to avoid along the way.

Take Notes

Before you start collecting documents or even trying to tell anyone about the wrongs you want to expose, start documenting what you see. Jesselyn Radack, who heads the Whistleblower and Source Protection Program at ExposeFacts and has worked with Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden, says the first step is to “just keep your own little record at home in a little notebook.” This should be a notebook where you methodically record everything pertinent to the wrongs you want to expose: everything that you see, everything that you hear, and everything that you say. Do this as often as you can, the same day that incidents occur. Note the time and date of each occurrence. Above all, your notes should always include any complaints you raise and to whom, as well as any retaliation against you for doing so.

This approach to notetaking played a critical role in the big Russian sports doping scandal in 2016. Grigory Rodchenkov, the whistleblower and former doctor of the Russian Olympic team, took incredibly detailed contemporaneous notes that became compelling evidence. The notes included Rodchenkov’s interactions with Russian coaches, officials, and athletes, such as how and when he provided performance-enhancing drugs to athletes, and how the doping was hidden from Olympic observers and their drug tests. Aside from all of these incriminating notes, as the New York Times reported, Rodchenkov also noted his daily activities details such as “6:30, I took a shower, had a smoke, got ready, had hot cereal and farmer’s cheese at breakfast.” These seemingly trivial details helped convince the judges to allow the journal to be considered credible evidence in the court case.

The technology you use to take notes can either help or hinder those who might seek to access and/or destroy any information you have, depending upon your situation. You can use a physical notebook, good old pen and paper, or notes on an anonymous laptop or tablet. But be sure to stay away from making entries at work or on your personal computer unless you are highly technically confident of your computer’s security.

“Documentation is very important,” says Debra Katz, founding partner of Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP and the lawyer who represented Christine Blasey Ford when she was called to testify during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. “We increasingly have people who show up with videotapes of harassment. I’ve had clients who’ve had their iPhone rolling as their employer, predictably, would come in and do back massages or make sexual remarks.” Logs of text messages on phones or even recordings of interactions can be crucial to demonstrating that harassment is taking place. Save logs of all of your conversations and interactions, because you never know how they might prove useful later on.

The text messages sent by Mike Isabella and partners to Chloe Caras (who was also represented by Debra Katz) were used as evidence in the lawsuit that eventually took down Mike Isabella Concepts restaurants for sexual harassment. If you are going to attempt to record interactions as evidence, be sure that you are aware of the relevant recording laws. In some states and countries, you must inform the other party that you are recording and you must obtain their consent to be recorded. These laws are collectively known as two-party consent laws. Do more research into your context before you start shooting video or recording audio as documentation. You don’t want your evidence thrown out of court. You don’t want to be sued for releasing the recording. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is a good place to learn more about two-party consent laws in the United States.

Recommended Collection Approach

In New York City in 1953, a newspaper boy was finishing his day, jingling his coins around, when he noticed that one nickel felt lighter than the rest. When he dropped the coin on the floor, it split open, revealing a tiny photograph with numbers. This turned out to be microfilm that was destined for Soviet spy Reino Hayhanen. In 1957, Hayhanen defected to the U.S., where he exposed the spycraft of the Soviets to the FBI. This included the use of microfilm and dead drops for communication. Though this example may seem far from the world of computers and smartphones, taking photos of documents with microfilm is much safer than taking the actual documents, in the same way taking a digital photo is safer than copying the digital document. In such a case, there is far less potential for a log of the interaction.

The current best way to gather information is by taking pictures of documents or computer screens using a pseudonymous digital device. This method effectively circumvents all of the normal digital surveillance systems that might come into play when you copy data off of a network or onto a USB stick (e.g., logs of the copying or digital watermarking). It also circumvents any logging software that may be installed on your computer. Company or government tracking software can record the actions of taking screenshots or other mouse and keyboard actions. Evidence from one of these loggers was used by the FBI against Terry Albury, an FBI field agent who was sent to jail for disclosing classified information to The Intercept. In an affidavit in support of the search warrant, the FBI cited a number of facts, including that Albury had ��conducted cut and paste activity” while viewing one of the classified documents. This fact could only have been gathered by latent logging software installed on his computer or built into a viewing program. By skipping digital copying or screenshotting, and instead simply taking a picture of the computer screen, you can circumvent some of these monitoring systems. Of course, if you are logged in and have a document open, you should assume that there is a log of the access as well.

Keep these tips in mind:

Only use a pseudonymous device for taking photos; never use your personal or work device.

Use a small tablet with Wi-Fi turned off instead of a phone; this way there will be no location information stored as metadata in the photos.

Make sure the photos don’t have any identifying information in them; this could be your hand, your reflection on the computer screen, images of your office, or other identifying information or marks on your computer screen.

Be sure to check the images afterwards for any metadata or accidental information captured, and make sure to sanitize the images if necessary.

Audio and video recordings can potentially replace taking photos, but these types of files can be harder to sanitize.

Be sure there aren’t video cameras that could capture you in the act of taking photos.

Microdots

Do not trust printers. Color laser jet printers and copiers embed metadata in the documents that they print in the form of microdots, which are patterns of tiny yellow dots that are almost invisible to the naked eye. These dots encode information, similar to QR codes. This includes the printer’s serial number, the time and date, the network address, and potentially other information. This data can be used to pinpoint when and where documents were printed, and potentially by whom. If you want to find out more on the topic, research the terms “printer steganography” and “machine identification code.”

Regular and enhanced image of a printed page from an HP Color LaserJet 3700 showing yellow microdots. Photography by Florian Heise, Druckerchannel.de, in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Copying Digital Files

It is nearly impossible to copy files to a USB stick without leaving a trace, particularly if you are using log-in credentials at work or on a company device. Computers and networks are built to track and log file access, transfers, and printing. Do not try to make a digital transfer or to copy information onto a USB stick at work unless you can be positive that this process isn’t being logged somewhere. Use the Tails operating system, or a computer that is offline, when you copy data.

If you must copy digital files, be sure to collect all your information as anonymously as possible: use a shared computer at work (not your own). Do not use your own login credentials. Also, consider your physical location. It is best not to attempt this in your own office, for instance. Gathering information in the office will become even less viable as technology and employee surveillance software evolves.

Aside from the issues around copying digital files, some sensitive documents (particularly from government agencies) come with “phone home” beacons embedded in them or with digital rights management built in, making it impossible to view or print documents if you aren’t logged in. This could be a remote image or link embedded in a document, such that when you view the document, the image pings back to a server owned by the government or creator of the document. This allows the creator to see the IP address and potentially more information about you as a viewer. Microsoft files such as Word documents have been known to have “locating beacons” placed within them. PDFs may also include this type of beacon, though Adobe now tries to notify users before documents call a remote server. To combat this type of tracking, either convert a document to a safe format such as plain text with the command line, or view a document on a computer that is “air-gapped,” meaning that it is not connected to the internet. Make it impossible for your adversary to know you have the documents.

Uniqueness and Backflushing

If you are one of a limited number of individuals with access to the information you are releasing, then no matter how careful you are, it will be easy to trace you. This was the case with Reality Winner. In the criminal complaint filed against Winner, the FBI noted that only six individuals had accessed the document that was disclosed to The Intercept. When this document showed up on the website, the FBI had six individuals to start investigating, including Winner. Her unique trail quickly made her the most likely suspect. One way to combat uniqueness is by increasing the number of individuals who have access to a document before it is released.

Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, described a method that has been in use in D.C. for years: “backflushing.” Before disclosing a document, send it through official channels to as many legitimate places as possible. For example, include the document in a report and send the report to other departments. This makes it so others have the document as well, vastly reducing the uniqueness of your connection to the document. When you disclose the information later on, it will not be clear that you were in any way connected to it.

Another way to combat uniqueness is by gathering the data through a shared digital account, e.g., if someone else is logged into a computer and you copy a file while they are logged in, the document-gathering will be connected to them, not you. Of course, this should be done carefully and ethically, so as not to inadvertently cast blame on someone else. If possible, it’s better to hijack a shared network account. So consider how unique the connection between the information and your identity might be. There is protection to be gained by hiding in the crowd.

Theft and Misfiling

Corporations sometimes lash back at whistleblowers by filing criminal charges for theft of company property. So be aware that by taking documents off company property, you may open yourself up to a legal battle. This was one reason that SOC, a government security contractor, gave for firing Jennifer Glover, a security guard who had been sexually assaulted and harassed at work. Her termination letter stated that Glover had used her smartphone to take a photograph of the daily schedule, an act that they viewed as justifying her termination.

As an alternative to taking physical or digital documents, consider the misfiling technique. Hide copies of documents at work, either by misnaming digital files or by storing physical copies or USB sticks somewhere at work. In the future, you can “stumble upon” the copies, providing investigators with the information. They, not you, would then be removing property from company premises. The bottom line is that it might be helpful to have a backup copy of any important material stashed somewhere at work.

Sanitization

Sanitization is the process of removing, concealing, or cleaning up information in documents before you give them to someone else. Whether the documents you’re dealing with are physical or digital, images or videos, the same general process applies: you should overwrite, obscure, or remove any sensitive information. This process is ubiquitous the world over in redacting classified material to prepare it for release to the public. When attempting this, imagine that you are in a heist film: be meticulous, wear gloves, wipe down surfaces to remove fingerprints, and don’t leave anything that contains your DNA.

For those who are trying to disclose information, the process of sanitization is a little more complex, but there are two goals: 1) the removal of any information that could identify you, such as fingerprints, email addresses, or unique watermarks on documents; and 2) the removal of sensitive information that might harm someone else or have undue consequences if released, such as any company or government secrets or any personally identifiable information. This is where ethics and judgment come into play. Who would be harmed if this information were released? You don’t want to accidentally victimize (or revictimize) a colleague, accidentally reveal personal information that could compromise one’s reputation, or put a field agent in harm’s way.

To sanitize physical items with nonporous surfaces, such as USB sticks or hard drives, wipe them down with a cleaning product and towel. Paper documents and other porous surfaces are more difficult to sanitize. There are a number of techniques for attempting this, but most involve using an eraser and potentially a cornstarch mixture to remove any oils left by fingerprints. If you are providing someone with a device such as a hard drive, remove any serial numbers or identifying information that would make that product traceable, and of course, be sure to pay cash when buying any hardware that you might use. If you must provide physical documents, redact them first with a black marker or white-out and then photocopy them, providing a redacted copy instead of the original.

For digital documents, the process of sanitization can be broken down into two strategies: 1) redaction, the process of obfuscating information within a document; and 2) metadata removal, the process of deleting identifying traces from the document.

Text

Any text-based document (rich text files, DOC and DOCX formats, CSVs, Microsoft Excel files, PowerPoint files, Adobe InDesign files, etc.) should first be converted to a PDF. This can be done on most computers with either “print to PDF” or “export to PDF” functionality. The PDF should then be opened, and each page should be exported as an image and then redacted in image-editing software. Draw black boxes over areas of sensitive or identifying information in the images. Note: If you try to redact the documents from within the PDF, it will be done in layers, leaving the actual data underneath the black boxes. This will not technically remove the sensitive information. Similarly, it is important to use only image formats that do not include layers. If layers are included, someone can later remove the redaction layer and see the sensitive information underneath. JPG is a great image format to use, as it cannot save layers. After all of the images have been edited, they should be either recombined into a new PDF using a PDF viewer or given to someone as a set of images.

An alternative option is to use PDF Redact Tools, which automates those processes for you. It is currently available on Linux or macOS and comes bundled inside the Tails operating system.

Images

Images should be redacted just the same as text documents. Save them in a format without layers such as a JPG. Draw black boxes over any portions that need to be removed, then save them.

Video and Audio

Redaction of video and audio files can be a bit trickier, but the same basic process of obfuscating information applies. For videos, open them in a video editing program and either delete portions of the video or add black boxes over sensitive pieces. Then export the edited video. Audio files should be edited in an audio editor (Audacity is a good free choice), and portions of the recordings can be deleted or replaced with a standard sine wave tone (like a censorship bleep).

Remember, though, that there may be other information in audio and video recordings that isn’t obvious at first glance. Is there background noise or imagery that can be analyzed to determine the time and place it was taken? Are there reflections or other subtle pieces of data that could compromise you or someone else? Be very careful when it comes to audio and video, because so much information is contained in each file that it can be hard to think of every single thing that should be redacted.

Metadata Removal

Of course, if you are simply trying to get a video out, but trying to make it less obvious who it was shot by, removing the underlying capture information might be all that’s needed. This is where removing metadata comes into play.

Example of image meta data created by an iPhone

The image above is just a selection of the metadata produced by one photo taken with a smartphone. The metadata contains the model of the phone, the time it was taken, and possibly the location of the phone at the time of capture (if GPS location was enabled). This data needs to be removed if you are trying to make the photo, video, or any other type of file untraceable.

Before anything else, check the filename for anything that could identify you or your means of creating the image. If you have any doubt—rename it.

All digital files inherently contain some distinct information that identifies them: filename, creation date and time, last modified date and time, and file size. Some digital file formats contain even more information. Microsoft Word documents, for example, are known for automatically saving additional metadata, such as the authors who worked on the document and the names and locations of the computers where the file was saved. Unfortunately, with these documents and particularly with proprietary file formats, it might be difficult or near-impossible to remove all pieces of metadata. Instead, convert proprietary formats to simple open-source formats that have consistent metadata formatting.

Some file formats use standard data wrappers to store metadata, such as EXIF (exchangeable image file format) or XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform). These are used for almost all image formats and PDFs. By converting other documents into these formats, it becomes much easier to delete metadata and know that it is really gone.

To actually remove metadata from an image, a PDF, or a video file, open it with its corresponding editing software and look for options such as “Properties,” “Inspector,” or “Document Inspector.” This should open up a dialog with a list of all of the metadata fields and entries. Delete them all. You will also want to research format-specific metadata removal methods for specific file types. Audio and video files, such as MP3s or MP4s, for example, can have proprietary ID3 tags embedded within them—such as PRIV frames—that make it near impossible to know if they have been sanitized.

Alternatively, a number of applications can scrub metadata from particular file formats. Several applications can remove EXIF data from images, but the Android application “EZ UnEXIF Free (EXIF Remover)” is especially useful for those communicating via an anonymous smartphone or tablet. This application removes all EXIF data, including geolocation, from photos taken with an Android device.

The Metadata Anonymisation Toolkit (MAT) provides a simple interface for stripping metadata from a number of formats, including PNG, JPEG, PDF, MP3, and Microsoft Office Document formats. MAT comes installed on Tails. However, MAT currently hasn’t been updated since January 2016, essentially making it abandonware. Fortunately, MAT2, the replacement for MAT, is under active development and currently in beta. This is a great tool that can be used to sanitize a variety of files, but please check on its current development status online before using it.

Storage

Be cautious about where you store documentation. Never store documentation at work, unless you are following the misfiling method mentioned previously. You may feel that your desk or office is a safe space, but it isn’t. You can consider storing documents at home, but this is an obvious choice for all concerned. In many cases, those who are trying to disclose information have had their houses ransacked and searched by their adversaries, both legally and illegally. If a subpoena is filed, information in your home will not be protected.

A good strategy is to either store documents outside your home or office or give a backup copy of what you will be revealing to a trusted person for safekeeping. Daniel Ellsberg gave a copy of a classified nuclear study to his brother, who hid the documents under a large gas stove in a garbage dump. Unfortunately, while this protected them for a while, the documents were ultimately destroyed by water damage, and Ellsberg spent years trying to reconstitute the information they contained. Instead of your brother, choose a lawyer. In the United States, information stored with your attorney may be protected from search and seizure through attorney-client privilege. Of course, there are exceptions to this, which was the case in the raid on the office of President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen. If investigators can make the case that attorney-client privilege is being used “in furtherance of a contemplated or ongoing crime or fraud,” then they will be able to search a lawyer’s office under the crime-fraud exception.

All digital documentation should be stored on either encrypted USB drives or on an encrypted pseudonymous device, such as an encrypted tablet or a Tails USB drive. Documents should never be stored in the cloud or on a personal computer or device.

https://boingboing.net/2020/01/09/documentation-gathering-sanit.html

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surveys-at-your-service · 5 years ago

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Survey #287

“keep him tied - it makes him well / he’s getting better, can’t you tell?”

What are you favorite things to watch on YouTube? I like a pretty big variety now. I’d say I’ve been mostly into pet YouTubers lately, especially reptile ones. Oh, and WoW stuff. Can you pick out any constellations in the sky without looking them up online? Besides the Little or Big Dipper (idk which is which), nope. Are you religious? If so, what influenced you to start believing God? If you’re not religious, what convinces you there is no God? I wouldn’t call myself religious, no. I do believe there’s some kind of ultimate power, but hell if I know what it is, and I don’t actually worship it. I don’t believe any “good” god would demand kissing its feet in order for you to end at peace, among a billion other reasons. I believe there is something though because the odds of life and everything is just… too perfect. Plus I believe in the paranormal, so to me, there is obviously something beyond the mortal form. Is there any animal out there that genuinely terrifies you? Is this an animal you’re worried about coming across in daily life? I am terrified of ticks and parasites in general. They’re fucking disgusting. Maggots will also make me scream. Oh, and then there’s whale sharks. In my daily life, I wouldn’t say there’s any that I actively worry about crossing paths with. When was the last time you wore make-up? Around Halloween when Summer, me, and another of her friends did a witch-themed photoshoot. It really fucking sucks that it was so dark by the time we were done that the pictures came out absolutely awful. You can’t see shit, and of course on camera, I look absolutely awful. Have you ever worn colored contacts? No, but I’m totally not opposed for a cool photoshoot. Have you seen any of the Disney re-makes (eg. Aladdin or The Lion King)? What do you think of them? I’ve seen a good number, and I really like them. I think The Jungle Book remake was the best of them. How long did it take you to pass your driving test once you started learning how to drive? Ha, I still haven’t tried. When was the last time you went out for a formal occasion or event? Do you remember what you wore? Uhhhh… I have zero clue. Well, does my last job interview count? I just wore black sweatpants and some kind of formal top. How often do you have the TV on? is it more background noise or are you actually watching things? Y’all know by now that I don’t watch TV. Do you like any songs by Elvis Presley? Well of course. “Devil In Disguise” is my favorite. Do you ever answer the phone to unknown numbers? Nope. Do you eat anything special for breakfast on Christmas Day? Nah. When you go to theme parks, what’s your favorite type of ride? I haven’t been to a theme park in beyond forever, so idk. Are you afraid of falling in love? Ohhhhh yes. Expecting something to change in the next month? No. e_e What is your biggest worry in life right now? That Mom’s cancer will come back. Well, it IS going to eventually flare somewhere else, but no one can estimate when. Could be tomorrow. Could be years. Do you give up easily? It depends. With a lot of things, honestly, yes, because I get upset with my incompetence. What are you listening to? "Going To Hell" by The Pretty Reckless just came on. Is anything bothering you right now? Always. Were you ever made fun of? Yes. Are you currently jealous? I’ve been having episodes of it. Do you find piercings attractive on the opposite sex? I find them attractive on almost all people. Who was the last person you yelled at? I don’t know. Probably Mom. What do you say a lot? “Mood,” “lmao,” “can’t relate,” “same,” “oof,” “yikes,” shit like that, haha. What is your favorite place you have traveled? Chicago. Do you like ice cream? Yeah, that’s my comfort food. Do you like bananas? Yeah, but I don’t dare to eat one if I haven’t had my heartburn medication, because otherwise I get it BADLY. Do you like Paramore? A handful of their songs, yeah. I don’t know a lot though, honestly. Do you plan on getting married? It’d be nice. Ever been given a promise ring? No. Sexual orientation? Bi. Who do you text the most? Definitely Sara. Do you still talk to the person who hurt you most in life? Why or why not? No, because he wants nothing to do with me. I don’t blame him. Have you ever given your number to a complete stranger? Um, no. Well, besides in like, job applications. What color is your keyboard? Black. Your mouse? Mostly black, but it does have this crackled pattern that can glow blue or red. Desktop or laptop? I prefer laptops for mobility’s sake. Do you like sweet tea? I hate tea. How much sugar do you put in your tea? ^ Have you ever called someone useless? Wow, no. Do you have a wood or glass dining room table? Wood. Do you tend to get attached easily? HOLY GOD OF FUCK, YES. Is Joe Jonas really hotter than Nick? I haven’t seen either in god knows how long, but I remember I thought Nick was very cute. Favorite flavor pudding? Chocolate is the only kind I’ve enjoyed. Not that I’ve tried a lot. What are three words used in your area/dialect that many other areas/dialects wouldn't be familiar with? Oh, there are most certainly some, but I can’t think of any right now. How do you feel when your partner is talking to an ex? This would depend on a lot of things. What is the most expensive gift you have ever given? Received? Given, I’m really unsure. I answer enough questions sharing that I don’t have my own source of income, so a lot of times, my mom lets me use her money, but there is obviously a ceiling to how much I can use. Received, definitely my Sager laptop Jason got me one year. Do children like you? I’m always surprised that kids seem to… I don’t know how the hell to interact with kids, but parents tend to tell me that they do like me. If you found your child's diary would you read it? What if you found the diary of one of your parents? Hell no would I read that shit. Both deserve privacy. Have you ever stalked or killed a wild animal? Fuck no. Name something you are now prepared to reveal about yourself that you weren't ready to talk about in the past? The state of my virginity. Name a talent someone has of which you are jealous: I am soooo envious of talented and actually successful photographers. What would you most likely complain about in a hotel? Probably if the bed sheets seemed dirty. Is it possible to be in love with more than one person at the same time? Probably. I’m monogamous though, so I really can’t say because I haven’t experienced this. Do you often feel pressured by others? Society, yes. Should couples live together before marriage? I feel that it’s the better decision, yes. You may not blend well actually sharing the same house. You learn things about your partner. How would you feel attending the wedding of an ex? It would depend on the person. Girt or Sara? I would love to. As a matter of fact, I better be invited lmao. Jason? I couldn’t in ten trillion years. Fiction or nonfiction. I strongly prefer fiction. Can you can lie with a straight face? Yes, if it’s something little. Name three things you have experienced that would shock your parents: Probably just sexual stuff. Do you believe in using the silent treatment? No. I’ve sure done it before, but I’d like to think I’ve grown out of this. Communication is where it’s at. Your most embarrassing thought: *shrug* Your most prejudiced thought: I don’t know. I don’t think I’m very prejudiced. A shameful moment for you: The situation w/ Joel. The biggest gamble of your life: Deciding to drop out of college the last time. Who knows if that was a good choice or not… It’s too early to tell. What is your greatest weakness as a friend? Idk off the top of my head, but I’m sure there’s something. Do you feel better when you have a tan? Nah, I like being pale. I did go through a period in HS of using tanning lotion on my legs though because I was self-conscious of JUST how pale they were. Do you sometimes enjoy being mean? ”I don’t think so. Maybe like... in certain contexts. Like being mean in video games can be really fun sometimes, haha. And being a little mean in a kink setting can be fun too.” <<<< This. Are you high maintenance? Definitely not. Has anybody ever told you that you’re too young to be in love? I think my dad has, just indirectly. Did you learn anything from the last BIG mistake you made? Yes. Do you have a favorite brand of shoes? Yeah, Converse. Do you like rollercoasters with big drops? I’m afraid of rollercoasters so have never been on one. Do you have any inside jokes with your parents? Not really. Have you ever thrown a surprise party for somebody? I don’t think so? Do you know who your mom’s favorite singer is? Oh, she’s totally obsessed with James Hetfield/Metallica. What year were you born in? 1996. What is your favorite card game? Magic: The Gathering, even though I was never great at it or totally understood all the rules. I just adore the artwork, and I like the detailed tactics behind it. Have you ever tried to surf? Nah. Do you want to learn? Nah. Have you ever had a song dedicated to you? What was it? Let’s not with this. What color eyes does your best friend have? Brown. Have you ever been on a blind date? Nah. Which one of your family members do you wish you could see more often? My brother and his son. I got really close to my nephew the last time they visited for a few days. What room in your house is the messiest? Right now, the extra bedroom that I want to make my dayroom. A lot of our “extra” stuff is just shoved into there. Have you ever requested a song on the radio? No. Are you proud of your parents? Yes. Have you ever (accidentally or not) set off a car alarm? I think I accidentally have before. Do you have dimples when you smile? Yes, way more prominently on my left cheek though. Do you find graveyards scary? No. They’re peaceful to me. Have you ever carved anything into a tree? I don’t think so. Do you read those celebrity gossip magazines? Ew, no. Celebs deserve privacy. Do you give or get advice more often? Well considering I’m in therapy, probably get. Did the last type of shoes you wore have laces? No. Do you like the picture on your license/I.D. card? FUCK no. When was the last time somebody hit on you? Idr. Which one of your friends do you feel most comfortable around? Sara. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food? Just pass me the rolls lmao. Who did you last spoon with? My cat lmao. What was the last video game you played? I don’t recall the last console game I played, so does World of Warcraft count, even tho it’s a computer game? When you’re in trouble, do your parents ever “middle name” you? Ha, my mom will sometimes. Does getting sweaty or dirty bother you at all? If so, has it ever put you off doing exercise? Very much so. I suffer (and I DO mean “suffer”) from insane hyperhidrosis, so I sweat my ass off if I so much as twitch, if even that. I just hate feeling gross. Have you ever thought about how you want to spend your retirement? No, honestly. It’s hard for me to imagine even *getting* to retirement. Would you describe yourself as healthy? Why or why not? No. I’m physically and even more mentally not okay. Do you miss anything about being a teenager? If you are a teenager, what’s your favorite thing about it? Yeah, some things. Though I really don’t even want to think about it. I look back on me being a teen with both wistfulness as well as bitterness. I don’t know which is stronger.

#survey #surveys #quiz #questions #questionnaire #lyrics: ''welcome home (sanitarium)'' by metallica

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gamingshades795 · 5 years ago

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How much for the typical gaming pc cost

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blubberquark · 5 years ago

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Why Puzzle Platformers?

Why are there so many puzzle platformers? Was everybody simply copying Braid, hoping for the same level of success? And more importantly, now that Braid has been out for over a decade, why are people still making them?

If you make games, you already know why there are so many puzzle platformers, but I haven’t found a comprehensive answer to this question anywhere I can conveniently link to.

There are different ways to read that question:

Why are people adding puzzles to platformer games?

Why are there so many commercial indie puzzle platformers?

Why weren’t the same puzzles presented in an abstract, more puzzle-focused way?

Why are people adding puzzles to platformer games?

When it comes to jam games or small shareware projects, we should first ask “Why platformers, puzzle or not?” Part of the answer is probably “because platformers are easy to make with GameMaker“. Another part of the answer is “Because in a platformer, the player character interacts with the level, items, and NPCs, but these do not, for the most part, interact with each other, which makes a platformer comparably easy to implement (compared to an RTS game) and design (compared to RPG games), and platformers don’t need many extradiegetic UI elements.“

But beyond that, when you can add other mechanics to games, why puzzles?

The two obvious candidates to add to games are combat/stealth, and puzzles.

You can could also add multiple-choice dialogue, inventory, RPG elements (quests, skill points, classes), or procedural generation to any sidescrolling game, but none of these cannot carry a game on their own when you tack them on to a platformer. If the dialogue is actually substantial enough to carry a game on its own, the 2D platforming may stick out as “tacked-on” instead.

Strategy or economy (building, trading, tactics and management) are better served by a mouse-based UI. Dialogue-heavy or text-based games usually don’t have platforming sections, but platformer games can have some dialogue. In both cases, the pacing and movement of a platformer undercuts these game mechanics, and a different UI would be a better fit.

You can give your platformer a theme like horror, romance, science fiction, or medieval fantasy.

Puzzles are something you can add into a platformer game, either in between difficult platforming sections, or in combination with them. You can even alternate between stealth/combat and puzzles. Puzzles can be easy or difficult, and you can use them to break up levels or slow down the pace of an action platformer, or centre your whole game around them.

It takes some skill to design a puzzle mechanic that stands on its own, but it’s much easier to design an simple and easy one-off puzzle that you can throw into a platformer level. Easy puzzles are easy to balance: They have a binary win condition and an intended solution, but often no explicit failure state.

If adding another mechanic to a platformer makes it a puzzle platformer, is Speer a puzzle platformer? Is Super Meat Boy a puzzle platformer because you sometimes have to push buttons and the levels are self-contained? Is Outer Bounds a puzzle platformer? It’s not a bright line, but many action games that are lumped with “puzzle platformers” are still about jumping and running, but with a move set that isn’t 100% copied from Mario Bros.

If the main appeal of a game lies in the platforming, then as long as it’s solvable and doesn’t get in the way, it’s a good puzzle. Puzzles in platforming games can present their own platforming challenges, and rely on a slightly different kind of platforming execution skill, instead of puzzle-solving as a core aesthetic and source of difficulty. Players can be forced to traverse the same terrain back and forth along different paths. This can squeeze more gameplay out of fewer designed levels. Combined with traditional platforming obstacles like enemies to avoid, spike pits, moving platforms, one-way platforms, this can lead to more varied and difficult platforming challenges. Instead of getting in the way or breaking up the platforming bits, puzzle mechanics can go hand-in-hand with the platforming, without presenting a challenge in terms of puzzle solving, but only in terms of executing the solution.

Why are there so many commercial indie puzzle platformers?

For commercial games, the answer is more complicated. Maybe the premise of the question is not even true. Trine, Fez, Limbo, and And Yet It Moves all can in one way or another be described as “puzzle platformers”, but no two of them are in the same genre. If you cast a wider net, you get games like Mushroom 11, Owlboy, The Cave, Starseed Pilgrim, and Gunpoint.

Like “Action Adventure”, the phrase “puzzle platformer” has become a catch-all term for sidescroller games that aren’t punishingly difficult.

Of course, many commercial long-form games are classical puzzle platformers. Braid, Vessel, Closure, The Swapper, and Snapshot. These games are about puzzles, not about platforming.

Many smaller games like WarpSwap, ElecHead, Ministry of Synthesis, or LegBreaker are just exploring one puzzle mechanic to exhaustion in a series of one-room puzzles. Larger or long-form games often expand their repertoire of mechanics to create puzzles based on different mechanics held together by common themes or a story, or they focus more on platforming.

Why weren’t the same puzzles presented in an abstract, more puzzle-focused way?

Simple Controls and User Interface

If you see a puzzle platformer, you don’t need to figure out the controls or UI first, you can just pick up the controller and start running around. In their simplest form, the controls for a puzzle platformer are four directional buttons plus one for jumping and one for interacting the with puzzle mechanic, but more complex controls schemes are common.

The controls make writing a puzzle platformer for a game jam much easier than a mouse-driven puzzle game: You just need to check six keyboard buttons. If you are making a big commercial title, ease of implementation in terms of programming is not really a factor: After a day or two at most you’ll have implemented whatever mouse picking, widgets and UI elements you need. What’s much more time consuming is figuring out where to put the buttons so they don’t obscure the scene, or how to communicate which objects are clickable. Getting user interfaces right requires playtesting and iteration. A puzzle platformer might only need a context-based prompt that says “press X to interact“ or “walk into a boulder to push it“.

Game Feel, Embodiment and Characterisation

Another benefit of puzzle platformers over abstract puzzle presentation is game feel. The player controls the player character, and feels like a the player character existing inside the space of the level, increasing immersion compared to the feeling of a person sitting at a computer thinking about a crossword puzzle.

Many big-name 2D puzzle platformers like Braid and Snapshot have a rather zoomed-in view that focuses the level player character and the immediate surroundings, instead of showing the whole level. This allows the game to present important characters, items or places in great detail, and lets the camera pan to frame the most important parts of a scene. Animated movement in a two-dimensional space can give weight and character to the player character, and connect the gameplay to a story. NPCs can live inside a level, next to their home, their things, and their friends.

Imagine the same thing in a tower defence, or a racing game: You’re walking around in a level, and suddenly you meet an NPC, you’re having a conversation, and then you go on your merry way. Characters and environmental storytelling are not unique to platformers, but it’s more difficult to pull off in a game without a player character existing in the world with the NPCs. Puzzle platformers keep all options open.

Of course, this is not the only way to connect characterisation and puzzle gameplay, and it can be done in abstract games. Just in the most recent Ludum Dare, I played the game Interstellar Connection, a puzzle game with a rather abstract, disembodied presentation, in which the characterisation was delivered through dialogue. (I should briefly remark on two aspects of Interstellar Connection here, even though it has very little to do with the rest of this post. First, the game is at its heart a bunch of mazes that can be solved by backtracking. Every puzzle is equivalent to a maze graph, but the presentation makes use of a quirk of human cognition to prevent you from seeing the solution the way you would see the solution in a small maze. Second, I don’t think this mechanic can support a long-form game. If it weren’t for Ludum Dare, this would have been a forgettable minigame, not the main meat of the game, motivated and contextualised by the plot.)

Characters living inside a world could also be achieved with isometric graphics, first- or third-person 3D, or in a text-based game, but they don’t work well in self-contained or grid-based puzzle levels. We’ll get back to other aspects of more open level design later.

Puzzle Design

In a puzzle platformer, you have a player character, and you can have different kinds of obstacles, like pits filled with spikes, ledges, and doors. In a top-down platformer, you can of course also have doors, but you won’t have the same dynamics of gravity with falling down, of dropping things. It’s easier to get down from a ledge, or to drop something than to lift it.

With a visible and embodied player character instead of an abstract cursor, every puzzle can be complicated by combining manipulation of the puzzle environment with traversal of the level:

The level has an “obvious” solution, but the real challenge is navigating the environment to get there.

The challenge is to manipulate the environment to open a path for the player to jump to the right place to implement the solution.

The level has a “red herring” solution that solves the main puzzle but leaves the player trapped behind an obstacle, unable to progress without undoing it.

Level Design, Progression

Multiple puzzles can be placed in the same platformer “level” or “room“. In a “pure” puzzle game, puzzles are self-contained, with a beginning and an end, a starting state and an explicit solution condition. In a platformer, the goal can be implicit: You want to go from left to right and traverse the obstacles.

If a puzzle has an obvious missing piece, it can be a prompt for the player to explore the surrounding areas, to look for a tool, or for a certain puzzle piece that is exactly shaped like the gap that needs to be filled in the puzzle.

Strange Keyworld is a puzzle platformer, almost a puzzle metroidvania. Every so often, instead of reasoning through the puzzle that is currently shown on the screen, you need to explore the adjacent rooms to find another piece and bring it over. Although the puzzles in Strange Keyworld are mostly self-contained, they are still embedded in the larger world.

Most levels in Braid are bigger than one screen, and they have more than one puzzle. Often the first order of business is to get your bearings and explore. Then you learn to traverse the level to get everywhere, identify and separate the different puzzles, and only then can you think about solving all the puzzles by manipulating time and level state to get everywhere.

An interesting twist on this happens in Recursed: Levels are always on one screen, 20x15 tiles... but you need to explore inside all the chests to see what the level actually looks like!

Of course, you could have the same kind of dynamic in an abstractly presented puzzle with a mouse-based UI, where you can zoom in and out, drag the viewport around, or enter doors (and Recursed-style chests) by double-clicking. Then you’d lose the sense of exploration and progression, and the challenge of traversing the space via platforming. Exploring a large level would be easy, but tedious. You would need to program (as the developer) and then learn (as the payer) a new user interface, or you can just move a player character in a world. This ties back into the very first point: Platformers don’t need many extradiegetic UI elements.

tl;dr “Puzzle Platformers” are actually a bunch of genres in a trenchcoat. Character-focused 2D side-scrolling graphics are compatible with many different mechanics and game designs. Character-focused 2D platforming can counterbalance the abstractness of puzzle games.

#game design #puzzle platformer #puzzle game

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coworkspacegurgaon · 5 years ago

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This Is How Virtual Office Will Look Like In 10 Years Time

The scene: You are sitting in an empty meeting room, ten years from now. You seat yourself comfortably with your latest tablet and wear a pair of lightweight glasses. Suddenly the room is full of life. To your right, you observe your colleague George has joined you from Atlanta. To the left, sits the CEO of the company, Betty, who’s residing in New York at present. Across the table from you in Raman, who has joined from his home office in Britain.

You are well-versed with the fact that these are virtual projections that the glasses have added to your meeting room. You can see them. But they are astonishingly lifelike! You are completely startled, even though you all have been conducting meetings like these for the past 6 months.

Thanks to the developments made in augmented reality and virtual reality technologies, this simulated scenario is not far away. While the concept of virtual reality has created a lot of hype, this biggest technology is going to leave a big footprint on the coworking space.

The virtual office space: Growing importance

In the present world, technology has been accelerating at such a rapid pace that even the futurists are not able to define the types of changes that will occur in the workplace systems. But nearly all the trend-seekers have predicted that most of the employees will be working from home and the systems will be more decentralized- suiting the daily, personal, and family needs of the employees. Even the international obstacles are blurring as the world has become a global village.

New- work relationships:

The mutual benefits of these progressive changes, for both companies and the workers, are evident to many. The salary systems will also change. The employees will shift from a salary system to a contractual basis. They will start working on a contractual basis and take payment after completion of every project. Although, companies will continue to support the workers/employees by providing health insurance or extra incentives for their loyalty.

To do their best, workers/employees will still be considered as a part of the team and will continue to strive to give the best to the organization.

Change in social life:

Many people have already tasted the flavor of this new life. Employers and employees all over the world have already been talking to and partnering with the suppliers and customers over e-mails. Personal connections are being established through video conferences and interactive computers, which has further strengthened the relationships between various stakeholders.

Nevertheless, being an essential part of a virtual community can never eliminate the need for in-person connections. That is why employees in the future will be witnessing prototypes that will promote gathering and in-person meetings such as those taking place at the water-coolers.

At the heart of these progressive changes, we can already see the separation of the workplace from where we do it. People are taking working from home very seriously. This makes the blending of work and family life very easy. In this manner, many employees and workers will find lifeless hectic, cumbersome, and more integrated.

Creating boundaries- Physical and time boundaries:

It will become very important to create work boundaries for yourself and respecting those boundaries will be equally imperative. This will prove to be beneficial for you only.

In the future, employees will have to keep a separate workstation at their home. If they are using a particular computer for work, then the same computer should not be used and mixed with other household work.

Similarly, it is essential to draw a line between office time and family time. You may not have time restrictions when working from home. You might have to start working from as early as 6:00 a.m. So, a clear cut time will have to be set-up which will be specially dedicated to the office work with minimal breaks without any personal distractions.

Looking at the benefits of virtual offices 10 years from now….

At the moment, virtual offices are going to transform the work that will be carried on in the coming years. Let’s have a look at how virtual office is going to be beneficial in the coming years:

Increased awareness about the various health risks: During a period when the world faces pandemic, a virtual office space can save us from the various health risks. We shall stay clean as we will not be touching infected things such as a mouse, keyboard, armchair rest, computer equipment and so on.

Reduced costs: While virtual offices will increase the collaborations, they will also cost almost nothing for the company. The fixed and semi-fixed expenses of the companies will be reduced to a great extent.

The growing demand for special skill sets: Sometimes it becomes extremely difficult to find workers who are knowledgeable and possess a specific skill set. You will have to pay a huge sum to such employees as the cost of living is too high. With the help of virtual offices, a company will be in a position to recruit the best people from anywhere in the world. This will create a pool of qualified candidates for the company at a dramatically low compensation to be paid.

The Takeaway: Due to the emerging trend of virtual office spaces, in 10 years from now, the physical office spaces will become obsolete, non-existent, and irrelevant. I might be sitting in New York and you are working from your office in London. As long as I am wearing my virtual glasses, it will appear as if you are sitting right next to me.

The extra mile: So start planning today as a massive shift is going to occur in a few years. Try organizing and locating your team from now onwards only. Jump and adapt quickly to the concept of work-from-home or a hybrid of traditional office and work-from-home. Consider the early adoption of all the innovative technologies available to avoid any last moment inconveniences.

#meeting room #private cabin #private office space #shared office space #coworking office space #virtual office space

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sights-on-the-scifi · 6 years ago

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Violence in MASS EFFECT.

Alright Tumblr i’m gonna try even harder to satisfy your content laws... God I hope this posts.

MASS EFFECT 2 Marked a change in the creative direction of the series in many ways not just limited to style and presentation. But also in how it tackled violence in its narrative and gameplay.

It developed a near uncritical affection for its violence. Removing any semblance of scepticism towards its application with exception to a few storied and mechanical instances all for which will be talked about as we progress.

VIOLENCE IN GAMES AND OTHER FORMS OF MEDIA AS A WHOLE.

Before we begin ill like to explain to you why violence in a video game is so fun to the player on a mechanical basis. You see video game violence is complete fantasy that much is obvious just from looking at it I hope, it has no real basis in reality. For example the simple fact being that you are interacting with simulated combat via mouse and keyboard on a flat 2D surface, not with your hands, feet, arms, firearms, grenades and depth perception... Some games like the first CALL OF DUTY title go out of their way to communicate this very important distinction to you with its death quotes system, which communicates a famous anti war saying every time you die on the digital battlefield, and you do die a lot in the game so the words always have time to sink in...

The chest high wall games of wack a mole and close range engagements you typically find yourself in are inherently ridiculous, but something that is true about these portrayals is the deep psychological stuff that occurs in the back of your mind through play.

Fight or flight. Those instinctual, primal/animal like areas of your mind that govern responses to threats and general dangers that were extremely useful during our species evolutionary development as hunter gatherers, if a game is designed well enough it can take advantage of those responses and insert them into game-play loops which encourage positive reinforcement when taking down digital combatants... These are the things games tap into and the things military companies etc also tap into as part of training or recruitment programs especially in modern digital age armies where focus groups have to find new ways of getting young people interested in soldiering without conscription and a national crisis to absorb individuals into service positions. Anyone has the capacity to be violent and become a killer you need only the right training and psychological conditioning and in the army that is one part of basic. Popular video games and films provide you with that psychological training in a very subdued, consumer friendly fashion and that is through desensitisation. “Image training”

It is turned into a power fantasy, for military recruiters it is also an effective strategy for recruitment purposes.

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“War is delightful to those who have not experienced it” Erasmus.

Violence in real life is brutal, random and horrifying even in a domestic sense to any sane or normal person with the capacity for human empathy (Though sometimes there are forms of desensitisation that override this), not even most soldiers who undergo psychological conditioning to be able to kill are immune to this trauma. Violence is not fair, violence is not graceful and more often than not it is also used irresponsibly in any situation where in it is absolutely necessary to be used, even then those situations are themselves questionable. Especially in present day conflicts waged overseas out of sight and mind of the general public for wealth, oil and resources.

I have experienced forms of domestic violence throughout my childhood such as being beaten by my parents and having animals ordered to attack me, I understand how awful it can be to live in absolute fear and experience excruciating pain and misery as a result of this so making a post like this I hope makes you think about this a bit more from that personal lens too.

Games and movies on their own dont cause violence that much is certain from studies no matter how vivid their depictions get, but they do desensitise you to its realities in strange and weird ways both mechanically, visually and also sometimes in the narrative. (Until we can someday reach the point where in we can perfectly simulate reality and violence there is no way in hell military companies are going to rely on it exclusively to train soldiers). But they can rely on the positive mental associations they bring to warfare.

HOW MASS EFFECT 2 PORTRAYS VIOLENCE.

MASS EFFECT is by no means a game that is used as a vessel to drive up real world military recruitment, there is no indication of official army endorsement since it is just a trilogy of science fiction video games after all. But it does include violence that tries its very best to make you the player think its wicked cool in addition to finding it fun if the game-play loop is effective enough. Which in ME2 it is especially effective and the marketing wanted to push that.

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So how does MASS EFFECT 2 and to an extent MASS EFFECT 3 make its violence so fun and “Cool”... Ill break this down into a variety of factors starting with your enemies.

DEHUMANISATION OF COMBATANTS AND KNOWING YOUR ENEMY.

MASS EFFECT 2 takes players to the Terminus systems and other parts of the galaxy that do not fall under official council law, so naturally this means there is an seemingly over abundance of private military and mercenary organisations. But ME2 is not interested in what these things represent completely, more so it is interested in using their presence as a convenient means to provide the player with thousands of disposable henchman to shoot, stab, pull and blow up in a variety of fun and exciting ways!... (Those gamified ways) All the while giving you the excuse to not feel bad while doing so no matter how cruel you are in the application of your response to incoming fire.

In fact throughout the whole ME2 experience you probably kill more mercenaries comprised of Turians, Humans, Asari, Krogans, Vorcha and salarians, more so then you do the Reapers or Collectors who are supposed to be the primary antagonists of the series... Which it seems is pretty antithetical to the overall themes of uniting the galaxy to fight a common threat which threatens all life, perhaps you have already done the job for em in this regard. What you are seeing here is a form of precision engineered dehumanisation of combatants for purposes of providing a player with something to shoot and kill without much thought and sympathy... and the military also employs this tactic in real life to dehumanise other humans for soldiers to shoot and actually kill.

Make your enemies faceless, inhuman or “irredeemable” cannon fodder and the feelings you get for uncritically slaughtering them all are palpable, especially with such entertaining gameplay systems that make the whole endeavour that much more exciting. The same was true for Cerberus in ME3 effectively turning the whole organisation into faceless storm-troopers with filtered voices and intimidating armour again another form of enemy dehumanisation in addition they are all conveniently indoctrinated so thats another justification hooray!. More bad guys to shoot right?

You dont have to feel bad if there is nothing to feel bad about right? You are Commander Shepard! Or a soldier in the military you are right in all actions and decisions you make by virtue of the fact you fight for a cause like stopping the Reapers.

VIOLENCE AS AN ONLY MEANS TO A DESIRED END.

Despite MASS EFFECT’S status as an RPG experience, the games rarely if ever provide you with substantial opportunities to employ diplomatic solutions to various problems where in it would seem feasible that it can be at least attempted.

Most of the time you will be exhausting dialogue options on a screen and shooting faceless thugs behind chest high cover throughout the entire experience.

In the narratives themselves this refusal to resolve conflicts peacefully are actively supported by characters or hand waved as being frivolous by the plot and sometimes even Shepard himself. Kill or be killed rains supreme in again, But in real life that mindset is far from being realistic or preferable.

THE BADASS CHARACTER CLICHE.

Something that will severely age the MASS EFFECT 2 experience is its over reliance on making every single character a BADASS stereotype. Even beloved Mordin Solus falls victim to this strange fixation with violent attributes and histories being considered wicked cool bro! In combat Mordin will utter lines that hint to the fact that he very much enjoys the killing he is participating in.

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“Killed that one!”

“Thought I was harmless did you?”

“Oooh headshot!”

“Here... Enjoy” (Plays during times he sets people on fire with his tech attacks)

He also lists at one disturbing point in the story, all the ways in which he has killed people. Which includes using lethal drugs and... farming equipment, thats funny right? Actually MASS EFFECT 2 seems to include a lot of moments like that in where people list off hilarious methods they have used to kill people.

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Every character in one way or another has the capacity to kill and does kill, they kill quite a lot of people actually and in some cases this is celebrated with gleeful enthusiasm by the plot.

Even Shepard can participate in a little bit of casual BADASSERY no matter if you are renegade or paragon. Be that shooting through hostages, threatening Batarian thugs, shooting Konrad in the foot or generally acting like a ruthless prick all for the fun of it like when you trick a injured mercenary into thinking he is going to die from minor wounds. This is a stark contrast to ME1 which at least tried its best to codify violent or aggressive acts as morally questionable. You are the first Human spectre in that game after all a shining beacon to all humanity in the new frontiers of space, what you do in that story is emblematic of the attitudes the whole of humanity express going forward.

Jack is probably the most blatant example of this new approach to violence the series took for reasons I have already described in previous posts.

To be clear, I’m not saying MASS EFFECT 2'S inclusion of glorified fantasy violence is entirely a bad thing. I just think that if you are gonna include violence you best be a little more intelligent when it comes to its usage in mechanics and narrative. Because it can be a powerful thematic tool if used right, in some cases there are moments in ME2 wherein it does get used extremely well but those moments are also still few and far between.

We can do so much better.

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#Mass Effect

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current-mcr-news · 7 years ago

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Casual Interactions #1: Full Transcription

John: Welcome to Casual Interactions, a show about old friends getting together and telling stories. I'm John "Hambone" McGuire, and with me today are some of my oldest and dearest friends, Frank Iero and Shaun Simon.

Frank has been a traveling musician all his life, best known as the guitar player of My Chemical Romance, and singer of Leathermouth and Death Spells. He's currently fronting his own band and writing music as a solo artist.

Shaun is a writer and is best known for his work on The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, Art Ops, and Neverboy. He's currently working on Wizard Beach for BOOM! Studios.

I'm a jack of all trades, and if I told you what I actually did for a living, I'd have to kill you.

So to say that we're busy is an understatement. We are a group of friends who are just looking for an excuse to get together more and hang out. We used to do it over breakfast and we figured that eating eggs on mic would be a little too gross, so we're gonna do this podcast instead. How are you guys doing today?

Shaun: Hey, man.

Frank: Doing good, man. Doing very good. I'm very excited to see you guys.

J: I'm very excited to see you too, man.

F: Especially in front of a mic without eggs on your face.

J: Well, you know, I often have egg on my face. I do say a lot of dumb shit. However, it is a little better to not be chewing on microphone, or slurping, or-

F: I do have hard boiled eggs in my pocket that I'm waiting to bust out for later.

J: Is that what that smell is?

F: That's what I have. I'm prepared, that's what I'm saying.

J: You were a Boy Scout for like 2 weeks. It's evident that you've actually survived your training.

F: When I was a kid though, I went to Catholic school and everybody wanted to be an altar boy, but I couldn't do it because I would see my dad on the weekends.

J: Right.

F: And I couldn't do Boy Scouts either and I was real depressed about that. I remember.

J: Yeah but you know, he taught you how to play drums so there's gotta be a-

F: That was the upside, upswing.

J: There's gotta be an upswing to it.

F: I didn't get touched-

J: Jesus, Frank.

F: -and I learned how to play drums.

J: We're not even a minute in.

S: I can't picture you as an altar boy.

F: I know, me neither.

S: You probably would've burned that altar down.

F: Well here's the thing, think about this-

S: Holding fucking fire in your hands on the fucking altar.

F: Later on, in my career as a grammar schooler in 8th grade, right before graduation, we were gonna have practice graduation. I don't know why you have to have practice for graduation.

J: They need to make sure you can walk in a straight line.

F: Yeah! Exactly. It's like a DUI, basically, yeah, for 8th graders. But we'd have them in the church. And I remember a few of my friends had these stink bombs, and they were like, "Oh, we should throw them in the church." And everybody was like, "No fucking way!" And I was like, "I'll fucking throw that shit!" And I took them and I threw them and I got-

S: Of course you did.

F: Of course I did. And then they wouldn't let me graduate.

J: You were an 8th grade domestic terrorist.

F: I think I was just pissed that I couldn't be an altar boy!

J: Well just think about how a church smells musty, base-line. Like any church you go into, you never walk into a church and go, "Wow! This place smells really good. They must be like, using Yankee Candles or something." It always just smells base-line musty. And then you add a stink bomb to it, in a room that's not very well ventilated either. Oh, Jesus!

F: Yes, I called it Frankincense. Later on though too, I remember I had to go to one of those retreat things because of this, and then I ended up getting in trouble there because we stole the wine and they caught us drinking wine.

J: How about you, Shaun? You ever an altar boy or a Boy Scout when you were a kid?

S: I was an altar boy.

F: You were?!

S: I was, yeah.

F: Oh!

S: I don't know if I have any stories, though. I just did the shit and left. Right?

F: But you have the knowledge and that's how you can judge if I-

S: Right!

F: -you could see me in that position.

S: That's why I can see you burning down the church... if Frank was an altar boy.

J: Now churches just burn when you walk into them. Which is like, gotta be a 9th level spell. Good for you getting to that level of wizardry... So why don't we take a second and step back and talk about how we met.

F: Okay, go ahead.

J: So we all grew up in different parts of town. Frank grew up in Belleville.

F: True.

J: I grew up in Clifton. Shaun grew up on the other side of Clifton. Now for those listening, the city of Clifton is shaped like a giant horseshoe, and this is in New Jersey. It borders 12 other towns, so where Shaun lived in Clifton might as well have been 4 towns away from where I lived.

F: Is it really shaped like a horseshoe?

J: It is shaped like a giant horseshoe.

S: It's shaped like horseshit.

J: Yeah. Just parts of it smell like horseshit. I actually did a report on it in the 6th grade and that's how I know it's shaped like a giant horseshoe. Borders 12 towns, don't ask me to name them now because I don't remember most of them.

F: I'm still thinking of like how- because I get lost everywhere, but maybe that's why I can't figure my way around Clifton.

J: Well you were only ever in Clifton, you'd never actually been outside of it. Like you went from Belleville into Clifton and you just never left.

F: That's true. That's true, yeah. We're talking about origin stories, right?

J: Yes!

F: Alright. I remember, because I met Shaun first.

S: Did you?!

F: Yes!

S: Oh, freshman year!

F: I don't even remember- freshman year orientation.

S: Oh!

F: I met you at the orientation.

S: That's like another world, though. Like, I feel like, I don't know.

F: It's alright, you can say you don't remember me.

S: No, I do remember you. I do remember you!

F: But you were friends with Eugene. And I was friends with Costa.

S: That's right.

F: And they were friends.

S: He used to steal cheese.

F: He used to steal cheese?

S: Didn't he used to steal cheese?

F: From who?!

S: I don't know!

F: I think you made that up, but maybe!

S: Maybe, maybe. He was just a really small kid and I used to think he used to steal cheese.

F: He might have!

J: I think you just projected that on him.

F: I definitely stole a lot of things with him. None of which I believe were cheese, but I mean, it's possible!

S: Maybe he was just mouse-like and I just- anyway.

F: So they would skate together and I remember finding out that you skated too, and then I would just bring a board and watch you guys skate.

S: Did you actually skateboard, though? Or did you just like-

F: I did! And then broke both my ankles, and I was never good.

S: Oh, okay.

F: I think I got as far as, like, I maybe landed 3 Ollies.

J: That's 3 more than me

F: So that's my first remembrance of you. But then you didn't stick around long.

S: I left after freshman year, yeah.

F: So we didn't even really hang out that much.

J: Now, I was 2 years older than Frank in high school, and so, I didn't even know up until we started hanging out years later that you were in the same high school as me because I wouldn't- not that I was like some cool older kid, I definitely was not. However, I wasn't at freshman orientation that year because I was a junior, so yeah. So years later we end up meeting again because of a mutual friend. It was Bruno right?

S: Bruno, yeah.

F: Oh yeah!

J: Because you went to Bergen Community College with Bruno.

S: Kinda went there.

J: Kinda went there. I mean, one does not simply really go to Bergen Community College.

F: Shaun didn't stick around any school for very long.

S: I didn't stick around very long.

J: He's just out there smoking cigarettes, hanging with the cool kids, being bad.

F: Yeah, and he can be an altar boy. I see, alright.

J: He can be an altar boy. He's quiet about it. He shuts the fuck up, he gets in there, does his job, and gets out. Like you, you had to make a production about it.

S: Yeah, Frank would've made sure everyone knew he was an altar boy.

F: This is true! This is true. Fucking drama... Drama boy! Drama altar boy!

J: I mean, I could imagine you like, "I'm an altar boy," and flashing your cross like you're a cop. "Yeah, here. I'm on the job. I'm on the job for Jesus."

F: Ah, shit. Alright, fine. Touché!

J: So, Frank and I played in bands together in high school, and we played with one of our friends named Bruno. Bruno brought Shaun along one night to hang and we've all been friends ever since! We've since played in bands together, we've since played in bands separately, and now we're here in Frank's basement recording a podcast.

F: Isn't that crazy? Fucking small world.

J: It's 20 years.

F: Is it really?!

J: It's about 20 years worth of friendship happening, culminating in this podcast.

F: I'm so old.

S: I don't feel like I'm 20 years older than I was.

J: No, neither do I, man. I still, like-

F: I do!

S: I also don't feel like I look it.

J: No, you don't.

S: I don't know if that's just me.

F: You kept your handsomeness.

J: You were always the looks of the band.

S: Yeah... I don't know about that.

J: So yeah, we love hanging out together. We are always looking for new reasons to hang out because it's hard when you get a little bit older. People have kids, people have different jobs, things that take you different places, some of us going all over the world. So what we're going to do every episode is talk about a different topic. So today we're really just gonna focus on our origin story. So that's how we end up all meeting, and then a little while after that... You know, Frank and I have been playing in bands together since high school, I played with a couple different people. Frank tried to go to college, I tried to go to college a few times, and then we ended up getting back together and deciding to start a new band, and that band ended up being Pencey Prep.

F: Yeah.

J: So we wanted a keyboard player, and we just loved hanging out with Shaun.

S: Wait, did you want a keyboard player-

F: I think we did!

S: -or were you just like, "We like hanging out with this dude, do something for us."

F: I think it was both.

S: It was a little bit of both.

F: Yeah!

J: A little column A, a little column B.

S: "Guitar is a little too hard to learn, here's a keyboard."

J: Right. And I was already playing bass. And that's what it was. We pulled a keyboard out from under the bed and said, "Learn how to play this and you can be in the band." Because we just wanted to keep hanging out with you. And that was it, you know, that's the real origin story of how Pencey Prep started. We just wanted to hang out more with Shaun.

F: This is true. Yeah! Here's the moral of it: is that we continuously manufacture things so that we can hang out with you, Shaun.

J: Like this podcast!

F: Yeah! That's just an ongoing thing. 20 years later, Hambone bought a bunch of mics.

S: Right, right!

F: Just to lure you to our house to hang out.

J: Because breakfast wasn't enough sometimes. I had to take it up a notch, recording you right now.

F: Yes, exactly. Goddamn it.

J: I mean, that's what it is. You look at a band like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, right? Like, what does Ben Carr really do? Well, apparently Ben Carr is a tour manager and he runs the whole day to day operations of the band. But back in the day, they just wanted to hang out with their buddy, they wanted something for him to do, so they said, "Well, just dance onstage."

S: Oh, that's right!

J: You should be happy, Shaun. We didn't make you dance.

S: Yeah, I wouldn't have done that anyway. We would've had to say our goodbyes back then.

F: Well, even early Pencey shows, there was a lot of playing verses- no, playing choruses! And then during the verses you would just smoke. Just smoke onstage.

S: So I was like, "Here's this dude, he's gonna stand there and look cool, smoking a cigarette."

F: Right, yeah. It was very Velvet Underground.

J: And you wouldn't even face the crowd either. You know, the whole band is going at it with the crowd, you were just turned sideways and just staring at whatever wall was in your direction on stage left, and just... smoking.

F: Judging. Just judging everyone. Yes!

J: Light it up during the verse, fly in for the chorus, Shaun Simon.

F: There it is! I mean, it worked.

J: That's what you did.

F: It did!

S: It worked.

F: That was a fun band to be in.

J: That was a fun band.

S: You know what's weird about that band? It feels like we were a band so much longer than we actually were. It wasn't that long, right?

F: You know what I think? I think that Pencey wasn't long. The time period after when we were doing I Am A Graveyard, that was longer.

S: Was that longer?

F: I think so.

S: Because we only had like 3 songs, didn't we?

F: Like 4 or 5. But I think that was the other thing too, we just liked hanging out so much that-

J: We didn't wanna stop.

F: We didn't wanna stop, yeah.

J: I feel like it was about a year and a half leading up to us getting ready to record the record. Then we recorded the record, we went on that one ill-fated tour across America, and then we just kinda restructured the band when Tim left.

F: Yeah.

S: No, actually we restructured the band and then we did I Am A Graveyard, and then Tim left.

J: Then Tim left. Then that was the end of the band.

S: Then Frank joined My Chem.

J: Yeah, I mean it was a really great time. The thing about that is to me , I look back on the record kinda cringing-ly. Because I just can't listen to it, it's really hard to get through. And it's funny when I look at kids who were our age, recording now and the kinda stuff they're doing. And granted, I know technology is very different, but the idea of our playing ability at 19, 20, 21, versus a kid who's 19, 20, 21 now's playing ability, it's like night and day.

F: Oh my god. Oh, I know.

J: It's like, god bless that it happened before the internet and nobody caught on that we stunk. We were tight! We were a good band but we were like the high school band and everyone else is doing laps around us.

F: I feel like that's the thing too is like, now you see these young kids, 11 and 12, going on YouTube and learning how to play, and really giving it their all. It's insane! I would just listen to records and smoke pot in my room and try to figure stuff out. And I don't know, there wasn't that outlet to get better. You actually had to go and take lessons from somebody. And it was like, "Fuck that."

J: And taking lessons sucked.

F: I know.

J: I mean I'm not shitting on anyone who does take lessons.

F: No, no!

J: But when I was a kid I was like, "Dude. I don't wanna take lessons, I just wanna go out and do this." However, I realize now that it takes a lot of effort to make something look effortless.

F: Yeah!

J: And I also look back at that record fondly because where I am today, kinda where we all are today, is because of that record. Like, the friends that I have and the family I have in my life, I met all because I was in the music scene. I think we all did, right? We all did.

S: Everything kind of originated from that band.

J: My friend Carrie hit me up from Tennessee the other day and she was like, you know, talking about the Pencey Prep record. And I was about to just shit all over it because it's- well it's hard for me to go back and listen to. But she gave me the perspective and she said, "Hey, because of that record, because you were in that band, we met. And because of that, your other friends have met and now they have families and they're all together because we were all kind of in that same place at the same time." I have a profound sense of gratitude for the record. I just can't listen to it.

F: I wouldn't change anything, because everything ended up the way it did. That's wonderful. But if I could Doc Brown it, and just tweak little things here and there, I'd definitely- there's a lot that I would tweak.

S: Yeah, if someone played to a click track.

F: Well, click- click would help!

J: Lots of auto-tuning.

F: But that's- yeah! I mean that's the thing. There are certain things that you listen back and it's cringy, but that's because you were a fucking teenager! It's supposed to be.

J: Right, and it was a very different thing being a teenager when we were teenagers, and being a teenager now.

F: Yeah.

J: Night and day.

F: I totally agree.

J: I would not survive as a teenager now.

F: No! Fuck no! I'd be naked on the internet somewhere.

J: Somewhere.

F: It would ruin my goddamn life! Totally. Doing some dumb shit.

J: Yeah, absolutely.

F: We had VHS recorders. Destroy that shit.

J: Yeah, absolutely. My friend George Bungle lores over my head that he definitely has pictures of me when I was wearing eyeliner and flat ironing my hair, and I was like, "Please!" I was like, "George, just let me find a wife first, because it'll be harder for her to leave me once those pictures come out. There would be lawyers involved."

F: Yikes. Yeah. Well, that's the thing too, is like, I do have minor interactions on social media. Just like, through Twitter and Instagram, stuff like that. Facebook is an animal that I can't understand so I just decide not to use it.

J: It's all racist

F: Is it really?! Jesus!

J: Facebook is where you go to figure out which of your friends have actually been racist this entire time.

F: Oh my god! Ugh.

J: Yeah, just stay off it.

F: That sounds terrible.

J: It's pretty bad.

F: So anyway, I'm not going on Facebook then. But people will send like, pictures of like, a moment in time, just this fucking split second moment in time, but, "Explain this." I'm like, "Motherfucker!

S: What do you mean?

F: Yeah, exactly! "What are you talking about?" You have to explain every goddamn moment of your life that's been captured in some sort of video clip or like still, or photo, like- So you'll see some questionable hairstyles, or styles of things. And certain things maybe made sense in a moment because you were making fun of something, but when it gets taken out of context, it makes no sense. But my response usually is like, "Alright, yeah, that may have been questionable, but I will show you 100,000 people that are wearing their hair like that still, right now, because I did that."

J: Absolutely! Absolutely.

S: What? Are they talking about your dreadlocks?

F: Oh, that's one!

J: That's one!

S: Is that one of them? Remember when we cut those off?

F: Yeah!

S: Threw them out the hotel window-

F: In Chicago!

J: Chicago, yeah!

F: Yeah, we planted them.

J: I mean, they're technically biodegradable, right?

S: Yeah.

F: No!

S: I don't know about that.

J: Oh, no, they're not!

F: No. Those are bad for the environment. That's why Chicago is the way it is. Because we threw them out the window.

J: Frank's old dreadlocks. I'm sure there's a tree growing where you threw that dreadlock outside of the hotel where I'm staying at next week.

F: I don't know if you remember this, though. That started out of a joke because we're all in the back of this van, and we were talking about the music that Tim liked, which he was really into nu-metal and weird shit.

J: Oh my god, yeah, I remember.

F: And I started tying knots in my hair, and they turned into that, and we put like, crazy glue in it

S: Ew.

F: And that's how it started. And then it just got real nasty.

J: I wonder if people like, because you know everyone like, lives on their phone now, like the distraction in the back of the van. I don't think a band would ever do that now because they're gonna be so distracted being on social media. Whereas, to pass the time you guys were really busy throwing my Thin Lizzy CDs out the window and gluing your hair together!

F: Oh man!

J: You left the case, though, which I always thought was funny.

F: Did we leave the case?

J: You did leave the case.

S: Why- who threw your CDs out?

F: It was a tape, it was a tape. I think-

S: Why did we decide that was a good idea?

J: How many times can you hear "Jailbreak" on the same tour?

F: That! Yeah, it was like, "The boys are not back in town. we have to stop." It just got to be too much.

J: It was the first intervention of many.

F: Alright, here's another thing about origin stories. I remember this like it was fucking yesterday, and Shaun will vouch for this. Those early My Chem tours in the van where you would have to bring these billfolds of CDs.

S: Oh, absolutely.

F: That was like 100 pounds of CDs that you were bringing with you every tour, to just pass the time, stuff like that. It was fucking horrible! Everything would be scratched and destroyed by the time you got back.

S: Start it all over.

J: Oh yeah, absolutely. Because every bump in the road-

F: Oh my god!

J: It's the same thing when we used to drive around. So we had a van, a yellow school bus van, that I bought for like 800 bucks. The thing was the drizzling shits. It was a terrible, terrible van, but we needed a van to go on tour, and all we wanted to do was tour, so we went and I got the van and we got it fixed up. And the very first night of tour, we were playing at the Loop Lounge for our tour kickoff party. And as we were driving the van to the rehearsal space to go and pick up the gear, I bumped into a curb, the timing belt jumped, and we almost missed the first day of the tour. And it was all downhill from there because this van also, the anti-freeze hose popped, and destroyed the van's on-board computer so we got stuck in Minnesota.

F: Can we dive into that story a little bit more? Because that was the whole reason of the tour, was this one show that we got booked. Was it with Les Savy Fav? J: It was Les Savy Fav at the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis. So the 7th Street Entry is the smaller part of the First Ave. which one of the biggest and most famous rock clubs in America. You've seen it in Prince's "Purple Rain," and the whole point of the tour was that we got this gig at the 7th Street Entry with Les Savy Fav, and we were traveling out there to go and do this show. Now on the way, besides the timing belt jumping, we had a problem with the seal on the gas tank, so we could only ever fill the tank up-

F: This is true, I remember!

S: That's right!

J: We could only ever fill the tank up three-quarters of the way, so that was the second problem.

F: But you kinda didn't know how far you were going. You just thought, "Alright, that's three-quarters of a tank," and then it would seep in and you would smell gas all day.

J: And we would smell gasoline.

S: And wasn't it like, we were nervous about flicking cigarettes out the windows?

F: Yes! But it didn't stop us.

S: We just kept smoking.

J: No, and I remember going and getting that fixed, getting the seal fixed, and just sitting there, and the guy was literally- he had the van up and he's underneath it and he's smoking a cigarette and he's checking it, and I'm like, "This is how I die! This is officially how it ends for me." Thankfully, it didn't. So, take us back. Frank, we were driving to Minneapolis.

F: Driving to Minneapolis. This was the show, man. This is it, we were gonna make it. This is the like our big show! And so we stop off in Minnesota, right?

J: Right.

F: And we're like, "Alright, we're gonna get a good night's sleep. The next day, we're driving to this show, we're gonna play the biggest show of our band's career. We're gonna have our CD. It's gonna be great. We're gonna do this." So we head out and I think it was maybe 2 hours into a 3 hour drive, and the van was like, "No, you're not." Because it just like- you ever see like, in a horror movie where like, someone cuts a stomach and just the bowels fall out? That's how- everything. Like, the poor girl just fucking disemboweled on the highway.

J: So the hose popped-

F: Blood. Car blood!

J: Anti-freeze everywhere! And now I know what hot anti-freeze smells like. It smells like hot maple syrup.

F: Yeah.

J: So we pull over to the side of the road. Thankfully, there was a Ford dealership literally 1,000 feet where we were at the top of the hill. So we got them to tow us there. It cost $666.34 to repair, which I called my dad. I was like, "Dad, please! Please, let me use your credit card, we're stuck out here!" And he did. Like, my father has-

F: The greatest.

J: -always been so supportive of the music that I've played, the music Frank's played. So he came and he gave his credit card number over the phone to this car dealership outside of Minneapolis, and we never made the show.

F: Uh uh.

J: We didn't play the show.

F: Did not play the show. Did not pay him back either. Fucked up! Sorry. Oh shit.

J: He just put it on my tab. It's like, "How many times you drop out of college, John?" And just add it up, you know. So I mean, so that was the first Pencey Prep tour. You know we played- our friend, Neil, who was in the band, he booked the tour, and this is back when e-mail is just new. Like, you know, there is internet, but people have like Juno and AOL. There's no high speed internet, you know. You used to call CBGB's to get a gig, they didn't have an e-mail address. You'd have to call at like Tuesday or Thursday between these hours and if you did not call during those times, or you couldn't get someone on the phone, you weren't getting booked to CBGB's. So, this is so many years ago! Like you think about it, this was 2000! This is almost 20 years.

F: Was it 2000? Or was it 99?

J: Oh, maybe it was 99 at that point, yeah! I mean, you know, you and I have been friends- I graduated in 97, I met you in 1995. And then I met you a few years later so-

S: Hm...

J: Yeah, 99.

S: 99, yeah maybe.

J: 99 was the first Pencey- the first and only Pencey tour.

F: Right!

J: So you know, we made the towns, we played the clubs, then the van had another problem where we got to, I think, Missouri of all places, and had to fix the gas tank again. And we were at a point, our last show of the tour was Columbus, Ohio in this basement. I forget the name of the club but it was a basement club and the guy stiffed up for money, because he's like, "Well I'm not gonna pay you guys, you didn't bring anybody.” It's like, "Well, we're from fucking New Jersey!" So we gunned it all the way home, we would not turn the engine off because we were afraid it wasn't gonna turn back on. Do you remember the CD that was stuck in the CD player that we had to listen to the entire 10 and a half hour ride home?

F: No.

S: No.

J: "Stay What You Are" by Saves the Day.

F: Oh god! So bleak!

J: It got stuck in the CD player, because everything was going on, why wouldn't that go wrong?

F: Well, that's the thing. That's a great record, but like, to listen to over and over again on our- already being depressed. Fuck!

J: Yeah, we got our asses kicked on that first tour, you know? A little while after that, Neil wasn't in the band anymore. And then a little while after that, we became I Am A Graveyard, and we did a couple years of that, still slugging along, and then the rest is history for Frank.

F: For everybody!

J: Yeah.

F: You guys did The Hostage after that, too.

J: We did do The Hostage for a little while. The Hostage, I think, we lasted maybe 6-7 months.

S: I think we played, like, 3 shows.

J: We played 3 really awesome shows.

S: Really, yeah, really good shows.

J: We had a good buzz about us, but the other guys in the band were dicks. You know what, I take that back. Dan wasn't a dick, Paul wasn't a dick, it was the other guy that was a dick.

S: Yeah.

J: So... He got a little too big for his britches and the band had to break up.

S: Well the problem with Dan, he... I remember, I think I was talking to you, and you with My Chem, you were like, "Yeah, why don't you guys come out and open for us?" You remember that?

J: Yeah.

S: In like Pittsburgh, or something like that. And then Dan was like, "Oh, I have to work because I have to pay my car lease," or something.

J: Yeah, yeah.

S: And it was like, "Dude, where's your fucking drive to do this?"

J: The thing about being in bands and the things about doing any kind of like, artistry, or any kind of like, going into business for yourself, takes sacrifice.

F: It does.

J: Putting the time and effort into doing something that's outside of working 9-5, it takes hard work. Like, you could either make that decision to work 9-5 for someone else, or you work 18 hours for yourself.

F: My dad and my grandfather were musicians and they played all the time, and it wasn't always something they did full time, for a living. It was something they could do- you know, they had to have another job to support. But my dad would always tell me like, you know, "There's music and then there's a music business, and one, very often, has nothing to do with the other."

J: Absolutely.

F: And the thing about, you know, music- the business side of it is so cutthroat and unforgiving at times.

J: Right.

F: And there's no justice in it. Some of the best players are still looking for a fucking gig.

J: Absolutely!

F: You could have a degree that you spent thousands and thousands of dollars on, and years and years of your life trying to obtain, and you can't get a fucking job.

J: Right.

S: Yeah.

F: So it would behoove you to have a safety net, or like, a real job so that you can, you know, afford to do these things. But very often, that's not conducive to this life. Know what I mean?

J: Right.

F: So you kinda have to throw caution to the wind and say, "Fuck it. I'm gonna sleep on a bench if I have to, to do this kinda thing," and that's not the smartest thing I know.

J: Yeah, it's definitely not the smartest thing, and I'd never like-

F: It's not easy either.

J: I'd never begrudge Dan, uh, for doing that-

F: No!

J: The thing is, you know, where we- how we grew up, you have to go to college, you have to get a job, you have to do this, you have to be responsible. And not everyone is ready to go off and join the circus.

S: I just felt like with The Hostage especially, that you know, me and you, Hambone, were on the same page with that. And I felt other people weren't.

J: Oh, definitely not.

S: You know what I mean? I feel like me and you were ready to go, if go was a thing that happened.

J: Right.

S: And the others were like, you know, "I still have to do this so I have to work around my fucking flat tire on my fucking Mom's car."

F: It's very easy to say, "Hey, yeah, I'm down for the cause." It's another thing to do it.

J: Yeah, absolutely.

F: That's the scary part.

J: In the words of Jim Teacher, "Everyone wants to rock and roll, no one wants to pay the price."

F: This is true, man. If it were easy, everybody would do it, right?

J: Absolutely. Absolutely.

F: Fuck! But that's the thing, too, is- you know, the shitty thing is that- even if you have the talent and you have the heart and you take the risk, you still gotta have the luck. It's like, "Motherfucker!" It's like this perfect- it's like winning the lottery!

J: It is.

F: It doesn't make any goddamn sense.

J: For me, I didn't have the luck. My luck took me in very different directions and I'd never change anything about it, I'm super super grateful for it. You know, however, I hit a point where I was in my early 30s and I was like, "Shit, I kinda need to get like, a job job, and make some money because I got nothing." And that was cool, it was alright, because I have a work ethic. When you're a person who's passionate about their art and what they create, you know, whether it's Shaun's writing, Frank's writing music, I'm producing podcasts now, you always have that reason to get up in the morning and kick yourself in the ass and go take care of business. So I was able to go find a crazy job that if I told you what I did for a living, I'd have to kill you. Uh, made a bunch of money, and then I was able to kinda come back to the thing that I love the most, which is playing music, and being creative. Sometimes you just have to take a knee and reassess your situation. Redefine your ideas of success.

F: Yeah! Absolutely.

J: You know? So, I mean, I got my happy ending.

S: There it is!

F: There it is!

J: So do you guys have any final thoughts on the origin story?

F: Oh man!

S: I feel like we didn't cover a lot.

F: Yeah! We could probably keep going on the origin story, I think, for a couple- maybe we could take a break and then do another episode of origins.

J: Alright, so what we're gonna do is, we're gonna wrap this episode up. This'll be Origins-

F: Origins 1A!

J: Origin 1. This is part 1 of the origin story. Yeah, this is just the story of Pencey Prep and friendship, and next will be the story of Pencey Prep and Friendship: The Dark Knight Rises. So, you know, we'll find some catchy subtitle for it. Frank, where can people find you?

F: I live- New Jersey.

S: Don't give them your address!

F: I use Instagram. I have an Instagram called frankieromustdie, I have a Twitter that's @frankiero, and I have a website I guess, frank-iero.com. Because somebody had frankiero.com.

J: How rude!

F: Yeah!

S: Is that why there's no A in it?

F: Oh, what's that?

S: Isn't that- don't you do something where there's no A in your name?

F: I was- yeah, I was doing that for a while, too. So I could at least cut through some of the fakers. It's like faker He-Man, dude. Somebody has frankiero.com, I don't know who it is. I think, I don't know if there's like, I think there's companies that like, go out and buy, just domain names and then try to like, hold them ransom.

J: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean I'm shocked that I got hamfistedproductions.com.

F: Dude.

J: I'm shocked that we got casualinteractions.com!

S: Do we have that?

J: Oh yeah!

S: The website?

J: Oh, I got it.

F: Oh, nice! See?

S: Oh shit! Look at you, man!

J: I'm proactive.

F: Now, here's the thing! You could use that for this.

J: Yeah.

F: Right? And it'd be alright. Or you could start like, a weird porno hooker thing and make a lot of money.

J: Oh no, that's why we're sitting on it.

F: Right, right!

J: I'm gonna wait until someone wants to pay us. When the money comes rolling in, we're splitting it three ways, we're going to Cabo! Shaun, where can people find you?

S: I don't use anything. I have Twitter, @shaunsimon.

F: You have a Twitter?

J: You do have a Twitter.

S: I have Twitter.

F: Oh, alright. I'll check it out.

J: He's been known to tweet. What do you have in stores right now?

S: What do I have in stores?

J: Yeah, what books out right now?

S: Oh, nothing! I just- one of my books just was announced a few months ago called Wizard Beach. It's coming out in December, I believe.

J: Alright, very cool.

S: It's a comic book. Not a prose book, so.

J: Maybe one day, you'll write some prose.

S: We'll see what happens.

J: Well, when this episode drops, Wizard Beach will probably be right around the corner so definitely check out Wizard Beach at your local comic book store.

F: Wait, if you write a prose book can you title it "Every Prose Has Its Thorn"?

J: Yes!

F: So good.

J: You can find me at- you can check out my other podcast. It's The Vintage RPG Podcast, it's a gaming podcast. We talk about Dungeons & Dragons and other RPG games. You could also find me at maitaitv.com, for my punk rock Tiki podcast Mai Tai Happy Hour.

So, for Shaun Simon and Frank Iero, I'm John "Hambone" McGuire. Join us next month for another episode of Casual Interactions. Until then, hold onto your friends.

#frank iero #hambone #shaun simon #casual interactions #1 #casual interactions 1 #full transcription

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fuelcoin · 2 years ago

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How to access metaverse on iphone?

The way you access the metaverse on your iPhone depends on the platform you're using. Some popular platforms, such as Rec Room and VRChat, have dedicated apps for iOS. These apps can be downloaded through the App Store.

After installing these, you'll need to create a user account to start accessing the platform. In this article we will discuss how to access metaverse on iphone and other related queries.

Certain metaverse platforms may also require additional hardware or software to access their services on an iPhone. Before you start using a platform, make sure that you thoroughly check its documentation and website.

Some mobile apps which can be used to enter metaverse from your iphone are:

Roblox Mobile

One of the most popular iOS games is Roblox Mobile, which features over a hundred levels that have been created by users. This feature allows creators to showcase their work and provides Roblox players with a new way to consume it.

Through interoperability, users of Roblox Mobile can easily join the game servers of other players.

This allows users from different backgrounds to come together and share a single virtual universe. For free, users can buy various equipment from the Roblox Studio. They can also start their own games and earn money by playing them.

UHive

With the launch of UHive, users can now experience a whole new world of social media. Through its multi-layered platform, users can interact with people from all around the globe.

After signing up, users can create their own unique places on the platform. They can also earn rewards by becoming more engaged with their hobby. UHive is a digital money token network.

In the universe, users can participate in various activities and mini-games. Some of these include fishing, camping, and social gatherings.

Play Together

Play Together, an app for iPhone, allows users to access the metaverse. Play Together is a sandbox game that's suitable for everyone. Upon entering Kaia Island, you'll find yourself in the Plaza.

This universe has various mini-games that you can play, and it allows you to do whatever you want. Some of these are fishing and camping games. Play Together is a well-executed and solid game. It allows players to interact with new people.

What is the Metaverse?

The concept of the metaverse is a virtual world that allows you to work, play, and socialize in 3D. It's a combination of physical, virtual, and augmented reality that redefines the line between digital and real life.

It's hard to define what the metaverse is, since it doesn't actually exist. Instead, it refers to the way people interact with technology. Its meaning will change as the cyber realm continues to develop.

The concept of the metaverse revolves around the use of digital ownership, virtual reality, and augmented reality, which are commonly used in gaming. In a way, it's like an online community where people can interact with each other using a customizable avatar.

Although these technologies are useful in gaming, they are not essential to the metaverse's overall concept. Instead, they could help it develop into an open network that could eventually replace the mobile internet.

How to join the metaverse? | How to enter the metaverse?

You don't need a lot of technical equipment to access the metaverse. Although you'll need a smartphone to use it, you can also use other devices.

Even though you don't need a smartphone or computer to access the metaverse, additional equipment can still enhance your experience. As the platform continues to expand, more devices will be available.

How do I access metaverse without VR?

Today's metaverse experiences are accessible almost anywhere, including a computer, a smartphone, or even a video game console. To explore and move around the virtual world, you just use a keyboard, mouse, or controller. While your screen may show a limited view, you'll still be able to participate.

The Horizon Worlds, which is Meta's largest metaverse experience, requires a VR headset to play. The company also plans to bring this experience to mobile devices later this year, though an exact release date has not been announced.

When using a VR headset, you're essentially taking a completely different view of the world. Instead of seeing the real world, you're immersed in it through the headgear that you wear. The virtual world gives you a sense of being in front of you, allowing you to interact with various objects.

Without a VR headset, the visual effects are less immersive. You're still able to navigate the digital world, but you won't be able to fully "immerse" yourself in it. In addition, the lack of immersive controls makes the experience less realistic.

How do I download metaverse?

Metaverse is not something that you can download you can download the apps through which you can access metaverse by creating your avatars. Some of the names are given in this article in the starting which you can download on an iphone and start enjoying metaverse.

How much does land cost in the metaverse?

You can buy land in metaverse on Opensea for a price starting from 3-5 ethereum. This roughly translates to $5000 to $7000. Prices fluctuates a lot as they depend directly on crypto prices. If ethereum prices hike there is a significant dent on your pocket as you have to pay for the land in USD or any other fiat currency.

Where Can You Buy Metaverse Real Estate?

In The Sandbox, virtual land can be acquired through either the platform or external marketplaces such as Rarible and OpenSea. According to the CFTE, although primary sales are frequently carried out on the platform, it is becoming more difficult for most people to buy un-real estate. The secondary market is considered the preferred option for most buyers.

Takeaway from how to access metaverse on iphone

After reading this article you would have understood How to access metaverse on iphone and other related questions which might come to your mind. If you liked the article do share it with your friends and family and do visit other articles on our website. Also, if you have any questions do ask it in the comments section and we will try to answer them.

#metaverse #iphone #thefinanceopedia

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the-redhead-who-writes · 7 years ago

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His True Colours

“We finally get Jack’s green hair back! ...But what do we lose in return?”

Readers beware, you’re in for a scare! ...I’m only kidding. This is just a story idea I’ve been messing with! ‘Cause let’s face it: if Jack ever does dye his hair again, you know he’s gonna make a big deal out of it. So dorks, here’s a late-night spook/theory for you to enjoy!

Links: AO3

It’s been a few weeks since Jack returned from his “How Did We Get Here?” tour, the shows having gone down a smashing success. Those in attendance raved about the theatrics from the natural born showman, with everything from the audience interaction to the special effects working to create an unforgettable performance.

The fans that couldn’t make it to the shows contributed to the hype online, taking to social media and creating a tidal wave of incredible stories, edits, and art. The pieces ranged with everything from fluff to angst, starring Jack and all of the beloved Egos.

Jackieboyman fist bumping Spider-Man; Schneeplestein leering menacingly at the viewer, wielding a needle that definitely wasn’t regulation length; Chase with a variety of flower crowns. The works radiated with the passion and love the community held for both Jack and his characters.

And then, there was Anti.

Cryptic zalgo text littered every fans feed. The familiar lines of "D͏i͞d ̷yo͞u ̵miss̢ me̢?̧” and "You͘ s͢t̢o͝p͟ped pay̕in̛g̢ a͟tt͝eńtio͝ǹ!̡" were eerie reminders of the virus’s ever-lingering presence. The fandom was itching with pent-up fervour, as though Anti had somehow wormed his way under their very skin.

Poems, theories, art; he had it all.

The only difference was something that the untrained eye might not notice.

It was now old news that Jack had dyed his once-green hair back to its natural brown shade after years of the trademark look. And yes, the fans were sad to see it go. Each Ego sported one of Jack’s varying shades of green. It had been around for the creation of Anti, Schneep, Marvin... everyone!

The community moved on though, deciding that even if Jack had his brown hair back, the Egos could still keep their signature shades.

Except for Anti.

After all, Anti was a virus who depended on Jack’s body to survive. He didn’t have his own, so he should share Jack’s traits, right? It might not have made perfect sense, but the community seemed to accept the general idea, as was evident with nearly every piece of Anti art mirroring Jack’s brown hair, with the rest of the Egos staying the same.

No harm done, it was just the fandom taking creative license.

Cut to another morning upload, where Jack has just posted a brand new “SepticArt” video, the theme being art related to the tour or that period of time while he was away.

He’s as upbeat as usual, excitedly chattering away about all of his favourite moments while pouring over dozens of brilliant submissions.

A few minutes into the video, Jack pulls up an edit of Anti on stage at one of his past shows. He makes a remark about its complexity, and how well done it is, before noting the caption at the bottom:

“A little Anti takeover from Jack’s show in Texas! Forgive the blurry edges, kinda new to this style. And tbh, I’m still not used to brown-haired Anti. Looks good, but I miss our green Glitch Boy. Wonder if we’ll get to see him again haha.“

Jack laughs, reflexively running a hand through the front of his messy hair that’s not tucked into his beanie.

“Yeah, I got that question a lot while I was on tour. And I’m not sure; I mean, never say never, but I’m pretty happy with my natural hair. It’s less of a pain in the ass to take care of, that’s for sure.”

His hand lingers in his fringe for just a second more before he thanks the artist and carries on.

This time it’s a Marvin picture; the Magician is skillfully shuffling a deck of playing cards, grinning. His neon green bangs hang messily over his signature cat mask.

Jack points out his love of the bold line use, though he pauses at the hair. His eyes narrow ever so slightly, but his smile is still as bright as ever.

Then there’s a sketch of Chase, who’s excitedly comparing a befuddled JJ to the box art of the Monopoly Man while they try to play said board game.

Jack chuckles, hand going to rub his throat absentmindedly.

A watercolour of Anti from the back, his dark hair a stark contrast silhouetted against the bright green background of a not-so-friendly looking Sam whose teeth glint with moisture.

Jack grips his mouse a bit tighter.

Schneeplestein happily writing a postcard on some tropical beach, lab coat and all, dark green roots visible under his hat.

Jack cracks his neck.

As the video carries on, there’s a distinct tension in the YouTuber: his body twitches imperceptibly; his hands clenching into fists before quickly loosening; he can’t stop touching his throat.

A newcomer to Jack’s channel might write this off as excitement, his energy getting the better of him. The more experienced members of his community, however, begin to feel nervous.

Still, Jack is as taken with his community’s artistic endeavours as always. The smile on his face proves that.

It’s wide, teeth bared for all to see.

The video is almost finished, with Jack coming to the last piece. He once again thanks everyone who participated, saying how he would be nothing without them.

The theorists release a breath.

Everything was fine; just their typical overactive imaginations. Nothing to worry about.

With an eager grin, Jack pulls up the final entry.

It’s a stunning digital drawing of a bathroom mirror taken from the YouTuber’s perspective as he stares at his reflection, clutching a porcelain sink.

It smirks back, smile unnaturally wide. He eyes Jack with a blackened gaze, eagerly assessing him for even a hint of weakness. Blood from several crude, deep cuts in his throat drips down into his shirt collar. The knife responsible lays in the sink, crimson coating the blade.

From the angle, you’d swear it was Anti looking back at himself, sickly pleased with his deranged handiwork. The tell is the gauges and Jack’s lack thereof; the man you’re seeing the perspective from is without them.

Jack stares at the drawing, his gaze transfixed. For a split-second, you think to refresh the video, believing it to have lagged. The music Robin added into the background is gone, and the webcam footage seems frozen...

And then he’s throwing his head back, laughing as he grips his sides.

“That’s a helluva drawing! God, do you see the detail?! Anti looks badass!”

He’s positively giddy, scanning every inch of the artwork with rapt enthusiasm. He begins to say something about the shading as he brings the picture out of fullscreen view. Then his laughter cuts off abruptly, smile tightening. He scrolls down to highlight the artist’s note:

“Those 20 hours were all worth it! Here’s my entry for Jack’s #SepticArt event; I call it “Two-Way Mirror”! I’m really happy with how it turned out, though I was a little worried about how I’d draw the differences for Anti’s reflection. With his brown hair, how can you even tell the two of them apart? 😆 Anyway, hope you guys like it!”

His expression becomes flat. He stares with an unwavering intensity that leaves goosebumps on your skin.

“...The same...?”

Jack mutters the phrase so quietly, it’s almost indecipherable.

“You really think... we’re the same?”

A hollow chuckle spews from his lips, and then it grows into a laugh; high-pitched and cold. In a blur, he slams his fist down onto his desk, and even off-screen, you can hear his keyboarding shattering. His lips are pulled back into a hideous snarl, a grotesque mask of fury.

“I’m nothing like him. N̞͔̤̤̺͖ͅOT̼̱̪̬̹͉H̗͝I̶̲̰̘̠̹N͉͚̖̤̳̻G͓͈̩̣͎̝͞.

The man’s eyes widen fearfully, seemingly at the sound of his own voice. His rage gives way to panic as he falls forward in his seat, clutching his head with a pained groan.

Jack’s body shudders, racked by waves of tremors as his knuckles strain white, nails digging into the arms of his chair. The camera feed is breaking apart, glitching between frames of Jack clawing at his forearms, his neck. His breathing is erratic, mumbles falling from his mouth - desperate, rambling pleas.

Then he’s still.

Too still.

Jack lets out a heavy breath, relieved - no, satisfied - before sitting up slowly. His beanie has been knocked off, his usual fluffy hair on full display.

All eyes are immediately on his neck and - oh... it’s untouched. For a moment, the viewers feel a spike of relief, hearts slamming into their throats. But then Jack opens his eyes, and their blood runs cold.

Black. Darker than any art or edit could even attempt to capture.

He sits back, almost lounging in Jack’s gaming chair, as he takes a deep breath in. Cracking his knuckles, he rolls his neck in a series of jerky moves before closing his eyes again. And in one smooth motion, he runs his hand through the front of Jack’s hair.

His fingers pass through the strands, adjusting the colour as it melts in. The brown lightens to blonde, then grows brighter. The green hue radiates with an unnatural sheen.

Stopping at the fringe, he lowers his hand to reveal the change; familiar, yet not. Wrong.

Anti opens his eyes, a wickedly pleased smirk playing across his lips as he leans toward the camera.

“Are͏ ya͝ ̡f́uck͞i̛n̛’ ̛ha͠p͞py͏ now̶?͝”

He giggles with twisted glee, hair falling into his eyes as he tips his head forward. Then he stops, and looks up through his bangs, glaring into the camera with a ferocity that dares anyone watching to defy him.

“Ỳou͡’̴ve͠ ͠had̷ yǫur ͢fun, bu̧t̢ d͡on’t fuc̕ki͞n̸’͟ ͝f̷orģet w̢ḩo ͠I ̷a͘m͢, w̢ḩat ͠I ̷a͘m͢. A̧n̸d thąt͠’s n̛oţ h̢im.͘”

The camera is shoved to the floor. The lens cracks, spider-webbing across the screen before it cuts to black. Echoing laughter grows distant as Anti walks away.

There is no second upload that day.

#therealjacksepticeye #jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye egos #antisepticeye #jse community #jse fandom #jse fanfiction #jse theories #ginger gabs #angst #my first attempt #feel free to review!#my writing

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ester-sim · 2 years ago

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blog post.

Visit Ubiq, the social VR toolkit

3. Heuristic Evaluation

Your blog post #3

(1) Overall Navigation - it isn't too effective without a mouse. - UX UI for users who opens the site without context could be rather difficult. - the speed of rotation. (mouse button to look around) was too quick. - I do like how there's still an option to create rooms private and/or open, there is no option to change the state of the room after it has been made.

(2) Atmosphere - It wasn't very welcoming. - The environment looked rather plain. I don't think the interface is too considerate of new users. - Not gonna lie, it looked outdated and old. -

(3) Functions - Communication via voice feature. - Creating, joining, searching for servers to be with specific users. - Interactable world items, such as music box and fireworks. (fireworks could also be aimed, and be used as a teleportation device) - Users are able to modify their avatars and explore the space.

(4) How we could enhance the spatial environment in terms of secure and pleasant experience.

- With the standard environment of the Web Ubiq, I think the "affect" aspect could be more improved. - The basic features of communication could be made more efficient if: the keyboard inputs will reflect the input in-game. (This is because text cannot be typed with our external keyboard, but only through clicking the screen. I also found that providing access to the microphone, or generally just setting up our mics were a little difficult. (check this up later. But if it's true, it is likely a huge blow to the service, because it defeats the purpose of communication. - perhaps a larger standard space could help. The general look of this place does not only look out dated but unfinished, and plain. I think we could improve more on this aspect. - perhaps server stability could be improved. (me and a friend was in the same room until we opened our menu tab and our servers split.

Experiences:

the microphone function worked! I liked how the audio adjusts to how far and near you are from the speaker.

I enjoyed playing with the fireworks! tapping on the hand would release the fireworks, holding ctrl would slightly adjust the directions holding alt and shift would trigger teleportation

the music box was a cute add! the melody got a little annoying after few minutes though..

0 notes

triplejgraphics · 4 years ago

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Developmental Blog

Introduction

My name is Jerome Modeste I am currently a student at SBCS studying Art and design HND level 5 & 4.

The purpose of my task is to report about different digital content delivery systems, to discuss UI features and its principles and finally to evaluate the relationship between digital content systems and key UI elements for different devices.

We were asked to explain the purpose of different digital content delivery systems, the UI principles that apply to them, and the UI features that apply to them.

Purpose of digital content delivery systems

Digital content delivery systems basically mean using a device such as a computer or phone to send a message to another device. However, they could have added features over time that has changed it to be able to do more things than originally could.

The examples of digital content delivery systems that I will be using as reference will be computers and mobile phones:

Computer

Computers are stationary hardware that can be used for communication and send digital content to other devices around the world by using communication websites like G-mail or Facebook. However, it can be used for a number of tasks such as entertainment where you can watch or listen to many videos, musicals, shows or movies on app devices such as Netflix or YouTube. It can also be used for planning PC video games on apps like Steam. Computers can also be used for information gathering on many topics like nature, food, sports, music, history, science, poetry, etc. Which can be found in a number of ways such as websites of text information you can read from a primary or secondary source, looking up documentaries about a topic or a tutorial on how to learn a new skill, it might also have the added feature of sub-text for the viewer to read in case they have problems hearing or there are deaf or they speak another language and can’t understand what the person is saying. On the other hand, there’s audio books which give information or stories by sounds for simpler reasons but for people who can’t see right or are blind. Another great use for computers is to store information you gather from all different sources. Such as data you find on the web or book information scanned onto the computer. Information can include text information, images, photos, colors, sounds, music, videos, etc. This information feathering would be very useful for online courses people access if they wish to proceed education through online or finding a course to go to though college. You can also use it to find a job by advertising your CV or finding it on a job site like irishjobs.ie or creating your own business.

2. Mobile Phones

Mobile phones are similar to computers, they can ring or message someone from anywhere around the world with or without the need of the Internet however it is easier to send a message though the internet connections. A main use of messaging people with a phone is Facebook messenger who you are friends with on the server or the WhatsApp text or call people with phone numbers without passing them any credit. Another access you have with messaging people is video chat where you can talk to people face to face with a built-in camera phone usually (some older versions don’t have this future) and a few of the main apps used for video chat or Facebook messenger or Snapchat. Another thing mobile phones can do is gain access to the internet and find a number of information such as education or news, entertainment purposes that it can be used for like watching videos on YouTube, reading an article or book on the websites or playing mobile video games that you can gain access on app stores like Clash of Clans. You can also use your phone to gain access to looking for college and jobs for the future. Mobile phones are way small that you can fix in your pocket and bring with you anywhere you go. You can call or text anyone and anywhere at any time you need to as long as the other person answers. You can take photos or videos wherever you go and store them on your save drive on the phone as well as saving information like notes, contact, internet history, audio recordings, apps and many more things so long as it can hold that information on it which really depends what phone you have, old phones can only hold about a gigabyte or 2 of information while the new phones can hold up to about 300 gigabytes of information.

Purpose

The purpose of Triple J Graphics Studio website is to gain reputation as a designer targeted at business owners delivering a sample portfolio that consists of the history of the firm, team information, contact info. and services.

Differences

Both mobile phones and computers have many things in common but also have future or functions that make them completely different. The common things they do have with most of the two devices are communication where anyone can call, message, voice message, e-mail and video chat to anyone around the world however mobile phones don’t really need the internet to do this. Another thing they can do is have access to a large variety of information such as history, documentaries, images, photos, news, education, job seeking, etc. Their also great use of entertainment with their access to videos, films, music, digital design and video games. However, there are few major differences between them. For starters mobile phones are usually much smaller than computers and it can fit in your pocket, you can take it around wherever you want to go. Another difference they have is although mobile phones can contain more information or data for short computers most of the time can contain more information on it’s hard drive. Another thing a computer can do better than mobile phones is that it can function better software systems that can be used on it be it video games, audio editing, adobe software like Photoshop or illustrator.

All data below was used for the creation of the website:

The navigation role is a landmark role.

The HTML <nav> element, navigation landmarks provide a way to identify groups (e.g., tags) of links that are intended to be used for website or page content navigation. If a page includes more than one navigation landmark, each should have a unique label. Tags allow users to find content in the same category. Some tagging systems also allow users to apply their own tags to content by entering them into the system.

The HTML <input> element specifies an input field where the user can enter data. The <input> element is the most important form element. The <input> element can be displayed in several ways, depending on the type attribute. (e.g., Buttons, Text fields).

Text fields allow users to enter text. It can allow either a single line or multiple lines of text.

A button indicates an action upon touch and is typically labeled using text, an icon, or both.

Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place, person or group to another.

Every communication involves (at least) one sender, a message and a recipient. This may sound simple, but communication is actually a very complex subject.

The transmission of the message from sender to recipient can be affected by a huge range of things. These include our emotions, the cultural situation, the medium used to communicate, and even our location. The complexity is why good communication skills are considered so desirable by employers around the world: accurate, effective and unambiguous communication is actually extremely hard. (e.g, text-base).

text-based communication is one of the most popular categories used. Emails, SMS text messages, social media interaction, and instant messaging programs are all widely used by companies to accelerate communication between parties.

User interface principals used in the design of the website are:

Place the User at the Center

Strive for Clarity

Simplicity

Make It Accessible

Visual Structure

As always, the first UI design principle is to focus on the user. A good user interface is easy and natural to use, avoids confusing the user, and does what the user needs.

The purpose of the user interface is to allow the user to interact with the website avoiding anything that confuses people or doesn’t help them interact.

Simplicity exist for a reason; they’re timeless and never go out of style, though they do benefit from modern touches. A user interface should be simple and elegant.

UI designs need to take into account accessibility issues. Online, this often means ensuring the visibly impaired can access and use the product. Don’t forget about color blindness as well. Use colors were used to accentuate and emphasize.

A consistent visual structure was used in order to create familiarity and relieve user anxiety by making them feel at home. A few elements to focus on include a visual hierarchy with the most important things made obvious, color scheme, consistent navigation, re-use elements, and create a visual order using grids.

User interface (Mobile UI)

User interface or UI for short is the interaction and communication of people with devices. This can include computers, tablets, mobile phones, smart phones, laptops, etc. The futures that are linked to these devices and UI can include but not limited to keyboards, screens, torch screens, mouse’s, cameras, etc. This can also interact with software like apps like google or G-mail. Mobile UI is the mobile user interface is mostly the graphical and usually touch-sensitive display on a mobile device such as Huawei or iPhones. Mobile UI phones mostly show a tread of information on how to use the touch screen display like how to use the apps like the main apps used in most phones like contacts, messenger and calls which is usually used for getting in contact with other people's phones. Each app does have its own color icon and logo to tell it apart from the others.

The relationship between digital content systems and key UI elements with a phone

The UI and digital content system relationship with phones they have are when using video websites or apps to watch shows like YouTube or Netflix and if you want to increase the size you can do so by placing it on its side and the auto-rotation UI will be reposed to the digital content system video content. Another feature the UI and digital content system (or DCS for short) have is whenever you save or download or send something to anyone or a messenger site like Facebook messenger or E-mail gets saved on a file on you UI phone. These can include the following but not limited to photos, images, website link, videos, audios, etc. This has a few good perks such as it can put a reminder on your calendar dates like someone birthday party or wedding day, the ability to ring people online with the numbers without using credit on WhatsApp, the phone UI feature can auto save username and password on its device on a mostly safe software where no one can get access to them however it not always safe in case someone hacks your account. These username and password accounts include but are not limited to online banking accounts like First Citizen or Republic banking or online shopping account like Amazon, wish, book depository or social media account like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or information gathering and save drive like WordPress or the Moodle or Google drive.

The Approach used for this website was a filezilla upload to byethost.com in order for the website to be online.

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suzanneshannon · 5 years ago

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How to Think Like a Front-End Developer

This is an extended version of my essay “When front-end means full-stack” which was published in the wonderful Increment magazine put out by Stripe. It’s also something of an evolution of a couple other of my essays, “The Great Divide” and “Ooops, I guess we’re full-stack developers now.”

The moment I fell in love with front-end development was when I discovered the style.css file in WordPress themes. That’s where all the magic was (is!) to me. I could (can!) change a handful of lines in there and totally change the look and feel of a website. It’s an incredible game to play.

Back when I was cowboy-coding over FTP. Although I definitely wasn’t using CSS grid!

By fiddling with HTML and CSS, I can change the way you feel about a bit of writing. I can make you feel more comfortable about buying tickets to an event. I can increase the chances you share something with your friends.

That was well before anybody paid me money to be a front-end developer, but even then I felt the intoxicating mix of stimuli that the job offers. Front-end development is this expressive art form, but often constrained by things like the need to directly communicate messaging and accomplish business goals.

Front-end development is at the intersection of art and logic. A cross of business and expression. Both left and right brain. A cocktail of design and nerdery.

I love it.

Looking back at the courses I chose from middle school through college, I bounced back and forth between computer-focused classes and art-focused classes, so I suppose it’s no surprise I found a way to do both as a career.

The term “Front-End Developer” is fairly well-defined and understood. For one, it’s a job title. I’ll bet some of you literally have business cards that say it on there, or some variation like: “Front-End Designer,” “UX Developer,” or “UI Engineer.” The debate around what those mean isn’t particularly interesting to me. I find that the roles are so varied from job-to-job and company-to-company that job titles will never be enough to describe things. Getting this job is more about demonstrating you know what you’re doing more than anything else¹.

Chris Coyier Front-End Developer

The title variations are just nuance. The bigger picture is that as long as the job is building websites, front-enders are focused on the browser. Quite literally:

front-end = browsers

back-end = servers

Even as the job has changed over the decades, that distinction still largely holds.

As “browser people,” there are certain truths that come along for the ride. One is that there is a whole landscape of different browsers and, despite the best efforts of standards bodies, they still behave somewhat differently. Just today, as I write, I dealt with a bug where a date string I had from an API was in a format such that Firefox threw an error when I tried to use the .toISOString() JavaScript API on it, but was fine in Chrome. That’s just life as a front-end developer. That’s the job.

Even across that landscape of browsers, just on desktop computers, there is variance in how users use that browser. How big do they have the window open? Do they have dark mode activated on their operating system? How’s the color gamut on that monitor? What is the pixel density? How’s the bandwidth situation? Do they use a keyboard and mouse? One or the other? Neither? All those same questions apply to mobile devices too, where there is an equally if not more complicated browser landscape. And just wait until you take a hard look at HTML emails.

That’s a lot of unknowns, and the answers to developing for that unknown landscape is firmly in the hands of front-end developers.

Into the unknoooooowwwn. – Elsa

The most important aspect of the job? The people that use these browsers. That’s why we’re building things at all. These are the people I’m trying to impress with my mad CSS skills. These are the people I’m trying to get to buy my widget. Who all my business charts hinge upon. Who’s reaction can sway my emotions like yarn in the breeze. These users, who we put on a pedestal for good reason, have a much wider landscape than the browsers do. They speak different languages. They want different things. They are trying to solve different problems. They have different physical abilities. They have different levels of urgency. Again, helping them is firmly in the hands of front-end developers. There is very little in between the characters we type into our text editors and the users for whom we wish to serve.

Being a front-end developer puts us on the front lines between the thing we’re building and the people we’re building it for, and that’s a place some of us really enjoy being.

That’s some weighty stuff, isn’t it? I haven’t even mentioned React yet.

The “we care about the users” thing might feel a little precious. I’d think in a high functioning company, everyone would care about the users, from the CEO on down. It’s different, though. When we code a <button>, we’re quite literally putting a button into a browser window that users directly interact with. When we adjust a color, we’re adjusting exactly what our sighted users see when they see our work.

That’s not far off from a ceramic artist pulling a handle out of clay for a coffee cup. It’s applying craftsmanship to a digital experience. While a back-end developer might care deeply about the users of a site, they are, as Monica Dinculescu once told me in a conversation about this, “outsourcing that responsibility.”

We established that front-end developers are browser people. The job is making things work well in browsers. So we need to understand the languages browsers speak, namely: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript². And that’s not just me being some old school fundamentalist; it’s through a few decades of everyday front-end development work that knowing those base languages is vital to us doing a good job. Even when we don’t work directly with them (HTML might come from a template in another language, CSS might be produced from a preprocessor, JavaScript might be mostly written in the parlance of a framework), what goes the browser is ultimately HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, so that’s where debugging largely takes place and the ability of the browser is put to work.

CSS will always be my favorite and HTML feels like it needs the most love — but JavaScript is the one we really need to examine The last decade has seen JavaScript blossom from a language used for a handful of interactive effects to the predominant language used across the entire stack of web design and development. It’s possible to work on websites and writing nothing but JavaScript. A real sea change.

JavaScript is all-powerful in the browser. In a sense, it supersedes HTML and CSS, as there is nothing either of those languages can do that JavaScript cannot. HTML is parsed by the browser and turned into the DOM, which JavaScript can also entirely create and manipulate. CSS has its own model, the CSSOM, that applies styles to elements in the DOM, which JavaScript can also create and manipulate.

This isn’t quite fair though. HTML is the very first file that browsers parse before they do the rest of the work needed to build the site. That firstness is unique to HTML and a vital part of making websites fast.

In fact, if the HTML was the only file to come across the network, that should be enough to deliver the basic information and functionality of a site.

That philosophy is called Progressive Enhancement. I’m a fan, myself, but I don’t always adhere to it perfectly. For example, a <form> can be entirely functional in HTML, when it’s action attribute points to a URL where the form can be processed. Progressive Enhancement would have us build it that way. Then, when JavaScript executes, it takes over the submission and has the form submit via Ajax instead, which might be a nicer experience as the page won’t have to refresh. I like that. Taken further, any <button> outside a form is entirely useless without JavaScript, so in the spirit of Progressive Enhancement, I should wait until JavaScript executes to even put that button on the page at all (or at least reveal it). That’s the kind of thing where even those of us with the best intentions might not always toe the line perfectly. Just put the button in, Sam. Nobody is gonna die.

JavaScript’s all-powerfulness makes it an appealing target for those of us doing work on the web — particularly as JavaScript as a language has evolved to become even more powerful and ergonomic, and the frameworks that are built in JavaScript become even more-so. Back in 2015, it was already so clear that JavaScript was experiencing incredible growth in usage, Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, gave the developer world homework: “Learn JavaScript Deeply”³. He couldn’t have been more right. Half a decade later, JavaScript has done a good job of taking over front-end development. Particularly if you look at front-end development jobs.

While the web almanac might show us that only 5% of the top-zillion sites use React compared to 85% including jQuery, those numbers are nearly flipped when looking around at front-end development job requirements.

I’m sure there are fancy economic reasons for all that, but jobs are as important and personal as it gets for people, so it very much matters.

So we’re browser people in a sea of JavaScript building things for people. If we take a look at the job at a practical day-to-day tasks level, it’s a bit like this:

Translate designs into code

Think in terms of responsive design, allowing us to design and build across the landscape of devices

Build systemically. Construct components and patterns, not one-offs.

Apply semantics to content

Consider accessibility

Worry about the performance of the site. Optimize everything. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Just that first bullet point feels like a college degree to me. Taken together, all of those points certainly do.

This whole list is a bit abstract though, so let’s apply it to something we can look at. What if this website was our current project?

Our brains and fingers go wild!

Let’s build the layout with CSS grid.

What fonts are those? Do we need to load them in their entirety or can we subset them? What happens as they load in? This layout feels like it will really suffer from font-shifting jank.

There are some repeated patterns here. We should probably make a card design pattern. Every website needs a good card pattern.

That’s a gorgeous color scheme. Are the colors mathematically related? Should we make variables to represent them individually or can we just alter a single hue as needed? Are we going to use custom properties in our CSS? Colors are just colors though, we might not need the cascading power of them just for this. Should we just use Sass variables? Are we going to use a CSS preprocessor at all?

The source order is tricky here. We need to order things so that they make sense for a screen reader user. We should have a meeting about what the expected order of content should be, even if we’re visually moving things around a bit with CSS grid.

The photographs here are beautifully shot. But some of them match the background color of the site… can we get away with alpha-transparent PNGs here? Those are always so big. Can any next-gen formats help us? Or should we try to match the background of a JPG with the background of the site seamlessly. Who’s writing the alt text for these?

There are some icons in use here. Inline SVG, right? Certainly SVG of some kind, not icon fonts, right? Should we build a whole icon system? I guess it depends on how we’re gonna be building this thing more broadly. Do we have a build system at all?

What’s the whole front-end plan here? Can I code this thing in vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript? Well, I know I can, but what are the team expectations? Client expectations? Does it need to be a React thing because it’s part of some ecosystem of stuff that is already React? Or Vue or Svelte or whatever? Is there a CMS involved?

I’m glad the designer thought of not just the “desktop” and “mobile” sizes but also tackled an in-between size. Those are always awkward. There is no interactivity information here though. What should we do when that search field is focused? What gets revealed when that hamburger is tapped? Are we doing page-level transitions here?

I could go on and on. That’s how front-end developers think, at least in my experience and in talking with my peers.

A lot of those things have been our jobs forever though. We’ve been asking and answering these questions on every website we’ve built for as long as we’ve been doing it. There are different challenges on each site, which is great and keeps this job fun, but there is a lot of repetition too.

Allow me to get around to the title of this article.

While we’ve been doing a lot of this stuff for ages, there is a whole pile of new stuff we’re starting to be expected to do, particularly if we’re talking about building the site with a modern JavaScript framework. All the modern frameworks, as much as they like to disagree about things, agree about one big thing: everything is a component. You nest and piece together components as needed. Even native JavaScript moves toward its own model of Web Components.

I like it, this idea of components. It allows you and your team to build the abstractions that make the most sense to you and what you are building.

Your Card component does all the stuff your card needs to do. Your Form component does forms how your website needs to do forms. But it’s a new concept to old developers like me. Components in JavaScript have taken hold in a way that components on the server-side never did. I’ve worked on many a WordPress website where the best I did was break templates into somewhat arbitrary include() statements. I’ve worked on Ruby on Rails sites with partials that take a handful of local variables. Those are useful for building re-usable parts, but they are a far cry from the robust component models that JavaScript frameworks offer us today.

All this custom component creation makes me a site-level architect in a way that I didn’t use to be. Here’s an example. Of course I have a Button component. Of course I have an Icon component. I’ll use them in my Card component. My Card component lives in a Grid component that lays them out and paginates them. The whole page is actually built from components. The Header component has a SearchBar component and a UserMenu component. The Sidebar component has a Navigation component and an Ad component. The whole page is just a special combination of components, which is probably based on the URL, assuming I’m all-in on building our front-end with JavaScript. So now I’m dealing with URLs myself, and I’m essentially the architect of the entire site. [Sweats profusely]

Like I told ya, a whole pile of new responsibility.

Components that are in charge of displaying content are almost certainly not hard-coded with data in them. They are built to be templates. They are built to accept data and construct themselves based on that data. In the olden days, when we were doing this kind of templating, the data has probably already arrived on the page we’re working on. In a JavaScript-powered app, it’s more likely that that data is fetched by JavaScript. Perhaps I’ll fetch it when the component renders. In a stack I’m working with right now, the front end is in React, the API is in GraphQL and we use Apollo Client to work with data. We use a special “hook” in the React components to run the queries to fetch the data we need, and another special hook when we need to change that data. Guess who does that work? Is it some other kind of developer that specializes in this data layer work? No, it’s become the domain of the front-end developer.

Speaking of data, there is all this other data that a website often has to deal with that doesn’t come from a database or API. It’s data that is really only relevant to the website at this moment in time.

Which tab is active right now?

Is this modal dialog open or closed?

Which bar of this accordion is expanded?

Is this message bar in an error state or warning state?

How many pages are you paginated in?

How far is the user scrolled down the page?

Front-end developers have been dealing with that kind of state for a long time, but it’s exactly this kind of state that has gotten us into trouble before. A modal dialog can be open with a simple modifier class like <div class="modal is-open"> and toggling that class is easy enough with .classList.toggle(".is-open"); But that’s a purely visual treatment. How does anything else on the page know if that modal is open or not? Does it ask the DOM? In a lot of jQuery-style apps of yore, yes, it would. In a sense, the DOM became the “source of truth” for our websites. There were all sorts of problems that stemmed from this architecture, ranging from a simple naming change destroying functionality in weirdly insidious ways, to hard-to-reason-about application logic making bug fixing a difficult proposition.

Front-end developers collectively thought: what if we dealt with state in a more considered way? State management, as a concept, became a thing. JavaScript frameworks themselves built the concept right in, and third-party libraries have paved and continue to pave the way. This is another example of expanding responsibility. Who architects state management? Who enforces it and implements it? It’s not some other role, it’s front-end developers.

There is expanding responsibility in the checklist of things to do, but there is also work to be done in piecing it all together. How much of this state can be handled at the individual component level and how much needs to be higher level? How much of this data can be gotten at the individual component level and how much should be percolated from above? Design itself comes into play. How much of the styling of this component should be scoped to itself, and how much should come from more global styles?

It’s no wonder that design systems have taken off in recent years. We’re building components anyway, so thinking of them systemically is a natural fit.

Let’s look at our design again:

A bunch of new thoughts can begin!

Assuming we’re using a JavaScript framework, which one? Why?

Can we statically render this site, even if we’re building with a JavaScript framework? Or server-side render it?

Where are those recipes coming from? Can we get a GraphQL API going so we can ask for whatever we need, whenever we need it?

Maybe we should pick a CMS that has an API that will facilitate the kind of front-end building we want to do. Perhaps a headless CMS?

What are we doing for routing? Is the framework we chose opinionated or unopinionated about stuff like this?

What are the components we need? A Card, Icon, SearchForm, SiteMenu, Img… can we scaffold these out? Should we start with some kind of design framework on top of the base framework?

What’s the client state we might need? Current search term, current tab, hamburger open or not, at least.

Is there a login system for this site or not? Are logged in users shown anything different?

Is there are third-party componentry we can leverage here?

Maybe we can find one of those fancy image components that does blur-up loading and lazy loading and all that.

Those are all things that are in the domain of front-end developers these days, on top of everything that we already need to do. Executing the design, semantics, accessibility, performance… that’s all still there. You still need to be proficient in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and how the browser works. Being a front-end developer requires a haystack of skills that grows and grows. It’s the natural outcome of the web getting bigger. More people use the web and internet access grows. The economy around the web grows. The capability of browsers grows. The expectations of what is possible on the web grows. There isn’t a lot shrinking going on around here.

We’ve already reached the point where most front-end developers don’t know the whole haystack of responsibilities. There are lots of developers still doing well for themselves being rather design-focused and excelling at creative and well-implemented HTML and CSS, even as job posts looking for that dwindle.

There are systems-focused developers and even entire agencies that specialize in helping other companies build and implement design systems. There are data-focused developers that feel most at home making the data flow throughout a website and getting hot and heavy with business logic. While all of those people might have “front-end developer” on their business card, their responsibilities and even expectations of their work might be quite different. It’s all good, we’ll find ways to talk about all this in time.

In fact, how we talk about building websites has changed a lot in the last decade. Some of my early introduction to web development was through WordPress. WordPress needs a web server to run, is written in PHP, and stores it’s data in a MySQL database. As much as WordPress has evolved, all that is still exactly the same. We talk about that “stack” with an acronym: LAMP, or Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. Note that literally everything in the entire stack consists of back-end technologies. As a front-end developer, nothing about LAMP is relevant to me.

But other stacks have come along since then. A popular stack was MEAN (Mongo, Express, Angular and Node). Notice how we’re starting to inch our way toward more front-end technologies? Angular is a JavaScript framework, so as this stack gained popularity, so too did talking about the front-end as an important part of the stack. Node and Express are both JavaScript as well, albeit the server-side variant.

The existence of Node is a huge part of this story. Node isn’t JavaScript-like, it’s quite literally JavaScript. It makes a front-end developer already skilled in JavaScript able to do server-side work without too much of a stretch.

“Serverless” is a much more modern tech buzzword, and what it’s largely talking about is running small bits of code on cloud servers. Most often, those small bits of code are in Node, and written by JavaScript developers. These days, a JavaScript-focused front-end developer might be writing their own serverless functions and essentially being their own back-end developer. They’ll think of themselves as full-stack developers, and they’ll be right.

Shawn Wang coined a term for a new stack this year: STAR or Design System, TypeScript, Apollo, and React. This is incredible to me, not just because I kind of like that stack, but because it’s a way of talking about the stack powering a website that is entirely front-end technologies. Quite a shift.

I apologize if I’ve made you feel a little anxious reading this. If you feel like you’re behind in understanding all this stuff, you aren’t alone.

In fact, I don’t think I’ve talked to a single developer who told me they felt entirely comfortable with the entire world of building websites. Everybody has weak spots or entire areas where they just don’t know the first dang thing. You not only can specialize, but specializing is a pretty good idea, and I think you will end up specializing to some degree whether you plan to or not. If you have the good fortune to plan, pick things that you like. You’ll do just fine.

The only constant in life is change.

– Heraclitus – Motivational Poster – Chris Coyier

¹ I’m a white dude, so that helps a bunch, too. ↩️ ² Browsers speak a bunch more languages. HTTP, SVG, PNG… The more you know the more you can put to work! ↩️ ³ It’s an interesting bit of irony that WordPress websites generally aren’t built with client-side JavaScript components. ↩️

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siliconwebx · 5 years ago

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The Widening Responsibility for Front-End Developers

Back when I was cowboy-coding over FTP. Although I definitely wasn’t using CSS grid!

Front-end development is at the intersection of art and logic. A cross of business and expression. Both left and right brain. A cocktail of design and nerdery.

I love it.

Chris Coyier Front-End Developer

The title variations are just nuance. The bigger picture is that as long as the job is building websites, front-enders are focused on the browser. Quite literally:

front-end = browsers

back-end = servers

Even as the job has changed over the decades, that distinction still largely holds.

That’s a lot of unknowns, and the answers to developing for that unknown landscape is firmly in the hands of front-end developers.

Into the unknoooooowwwn. – Elsa

Being a front-end developer puts us on the front lines between the thing we’re building and the people we’re building it for, and that’s a place some of us really enjoy being.

That’s some weighty stuff, isn’t it? I haven’t even mentioned React yet.

In fact, if the HTML was the only file to come across the network, that should be enough to deliver the basic information and functionality of a site.

JavaScript’s all-powerfulness makes it an appealing target for those of us doing work on the web — particularly as JavaScript as a language has evolved to become even more powerful and ergonomic, and the frameworks that are built in JavaScript become even more-so. Back in 2015, it was already so clear that JavaScript was experiencing incredible growth in usage, Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress, gave the developer world homework: “Learn JavaScript Deeply”³. He couldn’t have been more right. Half a decade later, JavaScript has done a good job of taking over front-end development. Particularly if you look at front-end development jobs.

I’m sure there are fancy economic reasons for all that, but jobs are as important and personal as it gets for people, so it very much matters.

So we’re browser people in a sea of JavaScript building things for people. If we take a look at the job at a practical day-to-day tasks level, it’s a bit like this:

Translate designs into code

Think in terms of responsive design, allowing us to design and build across the landscape of devices

Build systemically. Construct components and patterns, not one-offs.

Apply semantics to content

Consider accessibility

Worry about the performance of the site. Optimize everything. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Just that first bullet point feels like a college degree to me. Taken together, all of those points certainly do.

This whole list is a bit abstract though, so let’s apply it to something we can look at. What if this website was our current project?

Our brains and fingers go wild!

Let’s build the layout with CSS grid.

What fonts are those? Do we need to load them in their entirety or can we subset them? What happens as they load in? This layout feels like it will really suffer from font-shifting jank.

There are some repeated patterns here. We should probably make a card design pattern. Every website needs a good card pattern.

I could go on and on. That’s how front-end developers think, at least in my experience and in talking with my peers.

Allow me to get around to the title of this article.