#program to read text

[songofwizardry]

it’s actually such a difficult time to be someone who’s unironically and genuinely and wholeheartedly into space travel, and believes in space for everyone, and thinks it’s bonkers that we have had zero (0) people who aren’t white American men who have set foot on the moon, but also who hates Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. (but also tbh it’s been hard for us Elon Musk hating space nerds out here for a long time.)

like I’m 100% not a fan of this billionaire Katy Perry space tourism… thing, but also. you don’t gotta write off space travel as a concept entirely as always imperialist/the realm of billionaires/pointless/etc. it doesn’t have to be this way come with me and I can show you a better world.

[sarellathesphinx]

Now that I’ve ridden the Lightcycle Run a couple times, I find it very interesting that beyond my obsessed person nitpicks on details from like, a fan standpoint (circuit patterns for main characters being recolored arbitrarily into generic programs, Rinzler being the only named program from the films and even then his program number is wrong, the queue being frankly a bit boring)……

They also pretty clearly tried to distance the ride from the story of the film in what I view as an attempt to capitalize on the aesthetics and ignore the actual storyline or characters. Possibly to make it easier for Ares to come out without much critique, as despite Jeff’s presence it feels rather divorced from the first two films from what I’ve seen in press stuff. Which I think is a big shame

[might-be-tiny-gt]

Last year I wrote a story about a streamer who shrinks based on chat donations. I meant it as a one shot, but guys…. GUYSSSSS.

I think about this story ‘s universe a lot. I have lore notes just collecting dust and I need to share it or I might go absolutely mad XD Made these visuals charts to get the basics across but if you’re interested in my lore and semantic ramblings, feel free to read below the cut.

Consider this my unofficial pitch bible for Down Played.

General premise: Monica Diaz is Twitch streamer with steadily growing fan base. Her tag is MiniMushroom and her aesthetic is cottage core. She loves all things magical and tiny, especially toadstool mushrooms, that’s the image most associated with her “brand.” She’s approached by a mysterious benefactor who has developed technology specifically for Monica to test and utilize for her streams. It’s called Byte-Syzed Tech and it connects to a user’s twitch stream and based on the user’s preferences, gives the audience the ability to change the user’s height. The one shot I wrote takes place during Monica’s first live use of Byte-Syzed tech on stream. If I were to develop this into a full story I’d probably go back a bit and start around when Monica is first approached about using Byte-Syzed tech then continue to follow Monica adjusting to using Byte-Syzed more often. How she deals with the size change on camera, off camera, how her social and personal life are affected, all that good stuff. I think it would like a slice of life feel good kinda story.

Characters:

- Monica - Main character and primary user of Byte-Syzed tech. Surprisingly enough, she’s actually a law school grad who probably would have put her degree to use if she didn’t accidentally gain a massive following on twitch. Funny how life works out. She stands at 6’4 and always was fascinated with the idea of being small (Basically, she’s a g/t nerd who doesn’t know what g/t is) so being gifted Byte-Syzed and being able to use it on stream is kinda a dream come true.

- Kim - Monica’s girlfriend, roommate, and stream moderator. Kim and Monica were high school sweethearts but drifted apart in college due to personal matters in Kim’s life including having to drop out of college. Kim and Monica rekindled their relationship a few years later and Kim cites Monica and her encouragement as a big reason why she’s been able to get her life back together. She’s currently back in college working on getting her degree in Mathematics.

- The Twitch Team- Moni hosts solo streams but also very often collabs with three of her online friends. Ariel (@Lifeisthebubbles), a Vtuber who is the only one Moni has met in person. Corey (@McDonuts) an NB asmrist on youtube who started streaming games for fun. And Phin (@UrguyPhin) Corey's bf and the competitive gamer of the four. All three of them were streaming with Monica when she first used Byte-Syzed and have since gotten used to pausing their games so an ever shrinking Monica can adjust her set up.

- The Benefactors- Keeping their (Plural, there are two of them) exact identity to myself for the time being, but basically they’re mad scientists with the best intentions. Their antics have garnered attention across the internet as they have created and gifted inventions to up and coming online creators that seem to defy all laws of physics. Anti Gravity chambers, a literal money tree, a mask the morphs the wearer’s face, and now the Byte-Syzed size changing tech. Despite their inventions going viral, their identities have remained hidden. So what is their deal? They’re just big fans of these creators and for lack of drawing skills have gifted them weird inventions instead. Nerds… Due to the nature of Byte-Syzed and the possible effects it can have on the human body, Monica and Kim remain in close contact with them.

How Byte-Syzed Works in Universe: This I wrote tons of notes about when I first thought of the idea. Byte-Syzed can be divided into three key components; The program, the arm band monitor, and the sync suit.

The Program is installed on the user’s computer and connects directly to the arm band monitor and sync suit. The program has user friendly set up that allows the user to input the direction of height change (Shrink or Grow), The minimum or maximum height change, How height change occurs (By views, chat commands, donations, etc.), and rate of height change (How much height is gained or lost with each instance of viewer interaction.) EX: If height is based on donations, the user can set it up so they lose 1 inch for every 10 dollars donated. They can set the minimum height to 6 inches, so once they’ve received enough donations that they have shrunk down to 6 inches, Byte-Syzed will hold at that height. More donations may come in after, but the height will remain at 6 inches for the duration of the stream.)

The Arm Band Monitor, is the device the physically changes the user’s height after connecting to the Byte-Syzed Program. It also monitors and display’s the user’s current height and vitals. All data collected from the arm band will then be saved and can be referenced later if the band is connected to the computer. The arm band must be kept on at all times during active use and active reset of Byte-Syzed. Active use is the time in which Byte-Syzed is being used in a stream and the user’s height is actively changing. Active reset refers to time after the stream has ended and the user is either set at their new current height or in the process of returning to their normal height. After a stream has ended the user will remain at their changed height until they press the reset button on the monitor. Once the reset button is active, the user will return to their normal height at 1.5 times the amount of time it took to change to their current changed height. EX: A user has finished a stream that was 4 hours. They hit the reset button which will return them to normal over the course of 6 hours. (4x1.5=6) This only applies for time Byte-Syzed was in use, not how long a size change occurred. EX: If the user’s stream was 4 hours, but they reached their minimum height in 3 hours, the reset function will account for the 4 hours the stream lasted. This is a safety procedure to reduce stress on the user’s body. Note: If the reset button is not pressed, the user will remain at their changed height for a period of 12 hours. After 12 hours, the reset function will kick in automatically.

The Synchronized Suit or Sync Suit is directly connected to the Byte-Syzed program and will grow and shrink with the user at the same rate as the user. Normal clothing can be worn above it but they will not change size with the user, only the sync suit. The sync suit Monica received came with the suit, shoes, and a headset with a built in microphone to keep audio input even over the course of her size changing. More sync suits are in the process of being designed and produced, with the goal of making sync suits that resemble everyday clothing like t shirts or skirts.

Fun Story Ideas:

- Origin story. How Monica met the benefactors and was gifted Byte-Syzed, her and Kim’s gripes about using it, actually going through with it and the pros and cons she noticed, the end of her first size changing stream and dealing with being tiny in her own room and her girlfriend’s hands. Etc etc

- Monica finished a late night stream using byte Syzed and forgets to press reset when she goes to sleep so instead of growing back over the course of the night she wakes up at her tiny size. After realizing her mistake she begins the growth process but now has to do it while attempting to do her regular day time activities.

- Monica is approached by a doll company to collaborate on a new doll based on her, only issue, their studio is several hours away and they want her to model at both her full height and at the height of the dolls. After some consideration Monica and Kim decide to take a road trip to the studio and use Byte Syzed at the studio under Kim’s careful supervision. What could go wrong?

- Months have passed and Kim and Monica have grown well adjusted to the major size difference between them after Monica finishes a byte syze stream, however curiosity has gotten the best of her and Kim wonders what it would be like to be the tiny one for a change.

If you have read this far, you have my eternal gratitude. Thanks for reading this far, I really hope you liked it XD Maybe if time and motivation allows I can flesh the story out.

[plugnuts]

CYBER AU PART SIX: SUCCESS

PREVIOUS | START | NEXT

Panels under the cut:

[silusvesuius]

this tree from my new drawing looking goated afffffff 👑👑

[rotzaprachim]

one of the issues with minority languages (x2) is we have no marketing budgets and everything we do have tends to be done by some guy in his five minutes of free time between actual payed careers so stuff looks very graphic design is my passion. Another issue is needing to stick at least two languages on all the flyers and stuff looking crowded idk stuff I want to play with x2 with the typography

[hoiburto]

Can fanfic writers [ & people who post digital stuff in general! ] please be mindful that the dividers that consist of repeated symbols, such as [~~~~~], or [+++++], (& others used too) are read out loud by the majority of text to speech programs. For example, if I were to add a break right tilde tilde tilde tilde tilde tilde tilde tilde now, that's annoying. People who use these text to speech programs for accessibility have to listen to every single symbol you add to your work, or manually skip past, which, for many people using text to speech- defeats the point of the tool. Not saying avoid those details entirely, but maybe they don't have to span the entire width of the page?

[hiraethwrote]

holy shit norwegian is such an ugly language

[purgaytorysupremacy]

so i'm rereading my ATC AU fic a life in your shape for literally the first time (i usually published a chapter and just moved on soooo) and did you guys know i gave them a thanksgiving day picnic in the parking lot of the tower in the back of bobby's truck??? why don't i remember this!! jesus. i was really cooking with gas with this fic.............

[dykesynthezoid]

Truly a thesaurus is more useful to me as a brainfogged disabled writer than generative AI could ever be

[dimalink]

Frozen arctic station – example vision, demo show

[ Work in Progress ]

Retro game. As quest. With text part. Here it is example. How it will look. Text – you read this. There is test – you write with digit 1 or 2 or 3. What will you do next

And story about station in the snow. You help scientists. And something is going wrong.

---

Basic Pascal version 1.18 "Duckling" – most newest version. In this version there are 4 new games! Puddles at Countryside, Duckling Pseudo 3D, Road to Countryside, Duckling Goes 2D. And even more retro games! It is a pack of retro games with modern versions of Basic and Pascal.

It is now in development new version Basic Pascal pack games. This game will be included in a new version.

Basic Pascal: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/games/basicpascal/index_eng.html

Website: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/home_eng.html

Itchio: https://dimalink.itch.io/basic-pascal

[somegrumpynerd]

I have got to stop getting distracted

[rigelmejo]

So anyone following me for an example (lol i appreciate you if this is u) just keep in mind that: my primary goal for any language I studied was to READ. I think I'm fairly good at reaching that goal. A lot of what I did, personally, as a beginner, was tailored to learning to read. (Read a grammar summary, study word translations for 1000-3000 words, start reading graded readers, work up to intensively reading materials - so looking up key words for the main idea, then extensively reading materials I understood the main ideas of).

For the other skills:

Listening - I am working on it now as it's a weak spot I would like to be better at. I think my study plan has been working well. Which amounts to intensive listening (looking key words up for understanding the main ideas), and a lot of extensive listening. The same strategy I had for reading, which worked well for reading. Start with materials for learners, which for listening is CI Lessons and Learner Podcasts. Then ramp up the difficulty, and do intensive and extensive listening. Mostly extensive listening, since I already know many words from reading.

Speaking and writing - I am NOT a good example of success lmao. I am a 3-5 year old level at best when it comes to writing or speaking. The best thing I studied was "300 words in a language to say anything" post on tumblr, reblogged with various translations for languages, because you can indeed say a LOT of stuff on a very general level with that word list. That's about as good as my speaking/writing ever got, in terms of active study. After that, everything I've studied was in the service of learning to read or listen, and you don't need Active Production skills to read or listen. You don't need perfect pronunciation or grammar to read, you just need to recognize the general idea. If I'm being really fucking generous with myself, I am perhaps A2 at speaking and writing in French, HSK 3-4 in Chinese, if I have recently read/listened to those languages for a few weeks beforehand so I can actively recall more words. Could I get by if traveling? Sure. Could I ask my way around topics to ask how to say X? Yeah, that 300 words list was fucking awesome for a general preparation to talk around topics/ask about words. Is it good enough to do anything detailed like write an email or a journal entry, absolutely fucking not. I still have a LOT to work to do on my production skills. I'm honestly hoping the listening skills transfer to active skills a bit...

[beatcroc]

next asks have so much text im finally caving and using a real art program to add it 😔✊

if you have been wondering why the text in these has been so poorly-aligned/spaced it's because i have been doing all that shit mmmmmmmanually because i use sai2 and its text tool has no options besides left-align. and also it doesnt have text wrapping either

[ladyluscinia]

Really annoying to watch in real time as hyped up tech investors artificially stretch the ai bubble by just... Redefining "ai" to include any new useful software so they can go "look at the potential of ai!" and act like Enhanced Autocorrect chatgpt still has potential to revolutionize workplaces.

Like. An article about using "ai" in farming talks about image analysis to catch disease or count leaves to measure plant health - which is actually an ai thing, but related to analysis not generating text/images. But then it also talks about "Smart Apply" spray systems that have sensors to more effectively target leaves and not waste spray in open air and that's like. That is detecting light and running an algorithm to spray where there is less light (so it turns off when you drive past a gap). I'm sure they've been refining the algorithm but we've had "turn this off when it detects too much light" for a long fucking time. If they have added any "ai" to that (to better differentiate foliage density?) it's significantly less "smart" and even further from resembling chatgpt.

And then they talk about "ai" irrigation systems which are just automatic water pumps with software that gathers data. It has auto shutoff if water flow passes X. It sends a ping about a suspected leak if Y doesn't equal Z. That's literally just automation software. That's "your microwave does X amount of energy for Y minutes unless the door opens and triggers auto shutoff". The only thing *maybe* "ai" is that the valve "learns" typical water use, and that could also just be a guy pulling up the usage data because the only system in which your valve is making decisions is if you have a separate ai system like the first one doing leaf health analysis that then automatically sets the irrigation level for the day because the plants seemed dry. Which is a totally different feature only vaguely alluded to and not part of the automatic irrigation system. Which you can definitely get sans ai because the features you have described as revolutionary are just normal enhancements of normal control software.

And none of this is remotely the same thing as the random plug about using chatgpt to develop, label, and price a wine bottle. Which why the hell would you use Enhanced Predictive Keyboard Text chatgpt to do that?

I mean, I know "artificial intelligence" is a buzzword and not a distinct thing, but running an algorithm to operate a system used to just be called adding a computer, and we were aware that computerizing one process for efficiency did not stop a completely different computerized process from being an ineffective waste of money that people probably shouldn't have invested in.

[jonquilandlace]

Someone should hire me for ideas on building a superior word processor specifically for dissertation writing I have so many good ideas