#source control

[gabebell12fi]

People tell me I am not the most stupid person alive, but I just spent ten minutes staring at some code wondering how in the name of god it works when there is no reference to the component it is supposed to modify anywhere in the code.

Then I realised that yesterday I had had to go back to the previous release -- before we introduced that component -- to fix a minor bug and release a patch -- so the code I was staring at DIDN'T HAVE THAT COMPONENT IN IT.

I returned to the current version of it, and bingo -- there was the reference to the component, and the function it used to get the value.

Truly I am a work of wonder and genius and not a total fuckwhit.

[techdirectarchive]

How to create Bitbucket Repository

Bitbucket is a Git-based source code repository hosting service provided by Atlassian. Bitbucket offers both commercial plans and free accounts with an unlimited number of private repositories. In this article, you will learn how to create Bitbucket Repository on Bitbucket Cloud. In the next article, we will show you how to clone it to your local system. Please see ‘Import Repo to Bitbucket…

[lesbian-gene-wolfe]

desperately want to write a post on here to help fanfic writers. see so many people say they write their fic in ao3 or in word (the first is really dangerous, the second inserts a bunch of annoying formatting that you probably don't notice immediately.) when you could just be writing plaintext and backing it up with source control. hopefully i can get some time to do this soon

[fffp3]

direct link to the study: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(24)00192-0/fulltext

From the article:

Any common face mask provides significant protection against the virus that causes COVID-19, but N95 masks are most effective at slashing the amount emitted by infected people, according to a University of Maryland-led study released Wednesday. So-called “duckbill” N95 masks scored highest in the study, which measured the exhaled breath of participants who were tested both masked and unmasked to measure comparative outputs of SARS-CoV-2. The inexpensive masks, which have two head straps and a horizontal seam, captured 98% of exhaled virus, according to the study published in eBioMedicine. The researchers also found that—in what might come as a surprise to many—cloth masks outperformed the specific brand of KN95 mask that was tested. Surgical masks brought up the rear in performance out of the four types, but even they blocked 70% of the virus, the tests showed. (To reflect the general public's use of masks, study volunteers were not fit-tested for their masks or trained how to properly wear them.) “The research shows that any mask is much better than no mask, and an N95 is significantly better than the other options. That’s the No. 1 message,” says the study’s senior author, Donald Milton, a professor of environmental health and a global expert on how viruses spread through the air.

[zmyaro]

Does anyone know of document tracking software that, instead of having document “owners” who can take certain actions, implements a consensus model where anyone on the team can propose changes, mark pages for deletion, etc., and anyone else on the team has the opportunity to block the action?

(I know we software folks have that in source control systems, but I am looking for something designed for not-tech-y uses?)

[datavids]

This ought to be useful for you

[inbabylontheywept]

Babylon's 6 D&D Tips

I DM’d D&D for ten years. I started in middle school, and I kept it up until my sophomore year of college. This is my mini-guide for what the game is, what it isn’t, and how to play it well. So. From the top.

Tip 1: Don't make your main storyline time dependent. 

D&D is an amazing open-world experience. You can pick at any detail. Nothing is a non-interactable part of the scenery. If there’s a sewer manhole, you can lift it up and climb down. If there’s a house, you can look inside and rob it. If there’s an NPC that you meet at the market, you can follow them home and see their whole life. Their parents, or their partner, their trade - all of it. It will be made up on the fly by some sort of reasonably skilled improv speaker, but it will also exist after that. That’s how the world is built. That’s the secret sauce that makes D&D beautiful.

If your plotline is too urgent, it kills those opportunities. The worst example of this that I have isn’t even from D&D, but FO4. The game is clearly built around exploration and adventure. The plot is built around rescuing your kidnapped baby. There’s a lot of tension between those goals. The plot does not work with the game mechanics, and it's really, really, jarring.

Be wary of doing that. It's surprisingly easy.

Tip 2: Don't set up giant, epic, fantasy battles between multiple armies. 

D&D is not a very good epic-battle simulator. There are games that have streamlined combat mechanics to allow for whole armies to fight, but D&D is very detail oriented, and trying to control too many people at once makes combat slow to a crawl. That very creative DM who can tell you every detail of an NPC’s life is also just not very good at multitasking. 

If you really, really want to - fine. But you should be ignoring standard mechanics when you do so. Move to a “cinematic mode” and just go by vibes. And generally, take a moment to “get” the game before modifying it. If the kind of plot you really want is urgent, and involves epic scale armies, maybe look into different RPG systems. D&D specializes in exploration and small, focused parties. Using it for things outside of that is kind of like hitting nails with a wrench. 

Tip 3: Don't prepare your plot like it's a book. Kill your lore codex. 

D&D is a collaborative storytelling adventure. That's the secret sauce. Writing out codexes and trying to crystallize the world before you start playing ruins the collaborative element. It’s genuinely better if you build as you go. It lets your players give input. And it saves you a lot of time. Why bother trying to write up who the Mayor of Snoresville is if there’s a good chance your party never even talks to him?  

(I would also apply this to writing in general. If you want to write all of your world's lore before starting your book, you'll never start your book. And you'll go crazy. Fear the lore codex.)

Tip 4: Prepare your combats and your NPCS rigorously, but generically. 

This ties in to Tip 3. If you spend a lot of time preparing the lore of the Bandit Leader of Redgrove, things like his family history, or his trauma, or his deep-down character motivations, and then the party never goes to Redgrove, it all goes to waste. D&D evolves rapidly and chaotically, so building things in a modular, reusable way really pays off. 

So. I tend to have two big pools for my NPC work. One is a character sheet pool. I keep it small and focused. I can generalize most melee classes ahead of time, so I can have an Archer, a Brawler, a Tank, and some Generalist Infantry. That’s like, 80% of your martial enemies, done. Spellcasters are a bigger pain in the ass, but a few pre-mades thrown into a campaign pays off if you know your themes. If you’re dealing with a death cult, make some death clerics. A dragon will probably have sorcerer acolytes. 

My second pool is a pool of character mannerisms. Some should absolutely be practiced ahead of time. Figure out what mannerisms make your villain really pop. And if the party skips that villain, just move those mannerisms to some new guy down the line and you’ll still be fine. Nothing wasted. A lot of the mannerisms are going to be picked with no heads up when the party does something weird, like following a random merchant around for a few days just to see how they live. You can get through almost all of those extremely well with just variations on the 4 humors, the 3 socioeconomic classes, and regional dialects.

Tip 5: Give your players permission to inject themselves into the world. 

It is common for people to over-formalize the rules and responsibilities of “being a player” vs. “being a DM.” I think the most common way to phrase it is something like “The Players are in charge of their characters and their backstories, the DM is responsible for the worlds and its NPCs, and both need to stay in their lanes.”

It’s isn't just better to mix it, it's necessary.

Failing to share these roles forces the world to exist in a crystallized state before the campaign even starts - at least if you want to integrate backstories into the plot. Groups that fail to do this can often feel like the characters were born the day the campaign began, and did nothing interesting beforehand. 

So, for DMs: Don’t be afraid of trying to inject NPCs and details of this world into your player's past. Imagine that your party rogue goes into a town and finds a fence for selling some stolen trinkets. Maybe, have the fence recognize the rogue. “Gods of fire, it’s McClellan. I haven’t thought about you since the candy-rat incident. You took a real beating making sure I got away that day. Glad to finally have a chance to pay you back!” 

Now, the rogue still has a choice here. They can say something like “Ah, this guy is mistaking me for someone else, but I can roll with it to get a better deal.” It’s their character, and their choice. But they can also go, hey, I do know this guy. I was apparently part of something called “The candy-rat incident.” I can decide how I know this guy, and where, and for how long, and what that incident was. That’s not less control - that’s more! 

And for players: Don’t be afraid of injecting your past into the world. Maybe you’re a fighter in a wartorn setting and you run into a group of deserters robbing refugees by the roadside. The DM has clearly planned this as some vindication, some enemies you get to thrash without feeling bad. But you have different plans. You take your helmet off, and you look the deserter’s leader in the face, and you say “Jack, you saved my life back on Stone Ridge. You were a good man once. You could be one again. Ride with us.” 

Now that's powerful stuff. Do you even know what Stone Ridge is? Hell no. Are you gonna? Hell yeah. And what you just did was way better than the DMs plan of bonking bad guys to feel good. You changed the writing of the world, commandeered an NPC, and made the whole encounter far more interesting.  

Tip 6: Ignore all portrayals of D&D in the media. 

The best players that I get are people with no experience with D&D of any kind. The second best are those that are willing to drop their preconceptions at the door and just play. The worst are people that have seen D&D portrayed somewhere and are insistent on imitating the portrayal. The exact nature of the failure varies - at worst, they’ve seen some kind of tongue-in-cheek parody, like order of the stick, and then hyperfocused on all the worst parodied aspects as the whole point of the game. D&D is not about outsmarting the mechanics (which is trivially easy, and largely pointless - it just makes your own storytelling less fun), nor is about turning everything into shallow tropes about Horny Bards and Dumb Fighters and Insufferable Paladins. At best, they’ll have seen some kind of ultra-cinematic example of D&D played on a podcast, where the DM has a theatre degree and ever party member is a professional actor. Those people are nice, but they often have unrealistic expectations.

[botanyshitposts]

Sign i saw recently had a bunch of paint worn away with lichen in its place, however i unfortunately did not have my phone on me 😔😔

in an alternate universe where science funding is stable and abundant regardless of monetary gain we have already gotten to the complex root of which lichens enjoy signs but only the letters or only the sign and what about the letters or sign they prefer and this haunts me

[seraphont]

I really love your Tessa artwork! You got me into Jessa! If so, what's your interpretation of why J still followed the AS? Is it because of it being her admin or J's loyalty to Tessa still clinging to her as the AS wears Tessa's skin? You think the AS uses it to get J to listen?

YIPEEE I’m glad u like it! my yap sesh below lol

honestly my own interpretation is her number 1 priority being survival.

By the time we see her in ep 8 interacting with the AS, she’s pliant- doing her job. But with her quote about not being able to escape even in death, I’m led to believe she was forced into submission. Implying she did try in her own way to get away/not work with the Solver at first - probably several times even. The only solution to staying alive was being on the strongest team.

Like the Jay we had at the manor already balked to authority (most powerful figure), so trying to resist -like the chain scene- probably required some dedicated effort for her.

the Solver is known for enjoying its mind games. I can only imagine how easily it manipulated her knowing her weaknesses (like it did w V for N), maybe even pretending to be her close friend for a bit? I mean- it would make a lot of sense for the line “It tricked me too.”

I can def see it using the small comfort of pretending to be Tessa, as a means of manipulation. especially when J has no reliable allies to turn to: N, one who’s blissfully unaware of the horrors; and V, someone who is completely (cracked) closed off emotionally herself.

The way “Cyn” showed dislike towards her during ep 5- not taking being locked up lightly - I Imagine she was definitely a plaything to torment as well.

So maybe J- like V- was trying to hold down ship on C9 to prevent any punishment from Cyn? maybe even at one point she was trying to keep them all alive- especially with the mad cope line “I never needed either of you” right after asking V to join her. she’s such an asshat she puts on a show of pretending to be in control, but she’s the furthest thing from it.

So no, I don’t interpret it as loyalty thing rlly- only as a means of survival.

[rig-biped-complicated]

Plays out a bit differently the other way around. I tried adding callouts but with the last one I felt like it clashed with the medium.

Based on that thing goin' 'round, under cut. I feel like I remember this panel, I wonder if I have the comic its from. Was a good opportunity to try out some motion blur.

[keighthundred]

NGL it's kinda crazy that people think there's no possible way Rain could be trans when there's literally a bit in canon ward about him wearing a dysphoria hoodie and refusing to look at his own body in the mirror

[pasta-pardner]

attack dogs shouldn't bite the hands that feed them

[ba0shanblack]

"Pour yourself into me and I will not let a drop of you hit the ground"

R.F.

[veryextraincorrectfegbaquotes]

That set is doing numbers, huh

[visenyaism]

ok i make fun of the asoiaf conspiracy theories being dumb a lot however some people really ARE about an inch from posting like “the (((maesters))) control everything” and need to dial it back it’s getting weird

[maurruce]

"I don't know what the hell I was wearing. The less, the better, I suppose, at that time, because the chest was doing really well on its own. I had no control over the fucking thing. It would show up everywhere I went." – Robert Plant on 1975