#there is 1 million softwares

[felgueirosa]

i got a job as a substitute teacher so i'm finally not unemployed and broke and i havent worked a day yet but so far it's just that jizz me on smackdog tweet

[anonymusbosch]

really truly Feelings about coming back to my hometown and seeing it as an outsider (I only knew it as a child with my motion constrained by school and parents and being under 18) and an outsider (it's changed since I've been away these last 8 years) and an outsider (showing it to my partner and finding it both familiar and unfamiliar, and special and inadequate) and an outsider (my parents and sister have all moved and my childhood home is no longer mine - staying in a building with a door code to learn and furniture still being moved in) and an outsider (my favorite places have changed, moved, closed, repainted) and an outsider (new murals! new buildings! new bike lanes) and an outsider (how the Fuck do the bike lanes on the east bank connect) and an outsider (it's changed [you can never step in the same river twice] and I have too)

[no-passaran]

Spain lied about not selling weapons to Israel.

Even after October 7th, Spain has sold more than 1 million € of weapons to Israel. Norway and Finland make it possible.

In January, Spain made headlines word-wide when the government's Minister of Exteriors, José Manuel Albares (PSOE), claimed in Congress and later again in a radio interview that Spain had stopped selling weapons to Israel ever since October 7th. Israel's intensification of violence in Gaza following October 7th meant that, on top of decades of apartheid and ethnic cleansing, between October 7th and January 23rd Israel had already killed 28,000 people and forced 2 million out of their home. In this context, many people were demanding their governments stop arming and funding the genocide of the Palestinian people, and here on Tumblr and other social media sites like Twitter I think we all saw the many posts praising the Spanish government for this.

Well, it turns out it was a lie.

According to Albares, "Since October 7th there are no more weapons exportations [from Spain] to Israel". But in November alone, Spain exported weapons to Israel for 987,000€, as was published on the Spanish Government's official website dedicated to exterior commerce (Comex). A researcher from Centre Delàs (an independent centre for peace studies) found it and published it, and it has also been verified by newspapers such as elDiario.es.

This 987,000€ worth of weapons in November was not the only ammunition that Spain has sent to Israel in 2023. In 2023, Spain exported a total of 1.48 million € in war material to Israel.

All of the weapons sent in November come from the factory of Nammo Palencia (Castilla y León), a corporation that is 50% property of the Government of Norway and 50% owned by a public Finnish business. However, even if the owners are foreigners, the ammunition was sent from Spain and thus it had to be authorized by the an organism of the Spanish Government named Junta Interministerial de Defensa y Doble Uso, whose deliberations on whether a weapons exportation is accepted or denied are kept secret. The only cases where they have denied exporting weapons to Israel have been when they thought that Israel would re-sell these weapons to the Philippines.

Spain has had a close relation with Israel for years. As published by the Spanish Government, Spain has sold 20 million € of weapons to Israel between 2012 and 2022. Spain also buys weapons and military software from Israel (for example, the Spanish Intelligence Service has been using the Israeli software Pegasus to illegally spy on Catalan activists, journalists, politicians and civil society members and their relatives to attack the Catalan independence movement), and Spain has continued buying from Israel and allocating defense contracts to Israel even after the October 7th attacks. It is very difficult to track the concessions of public contracts such as buying weapons, but some contracts have been known. For example, on November 24th 2023, Spain bought 287.5 million € of missiles from Israel. This is not unusual: between 2011 and 2021, it is publicly known that Spain bought war material from Israel for at least 268 million €, but experts say that the real number could be two or three times as much.

Spain has also continued allocating concessions to Israel. For example, on December 15th 2023 Spain allocated a contract worth over 576 million € to Israel for a rocket launcher programme. On November 22nd, Spain allocated another another Israeli company to provide missiles for 237 million € at the same time as the Spanish army bought Israeli inhibitors for 1.4 million €. The very next day, November 23rd, Spain signed another military allocation to Israel for 82,600€. The following week, Spain signed yet another allocation with a different Israeli military corporation for 3.7 million €.

Spain also allows Israeli weapon manufacturing companies to produce weapons through their branches located in Spain. This way, Israeli weapons make their way to markets with which Israel doesn't have diplomatic ties but Spain does, like Saudi Arabia. And since Spain is a member of NATO, Israeli weapons produced in Spain are approved according to NATO standards and access it easily. In the same way, these Israeli weapons manufacturers also access European Union defense funds through their branches in Spain. (source).

As I said, I saw a lot of positive posts around when Albares said Spain was going to embargo, but I haven't seen any post about how they didn't do it. I also (personally) haven't seen anything on international media, and barely anything on Spanish media, which is already busy with the PSOE covid material corruption scandal. So I share this in the hope of helping put pressure on Spain to cut all ties with Israel immediately.

SHAME ON EVERYONE WHO GIVES ISRAEL THE MATERIAL AND MONEY THAT WILL BE USED TO MASSACRE THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE. SHAME ON SPAIN, NORWAY, AND FINLAND.

[unpeeled-human]

YAP START [INSERT 1 DOUBLOON]

man it really is impossible to recreate the ms paint style in other softwares. idkhow they do it but ms paint has such a distinct default brush that works so unlike any others ive seen in anything like clip studio or medibang or whatever.

ms paint's default brush has these little "artifacts" around the lines- this is honestly, objectively, annoying, because it makes filling shapes weird. but i personally think it adds a very important crunchiness to my drawings

but for the life of me i cannot figure out a good alternative in clips studio. ive tried every (free.) pixel brush i could find, tried making my own, tweaked every opacity, anti-aliasing, and hardness setting in the menu, and still the closest ive come is those two circles on the bottom, that are just slightly too blurry for my liking. i think it'd still work, but. its still such a distinct look and id hate to part with it

its just that clip studio has literally 2 million other things i can do to make the comics easier. and i could actually work on the webcomic i wanna start (that my ass is still not done with paneling. i literally already did the drawings im just fitting them onto a page and i feel like a dolt because i drew them freehand without any guide so its not easy to fit them into a neat little rectangle. bleuuhhh)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI’s productivity theater

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

When I took my kid to New Zealand with me on a book-tour, I was delighted to learn that grocery stores had special aisles where all the kids'-eye-level candy had been removed, to minimize nagging. What a great idea!

Related: countries around the world limit advertising to children, for two reasons:

1) Kids may not be stupid, but they are inexperienced, and that makes them gullible; and

2) Kids don't have money of their own, so their path to getting the stuff they see in ads is nagging their parents, which creates a natural constituency to support limits on kids' advertising (nagged parents).

There's something especially annoying about ads targeted at getting credulous people to coerce or torment other people on behalf of the advertiser. For example, AI companies spent millions targeting your boss in an effort to convince them that you can be replaced with a chatbot that absolutely, positively cannot do your job.

Your boss has no idea what your job entails, and is (not so) secretly convinced that you're a featherbedding parasite who only shows up for work because you fear the breadline, and not because your job is a) challenging, or b) rewarding:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/19/make-them-afraid/#fear-is-their-mind-killer

That makes them prime marks for chatbot-peddling AI pitchmen. Your boss would love to fire you and replace you with a chatbot. Chatbots don't unionize, they don't backtalk about stupid orders, and they don't experience any inconvenient moral injury when ordered to enshittify the product:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/25/moral-injury/#enshittification

Bosses are Bizarro-world Marxists. Like Marxists, your boss's worldview is organized around the principle that every dollar you take home in wages is a dollar that isn't available for executive bonuses, stock buybacks or dividends. That's why you boss is insatiably horny for firing you and replacing you with software. Software is cheaper, and it doesn't advocate for higher wages.

That makes your boss such an easy mark for AI pitchmen, which explains the vast gap between the valuation of AI companies and the utility of AI to the customers that buy those companies' products. As an investor, buying shares in AI might represent a bet the usefulness of AI – but for many of those investors, backing an AI company is actually a bet on your boss's credulity and contempt for you and your job.

But bosses' resemblance to toddlers doesn't end with their credulity. A toddler's path to getting that eye-height candy-bar goes through their exhausted parents. Your boss's path to realizing the productivity gains promised by an AI salesman runs through you.

A new research report from the Upwork Research Institute offers a look into the bizarre situation unfolding in workplaces where bosses have been conned into buying AI and now face the challenge of getting it to work as advertised:

https://www.upwork.com/research/ai-enhanced-work-models

The headline findings tell the whole story:

96% of bosses expect that AI will make their workers more productive;

85% of companies are either requiring or strongly encouraging workers to use AI;

49% of workers have no idea how AI is supposed to increase their productivity;

77% of workers say using AI decreases their productivity.

Working at an AI-equipped workplaces is like being the parent of a furious toddler who has bought a million Sea Monkey farms off the back page of a comic book, and is now destroying your life with demands that you figure out how to get the brine shrimp he ordered from a notorious Holocaust denier to wear little crowns like they do in the ad:

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2004/hitler-and-sea-monkeys

Bosses spend a lot of time thinking about your productivity. The "productivity paradox" shows a rapid, persistent decline in American worker productivity, starting in the 1970s and continuing to this day:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productivity_paradox

The "paradox" refers to the growth of IT, which is sold as a productivity-increasing miracle. There are many theories to explain this paradox. One especially good theory came from the late David Graeber (rest in power), in his 2012 essay, "Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit":

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit

Graeber proposes that the growth of IT was part of a wider shift in research approaches. Research was once dominated by weirdos (e.g. Jack Parsons, Oppenheimer, etc) who operated with relatively little red tape. The rise of IT coincides with the rise of "managerialism," the McKinseyoid drive to monitor, quantify and – above all – discipline the workforce. IT made it easier to generate these records, which also made it normal to expect these records.

Before long, every employee – including the "creatives" whose ideas were credited with the productivity gains of the American century until the 70s – was spending a huge amount of time (sometimes the majority of their working days) filling in forms, documenting their work, and generally producing a legible account of their day's work. All this data gave rise to a ballooning class of managers, who colonized every kind of institution – not just corporations, but also universities and government agencies, which were structured to resemble corporations (down to referring to voters or students as "customers").

Even if you think all that record-keeping might be useful, there's no denying that the more time you spend documenting your work, the less time you have to do your work. The solution to this was inevitably more IT, sold as a way to make the record-keeping easier. But adding IT to a bureaucracy is like adding lanes to a highway: the easier it is to demand fine-grained record-keeping, the more record-keeping will be demanded of you.

But that's not all that IT did for the workplace. There are a couple areas in which IT absolutely increased the profitability of the companies that invested in it.

First, IT allowed corporations to outsource production to low-waged countries in the global south, usually places with worse labor protection, weaker environmental laws, and easily bribed regulators. It's really hard to produce things in factories thousands of miles away, or to oversee remote workers in another country. But IT makes it possible to annihilate distance, time zone gaps, and language barriers. Corporations that figured out how to use IT to fire workers at home and exploit workers and despoil the environment in distant lands thrived. Executives who oversaw these projects rose through the ranks. For example, Tim Cook became the CEO of Apple thanks to his successes in moving production out of the USA and into China.

https://archive.is/M17qq

Outsourcing provided a sugar high that compensated for declining productivity…for a while. But eventually, all the gains to be had from outsourcing were realized, and companies needed a new source of cheap gains. That's where "bossware" came in: the automation of workforce monitoring and discipline. Bossware made it possible to monitor workers at the finest-grained levels, measuring everything from keystrokes to eyeball movements.

What's more, the declining power of the American worker – a nice bonus of the project to fire huge numbers of workers and ship their jobs overseas, which made the remainder terrified of losing their jobs and thus willing to eat a rasher of shit and ask for seconds – meant that bossware could be used to tie wages to metrics. It's not just gig workers who don't score consistent five star ratings from app users whose pay gets docked – it's also creative workers whose Youtube and Tiktok wages are cut for violating rules that they aren't allowed to know, because that might help them break the rules without being detected and punished:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/13/solidarity-forever/#tech-unions

Bossware dominates workplaces from public schools to hospitals, restaurants to call centers, and extends to your home and car, if you're working from home (AKA "living at work") or driving for Uber or Amazon:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/02/chickenized-by-arise/#arise

In providing a pretense for stealing wages, IT can increase profits, even as it reduces productivity:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

One way to think about how this works is through the automation-theory metaphor of a "centaur" and a "reverse centaur." In automation circles, a "centaur" is someone who is assisted by an automation tool – for example, when your boss uses AI to monitor your eyeballs in order to find excuses to steal your wages, they are a centaur, a human head atop a machine body that does all the hard work, far in excess of any human's capacity.

A "reverse centaur" is a worker who acts as an assistant to an automation system. The worker who is ridden by an AI that monitors their eyeballs, bathroom breaks, and keystrokes is a reverse centaur, being used (and eventually, used up) by a machine to perform the tasks that the machine can't perform unassisted:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

But there's only so much work you can squeeze out of a human in this fashion before they are ruined for the job. Amazon's internal research reveals that the company has calculated that it ruins workers so quickly that it is in danger of using up every able-bodied worker in America:

https://www.vox.com/recode/23170900/leaked-amazon-memo-warehouses-hiring-shortage

Which explains the other major findings from the Upwork study:

81% of bosses have increased the demands they make on their workers over the past year; and

71% of workers are "burned out."

Bosses' answer to "AI making workers feel burned out" is the same as "IT-driven form-filling makes workers unproductive" – do more of the same, but go harder. Cisco has a new product that tries to detect when workers are about to snap after absorbing abuse from furious customers and then gives them a "Zen" moment in which they are showed a "soothing" photo of their family:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ai-bringing-zen-first-horizons-192010166.html

This is just the latest in a series of increasingly sweaty and cruel "workplace wellness" technologies that spy on workers and try to help them "manage their stress," all of which have the (totally predictable) effect of increasing workplace stress:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/15/wellness-taylorism/#sick-of-spying

The only person who wouldn't predict that being closely monitored by an AI that snitches on you to your boss would increase your stress levels is your boss. Unfortunately for you, AI pitchmen know this, too, and they're more than happy to sell your boss the reverse-centaur automation tool that makes you want to die, and then sell your boss another automation tool that is supposed to restore your will to live.

The "productivity paradox" is being resolved before our eyes. American per-worker productivity fell because it was more profitable to ship American jobs to regulatory free-fire zones and exploit the resulting precarity to abuse the workers left onshore. Workers who resented this arrangement were condemned for having a shitty "work ethic" – even as the number of hours worked by the average US worker rose by 13% between 1976 and 2016:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

AI is just a successor gimmick at the terminal end of 40 years of increasing profits by taking them out of workers' hides rather than improving efficiency. That arrangement didn't come out of nowhere: it was a direct result of a Reagan-era theory of corporate power called "consumer welfare." Under the "consumer welfare" approach to antitrust, monopolies were encouraged, provided that they used their market power to lower wages and screw suppliers, while lowering costs to consumers.

"Consumer welfare" supposed that we could somehow separate our identities as "workers" from our identities as "shoppers" – that our stagnating wages and worsening conditions ceased mattering to us when we clocked out at 5PM (or, you know, 9PM) and bought a $0.99 Meal Deal at McDonald's whose low, low price was only possible because it was cooked by someone sleeping in their car and collecting food-stamps.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/20/disneyland-workers-anaheim-california-authorize-strike

But we're reaching the end of the road for consumer welfare. Sure, your toddler-boss can be tricked into buying AI and firing half of your co-workers and demanding that the remainder use AI to do their jobs. But if AI can't do their jobs (it can't), no amount of demanding that you figure out how to make the Sea Monkeys act like they did in the comic-book ad is doing to make that work.

As screwing workers and suppliers produces fewer and fewer gains, companies are increasingly turning on their customers. It's not just that you're getting worse service from chatbots or the humans who are reverse-centaured into their workflow. You're also paying more for that, as algorithmic surveillance pricing uses automation to gouge you on prices in realtime:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/24/gouging-the-all-seeing-eye/#i-spy

This is – in the memorable phrase of David Dayen and Lindsay Owens, the "age of recoupment," in which companies end their practice of splitting the gains from suppressing labor with their customers:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-03-age-of-recoupment/

It's a bet that the tolerance for monopolies made these companies too big to fail, and that means they're too big to jail, so they can cheat their customers as well as their workers.

AI may be a bet that your boss can be suckered into buying a chatbot that can't do your job, but investors are souring on that bet. Goldman Sachs, who once trumpeted AI as a multi-trillion dollar sector with unlimited growth, is now publishing reports describing how companies who buy AI can't figure out what to do with it:

https://www.goldmansachs.com/intelligence/pages/gs-research/gen-ai-too-much-spend-too-little-benefit/report.pdf

Fine, investment banks are supposed to be a little conservative. But VCs? They're the ones with all the appetite for risk, right? Well, maybe so, but Sequoia Capital, a top-tier Silicon Valley VC, is also publicly questioning whether anyone will make AI investments pay off:

https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/ais-600b-question/

I can't tell you how great it was to take my kid down a grocery checkout aisle from which all the eye-level candy had been removed. Alas, I can't figure out how we keep the nation's executive toddlers from being dazzled by shiny AI pitches that leave us stuck with the consequences of their impulse purchases.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/25/accountability-sinks/#work-harder-not-smarter

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[tomorrowusa]

The MAGA-DOGE régime decided that the middle of hepatitis outbreak was a great time to close the CDC's Division of Viral Hepatitis.

After people started testing positive for hepatitis C in a coastal Florida town in December, state officials collected blood from patients, wrapped their specimens in dry ice and mailed them straight to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga. The hepatitis C virus, which is spread through contact with infected blood and can lead to deadly liver cancer, is notoriously hard to identify. But if anyone could understand what was happening in Florida, it would be the Division of Viral Hepatitis in the CDC's headquarters. Using samples from the laboratory's collection of nearly 1 million frozen specimens, scientists helped make the initial discovery of the hepatitis C virus in the 1980s. In 2020, that research was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Unlike Trump, the scientists at the lab knew what they were doing.

The scientists at the lab knew what they were doing. Quickly, they analyzed the blood from Florida using their custom software and found that nine cases were genetically linked to the same pain clinic, where it was later discovered that a doctor was improperly reusing injection vials. By March, officials in Florida had restricted the doctor's medical license to limit the spread of the virus and packaged new patient samples to send to the CDC for testing, CDC employees told NPR. But on April 1, the outbreak investigation was brought to a halt. All 27 of the lab's scientists received an email from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services informing them that they were losing their jobs. Like thousands of other employees who received similar emails that day, the scientists were told they would be placed on administrative leave until June 2, after which they would no longer work for the CDC. The email said their duties were "identified as either unnecessary or virtually identical to duties being performed elsewhere in the agency." But the kind of genetic tracing that the CDC's lab performs is not conducted by any other lab in the United States or the world, experts interviewed by NPR said. While the lab remains shuttered, ongoing investigations of current hepatitis outbreaks have been stalled, not just in Florida, but also in Oregon, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Georgia, according to CDC employees who work closely with the Division of Viral Hepatitis. The five CDC employees NPR spoke with requested that their names not be shared for fear of retaliation.

For all anybody knows, the scientists may have been fired by Apartheid Elon's teen buddy Big Balls.

The Trump administration is making people sick and keeping them sick. And this is just the start.

[dirtyvulture]

Envy and Venom

Heiress!Natasha Romanoff x CEO!Beefy!Fem!Reader

18+ only, read at your own risk

Summary: You are the notorious playboy who just inherited one of the biggest tech companies in the world. Your first move? Sleeping with the heiress of your rival company.

Word count: 4190

AN: Randomly came up with this idea, it's a little different than my other stuff, but give it a read. :)

DAY 1

“You couldn’t have picked a better person for the job,” you tease, gripping tightly onto your father’s hand as the sea of flashing lights fifteen feet away practically blinds you. The reporters call out for your attention but you ignore them, pausing in the awkward, hand-holding pose with your father so the photo can be plastered across the front page of news outlets around the world. 

“I trust you. Don’t ruin what I’ve started,” your father says, grabbing onto your shoulder and pulling you into a tight embrace. “And please try to keep your…escapades…a little more under wraps, okay?” he whispers into your ear. 

“I’ll try, Dad,” you say, but it isn’t really your fault that the public was so interested in what goes on in your bedroom. Then again, you hadn’t exactly been trying to be subtle when you were fucking your secretary against the penthouse window of your apartment, but people should try to mind their own business more. 

Your father pushes you back and the two of you turn in unison to wave at the crowd once more. 

“Congratulations!” you hear them echoing. “To Envy Industries’ new CEO, Y/N!”

***********************************************************************

Naturally, to celebrate your latest achievement, you host the party of the century, inviting other world-renowned millionaires, fellow tech company gurus, actors, singers, celebrities, and pretty much anyone else who fit society’s thinly-veiled description of “famous.” You initially show up with two models you had already spent the afternoon with, but you weren’t interested in stringing them along and were excited to find some new target to chase after. 

The first hour alone is spent wading through faces you recognize from online but have no personal connection with, and you have to pretend that you’re grateful when they take enough interest and ask about the future of your company. 

“We’ll probably stick to the production of GPUs for a while,” you say, yelling to be heard over the music and rumble of people. “We just signed a huge contract with Tesla, so we’ll be supplying all the hardware they need for their next products. They have a big need for AI software, and we’re one of the few companies that can build exactly what they need.”

“Wow, that’s very impressive.” The short-haired blonde woman suddenly throws herself at you, her nails digging into your bicep so hard you can feel the prick through your burgundy silk jacket.

“Thank you.” You’re not sure you’ve ever seen this woman before in your life and you wonder if she even understood half of what you were saying or she was just trying to get into your pants.

“I’m Carol, by the way. Do you want to get a drink?”

“I would never say no to a drink.” You let Carol lead you to the bar (that you are footing the bill for) and she orders for you, picking an old-fashioned cocktail for you. A decent choice, but if she had read your interview in The Chief Executive Magazine, she would have known that your favorite drink was actually a vodka martini. You join her at an empty table.

“So, what do you do for a living?” you ask out of politeness, taking a sip and letting the whiskey burn your throat.  

“I’m an influencer,” Carol says. “I have one-point-seven million followers on Tik Tok right now. I mostly post fitness routines or travel vlogs. And I also stream video games on Twitch.”

“Ah.” Now it’s your turn to act like you’re impressed when you have no idea what she’s talking about. 

Carol drones on about her next project, which involves a collaboration with another influencer you’ve never heard of. Your eyes scan the people walking by, looking for a new object of infatuation. It doesn’t take long until you make eye contact with a beautiful, redheaded woman, her voluptuous body hugged by an emerald green dress. Immediately, your heart rate spikes as you scan her up and down, not predatorily, but admiringly. The neckline of her dress plunges down to her belly button, a tasteful hint of her cleavage showing through, highlighted by a long  silver necklace with a thin gold bar tassel. 

You perk up, smoothing your hair back and puffing out your chest like a proud pigeon when she starts walking over.

“Congratulations,” the redhead says. “Your family must be very proud of you.”

“My dad didn’t want to give it to me,” you admit, completely oblivious to Carol’s pout as you instantly give your attention to this new woman. “But I convinced him the company would be in good hands.”

“I bet.”

“Can I get you a drink?” you ask, desperate to keep around for the conversation (and perhaps more).

“I should be the one treating you,” the redhead says. She takes the cocktail out of your hands and brings it to her lips. “Hmm. I didn’t think this was your taste,” she notes. “How does a vodka martini sound?”

You know instantly this is the woman you’re taking home with you tonight. “That sounds delightful.”

***********************************************************************

You ditch Carol without a second thought and follow the redhead back to the bar, where she picks up two vodka martinis. She brings you to a private booth, sitting so close to you that your knees are touching hers. You can almost feel her body heat through the fabric of your clothes. 

“To Envy Industries’ long and prosperous future,” she says, raising her drink in a toast.

“Cheers.” You clink your glass to hers and drink half of it in one long sip, smiling in satisfaction. “I didn’t catch your name,” you say.

“Natasha.” It sparks a familiar memory, a name you’ve heard before. But she’s so intoxicating that you give it no second thought. Natasha is one of the most gorgeous women you’ve ever seen in your life and you can’t believe she’s sitting here talking to you and you alone.

“It’s very nice to meet you,” you say, formally offering her your hand. She shakes it, and you gently bring her hand up to your lips to kiss her knuckles.

“Likewise,” she says, crossing one perfectly toned leg over the other, her foot nudging the back of your calf. “Not to eavesdrop, but I overheard you mention a contract with Tesla. Say what you want about that company, but you can’t deny the evidence that they’re one of the highest valued companies in the world. I wouldn’t be surprised if Envy Industries is soon up there with them.”

“Exactly.” Your interest in this woman skyrockets, because you know she isn’t bullshitting you. She isn’t like Carol. She knows what she’s talking about. 

“We’ve been trying to strike deals with the automotive industry for years,” Natasha goes on, “But you’ve beat us to it. And now that you’ve partnered up with Tesla, you’re basically unstoppable.”

“Not quite,” you correct, now unable to stop yourself from unraveling the schemes of your company’s next five years. “Our research on artificial intelligence is just getting started. We just applied for ten new patents within computing technologies and we’re on track to absolutely dominate the market for discrete graphics processing units by the end of the year.” 

Natasha grins at your enthusiasm and you feel yourself blush in embarrassment. You know the media often labeled you as stupid, reckless, irresponsible, unfit to lead, and constantly bashed your sexual appetite, but you were all those things and a technology genius. Your father had built this company from the ground up, but you had been there alongside him the past six years. While everyone classified your promotion to CEO as nepotism, you felt you had rightfully earned it. 

“I don’t know how you do it,” she comments.

“Well, it definitely wouldn’t be wise for the new CEO to be giving away all the secrets, now would it?” you chuckle, even though you’ve definitely already said more than you should’ve. 

“Your success is no trade secret.” Natasha turns her whole body to face you. The attention she’s giving you is almost more than you can bear. Your heart pounds against your chest. No woman has ever made you this excited before. “But if you want, maybe we can go somewhere a little more private, where you can share whatever else you’d like.”

“Hmm.” It was rare for another woman to be so bold with you. But you’ve never lusted after another woman like Natasha before. Arousal heats up in your stomach as Natasha leans forward, resting her hand on your thigh and squeezing it teasingly. Her breath fans over your face and you can smell the vodka and her cherry lipstick. You lean forward to meet her, moving like you’re in a dream, fireworks sparking in the back of your head the moment your lips touch. 

Suddenly, you’re overcome with the carnal desire to drag this woman up to your penthouse and have her squirming underneath you, crying out your name as she comes undone.

“Um, would you like to…” You can hardly think straight. “My room…apartment…is upstairs…if you want to…”

“Show me the way,” Natasha says, standing up and offering you her hand.

***********************************************************************

Your brain is swirling in a fog as you follow Natasha to the elevator. You don’t even register any of the people you pass, fully aware of the fact that someone will report this headline to the National Enquirer, at the very least. But all the worries of the future disappear the moment the elevator doors close and Natasha throws herself at you, her legs hooking around your narrow waist and her heels digging into the small of your back. Your hands support her supple bottom, squeezing in appreciation as her lips crash against yours in a desperate frenzy. 

You stumble into the wall, smashing your hand onto the top floor button and feeling the elevator start to rise, but not fast enough. 

“Lucky me,” Natasha pants between kisses. “Getting to go home with the newly-christened CEO of Envy Industries.”

“You’re the most beautiful woman here tonight,” you respond, heat rising between your legs. “Of course you were coming home with me.”

Natasha glows with the praise and pulls your head into her chest, where you instinctively lick and nip at the flesh of her exposed breasts and she keens at the attention. When the elevator doors open again, you stumble out with her still in your arms, your feet automatically taking you down the path to your apartment. Thankfully, your apartment door opens automatically when your key card is in range, so you’re able to kick it open with your foot, without having to put her down.   

You carry her straight to the bedroom, dropping her on the freshly-changed sheets you had housekeeping put on after you were done with the two models from earlier. You can hardly remember your time with them and your body is practically vibrating in anticipation like you haven’t had sex in years. You crawl on top of Natasha, lowering yourself to kiss her again, this time with more passion and her arms snake over your broad back, pressing your body against hers.  

“I need to get you out of this dress,” you pant, desperate for skin-to-skin contact with her. 

“You first,” she says, releasing you as you sit up, yanking off your jacket and throwing it to the floor. You’re annoyed at your choice of shirt, a white button-up that has way too many buttons, as you impatiently pop them off one at a time and remove your bra. Natasha watches you with hunger in her eyes and you’ve never felt more proud to reveal yourself to another partner. The daily, painful 2-hour visits to the gym and strict adherence to a customized diet showed in your chiseled physique, your biceps bulging like you had baseballs under your skin, your perfect washboard abs, and your thighs were sturdier than tree trunks. 

“Fuck,” she mutters, reaching up to run her hand across your abs like she can’t believe you’re really in front of her. “I could look at you all day.”

It’s a common reaction most people have, but it definitely heats you up more when it comes from Natasha. “Your turn, gorgeous.” 

She sits up and turns around so you can access the zipper of her dress. You sweep her hair to the side, stealing a kiss to her neck because you really can’t help yourself. Natasha hums in appreciation and you lower her zipper slowly. Her dress pools at her waist like a glimmering green puddle. She isn’t wearing a bra so your hands immediately gravitate to cup her breasts, and she arches her back against your bare chest. 

“Are you gonna fuck me the same way you do to every girl you have in here?” she asks, placing one of her hands over yours and guiding it down her stomach, where your fingers part through her soaking folds. 

“If you want me to,” you say, pressing deeper into her and she whines at your touch. “But I’ll give you whatever you want.” Normally, you enjoy being in full control in the bedroom, but you are absolutely willing to give that up if it pleases Natasha. 

She suddenly pushes your hand away from her center; you can still feel traces of her stickiness on your fingers. “Do you have a strap? I want to ride you.”

Your stomach flips at the thought of her on top of you, grinding down on you until she finishes. Her heaving bosom in your face for you to suck and kiss while she enjoys the orgasm you gave her. 

“Yeah, let me grab it.” While you launch yourself off the bed to go fishing around your nightstand drawer, Natasha nudges her dress to the floor and delicately removes her long necklace, settling back comfortably on your king-sized bed while she waits for you. You take off your pants and pull the harness over your waist, turning back to the mouth-watering sight of her naked and ready for your taking. Her body is toned and curved in all the right places: clearly, she respected her body as much as you did to yours. There are few things you love more than a woman who takes care of herself.

You climb back onto the bed and Natasha pounces on you while you’re still getting into position, holding onto your biceps to pin you down. You catch sight of her glimmering wetness as she drags herself along your abs, pressing back against your cock until it rubs against her butt. You reach over to grab the bottle of lube always present on your nightstand and squirt a generous glob onto your strap, not that it looks like Natasha will need it. 

“Look how wet you are. You’ve been waiting for this all night, sweetheart?” you tease, your hands running up and down her sides. Natasha takes you by surprise when she shoves you back against the headboard.  

“Shut up and let me fuck you,” she growls, her voice dangerously dropping an octave. Natasha lifts herself up to line herself with the head of your cock and slides down in one move. The slick noise as it fills her is downright sinful. Your big hands wrap around her tiny waist, guiding her to bounce in an aggressive rhythm as the two of you watch your cock disappear inside of her. 

“Fuck, Y/N,” she moans, throwing her head back, red hair spilling over her shoulders. “That feels so good.”

“Look how well you’re taking me,” you praise, your hips jerking up to match her rhythm. Even though you can’t necessarily feel it, you swear her pussy is clenching around the toy, greedily sucking you in and requiring physical effort to pull out. Your own clit is throbbing as the toy bumps it every time Natasha slams down on your thighs. 

“Deeper, babe. Go deeper,” Natasha begs, moving her hands from your shoulders to the headboard, grabbing it so firmly you hear the wood crack. You change the angle of your hips, punching them up to satisfy her command. The bed frame creaks and shakes; you know your father would be unhappy to hear he has to order you a new one so soon, but you can’t be bothered to care right now.

“Fuck, right there. That’s it,” Natasha moans, rolling her hips with such fluidity it makes your stomach clench. She looks down at you, admiring the flex of your muscles as you do your best to please her, a singular bead of sweat running over your collarbone and sliding down between your breasts. 

“I’m close. I’m almost fucking there,” she warns, her hips beginning to lose their rhythm. But you keep your intense pace, until your abs are cramping and you’re certain there are bruises on your thighs. Your own arousal burns like a ball of white-hot fire and you so desperately want to make this woman cum you will gladly ignore the ache of your own orgasm for hers. 

“You’re fucking me too well, baby. I’m gonna lose it,” Natasha pants and the praise almost breaks your control. She throws her head back as she finishes and you bury your face in her heaving chest, tasting the sweat on her skin and sucking one of her nipples into your mouth. Her hand abandons the headboard to tangle in your hair, yanking almost painfully at your roots while you feel her cum spill onto your lap. She pushes your head away once she’s done, your lips parting from her nipple with a string of saliva, and lifts herself off your cock. The two of you are panting in unison, while you’re still fighting the simmer of arousal in your gut.

“Hmm, that was nice. Do you normally let your partner finish first?” she asks, resting her hands on your chest again. “I didn’t think you were the type.”

Your face burns in embarrassment because she’s not wrong. “Um…no,” you admit, knowing full well you could lie, but you feel like she’ll be able to see through it.

Natasha smirks. “Such a gentlewoman with me,” she says, bending over to kiss you, this time much more softly than before. 

“Only for you,” you murmur back, shocked at how whipped you already are for her. 

“You want me to help you finish?” Natasha asks, pushing the strap aside to brush her fingers across your hot center. Your hips jerk off the bed, almost launching Natasha into the air. “I’ll take that as a yes,” she giggles, climbing off your lap and helping you pull the strap off your waist. You’re practically frozen in anticipation, watching with bated breath as Natasha scoots herself down the bed and lowers her head between your legs.

You melt at the feeling of her mouth against your center, perfectly hot and wet. Your back arches off the bed when her tongue glides through your folds, lapping up the mixture of body fluids like it’s some kind life-saving elixir. 

“Shit, baby, that feels amazing,” you moan, burying one of your hands in her red tresses, motioning with your hips that you want her deeper. She obliges by wrapping her lips around your clit and giving it a few hard sucks that have you seeing white stars behind your eyelids. You let go of her hair, afraid you’ll tear it out and grab onto the Egyptian cotton sheets tightly. Her tongue pushes into you and you swear you convulse around it, already leaking into her mouth when she’s only just started to go down on you.

Natasha’s arms wrap around your powerful thighs, trying to force them apart as you close them around her head. You don’t mean to put her in awkward, even dangerous position, but you can’t think about anything other than the pulsing in your center, soothed and encouraged by the heat of Natasha’s mouth. You dig your heels into the mattress to prevent yourself from bouncing across the bed at the rocking motion your body had adopted to maximize your pleasure. Every time her tongue slips into you, the muscles in your stomach contract so sharply it almost hurts, and when she laps at your clit, the stimulation is so great you feel immediately dizzy.

“Natasha,” you pant, unable to hold out any longer. “I’m gonna…Please let me…” 

She presses into you with even more enthusiasm than before and your body seizes as you release yourself into her mouth. Natasha eagerly collects all your slick, her red lipstick smeared on the insides of your thighs.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck,” you moan, feeling your high is going to last forever. But just the sensations start to fizz, you realize Natasha still has her iron grip on your legs, keeping them spread apart.

“I want another,” she demands, in a sultry tone that almost pulls the second orgasm from you right there.

“Natasha,” you whine, fearing you are too sensitive to deliver her wishes. You twist your body back and forth, half-heartedly trying to free yourself. But Natasha won’t let you, lowering her head to your heat and taking what she wants. Overly stimulated, every muscle in your body goes rigid as fireworks of pleasure, bordering the line of painful, explode inside of you. Natasha’s tongue somehow reaches even deeper than she had the first time, the tip pressing against your front ridged wall and you lose it for the second time in minutes.

“Oh, fuck!” you cry, your back arching off the bed but Natasha holds your waist down, determined to not let a drop of your essence go to waste. Your head is spinning and your body is like a live wire of excitement, twitching and trembling until you have no more energy left and and you melt into a limp mess.

Natasha kisses up your abs, between your breasts and licks at the column of your sweaty throat. Her lips finally connect with yours and you can taste a hint of yourself mixed with hers. You can’t wait to taste her straight from the source, but it’s going to take a bit of time to find the strength to move after two back-to-back orgasms. She wraps her arms around your torso, nuzzling into the side of your chest and inhaling deeply.

There is a long, but not uncomfortable silence as you two of you find your breath.

“I’m not letting you leave until you sit on my face,” you finally say. Natasha looks up at you with a satisfied grin.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” she says, crawling up so she can do just that.

***********************************************************************

The moment Natasha made eye contact with you, she knew you were done for. You were far too predictable. She knew exactly the kind of woman you chased after. She knew what she needed to say to catch your attention, to convince you that she deserved a private moment with you.

You were too easy.

When you were so busy looking at her lips, trying to figure out when the right moment to kiss her was, you didn’t notice her take your phone out of your pocket, plug a flash drive into the charging slot, and return it back to your pocket in record time.

As you carry her in the elevator, your face buried in her breasts while she slips a tiny audio recorder into the pocket of your blazer. Through the fog of pure lust for you, Natasha struggles to but succeeds in making a mental map of your apartment. Where your office is, how many computers you have.

After numerous orgasms, she’s sufficiently fucked your brains out and cuddled with you long enough for you to pass out into an impossibly deep slumber, she gets up and heads into your office. She doesn’t need more than five minutes to hack into your devices and steal all the data saved on them. She chuckles to herself at how easy the task is; if she had known it would’ve been this simple and enjoyable, she would’ve come after you a long time ago.

Natasha gathers all her things and excuses herself from your apartment without a good-bye.

***********************************************************************

DAY 2

When you wake up the next morning, your mind a haze from the absolute debauchery that occurred the previous night. You rub your eyes and roll over, finding yourself naked and alone in bed. There is a deep soreness in your body, in almost every muscle, and some you haven’t felt for a long time. Natasha’s scent of vanilla and cherry lingers, but she’s nowhere to be found.

“Fuck,” you grumble, reaching for your phone on the nightstand. It’s been blowing up with notifications, which is a little unusual, but you assume it’s mostly from friends still congratulating you on your promotion. You open a text from your best friend and work partner, Tony.

From Tony: You fucked up, dude.

He included a link to a TMZ article. You click on it, half-wondering if it’ll send you to some troll site. The headline reads:

New CEO of Envy Industries Y/N spotted getting cozy with Black Widow Corp. heiress Natasha Romanoff 

Everything clicks to you now.

“Oh, fuck.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

AN: Click here for Part 2!

Please like, reblog, and comment! Follow for more content. 🥰

[valyrfia]

so scuderia ferrari a multi million euro formula 1 team with the most prestigious pedigree of any team in the sport has fucked up their entire 2025 project because the engineering team *checks notes* didn’t double check the inputs into their very expensive simulation software, thus building a car that runs brilliantly on imaginary tracks with imaginary physics but doesn’t work on our very real tracks on our very real world with our very real physics. did i get that right?

[capnsoapy]

Here is a hypothetical scenario:

The NHS develops a new piece of software which can analyse the public and– using a combination of image recognition, medical history, geographic data, and machine learning– determine if a person has undiagnosed appendiceal cancer.

Via randomised control trialing they determine that the software is 99% accurate, and so run it on the entire British population and offer treatment to all positive cases before the cancers develop.

For reference, the British population is ≈70 million, and appendiceal cancer is found in ≈20 people per million.

[desertskiespodcast]

The first half of Desert Skies season 1 was made in a large hollow room, the latter half was made in a very unsturdy uncomfortable blanket fort.

The mic I use goes for $100 brand new which is nothing compared to many, and I’ll replace it with the same one if it ever breaks.

First episodes I ever made were made using free software, and the only reason I use a different software now is because it’s part of the Adobe subscription I have for other products I need. They both do the exact same things.

I never worked in sound engineering and still have no idea what half the things I do to clean up the audio are actually doing. I don’t understand the terms. I press buttons till it sounds right.

I never wrote a fiction script in my life. I didn’t finish college. I’m in recovery from a serious mental illness and have been for many years.

I’m ridiculously unorganized.

I didn’t have time to make a show. I operated at a loss for nearly a year and after that only made enough to pay for my hosting fees and software. I had a family I supported and they’re loud (but I love them).

I did it without a team. I did it without previous voice acting experience or other actors. I did it with massive amounts of self-doubt. I played every character.

I did it anonymously for like the first 6 episodes because of how afraid I was.

I took 3 month breaks between some episodes and then would have 2 episodes release back to back. At multiple points people thought my season had ended. It took me almost a year and a half to finish my 13 episode season

I still made it after some really mean reviews. And after constantly being compared (often kindly. often negatively) to a massive show I’d never heard of.

I made it after all the articles saying I’d never get listens because the podcast world is flooded. I continued making it after I found out I wasn’t doing something new, that there were like 8,000 other shows in the category.

Next month DS is on track to hit 1 million downloads.

I’m so glad I made it. It’s brought me so much joy. And I write none of this to brag, but I’m damn proud of what I’ve accomplished.

I’m just here to tell you this:

THERE ARE NO RULES

THERE ARE NO RULES

THERE ARE NO RULES

You can make one or a hundred shows if you want to, because there are no rules

You can make it by yourself or make your grandma voice act for you, because there are no rules

You can record it on a cassette tape and mail it to random addresses, because there are no rules

You can make it for one person, or for yourself, because there are no rules

You can make it a found footage or a full cast or improvise it or release one episode a year for a decade, because there are no rules

You can advertise it, or make social accounts, or don’t. There are no rules

You can record it into your phone, or your moms phone, or into a Talkboy because there are no rules

The only thing you can’t do is never make it. That’s not allowed

[adafruit]

🎄💾🗓️ Day 18: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - Commodore 64🎄💾🗓️

The Commodore 64, released in 1982, is one of the ones we keep hearing got many people their start in their own computing history. Powered by a MOS Technology 6510 processor at 1.02 MHz and featuring 64 KB of RAM, it became the best-selling single computer model of all time, with an estimated 12.5–17 million units sold. Its graphics were driven by the VIC-II chip, capable of 16 colors, hardware sprites, and smooth scrolling, while the SID (Sound Interface Device) chip delivered advanced audio, supporting three voices with waveforms and filters, making it a lot of fun for gaming and music.

Featured a built-in BASIC interpreter, allowing users to write their own programs out-of-the-box. The C64’s affordability, large software library, lots of games, productivity, and educational applications made it a household name. It connected to TVs as monitors and supported peripherals like the 1541 floppy disk drive, datasette, and various joysticks. With over 10,000 commercial software titles and a thriving homebrew scene, the C64 helped define a generation of computer enthusiasts.

Its impact on gaming was gigantic, iconic titles like The Last Ninja, Maniac Mansion, and Impossible Mission. The C64 also inspired a demoscene, where programmers pushed its hardware for visual and audio effects. The Commodore 64 remains a symbol of computing for the masses and creative innovation, still loved by retrocomputing fans today.

Check out the National Museum of American History, and Wikipedia. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_334636 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64

And…! An excellent story from Jepler -

== While I started on the VIC 20, the Commodore 64 was my computer for a lot longer. Its SID sound chip was a headline feature, and many of my memories of it center around music. Starting with Ultima III, each game in the series had a different soundtrack for each environment (though each one was on a pretty short loop, it probably drove my folks nuts when I would play for hours). There were music editors floating around, so I tried my hand at arranging music for its 3 independent voices, though I can't say I was any good or that I have any of the music now. You could also download "SID tunes" on the local BBSes, where people with hopefully a bit more skill had arranged everything from classical to Beatles to 80s music.

Folks are still creating cool new music on the Commodore 64. One current creator that I like a great deal is Linus Åkesson. Two videos from 2024 using the Commodore 64 that really impressed me were were a "Making 8-bit Music From Scratch at the Commodore 64 BASIC Prompt", a live coding session (http://www.linusakesson.net/programming/music-from-scratch/index.php) and Bach Forever (http://www.linusakesson.net/scene/bach-forever/index.php) a piece played by Åkesson on two Commodore 64s.

Like so many things, you can also recreate the experience online. Here's the overworld music for Ultima III: https://deepsid.chordian.net/?file=/MUSICIANS/A/Arnold_Kenneth/Ultima_III-Exodus.sid&subtune=1 -- the site has hundreds or thousands of other SIDs available to play right in the browser.

Have first computer memories? Post’em up in the comments, or post yours on socialz’ and tag them #firstcomputer #retrocomputing – See you back here tomorrow!

[pmdcollector]

Apologies for taking an extra week to get this to you all-as promised, here is the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon interview featured in the April 6th, 2007 issue of Weekly Famitsu with Tsunekazu Ishihara and Koichi Nakamura!

I'll have another Pokemon Mystery Dungeon interview translation in the works soon so stay tuned 👀

Page 1:

Pokémon x Mystey Dungeon = ∞ Infinite

A new world view thought of by Tsunekazu Ishihara and Koichi Nakamura

Pokémon and Mystery Dungeon... The two completely different worlds were merged to give birth to an unexpected monster of a game. I was able to interview the two key figures about the popularity and secrets of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, which has exceeded 5.5 million in sales worldwide.

On November 17th, 2005, the Pokémon released Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team (Nintendo DS) and Red Rescue Team (Game Boy Advance)*1, exceeded total world-wide shipments of 5.5 million. The meeting between Pokémon, beloved by children all over the world, and Mystery Dungeon, known for its hard, unforgiving gameplay, caused a powerful chemical reaction, giving birth to a new world known as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. But how did these two games, which should surely reject each other, manage this miraculous fusion?

I was able to have a long talk with the father of Pokémon, Tsunekazu Ishihara, and Koichi Nakamura from Chunsoft, who created Mystery Dungeon, and hear their secrets. Eventually, our conversation even extended to the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon sequel!

Altering the world to match the core of the game

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon has now exceeded 5.5 million. This really is an incredible number. Have you analyzed the reason for its success?

Ishihara: There is a pattern when it comes to Pokémon titles that are a hit worldwide. The sales ratio for Japan, North America and Europe start at 1:1:1. This time, we were able to replicate this pattern very well with Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. If it starts with this ratio, then the ratio for North America and Europe will increase, as there is a greater tendency for software to continue selling in those places compared to Japan. And so I think this 5.5 million number is a single waypoint.

And how do you view it, Nakamura-san?

Nakamura: I have also been involved in the production of Dragon Quest, but even then, I have never had the experience of selling 5.5 million copies worldwide with a single title before. It is a big number that really shows that people around the world are playing it. So as a creator, I could not be more happier.

For people currently in their 30s and 40s, I think that Dragon Quest would be the first game that showed them the ‘impact of a story.’ But these days, a child’s first game with a story would be Pokémon. The Dragon Quest phenomenon that occurred in Japan is now happening on a worldwide scale with Pokémon. I believe that creating games that ‘appeal to every market’ has been your lifework, Ishihara-san. What is your secret?

Ishihara: North America, Europe, Asia and other regions… I think that every market is incredibly unique and different in terms of what is accepted. With that being said, if we were to remake every game for every market, I doubt we would have been able to circulate this far and wide. For instance, the Pokémon called Pikachu is also Pikachu all over the world. The gameplay elements, the Pokémon trading system, the parts that are the core of the game are all shared. If we tried remaking them for each market, it would have crumbled eventually.

Previously, you have said, ‘There is no point in being fun if it is not fun all over the world.’ I suppose that applies here.

[← Pokémon Mystery Dungeon has sold an astonishing 5.5 million copies worldwide, and continues to sell.]

Page 2:

The Pokémon Company President and Ceo

Tsunekazu Ishihara

If Game Freak president Satoshi Tajiri is the ‘birth parent,’ then Ishihara would be the ‘foster parent,’ whose work as producer allowed Pokémon to grow into the title it is now. He is the representative of the Pokémon Company, which single-handedly deals with the multidirectional development of Pokémon on a worldwide scale.

Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd. Representative director

Koichi Nakamura

The creator of Mystery Dungeon and the sound novel, who is a representative of the Japanese gaming industry. His numerous games are created with perfect balance and always receive high praise.

[Front Feature]

Glossary

*1 Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team

Released on separate hardware, Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance. The system of the player becoming the Pokémon and exploring a ‘Mystery Dungeon’ with other Pokémon attracted a lot of attention. The ‘Help a Friend’ system that allowed you to use an internet connection to help friends who fell in the dungeon was also quite innovative.

*2 Diamond and Pearl

The ultimate Pokémon games that were released on the Nintendo DS and sold nearly 5 million copies in Japan alone. While they came out on September 28th, 2006, momentum has not slowed down for these monster titles.

*3 Global Trade Station

A system from Diamond and Pearl that allowed players to trade Pokémon with other players around the country through Wi-Fi, even if they were not registered through friend codes.

(Interview continued)

Ishihara: I’ve operated with the mindset of, ‘What should I do to have the finished product be something that can be enjoyed all around the world?’ With Diamond and Pearl, *2 you were able to trade Pokémon with other players around the world through the Global Trade Station *3. However, if the content of the software that was circulating in each market was too different, it would not allow for any proper trading. On the other hand, I do think it’s important to enjoy ‘small differences.’ Just like with the first generation Pokémon, where different Pokémon appeared in Red and Green. But if the differences become too big, then it no longer feels like you’re enjoying it with everyone. This feeling is the same as an internet browser. The basic OS is the same, only localized for every territory. But we can use the same browser to see the same sites.

It was then that you encountered Mystery Dungeon. It must have looked quite strange, coming from the world of Pokémon.

Nakamura: Just as he’s said already, Ishihara-san is very particular when it comes to the world of Pokémon. But first and foremost, Ishihara-san is a genuine game fanatic. What I mean to say is, even with such a fixation on the world, he still allows the gameplay to be the priority. He prioritizes the essence of what makes a game fun, and is very tolerant of certain rule changes in regards to the Pokémon world. For instance, you know how the Pokémon talk, or how the player is a Pokémon in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon? This had not been done in the series before, and is a very big change to the rules, but he reacted with incredible flexibility.

These rule changes. Were they ‘acceptable’ with the Pokémon world?

Ishihara: The things that others might say should not happen, are not really that big of a problem for me (laughs). Instead of that, I think it’s much more important to be faithful in conveying the fun of computer games, or rather, the ‘structure of fun.’

I see…

Ishihara: In Mystery Dungeon, the map is automatically generated, you can write what you want on scrolls and use them. It is a game with a very traditional computer game structure. Pokémon is the same. After all, the foundation of networking and trading was demonstrated 10 years ago. These two series have proven that ‘Playing with a computer is so fun!’ And if the two were combined, then it would result in a game that is even more fun. And so even if Pikachu starts talking, I don’t mind it at all (laughs). If anything, it’s fun to think of how you can make such an idea ‘acceptable.’

That’s an incredibly flexible way of thinking.

Ishihara: When it comes to great ‘gameplay’ that is along the lines of the traditional, I would very much like to increase the fun through multiplication. Because of that, there was meaning and value to creating something new with Mystery Dungeon and Nakamura-san.

[← Tsunekazu Ishihara and Koichi Nakamura…

With exceptional talent as producers and creatives, the two are treasures within the Japanese game industry. What lies ahead of where they are looking… What new ‘experience’ will it be, that uses that catalyst called ‘gaming’?]

Page 3:

Pokémon and Mystery Dungeon exist as a mechanism to create fun…

Ishihara: I think there is also compatibility. Between games.

Was that something that you had already felt? That Pokémon and Mystery Dungeon were compatible?

Ishihara: Indeed. Also, I just happened to like them personally (Laughs).

I heard that you are a big fan of Mystery Dungeon.

Ishihara: After all, I consider myself a Mystery Dungeon professional (Laughs).

Everyone (Bursts into laughter)

Nakamura-san, do you also feel the same way as Ishihara-san?

Nakamura: When the possibility was first brought up to me, I did feel that they were greatly suited for each other, as Pokémon has a lot of characters, a lot of tools and different kinds of skills. But on the other hand, Mystery Dungeon has a high difficulty level, and a game system that is quite hands-off with the player. Would it really be able to fuse with a game that is beloved by children…? I did have some doubts.

Ah, that’s true…

Nakamura: But judging by the surveys gathered from people around the world who have played the game, while many had the opinion that it was ‘difficult,’ they were all able to finish it. I’ve always believed that the ideal form of a game is when you have a person who thinks they are the only one in their class who can beat it, but actually everyone can… It is that balance. And I think that with Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, we were able to get incredibly close to achieving that balance.

It seems like a difficult adjustment to make…

Nakamura: In Japan, there might be certain immunity or a foundation for playing, due to Torneko and Shiren. But they don’t have those in other countries, so I was anxious about whether it would be well-received or not. But the results were… Well, that’s the power of Pokémon for you (Laughs).

They were a good match in the end.

Nakamura: Looking back, I really do think it was a wonderful encounter.

The sequel is also in development!

2 games on Nintendo DS

After the game has become such a worldwide hit, I cannot help but ask about the next game…

Ishihara: We’ve actually been working on the next game for quite some time. It will be for Nintendo DS hardware.

Ohh! Previously, you released one game for DS and Advance respectively. How will it be this time?

Ishihara: 2 on the DS.

Ohhh! When did development begin?

Nakamura: A very long time ago (Laughs).

Ishihara: We are developing it with the hope of releasing it in 2007.

That is not very far away!

Ishihara: Yes. So we wouldn’t finish it in time if we had just started now, right? (Laughs)

Well, that is what Ishihara-san says, but how are things at your place, Nakamura-san…?

Nakamura: The situation is quite hectic, of course (Awkward laugh).

Did you always plan to make sequels?

Ishihara: No. It would be difficult to do until you felt confident in the first game. A big part of it was that the reception abroad was better than expected.

What was the reason you chose to release both games on the DS?

Ishihara: When the previous game first went on sale, it was the perfect time, as the leading platform was switching from the Game Boy Advance to the DS. But the situation has changed completely in just one year. When deciding to release two different types, we had to discuss which hardware to choose, and there were even some suggestions of ‘Why not DS and Wii?’ (Laughs). But considering the current market and development environment, we felt it would be best to have both released and played on the DS.

How was it as a creator? Releasing only on the DS.

[Check ‘Pokémon Mystery Dungeon’ anime to be streamed!

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon became an anime in North America, and recorded incredibly high viewership. Since Pokémon Mystery Dungeon plays differently from previous Pokémon, and it takes place in a new setting where the Pokémon can talk, Ishihara explained that it was made with the intent of being an ‘orientation.’

In fact, this anime is to be released in Japan as well. It will commemorate the release of the new sequel mentioned in this interview, and be available on March 23. The episodes will be streamed exclusively on Yahoo!. Let’s enjoy the unique world of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series through the anime.

↑ You are guaranteed to be able to see a new side to these Pokémon. Fans should not miss it!]

By combing the two

You can play in this many new ways

Page 4:

Nakamura: With the previous games, we were forced to create them in a way that accommodated the inferior capabilities of the Advance. But since both will be on the DS this time, we can incorporate ideas involving the dual screens as much as we wish.

It sounds like there will be a lot of new elements.

Nakamura: That’s right. In particular, as we can create it on the basis of there being Wi-Fi support, aside from the ‘Help a Friend’ system from the previous game, we are putting even more effort into having that feeling of ‘playing with everyone.’

Specifically, what kinds of elements are being added?

Nakamura: I can’t say (Awkward laugh).

Will Pokémon from Diamond and Pearl be included?

Ishihara: Of course, they will be. Not only that, as simply being put in without a solid role would be meaningless. So please look forward to that. Also, one thing that I can say is in regards to the question of ‘releasing two types?’ If there are two dungeons, then the two games will be slightly different… Well, I am still discussing various things with Nakamura-san (Laughs).

Wh-what do you mean?

Nakamura: For instance. This is an example, alright? Even if it’s the same dungeon, if the items you pick up are different, then it would affect the way you finish the game, or what strategies you use. …Well, that is just an example (Laughs).

It would be a very big difference for Mystery Dungeon!

Ishihara: Originally, in Pokémon games, the gap between Pokémon was a gap in playing. In other words, it dictated the direction of the game. In Mystery Dungeon, the acquiring of items has been added to that. I think that things like that will become the great difference between the two sequels.

With the sequel, as far as you are able to say at this time, can you tell us what point you want players to focus on the most?

Nakamura: For the previous games, we received a lot of feedback about how the scenarios and story parts were incredibly interesting. And so we are consciously trying to create a game with a substantial story that surpasses the previous games and be a more enjoyable adventure. An even longer story is waiting for you.

Ishihara: In regards to the amount of story, there were many different opinions. We thought that we had incorporated a great amount of it, but there were still people who said there ‘wasn’t enough.’ And so we thought, ‘what wasn’t there enough of…’

In the previous game, after you see the ending and closing credits, quite a lot of elements are unlocked. But expanding on things like controls and character selection may have made the partner relationship between the player and the Pokémon feel a little more distant. That was the conclusion I reached after analyzing it. This time, we mean to create the story while taking that into account.

Always be bold towards things that seem traditional!

Lastly, in regards to future developments. It seems like Pokémon will continue to develop in many different directions.

Ishihara: There are plenty of ideas when it comes to simply expanding the license. However, when you find themes or mechanisms that make you wish to collaborate in some form, like Mystery Dungeon, it is very helpful. In fact, there is no meaning in making something new without that relationship. Once you realize you can combine two things to create a new way to play, as we did with this game, it makes you want to try out many other different things too. When it comes to things that are considered traditional with video games, I would like to be bold at all times.

Nakamura-san. Mystery Dungeon turned out to be an incredibly good game. Has this experience made you want to try out anything in the future?

Nakamura: The DS has complete network capabilities now, so I believe that it’s time to start focusing on that. With Wi-Fi taken into consideration, I think some interesting things could be done with Mystery Dungeon. I have all kinds of ideas.

Ishihara: There is something that both Pokémon fans and Mystery Dungeon fans can look forward to the most this year, and that is these two games. Whether it's the gameplay or the expanding world of Pokémon, I hope that they are looking forward to it.

Nakamura: I feel like I’m being pressured (Laughs). As Ishihara-san said, we will create something that won’t disappoint fans, so please look forward to it.

[Notes after editing]

The moment that I saw Tsunekazu Ishihara and Koichi Nakamura sitting together, I felt goosebumps all over my body. And then the two spoke directly of the worldwide hit, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. I could not help but think about how it was such a privilege, and somewhat forgot about my work.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon was created from this meeting between the two, and while listening to them, I nodded with an ‘I see,’ many times. At a glance, the two worlds might seem to oppose each other, but with Ishihara’s flexible stance, and the technical ability of Chunsoft led by Nakamura, I think that the creation of a balanced game that was a hit on a worldwide scale was not so much ‘miraculous,’ but ‘inevitable.’ I have great expectations for the sequel, which is said to be released in 2007. Geniuses don’t stop. (O)

[apomaro-mellow]

Built for Loving 2

Part 1

mentions of bestiality, sado/masochism, and gang rape (none of that will happen in the story, it's just mentioned as a possibility)

Eddie was so over the moon that his bot got approved, he went outside and called his uncle right away with the news.

“They got you on a build already?”, Wayne asked.

“Yeah”, Eddie beamed in the sun. He leaned against the building, still in disbelief that he had the ID that got him into the most exclusive parts. “My design got approved and everything. We start makin’ him tomorrow but I’m gonna go ahead and get the materials today after lunch.”

“Alright then. I’m proud of you. Just don’t let them work you to the ground, Ed.”

“When have I ever let someone work me like a pack mule?”

Wayne laughed on the other end. “Well don’t get lost in your work then. Make sure you get out and into the sunshine at least once a week.”

“Yeah, yeah”, Eddie said. They both remembered the all-nighters Eddie would pull. More than once his uncle referred to him to some kind of cryptid or creature of the night. Eddie certainly had a tendency to obsess. But now it was all paying off. “My break’s almost over. I just wanted to call and give you the good news.”

They said their goodbyes and Eddie went back inside. He scarfed down a sandwich and guzzled a soda in the last five minutes that he had for his lunch and then went right to getting the materials. It was simply a matter of going into storage and shopping around, filling out a form as he did. Eddie had been fascinated by these bots for years, so seeing various body parts in bins wasn’t that off putting. The wall of hair samples kind of freaked him though.

Eddie would be building his own from the ground up, so he ignored the bins of arms and legs. He took his time, meticulously picking out the perfect shade of brown with the right amount of highlights. When he got to the drawers of eyeballs, it was surprisingly easy to find ones that were just the right amount of hazel. 

Then there was the skin. Steve’s skin was dotted all over with moles and freckles. There were skin samples that came pre-moled, but that just didn’t feel right to Eddie. It would take some extra time, but he’d put them on himself. He just picked the color that most resembled Steve and made a mental note to get the right tools so that he could add the moles. 

He turned in the form and was told which lab station he could find it at tomorrow. For now, he returned to his desk to start on the software. He put some headphones on as he went through the company’s voice bank. Eddie didn’t think he’d be able to find Steve’s exact voice, but he could get pretty close. There had to be about a million voices (okay maybe just about 100,000). Most of them were female though, so he was able to filter out over half. 

Eddie spent the rest of his shift going through them all. He kept trying to tell himself to not let ‘good’ be the enemy of ‘done’ but it couldn’t be just any voice. He considered picking one that was close enough and just doing some editing to make it like how he remembered Steve when he found it. It was as if Steve Harrington himself had lent his voice to the sampling bank. And, well, he could have, Eddie didn’t know. He also didn’t put it past Brenner Ventures to use A.I. scraping for some of their assets but at this point, Eddie didn’t care.

He scooped the voice and began writing up the script. Pleasure bots were built with an A.I processor that could respond to most kinds of input or stimulus. But they were expected to be personalized. Of course, Eddie had to give him Steve’s personality. Or at least, what he’d gleaned from admiring him from afar. 

He reminded himself of the only real note the client had given. Eddie imagined the customer just wanted some primo eye candy. A hot guy that was ready to fuck or be fucked at a moment’s notice. He almost wished he had more info about the buyer but Eddie knew the less he knew the better.

Whether it was an aging billionaire or a young socialite, their kinks could be the same. It wasn’t Eddie’s business to know unless the bot was returned with complaints. And if that happened, it was simply a matter of adjusting them and sending them right back. 

Eddie typed up a few practice phrases, just to hear how they sounded. He made sure to add vocal descriptors and hit play and-

“Hey baby-”

He tossed the headphones off like they were on fire, getting him an odd look from the intern, the only one in this building younger than him. He stood up, rubbing his sweaty palms on his pants.

“Gonna get some-yeah.”

He didn’t know what he was gonna get. Just that he had to step away from his work for a second and really think about what he was doing. He ended up on a balcony, taking a smoke break. The sun had begun to dip low. He really should be on his way home. But he at least wanted to finish the key phrases before clocking out today. Tomorrow he’d have his materials and it would be all about the build before he could touch the software again.

Eddie took a long drag. He was making a high end sex doll of an old high school crush. And he wasn’t even the one who was going to fuck it! His only solace right now was that Steve would never see it. 

He finished the cigarette and then went back inside. He wasn’t going to pull all-nighters over this. He wasn’t going to obsess. He wasn’t going to let it drive him insane.

-----------------------

Three months later and Eddie couldn’t remember when he’d last seen his bed. Sometimes he felt like shit and other times he felt like he could take on Zeus. If he thought listening to Steve’s voice give sexy lines was too much, it was nothing compared to the body. At first it was easy. He was simply a skeleton of metal and wires. 

But soon the bot began to take shape and one day Eddie was staring into the open eyes of the guy he couldn’t stop thinking about as a teenager. Eddie spent more time on this single bot than anyone had and they all let him know it. 

Owens came into the lab just as Eddie was inputting the last bit of software. He clicked away at the computer, the bot lying across a table behind him. Owens tugged a little at the lab coat that covered the body. 

“Protecting an android’s modesty?”, Owens teased.

“More like shielding the rest of the lab from their inadequacy”, Eddie grinned. “He’s quite the specimen.” 

Eddie didn’t like looking at his creation, naked and unconscious on a metal slab. But voicing those thoughts only got him strange looks, so he learned to keep it to himself. He didn’t know how the others could watch their bots sit in the cold, naked as anything and honestly if he wasn’t under more watchful eyes, Eddie might’ve given his bot a blanket and pillow. Even if he was made of metal, he looked like Steve and Eddie never wanted Steve to be uncomfortable.

Eddie picked up the chip he’d been working on and used his chair to wheel over to Steve. He opened up the chest cavity and gave the chip a kiss before inserting it to the right slot.

“You put the prime chip in his chest? What, like a heart?”, Owens asked.

“What can I say? I’m sentimental. I feel like Gepetto”, Eddie said, standing up and kicking the chair away. 

Pleasure bots were customized. No two were alike and that went down to their skeletons, characterized by their maker. But a lot still adhered to the basic Brenner blueprint. This was Eddie’s first chance and he wanted to hit the ground running.

“Well? Don’t leave us in suspense”, Owens urged.

Eddie took a breath and reached under the neck. His skin felt as real as any human’s. He pressed a button hidden under the material and counted ten seconds. The chest rose and fell once like a breath. The motors and subsequent fans running. His eyes opened, like sunlight dappling a forest floor.

“Enter diagnostic mode”, Eddie commanded. 

“Entertainment automaton, by Brenner Ventures, subject to copyright. Product I.D. EDM-001.”

It was odd hearing Steve’s voice so flat and lifeless. But Eddie went through the system checks, knowing that was why Owens decided to grace him with his presence today. When they finished, the older man nodded and Eddie let out a quiet breath of relief. He knew his coding was perfect. But some guys on the floor always found a nitpick.

“Go ahead and put him in client mode”, Owens said. “You’re running him on imprinting software, correct?”

“Yeah”, Eddie answered, moving so that when Steve awakened, he wouldn’t be in his line of sight. It made things easier for the client. The bot would register the first voice they heard, the first face they saw. It meant the client didn’t need to do anything else but make sure they were the first one the bot interacted with.

Eddie cleared his throat. “Enter client mode.”

The difference was immediate. He sat up and now his chest expanded regularly, like he was actually breathing. He blinked, the cameras in his eyes registering the man in front of him, Owens.

“Hello~”

His voice was seductive from the start without being sleazy or pornographic right from the get-go. The balance was important to Eddie.

“Good afternoon. Your name is Bitch Boy Number 16 and I’m gonna use you to suck my floppy old man dick and then stick you in a storage closet with the other fifteen.”

The bot giggled and leaned forward, encouraging Owens to start while Eddie stood there frozen.

“I’m gonna beat you until that artificial skin bruises black and then knock your teeth out and then let my friends have a chance at you ‘cause we’re all drunk and lookin’ for a few kicks and we already broke three bots before you. Sound good?”

“Mmm, sounds perfect~”

“How’s about if I get twenty four guys to run a train? One for each hour of the day?”

“I’d love that~”

“How’s about I let my dog hump you and you cum on his dick and I film it for my buddies at the office?”

“When do we start~?”

“Alright, that’s enough. Power down.”

Steve laid himself down and closed his eyes, the whirring coming from within quieted as he went into sleep mode. Eddie felt sick to his stomach.

“Agreeable and submissive”, Owens said, checking things off a clipboard. “If you learn nothin’ else here kid, get that through your head. The people that buy these aren’t looking for companions. They’re buying toys and while some are content to put their toys on a shelf and bring ‘em down to brush their hair and put ‘em in nice clothes, others play with toys just to break ‘em. The sooner you get that through your head, the better. You’re not Gepetto. And he’s not a real boy.”

Eddie swallowed as Owens removed the lab coat that was covering Steve’s lower half. He said ‘mhm; to himself as he did the final check. Once he was finished, he stamped the paperwork, and gave it to Eddie to sign. While Eddie put his signature down, Owens picked up a laser tool to put the final piece onto the bot’s forehead. A QR code, invisible to the naked eye, but able to be scanned and and easily identify the bot.

“Delivery team will be here in about fifteen minutes to get him boxed up and shipped out, so say your goodbyes. And hey”, Owens put a hand on his shoulder. “Congrats on your first bot, son.”

Owens took the paperwork and walked out after that, leaving Eddie alone. Eddie knew there were folks out there with really dark kinks. And there were folks who didn’t take care of their bots. But it couldn’t happen to Steve. Who could hurt a face this nice?

He pulled the chair up to the table and sat by his head. He stroked the soft brown hairs and sighed.

“You’re gonna be treated right. You’re gonna be loved because-” Eddie felt silly for even thinking it but if he didn’t say it and he let this droid go into the world, never to be seen again unless returned for being faulty… 

Eddie never had the courage to say it to the real Steve. If he couldn’t say it now, to a version he had built that wasn’t even awake, then he really hadn’t changed since high school.

“You’re gonna be loved because I already love you.” He kissed his forehead, then looked to his lips, sitting there, pretty and soft.

Eddie was still there, staring at his face when the delivery team came in. He was transported to a cart and wheeled away, unkissed. Eddie could only hope whoever bought him would kiss him as much as he deserved.

“God, I need a smoke.” Or a good night’s sleep. Or a decent fuck. Eddie would go home and start with dropping dead on his bed. If that didn’t work, he’d hit the bar and find someone else’s bed to sleep in. It was the weekend now, which meant he wasn’t required to think about robots for a full forty eight hours. Whatever happened to his creation now was out of his hands.

Part 3

[welcometoqueer]

U.S. Recount Updates/News:

Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race will officially go to a recount. GOP candidate David McCormick is leading incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey by less than 0.5% in the vote total, triggering an automatic recount under state law.

Furthermore,

Election and cybersecurity experts sent a formal letter to Vice President Kamala Harris urging a recount in key states, citing potential breaches in voting machines and the fact that voting systems were breached by Trump allies in 2021 and 2022.

https://freespeechforpeople.org/computer-scientists-breaches-of-voting-system-software-warrant-recounts-to-ensure-election-verification/

Cited evidence within the footnotes include:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/15/sidney-powell-coffee-county-sullivan-strickler/

Additionally,

The Nevada Secretary of State issued a violation notice regarding election security. A police report has been filed after evidence emerged indicating that Nevada officials may have removed 26,902 ballots from their reported mail-in ballot totals.

[ID:

Three images.

The first is a statement regarding a recount being triggered in the Pennsylvania Senate race. It reads:

“Unofficial Results in U.S. Senate Race Trigger Legally Required Automatic State Recount

Harrisburg, PA — Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced today that unofficial results in the Nov. 5 general election race for U.S.

Senate have triggered a legally required statewide recount.

Senator Bob Casey and Dave McCormick have vote totals within the one-half of 1 percent margin that triggers a mandatory recount under state law.

As of today, the unofficial returns for the U.S. Senate race submitted by all 67 counties show the following results for the top two candidates:

Robert P. Casey Jr. - 3,350,972 (48.50%)

David H. McCormick - 3,380,310 (48.93%)

Once counties finish counting their ballots, they must begin the recount no later than Wednesday, Nov. 20. They must complete the recount by noon on Nov. 26 and must report results to the Secretary by noon on Nov. 27. Results of the recount will not be published until Nov. 27.

The Department estimates that the recount cost will exceed $1 million of taxpayer funds.

This is the eighth time the automatic recount provision has been triggered since the passage of Act 97 of 2004. In the four cases in which the recount was carried out, the initial results of the election were affirmed. Those recounts and the costs for each were as follows:

2022 primary: Oz vs. McCormick, Republican race for U.S. Senate, $1,052,609.

2021 general: Dumas vs. Crompton, Commonwealth Court, $1,117,180.

2011 primary: Boockvar vs. Ernsberger, Democratic race for Commonwealth Court, $525,006.70.

2009 general: Lazarus vs. Colville vs. Smith, Superior Court race, $541,698.56.

For more information about the legally mandated automatic recount procedures, see the Department's directive on this topic (link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com).

Update on outstanding ballot totals

As of this afternoon, county election officials reported there are 60,366 uncounted provisional ballots and 20,155 uncounted mail-in and absentee ballots. That 80,521 total includes all ballots for which county boards of elections have not yet made a final resolution regarding their validity or eligibility to be counted.

As of the issuance of this release, the Department's election returns page [link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com] reflects the unofficial totals that counties have reported. These numbers will change beginning Thursday morning, Nov. 14, as counties continue to canvass provisional ballots and otherwise count ballots. These changes are unrelated to the recount.”

The second image depicts the first page of a formal letter addressed to Vice President Kamala Harris from election security experts urging an election recount in key states. It reads:

“November 13, 2024

The Honorable Kamala Harris

The White House

Office of the Vice President

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W.

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Vice President Harris,

We write to alert you to serious election security breaches that have threatened the security and integrity of the 2024 elections, and to identify ways to ensure that the will of the voters is reflected and that voters should have confidence in the result. The most effective manner of doing so is through targeted recounts requested by the candidate. In the light of the breaches we ask that you formally request hand recounts in at least the states of Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. We have no evidence that the outcomes of the elections in those states were actually compromised as a result of the security breaches, and we are not suggesting that they were. But binding risk-limiting audits (RLAs) or hand recounts should be routine for all elections, especially when the stakes are high and the results are close. We believe that, under the current circumstances when massive software breaches are known and documented, recounts are necessary and appropriate to remove all potential doubt and to set an example for security best practices in all elections.

In 2022, records, video camera footage, and deposition testimony produced in a civil case in Georgia' disclosed that its voting system, used statewide, had been breached over multiple days by operatives hired by attorneys for Donald Trump. The evidence showed that the operatives made copies of the software”

(The page cuts off here).

Below there are footnotes with cited evidence for grounds to request a recount.

“No. 17-cv-02989-AT (N.D. Ga. filed Aug. 8, 2017).

1. Emma Brown, Jon Swaine, Aaron C. Davis, Amy Gardner, "Trump-allied lawyers pursued voting machine data in multiple states, records reveal," The Washington Post, (August 15, 2022). Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/15/sidney-powell-coffee-county-sullivan-strickler/

3 Kate Brumback, "Video fills in details on alleged Ga. election system breach," The Associated Press, (September 6, 2022). Available at: https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-technology-donald-trump-voting-92c0ace71d7bee6151dd33938688371e

The third image is an excerpt of the Election Security Violation Notice issued by the Nevada Secretary of State. It reads:

“ELECTION INTEGRITY VIOLATION REPORT

The information you report on this form may be used to help us investigate violations of Nevada election laws. When completed, mail, email, or fax your form and supporting documents to the office listed above. Upon receipt, your complaint will be reviewed by a member of our staff. The length of this process can vary depending on the circumstances and information you provide with your complaint. The Office of the Secretary of State may contact you if additional information is needed.

INSTRUCTIONS: Please TYPE/PRINT your complaint in dark ink. You must write LEGIBLY. All fields MUST be completed.

SECTION 3.

COMPLAINT IS AGAINST

Please detail the nature of your complaint. Include the name and contact information (if known) of the individual, candidate, campaign, or group that is the subject of your complaint. Your complaint must also include a clear and concise statement of facts sufficient to establish that the alleged violation occurred. Any relevant documents or other evidence that support your complaint should be listed and attached. You may attach additional sheets if necessary.

On 11-8-24, the mail ballot accepted list deleted 28,320 ballots from Clark County. At this same time, Sam Brown lost his lead. These ballots were accepted on 11-7-24 and then on 11-8-24 for the first time since 10-16-24 and reporting began, ballots were deleted from 2 counties. Washoe and Clark.

See ATTACHED.”

/end ID]

[askagamedev]

About Unity these past few days

A lot of people have asked me about Unity and their strange new per-install charges policy that they rolled out on September 12th, 2023. I wanted to give them at least 24 hours before I posted my take on it - let the dust settle a bit so I could get a chance to read the new policy properly and all that. First, however, I think we need to take a step back and get a wider perspective. Unity Software Inc. is in some serious financial trouble. Here are their operating numbers from 2019 to 2023.

The blue line here is how much money they take in and the red line is the amount of money they are spending each year. You may notice that they are spending significantly more money year over year than they earn. In fact, over the past 12 months alone (August 2022 to August 2023), Unity Software Inc. has lost almost $1 billion.

In 2022, Unity spent four times as much money as they did in 2019. If they had managed to keep costs at double their spending in 2019, they still would have earned $243 million in profit. Instead, they lost $882 million in 2022.

Where does all of this cost come from? In any software company like Unity, the vast vast majority of costs comes from employee salaries. And we can directly see it in Unity's number of employees:

Unity Software Inc. more than tripled its headcount from 2019 to 2022, and it did all of this hiring during the pandemic while competing with many many other developers all trying to hire from the same pool. I don't work for Unity, but I was in the market and I had lots of recruiters trying to recruit me during that time.

In short, Unity is suffering from the same miscalculation that Embracer Group did, that EA did, that Activision-Blizzard did, that Square-Enix did, and just about everybody else in the tech industry - they misjudged the good times at the beginning of the pandemic, overspent hiring people thinking the good times would last, and are now scrambling to figure out how to survive. The difference is that Unity was getting all of their operating money from Venture Capitalists (VCs) hoping that they would eventually become profitable, but VC money has all but dried up because it's become much more expensive to borrow money over the past two years.

As a result, the Unity executives are likely grasping at straws in hopes of saving a sinking ship. This wild and decidedly senseless pricing plan is their (seemingly-desperate) attempt to juice their revenues. It really makes very little sense from the developer perspective, which is what makes the whole thing reek of desperation. That isn't greed talking, it's survival. My guess is that Unity is currently desperately looking for a buyer to save them and doing whatever they can to buy themselves some more runway. They already announced layoffs back in May, but I suspect they'll probably have to announce some really big layoffs (e.g. 40-50%) soon. Unity Software Inc. is living on borrowed time and they know it.

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Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[ftafp]

Just a heads-up to anyone who thinks peaceful protests don't do anything: a lot of the things you think of as peaceful protest aren't actually the "real" protest, they're closer to recruitment drives.

The point of rallies and marches is to get people aware, raise funds and recruit volunteers. If they convince sympathetic local politicians, that's a bonus, but it's not the main goal.

Once the movement has the resources they need to organize more direct actions, that's when you get to the meaty stuff

Strikes: Strikes deprive companies of a large portion of their staff, shutting down production. They can hire scabs to replace the striking employees, but doing so takes time, and costs money they're not earning. Meanwhile, strikers are usually still earning enough money to pay their bills, as strike organizers use the funds collected to pay a sufficient portion of the striker's income.

Sit-Ins: Sit-ins interfere with road and foot traffic, often blocking off key bottlenecks, preventing people from accessing businesses, construction sites, or ecosystems. People aren't going to get into the Chick-fil-a if there are 100 fucking people blocking the door, and construction workers aren't going to run over a bunch of civilians to bulldoze a neighborhood.

Hacktivism: Hackstivism is more of an umbrella term for different forms of direct action than a form in and of itself. DDoSing web pages prevents companies from earning ad revenue or selling products, and often results in them having to pay their engineers a substantial amount of overtime to fix. Publically releasing proof of illegal activities makes it hard for courts or legal firms to ignore

Counter-Economics: This is my favorite because it's so easy to do. That's because "Counter-Economics" is just the polite way of saying piracy. The use of ad-blockers, torrented software, free streaming sites, and emulators not only gives you better services for free, it costs these companies millions every year. Using libraries or used book stores to avoid giving money to shitty publishing companies or famous authors also qualifies as this

Disruptive Pranks: Perhaps the funniest one on the list, this is where you get things like glitter-bombing, stink-bombing, pulling fire alarms, pie-ing public figures, and my favorite: releasing three squealing hogs in a building that are labeled 1, 3, and 4 and watching as security tries to find number 2

Sabotage: When the rest fail, this is how you take down border walls, confederate statues, toll booths, and detention centers. Compared to the others, this is harder and generally way more illegal, but it's as direct and effective as peaceful protest can get.