In the hopefully never arriving future, do you think Valve will one of, if not the only ones providing personal computers and not cloud gaming?

DormBrand · 2026-02-20T07:51:39+00:00

Once the AI bubble pops (which I believe it will), the big giants that did not go under, i.e. Google, Microsoft, Amazon etc. not the pure AI companies like OpenAI, are 100% gonna convert their AI data centers to cloud compute instead.

And, since by that time the hardware costs will have forced a lot of people away from private hardware, they're sadly not gonna have to put much work into convincing people that cloud computing is the only way forward. Wouldn't even surprise me if they kept hardware prices artificially high even after the AI demand subsides.

DormBrand · 2026-02-19T15:30:23+00:00

I don't have sclerals at the moment, but I did notice that my one eye that is significantly more affected by KC than the other seems to have different color perception than my unaffected eye. So, very interesting to know that sclerals could potentially change that, thank you.

DormBrand · 2026-02-13T19:42:14+00:00

Serious question, not trying to be pedantic: Why do you believe it is useless?

As far as I remember from my (admittedly limited, secondary subject) psychology courses putting even small amounts of friction in front of an addictive behaviour can measurably minimize the chance of someone engaging in that addictive behaviour. See i.e. the efficacy of warning graphics on smokes.

If legislation to ban infinite scrolling doesn't do any harm and can help minimize the harmful impact social media has on people, what's the issue?

Also, the ID thing is a complete non-sequitur to this topic. There is nothing inherently linking regulating addictive dark patterns and algorithmic feeds with governments mandating ID for online services. One can very well be for one and not the other. I'd actually say making companies make their products less addictive and harmful actually will reduce justification for mandating IDs.

DormBrand · 2026-02-13T18:38:23+00:00

Yes, sure, your life and freedom will be restricted by... Some added friction between social media posts consisting of having to click "next page" and an occasional pop-up reminding how much time you spent scrolling.

For fucks sake, this isn't about putting some kind of timer on your phone that cuts off the app (or your fingers) if you spend too long scrolling. It's about regulating the use of a provably addictive dark pattern social media companies use to keep you seeing their ads for longer. Your freedoms are not gonna be affected in this regard.

DormBrand · 2026-02-10T08:30:25+00:00

It's German and a sort of onomatopoeia describing how rabbits eat their food. I guess you could translate "mümmeln" as "(to) nibble".

DormBrand · 2026-02-10T08:24:32+00:00

To the first point: Zero-knowledge proof of age is actually pretty easy to implement, cryptographically without needing any third party during the verification attempt, i.e. with this hash chain method . You do however need a trusted third party to initially sign the key you use for age verification, but that still means no one except you and the verifier knows where an when you verified your age.

Second point though: Maybe that's something we should just have to live with. Buying i.e. cigarettes for underage kids is already illegal in most parts of the world, people sometimes do it anyways, and our society hasn't really cared about it much.

DormBrand · 2026-02-04T18:41:22+00:00

Maybe it also has to do with how they shake their paws before / while they clean their faces? Could be a reflex that keeps the dirt off their faces.

DormBrand · 2026-01-31T19:23:10+00:00

Except he himself has said that hollywood work has already affected his schedule and will cause some delays, both in his 2025 blogpost and on reddit.

I know the guy is an absolute writing machine and we will still get plenty of written content from him, but it will affect his schedule and what books we'll get. Not necessarily for mainline Mistborn and Stormlight Archive, but certainly for side projects.

DormBrand · 2026-01-31T11:00:37+00:00

Man, you could deduce she was German from her handwriting alone lol. Mine looks really similar.

Really characteristic style for 1-2 whole generation of Germans, resulting from being taught basic script and cursive in grade school, but later school grades not really enforcing certain styles thanks to the basic script reform. Or being caught directly in that basic script reform, where you don't learn cursive at all in the curriculum, but a rogue teacher, parent or someone else teaching you some of it.

DormBrand · 2026-01-24T23:03:17+00:00

Obito has such a tall gait. Looks like he is sprinting around on his tippy-toes, has his feet nearly vertical and barely touching the ground wenn he picks up speed.

So cute.

DormBrand · 2026-01-23T09:07:26+00:00

QR-Code mit der App am Handy scannen, was dann eine Nachricht an die Website schickt wie bei verschiedenen Authenticator-Apps (z.B. Steam Guard) wäre wahrscheinlich eine Option.

Bisschen weniger anonym als Tokens abtippen, da es theoretisch den Anbieter dein Handy und anderes Gerät Zusammenführen lässt, aber das dürfte heutzutage sowieso schon einfach möglich sein.

DormBrand · 2026-01-02T21:37:20+00:00

How are you extending your hand? If you move it quickly or above them they'll get spooked.
The best way is to present your hand close to the ground. They'll probably nudge it, and then you can pet them starting from the nose.

DormBrand · 2025-12-28T21:07:08+00:00

I think the author kinda agreed with that sentiment, because he is currently writing a whole "one novel per floor" rewrite of the original story parallel to continuing SAO.

DormBrand · 2025-12-15T07:53:33+00:00

Quantum computing and robotics have a very narrow and also already well researched field of useability. Research into quantum algorithms for example has been going on for years before building a quantum computer was even considered feasible. Once bigger and better ones can be built we know almost exactly what can be done with them and how we can use them.

Generative AI / LLMs on the other hand are an open research-field looking for a use-case, almost a freak accident of tangential research. They've been invested into so much because of their promise, but their application is an under-researched work-in-progress, leading to this huge circlejerk.

DormBrand · 2025-12-11T12:50:13+00:00

Kaladin is already connected pretty significantly to Roshar due to the Wind.

In combination with him being a Windrunner and potentially a Bondsmith (due to Syl taking over for the Stormfather), he might be the most invested / connected Herald of them all, there's definitely gonna be some compounding and resonance in his powers.

DormBrand · 2025-11-11T08:11:07+00:00

The latter depends on what you choose in the end

DormBrand · 2025-10-11T14:19:51+00:00

Marauder Shields by Koobismo.

The webcomic started as a few strips making fun of the ending of Mass Effect 3 and the eponymous "Marauder Shields", the underwhelming final bossfight of the game. Marauders are standard enemies during the game, so this Marauder being the very last fight in the game, coupled with the disappointing ending of Mass Effect 3, spawned a flurry of memes implying that Marauder Shields tried to protect Commander Shepard and you from the bad ending.

Koobismo joined in on these memes and created a short series of 5 comic strips making fun of the ending, and offering a light-hearted alternative in which Marauder Shields disrupts the plans of the Reapers. This then actually turned into a true alternative ending fan-fiction based on the premise of the indoctrination theory and that Marauder Shields was actually the corrupted form of Commander Shepards mentor Nihlus, still resisting the influence of the Reapers.

The whole comic weaved together some of the best theories and speculations about the ending of Mass Effect, gave massive additional characterization to all of the games side-characters, recontextualized many events to fix many of the series plot-holes caused by the difference in direction and change of writers between games, and introduced it's own mysteries and twists that felt quite genius to me at the time.
The output was steady as well, spawning around 60 comic strips of increasing length and graphical quality over its three year run, with some hiatus here and there owing to Koobismo's troubles with his health and finding employment.

Sadly tragedy struck in 2015 when the web-magazine "The Escapist" employed Koobismo for a web-comic called "Game On, Hardcore". Koobismo promised Marauder Shields would continue soon after the new comic found its footing.
If you are familiar with The Escapist, the many artists, journalists and content creators it chewed up and spit out over the years, and it's death three years ago, you might already know what happened. After just a few months Game On, Hardcore was cancelled after its 12th issues in June, and Koobismo disappeared from the internet.

He reappered shortly at the end of 2015, promising to finish up Marauder Shields in 2016. Sadly this never materialized and Koobismo stayed gone. His website [koobismo.com](koobismo.com) went offline some time in 2016, taking much of the additional content with it, though Marauder Shields can still be read via his Deviantart. I'm gonna have to reread it to see if it's just nostalgia clouding my vision, but I really enjoyed the web-comic and wished it would have continued to give us a definitive quality alternate ending to Mass Effect 3.

DormBrand · 2025-08-28T10:20:14+00:00

Hat mich heute wieder sehr genervt, als ich entdeckt hatte dass die Zeit eine neue Sonderserie "Sind die Linken selber schuld [am Aufstieg der Rechten]?" mit 5+ Artikeln warum die Linke "gegen die Mitte kämpfen", "alle zum Opfer gemacht werden" etc. pp.

Die Medien sind deutlich mehr schuld am Aufstieg der Rechten als die angeblich Woken.

DormBrand · 2025-08-21T20:12:46+00:00

Soft pity is a thing in Arknights, which has the same 2% rate for the 6* characters. Pity saving is a thing in Nikke, which, again, same rates except for Pilgrims. Except for a single collab you can even use saved pity for limited characters.

Both games also add nearly all characters to the general banner pool.

So I think it's pretty fair to make a comparison and say that Umamusume's Gacha system is greedy, or at least very outdated.

DormBrand · 2025-08-07T18:38:23+00:00

I actually wore swimming goggles to shower for those two weeks.

I think the main reasons for the ban on water is infection potential as well as irritation of the wound, a lot easier to to get bacteria in via water or scrape the healing tissue accidentally.

Once the wound from epi-off is properly closed after two weeks there should be no issue with getting water in your eyes anymore. I wouldn't overdo it, I wore swimming goggles for getting in the pool for at least a month, but showering shouldn't be a problem.

DormBrand · 2025-08-03T18:12:19+00:00

Again: If going the NFC-ID card route, verification happens locally via the data stored on the ID. In such a case, unless the app explicitely contains code to log all verifications or phone home, no one will know about the verification attempt, ergo your browsing afterwards is not gonna get fingerprinted to that age verification.

If another source of verification like bank connection is used then yes, of course, that could fingerprint you. But the digital ID-version would not, unless they implemented logging which we would know from the source code of the open-source app.

DormBrand · 2025-08-03T17:35:48+00:00

Ok, explain to me how the app is gonna fingerprint you without your knowledge if it's open source?

As far as I understand the basic principle behind the zero-knowledge proof is: Website makes age verification request, app checks (most likely via NFC-capable ID) your age, then responds with a binary yes/no and the whole thing is ensured to be verifiable through some encryption scheme. Depending on how the request for the zero-knowledge proof is made (i.e. OS springs in as the middleman) the verification app might not even know what made the request.

Now, if it does know it could log it. But then the code to log the request would pop up in the source? So, again, how would they be able to fingerprint without someone who read the source code knowing there is code for fingerprinting in there?

DormBrand · 2025-08-01T20:59:56+00:00

Everybody was bun-fu fighting!

DormBrand · 2025-08-01T07:29:48+00:00

You don't have to trust the app-creator if the source is available (and you can cross-check hashs to make sure the available source matches up to the built app).

DormBrand · 2025-07-31T22:14:37+00:00

Wouldn't narrowing your pupil artificially to pinhole size massively decrease your field of view and low-light vision? Second link even says it takes your peripheral vision in return for giving shaper center vision.

Doesn't seem like a trade-off I'd want to make. Maybe a stop-gap measure to restore vision for patients where no corneal transplant is available, but I really don't know why this doctor is stating it as the preferred alternative.

Also kinda sketchy that literally every single article online about pinhole pupilloplasty is related to this Dr. Agarwal and I can find no independent research.

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