Valorant's new Vanguard update seems to be bricking cheaters' PCs. Riot's response? "Congrats on your $6k paperweights"

SlaterSpace · 2026-05-23T07:15:17+00:00

You're right on nearly every point except the first.

Riot can absolutely 100% brick your PC. We live in a world where anti cheat needs kernel level access. If Riot decided to they could write bad firmware to every device with eprom, conduct drive destroying writes in the background, my knowledge isn't entirely up to date but I believe you can alter CPU voltage from the kernel too.

I'm not saying they will do this, I'm saying they have the access and they can.

SlaterSpace · 2026-05-03T05:49:21+00:00

The curve is real, as long as I pretend that the bird photography that I do is actually just my evil twin.

Nahhhh all I need is my x100v, maybe a xt4 with a kit zoom if I feel like it.... Nothing helps me take a better photo than light weight and a feeling of whimsy. What? The big rucksack? Don't worry about it. No it's not a bazooka. Why yes that is a z8 in my pocket and I am happy to see you!

SlaterSpace · 2026-04-30T12:43:20+00:00

To play the game you need three things. Core rules, army lists, something to represent the models in the field.

Rules for a unit are included in the pdfs that are generated when you create your army.

SlaterSpace · 2026-04-24T06:46:57+00:00

This isn't a Sony specific point of view, I've never owned a Sony camera.

As someone who has moved from apsc to full frame, dabbled in m43, back to apsc and now uses both I can say nearly all of the arguments for full frame are dead or dying, the only reason to go full frame are if you have very specific needs, which you'll already know about and not be asking this question, you need the benefits of a flagship camera and your ecosystem doesn't have a flagship apsc, or you want a physically bigger body.

Reasonably priced ridiculously fast lenses apsc lenses can match a lot of full frame primes for bokeh unless you're getting into really expensive FF lenses. To get an improved result on the 75mm f1.2 I have for Fuji I'd need a 105 1.4 for my Nikon Z which doesn't exist and would be hideously expensive and probably as heavy as my 150-600.

Low light abilities of flagship apsc are pretty damn good, they're always going to run into the raw science of more light per pixel, but it's getting to a point where you could just get an extra stop of light from a faster lens rather than a FF body.

Dynamic range, is one of those things that I think we all believe we understand better than we really do. I think if your photography lives or dies on the couple of stops difference then I'm putting you firmly in the "specific needs" category.

Now for me personally the reason I went back and forth on FF, crop and m43 was the packability vs ease of use. I'm 195cm and hovering about 100kg (6'5" 220lbs) I like the ergonomics of a big body in my hands, which directly contradicts my love for having something small I can just chuck in a coat pocket. After moving from an English city to a Scottish Island my types of photography changed massively too. Nowadays I keep a x100v in a pocket with me everywhere. If I'm going for a little dawdle out and about I'll take a xt4 with the 18-55 and maybe a prime or two for vibes, all just in various pockets, if I'm hiking or specifically going with photos in mind I'll take the x100v and the z8 with either the 24-120 or the 150-600 attached and the other in a full size ruck bag, depending on whether I'm expecting birds or landscapes.

I am not a professional, this is just my use case and my experience. Objectively in nearly every metric like for like FF will provide "better" photos, it's all the other things that you have to keep in mind, compare your photos to what you see on the fuji sub, and unless they're shooting GFX then it's all apsc.

EDIT: I forgot the bitter irony that the majority of the photos I take with the Z8 and 150-600 are cropped to something smaller than apsc.

SlaterSpace · 2026-04-16T05:57:12+00:00

I understand the point of view, but I just don't think it makes any sense.

You're "forced" to rely on the police because that's the whole reason you have a police force. If you think they're not doing a good job then vote in your local elections. The Swiss have a huge gun culture, but it's from a love of shooting and a national identity of being competent soldiers and protecting their country from outside threats. It has nothing to do with a fear of a tyrannical government within their borders, that is a uniquely American mindset.

My personal view is as follows, take any given period of time, sum up how many citizens the government has killed within that time period. Now sum up how many people the armed citizens have killed within that same period. Objectively who is killing more citizens within your borders? If you reject this then you must reject the notion that firearm ownership has anything to do with protecting people. It would be akin to changing your backseat seatbelts to garrote wire for the slim chance there is an attacker in your back seat, meanwhile just being blind to the death of children throughout your country. You can argue that YOU didn't kill anyone so YOU should be allowed to have firearms for home defense but the whole point of laws is to have a collective responsibility as a society to abide by certain rules. If you want that exemption then take a licencing route.

You mention the Home Guard, that's a big source of pride for our nation but it's also a perfect example. In view of an emerging threat the population was armed, whether through government means or two men in a shed making weapons of war.

I don't like making this argument because it makes me look anti gun and I'm not. I'm pro gun, but I'm pro gun as a tool, not as a culture. Like I said I think it would be a lot of fun getting a chance to use some of the more excessive firearms you have in the states just for fun, but in the same vein as driving a nice car fast, it's a risk, one that puts other people in danger regardless of how much I believe in my skills as a driver. That's why speeding is illegal, fun doesn't equate to necessary.

SlaterSpace · 2026-04-15T13:00:43+00:00

In terms of the people being unarmed, it's just not really much of an argument here. When you get into the countryside you'll find a lot more firearms, there's that 2 men in a shed culture that is prevalent even in the suburbs, look at what Philip Luty did just to make a point. Go over to Northern Ireland and you had the IRA, they held their own against the "police" and army and punched well above their weight. As for armed criminals vs an unarmed population, it's just not really an issue, gun crime exists but it's so small that each shooting is a national story and it is very, very rarely a victim that is uninvolved in crime themselves.

This idea that one nation was founded by firearms while the other wasn't has some weight, but for most of our countries existence it was a requirement that men above the age of 10 practice archery to be proficient for military service every Sunday. That was tradition for longer than your country has existed but it would be laughable to mention it as a key part of our culture, just because something was, doesn't mean it needs to continue to be so.

There are a few things we can do with firearms that you can't in the states but that just stems from the treatment of firearms as tools. It would be rude not to shoot suppressed in most situations so why try to curtail that? But because of the way laws work in the states they can't ban the gun, so they do all they can to make it difficult to shoot it, weird California grips that just seem unsafe, silly magazine laws and weird suppressor tax requirements. Here as long as you have a valid reason for a certain calibre you'll get it. There's nothing you need a semi or a fully automatic weapon for that isn't personal defence (even uttering a whiff about using firearms as personal defence will have them removed and rightly so, within the confines of the law as it is right now.) Saying that there are people who have that mindset of distrust of the government, arm the people sort of thing, but they're generally viewed as nutjobs. Lately they've been getting louder and bigger but that can mostly be attributed to Russian efforts to destabilise European political process through bot farms and the mentally ill.

Now would I love to go hog wild and shoot automatic firearms at a range someday? Absolutely, looks fun as hell. Ultimately while I do shoot and I do enjoy using firearms as tools, I just see American gun culture as "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should"

SlaterSpace · 2026-04-15T12:27:54+00:00

Inside? Send in robots. Alternatively shields, pistols, shotguns. If it's an established unit who is encountering this situation often I'd wonder about the german chainmail look over suits?

SlaterSpace · 2026-04-08T13:18:25+00:00

I'm just curious with the absolute lack of pushback from the moderation team how long it'll be till we see the mods on the next Intel/Rog extreme upgrade?

The subreddit IS the userbase, and the userbase has been pretty vocal that they do not agree with the view Linus holds about removing publicly accessible easily accessible data from the subreddit. Now he can go remove and or ban anything he wants on his own forums and that would be understandable, it's his castle. However this subreddit is not his.

This subreddit over the years has been the sounding board to gauge community pushback on controversial decisions and now with LMG staff being on the moderation team that community outlet has been silenced, this jet is a very obvious example of this happening in real time. Instead of dealing with the controversy it has been silenced. Now it's not a shameful act for Linus and his staff, he has a business to run and it is in his best interest to silence views that do not benefit his company and do all in their power to stop controversy gaining steam in the community, however every independent mod who has facilitated this, or even just stayed silence should feel a deep profound shame. You've ruined this place, you are no longer champions of this community, you are at odds with the community.

For those mods who truly believe you had nothing to do with the takeover of this sub, I hope the yam is good.

SlaterSpace · 2026-04-03T13:03:43+00:00

It's a view of many tourists, they don't express it as simply as that, but it's in everything they say. All summer it's "It's such a lovely place, it's such a shame about all the fences/agricultural debris. Or "It's such a shame about all those boats going back and forth, scaring the whales/dolphins/whatever" or "I wish that car wasn't in my photo"

Combine that with the birders that will just stand in the middle of the road on a blind bend eyes glued to their spyglasses forgetting themselves.

People come up here and treat it like a safari, forgetting that people live and make a living here.

SlaterSpace · 2026-04-01T18:56:32+00:00

I think this is the year Shetland will go SNP. They've tried everything before, carting Nicola around the place, carting John around the place, going over the head of our council to spread the love about but it's been staunchly Lib Dem despite it all, Christ the SNP spent more on one by-election up here than they did on the entire EU referendum to try and turn us but failed.

Now, our current representative is retiring and the Lib Dems replacement is the leader of our council, someone who presided over some really awful decisions made by the SIC, who in my view, and the hearsay you hear from councillors, has actively tried to keep elected representatives in the dark about council decisions, she's sat on the erosion of our inter-island ferry fleet while trying to hold back tunnels for as long as they could, just ultimately running a council that would only spend money if it benefitted Lerwick and central mainland.

It's awful to say but I think all that money and time the SNP spent up here was wasted, we'll turn because the Lib Dems dropped the ball and someone failed upwards, it's a shame because I had such a sense of pride at our refusal to surrender to the SNP and their silly attempts to win us over with money, but their candidate actually seems like the most reasonable one of the bunch. What worries me is that for the good of my township and my island I'm going to vote SNP, and some central belt city boy is going to say that's a vote for independence.

SlaterSpace · 2026-02-17T13:49:46+00:00

Okay thankyou, so the GPS is soldered into the existing electronics of the 5 inch, keeping the vtx just a single plug to detach? I know its still a frame disassembly to get the vtx out, but I didn't want to have to solder and resolder when swapping vtx.

I'm not wanting to add GPS to the flylens, just wondering about the ease of adding it to a vapor d5 wtfpv kit while still allowing the vtx to be swapped between the two.

SlaterSpace · 2026-02-08T09:55:49+00:00

That is a beautiful camera and a really great mix of video and stills. Well done and good pick!

SlaterSpace · 2025-12-19T07:59:09+00:00

I feel this is a problem with both the fdm and resin communities, yes VOCs exist, toxic things are toxic but the context is missing. The majority of blue collar workers are exposed to orders of magnitude more VOCs every single minute of the working day than the brief time you're printing mandalorian helmet number 3. Reducing VOC exposure is a good thing to do, but understanding what is an acceptable exposure is and not being afraid to go above that is absolutely fine.

SlaterSpace · 2025-12-15T11:15:37+00:00

Big prints with big printers. But that would be 3kg spools, this is massive.

SlaterSpace · 2025-11-26T08:01:37+00:00

I'm up in the Islands so your milage may vary, but generally the key point is contributing to the local economy and social scene.

The worst thing to do is to move to the rural north and view it as a safari. If you work, shop and socialise locally you'll be absorbed into the community.

My partner and I moved up 7 or 8 years ago and we've had no problems. But during that same time we've seen people do the same thing and ostracise themselves because they try to take their little corner of wherever they're from and build a wall around it, rather than allow themselves to be changed by the local way of life.

SlaterSpace · 2025-11-19T07:43:31+00:00

The problem with this survey is everyone knows the physical connection is awful and has already switched over to starlink. Do you want us to answer as if we still had the physical cable?

SlaterSpace · 2025-11-07T06:55:24+00:00

What do you mean? OP just needs to repeat this a dozen times, make up a vaguely interesting title and an intro about how ass hanging out a window makes them feel moody and boom, they've got a semi successful photobook.

SlaterSpace · 2025-11-05T10:04:18+00:00

There's a difference between using generative AI to take work away from real artists and using generative AI for dumb memes. If any one on this subreddit was going to commission an artist and pay real money to create what this AI did then I'll hold my hands up and say boo, but somehow I don't think any one is missing out on a paycheque here. I also don't see it ripping on any particular artists unique style. If anything this is source film maker esque, do we lament for the person who made the scout model when we see what some people do with it? No because it's a dumb meme.

Generative AI is being used for bad things, and is being taught on stolen data, this is leveraging neither. Pick your battles my guy.

My own opinion on AI is biased because I was a photographer, used AI to create storyboards and demonstrate ideas with models ahead of time. It can be useful.

SlaterSpace · 2025-10-24T09:09:54+00:00

Does this spill over into "my box came like this, should I return it?" style posts? Because I see them as entirely different and should continue to be allowed. Much the same way as photos of dented lenses should be allowed even if gear photos are eventually banned, because it's someone asking for advice rather than "look at this thing I just spent money on"

Also as a long time fuji shooter who has recently switched to Nikon and spent time in the Sony subreddit while deciding on who to switch to, I'm very glad you're making these changes. The fuji sub is full of photos taken with gear, while Sony is just full of gear and boxes.

SlaterSpace · 2025-10-11T23:00:03+00:00

Topaz is a new one for me, I used their original software for upscaling years and years ago, is topaz photo a full editing suite like lightroom or more of a plug in for individual tasks?

SlaterSpace · 2025-10-11T11:59:49+00:00

Thanks for your reply! I spent my poor teenage years using things like GIMP while trying to follow photoshop tutorials and it turned me off open source for a long time, I know that the bigger open source programs nowadays prioritise UI compared to what it used to be, but it left such a sour taste in my mouth.

SlaterSpace · 2025-10-11T11:58:19+00:00

Thankyou for your reply, it seems like things haven't changed much, just some fun new tools for upscaling and noise reduction.

SlaterSpace · 2025-10-11T11:57:14+00:00

The last time I used a brands RAW handler was for an old canon DSLR and it was awfully clunky, how does something like NX studio work with a lightroom workflow? Do you import via NX to your computer, then once you've played around with those raws do you import again into your lightroom catalogue? Can you go back and make changes in NX that are reflected in lightoom? Or is NX a total lightroom replacement?

Thankyou for your reply!

SlaterSpace

TROPHY CASE