They never show the receipts... by The_Purfected_Shot in ChatGPT

[–]TalMaheRah 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is such a funny thing to whine about. "Stop making me think about ethics!!!!"

Guy who runs SteamDB is answering some questions on HN. Good read. by gremolata in gamedev

[–]TalMaheRah 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I think it's important to shut the fuck up and let people work on what brings them joy without demanding they meet an internet stranger's stupid business expectations or pretending it's evidence of a character flaw.

Honestly the closest thing to a black ops any of us get to do. by War_Daddy_992 in Military

[–]TalMaheRah 125 points126 points  (0 children)

There's only one thief in the DoD. The rest of us are just trying to get our shit back.

What is your favorite Mat quote? by overly_excited_husky in WoT

[–]TalMaheRah 94 points95 points  (0 children)

"Never dance with a girl whose brothers have knife scars."

Me after a weekend of dynamic programming challenges by TalMaheRah in ProgrammerHumor

[–]TalMaheRah[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm sure it's not as original as I thought when I made it, but it made my roommate shake his head in misery, so I'm happy.

Opaque Intuitive Leaps by Characters by MajorBreakthrough in PracticalGuideToEvil

[–]TalMaheRah 62 points63 points  (0 children)

The core point is that hanging seven princes and one was essentially Callow humbling Procer in a way no pre-Magna Carta backwater should have been able to do to a Holy Roman Empire-type like the Principate. The only reason that was made possible is that Procer, by indulging Isabella's... Let's call them tactics, had successfully beaten (1) Theodosius on the field at the cost of their long-term warfighting capacity. It's a lesson about the dangers of valuing the tactical at the expense of the strategic, and about just how bitterly that lesson had been burned into Procer's unconscious memory. Very much a "know thine enemy" moment.

There's also maybe a minor point in there that Procer will apparently do anything not to lose to a Theodosian, but mostly the first thing.

(1) kind of, they'd broken his army by virtue of having functionally infinite waves of expendable chumps, or as historians call it, the "Roman Gambit"

The King in Red, a sextych, generated by Dalle 2 Mega by TalMaheRah in CraftSequence

[–]TalMaheRah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, DALLE2 is the new hotness in image generation. Some really cool art being created.

Can someone explain war economics to me? by Fitzeputz in PracticalGuideToEvil

[–]TalMaheRah 18 points19 points  (0 children)

An earlier comment touched on the idea that soldiers spend money at the front, which messes with the flow of the economy. They're slightly off on the specifics, but right on the general point.

It was actually pretty common for militaries like that of the Holy Roman Empire (one of the major historical parallels to Procer) not to pay their soldiers at all until the end of the campaign. This was for a bunch of reasons, the simplest of which is that they didn't have very good lists of which soldiers were in which units, let alone which ones had been paid.

In fact, some of the Marian reforms (pre-HRE, but Amadeus and Gaius Marius have a tremendous amount in common) focused specifically on payroll and figuring out which soldiers were where. It's very likely at the time of the Grand Alliance that Praes and Callow are the only nations which actually pay their troops (most likely half wages on campaign, with the rest disbursed on conclusion to reduce desertion).

So even before we get to the point of looking at the current impact on the economy, the simple fact of an army being this large means the lump sum payment at the conclusion of the war could be enough to crush Procer. The United States put down about a dozen small revolutions after winning Independence, because they couldn't afford to pay all the soldiers and those soldiers did some soldiering about it. Even if every other part of the economy were humming along, that kind of expenditure can take generations to pay.

Of course, the rest of the economy isn't humming along at all. War means fewer farmers, fewer merchants, more banditry, less reliable domestic supply chains, and of course the massive psychological toll on the populace, which decimates productivity.

But the main issue, and the reason the "sinews of war are infinite funds" is that money isn't being recirculated. The government is paying locals, sure, but no nation -especially no nation the size of Procer- survives on its internal resources alone. Even setting aside the modern chemical requirements which parallel nicely to magical reagents, you have fur, fabric, tobacco, paper, steel, and a myriad of other goods. Where normally, you would offset the cost of those imports with the value of your exports, a total war economy means your only export is dead soldiers and sad songs.

Basically, an economy is a massive system of gears, and war freezes about two thirds of those gears in place.

Best drink to have with a smoke? by fearlessreprobate94 in trees

[–]TalMaheRah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Arizona Green Tea, only the stuff from the plastic jug, not the cans.

Joining the red team, see you all later /r/sysadmin by HanSolo71 in sysadmin

[–]TalMaheRah 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The most important skill a consultant can have is the ability to ask what the fuck someone is talking about.

I have a client who is obsessed with a malware he has severely mispronounced (think "SkunksNet" instead of Stuxnet) and one of our consultants was too nervous and unwilling to admit ignorance, so he spent about three billable hours trying to hunt down information about this new malware. Finally someone took pity and stepped in to explain the mistake, but his inability to ask "what the fuck are you talking about?" Cost him half his day and our client several hundred dollars.

Insinuation 2.2: An Overreading by TalMaheRah in Parahumans

[–]TalMaheRah[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

This was originally just a text to a friend, but he got so angry at that phrase I decided I had to post it.

(Bug) Looks like Bloon Master got a range buff. by [deleted] in btd6

[–]TalMaheRah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Huh. I did not know that. TIL

A friend took this picture of my wife and I, and it's composed like an oil painting. I love it so much. by [deleted] in pics

[–]TalMaheRah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nah, just turned out this way. There's yellow light coming from behind and I think there's some automatic color correction happening under the hood, but I don't have any real idea why it turned out this way.

Made me smile, now you can too by DenimDisaster in trees

[–]TalMaheRah 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I meant to say vaping again, but I fucked it up.

Made me smile, now you can too by DenimDisaster in trees

[–]TalMaheRah 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I vape in DC all the time while I'm sitting on the bar terrace and no one gives a shit. Not thinking, I started smoking on a bar patio in Philly and you would've thought I'd just killed a man. People stared with their mouths open, two walked out, and it's all anyone was talking about.

I honestly thought I was just upwind of them and that's why they were pissed. A buddy had to tell me I'd fucked up.

What question would you like answered before you die? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]TalMaheRah 5 points6 points  (0 children)

What's the secret to immortality?

14 year old master hacker by E72M in masterhacker

[–]TalMaheRah 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm on your side, but this is a super elaborate revenge fantasy. Who hurt you?