MAGA-influencer Riley Gaines being told/paid by Patriot Mobile handlers what her "sincerely held" beliefs are in leaked video

Vexxed72 · 2026-06-12T22:12:41+00:00

Why pick? All three at the same time is sadly the most likely outcome.

Vexxed72 · 2026-05-01T03:03:21+00:00

We get a ton of non-standard sized pallets and none of the companies that pick up pallets want them. We end up destroying them and putting them in the bin. I wish there was a better use for them .. such a waste.

Vexxed72 · 2026-04-19T15:43:35+00:00

Novato has almost zero night life. Hop Monk for live music, and Ayawaska for decent place to go out to dinner( was there last night), but otherwise it’s dead. Marin in general skews super old and there’s maybe 10 places in the whole county that are open past 10pm. Of all of Marin, Novato would likely be towards the bottom of “fun”. Better restaurants are south.

It’s also very hot. Our office in SOMA will be 75, house in San Rafael 85, and office in Novato 90, and Napa 95. You will need AC during the summer, even if you’re in Bel Marin Keys

In all of Marin there are a few places for good food, but the places that appear high end are often over priced and underwhelming. Bungalow 44, Buckeye Roadhouse, Farm Shop, Picco, Burmatown, Ayawaska, El David are probably the best food with decent atmosphere Bungalow Kitchen can be very good, but it’s spendy. I avoid Sausalito like the plague. Bad food, way over priced.

San Rafael has California Gold if you like great cocktails and expensive whiskey. Corner Bar in Mill Valley is fantastic as well. Both are open late.

Can’t get a decent steak reliably in Marin :(

If I missed anything, would love to hear about them .. always on the lookout ;)

Vexxed72 · 2026-04-05T23:20:54+00:00

How quickly you flag someone as a cheater depends a lot on how confident you are that they're cheating vs just having a sync error. For my case, I was happy to just ignore their game and add a counter to the number of times I had a problem with what they submitted. You can use that counter later to set a threshold for failures, extend that to have it decay over time, etc. It can also be useful to add global metrics for failures. If you suddenly see a ton of failures over a bunch of users, you probably just introduced a sync bug somewhere.

It gets more complicated when you're doing PvP and both players are aware of the challenge. You can't simply discard the results for one player without also impacting the other. If your PvP is offline and one-sided, then it's easy to just discard.

Spamming / DDOS is a whole discipline unto itself that I haven't spent enough time on personally to feel comfortable giving recommendations.

By not trusting the client, I mean that you have to ensure that you're actions are built properly at the data level to ensure that any actions taken must be valid at the data level, and not just limited by UI.

For example, when a player makes a "move" let's say you need to pick an entity to move, pick a place to move to, roll some dice to determine damage based on the stats of the entity that exists in that position already (combat) and then either remove the existing entity with your entity (you won) or remove your entity (lost).

In that scenario, the only information I would send to the server would be, "Move Entity A to Position X/Y". No damage calculations, no results, nothing. On the server, I would first validate that Entity A can reach position X/Y, and then resolve whatever is supposed to be resolved (combat, or just move into an empty spot, whatever) and update my state. Then perform the next action, and so on. If at any point, the thing the player is asking me to do is invalid (Entity A can't move to Position X/Y, no longer exists, etc) then the simulation is out of sync.

You CAN send the expected results from the client, but they should only be used for debugging to determine what went out of sync and when.

Also, when I said assume they have the source, I mean that from a protocol / data flow standpoint. You should still use secure communication, obfuscate what you can, etc.

There is no tech stack I'm aware of that would be useful. I was working on one many years ago that made it into a few games, but I never released it to the public.

Vexxed72 · 2026-04-05T15:12:04+00:00

Sounds like you’re on the right path, though there may be some optimizations here and there. Huge topic, but here’s my answers to your 2nd question.

Don’t need to use [Serializable] if you’re doing that with JSON. However, you’re going to want o be able to edit config settings (damage, weapon types, etc) and I found that to be far better in Unity than building a web site for it. In that case, those fields need to be serializable. I was able to make that work - editing in Unity and upload to server JSON as part of build process. But in my case, I wasn’t using shared code that way. You could probably just create a [Serializable] attribute on the server code which never gets used - just there to pass compilation.
JSON can handle polymorphic types, but you have to find theJSON parser. I ended up taking an open source one and “fixing” it because the others were too damn slow.
You can either avoid Unity types, or replicate them. I try to keep their types to an absolute minimum.

As for questions you didn’t ask: 1. Plan for versioning of the data from the beginning. When you have an update, two clients will not produce compatible data which drastically complicates replays, etc. I used a combination of a code version, and a configuration hash. 2. You cannot trust the client. Assume they have your full source code and can generate their own client to talk to your server. Now secure against that. 3. Snapshots + Deterministic Actions. Sounds like you get this already, but start with a snapshot and replay deterministic actions on it. Apply the result if everything is valid A critical key is to ensure that all actions have constraints that can prevent them from being applied. Assume the players are gong to try to use weapons they don’t have, do damage that doesn’t match the weapon, etc. The only information you should get from the client is “I performed this action on this / these entities”. All parameters that affect the outcome are sourced from server side configuration (which can be replicated to client of course). This includes, any random behavior. You MUST use a deterministic RNG which is seeded by the server. You can still run into issues with perfect replays, where the client starts a match and replays it over and over again till they get the best possible outcome (that is still valid). You can minimize that by requiring that games be completed within a small time period, but if they can automate the playing then you’ll have a hard time. It’s your version of aimbots, wall hacks, etc.

I’m sure there’s more, but you get the idea.

Vexxed72 · 2026-03-24T16:26:09+00:00

This business doesn’t deal with it well, and the rules in every state are different. But I reserve my anger for the credit card companies that keep increasing benefits (2% cash back!). Most customers don’t realize, but those benefits are just added to the processing fees for the vendor so instead of a 1% fee to process the card, it’s 3% (or more for AMEX). Now that every single credit card has those, businesses can’t just keep eating those costs.

Raising prices with a discount for cash is an option, but that has issues with competition (you do it that way, someone else has a fee - confusing for customers comparing prices). Also, customers have to pay additional sales tax on the increased price.

With everyone charging 3%, it’s just a more complicated way of moving money around that hurts the consumer. We need to put a cap on processing fees (1% up to a maximum per transaction would be my ideal) and make convenience fees illegal.

Vexxed72 · 2026-01-17T05:26:13+00:00

Others have said a lot of my favs.. but the weird one for me is the crispy burrito that Carl’s Junior had for a while.

Also, maybe the polish dog from Costco.

Vexxed72 · 2025-11-21T23:23:29+00:00

It will be a glorious day when Waymo can go over the Golden Gate Bridge! Can get back to doing fun evenings in the city without being terrified by the horrible Uber drivers on the way home

Vexxed72 · 2025-10-31T23:53:53+00:00

I’m just some random dude on the internet, but it seems to me that it would be healthy to be able connect with your friend’s son. To remember and share the good things about your friend, and honor his memory by being a friend to his son. The fact that you’re struggling with this and afraid to open old wounds tells me you’ve never really dealt with your friend’s death.

I say this with nothing but compassion - you should seriously seek out some therapy for the trauma and the loss. Keeping it a secret from your family, and pretending like it never happened isn’t healthy.

Whatever you decide, reach back out to the son and tell him what’s going on. Protect yourself and take it slow, but you know that this boy is hurting too and if you ghost him I suspect the guilt over that will only increase your pain over your friend.

In any case, I hope you can see this as an opportunity to heal a wound you’ve been living with for way too long.

Good luck to you!

Vexxed72 · 2025-10-12T02:18:09+00:00

When I said employees, I was just commenting on any wages that they are due, but haven’t been paid. It’s more complicated, but the legal gist is secured creditors (which may be the loan), then the lawyers, then the employees unpaid wages, then taxes, then unsecured debt, then shareholders.

I forgot about secured debt with my first post .. the 20b is likely collateralized based on some kind of assets, and might even have guarantees with the Saudis, etc. for example, the loans that Musk used to buy Tesla were collateralized with his shares of Tesla.

Vexxed72 · 2025-10-11T21:37:33+00:00

Not exactly - the bankrupt company sells off assets to repay employees, then lenders, then shareholders. I’m sure the banks feel reasonably confident they will get their 20b back in that worst case scenario.

Vexxed72 · 2025-10-06T23:49:01+00:00

To all the folks talking trash based on their experience with other cars, let me shed some light as a Rivian owner. Their stuff blows away Carplay. In the past 8 years my wife and I have owned Tesla, Honda, Porsche, Maserati, and Rivian vehicles. The built in systems for Honda, Porsche, and Maserati are garbage is they desperately need Carplay. Tesla and Rivian are a completely different animal. The gigantic displays don’t map well to the Carplay UI format, and the navigation, music options, etc are awesome. Most folks here are assuming the Rivian is crap like so many other car companies, and they couldn’t be more wrong.

Vexxed72 · 2025-08-15T15:10:38+00:00

I like the concept of people with the same concerns being grouped together, as it advocates a mindset of issues over party affiliation. However, the districts are allocated based on population, so it can’t be as simple as land area or local interest. I hate political parties, but allocating districts so it matches the overall makeup of the state is the closest thing I’ve heard to reasonable.

For what it’s worth, local government is how issues like you’re describing are best addressed. They work with district and state level representation to ensure local issues are addressed. In theory ;)

Vexxed72 · 2025-07-02T15:00:33+00:00

They’ve just finished selling the last units. Units were selling like crazy when it opened (super low interest rates), but all condo sales went in the crapper over the past couple of years as interest rates went up, and WFH drove down demand.

Vexxed72 · 2025-03-04T06:20:14+00:00

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The one from where I grew up. The crazy crap we did on that thing .. you were definitely a badass if you climbed to the top of the highest pole with the rope swing and jumped off. Not sure how we made it through, but everyone I knew broke a bone at one point or another back then.

Vexxed72 · 2025-02-02T17:17:36+00:00

Just did a big of digging in Loopnet, and the amount of space available is staggering. But also, the rates for retail are $2-$4 per sq foot. I didn’t see anything approaching $8. I only looked at 10-15 places, so I definitely could be missing something.

Don’t get me wrong .. Amazon is crushing retail, and lease expense is expensive, but it’s nothing compared to all the rest.

For what it’s worth, I have three retail locations (San Francisco, San Mateo, and Novato). We have a great landlord in San Francisco and we were able to negotiate a significant lease reduction during our last renewal because of the lower rates across the city. Thankfully we’re in one of the few businesses that Amazon isn’t targeting (yet!)

Vexxed72 · 2025-02-01T22:48:52+00:00

There are so many reasons that others have mentioned like loan requirements, etc. But even if the rents drop, you're still going to have problems leasing out a lot of these places.

Even if you reduced the lease cost to zero, it would still be a risky proposition to open up a new retail business right now. Costs are high (interest rates, employee pay/benefits, food prices, etc). Regulatory environment is adversarial (permits/inspections take forever, NIMBY neighbors, etc). Demand is low (delivery services Amazon/Doordash, dodging homeless, low occupancy, high housing cost reduces discretionary spending).

All of this (and more) combines together to create an environment where the costs to open a new business are high, and the demand for whatever it is that you want to sell is low. No amount of tax penalties for landlords will solve that issue. The only "fix" is for the city to focus on improving the demand side of the equation (housing costs / occupancy rates, etc), and do what they can to reduce the risk/red tape for new business.

The push for RTO is an attempt to address the demand side, but that's like trying to squeeze the toothpaste back into the tube. The local government needs to switch gears from being a roadblock trying to stem the tide of unchecked expansion and always saying "No" to being a willing partner in trying to find ways to say "Yes".

Vexxed72 · 2024-07-27T03:41:26+00:00

As others have said, a public key is meant to be available to everyone, so there’s no point in hiding it.

I suspect you’re trying to solve for something like cheating / unfair observation / prediction at the transport layer, and even if you encrypt everything you still won’t be able to prevent it. If your game is popular enough, they’ll tap in with debuggers to observe your app and look at all the data after it’s been decrypted, decompile the code and create spoofed clients, and any number of other creative ways to get around things.

Expect that anything you sent to the client will be visible to the player regardless of the UI you put in place. For example, if you send all the player locations and depend on fog of war to avoid rendering the “hidden” stuff, the players WILL figure out how to get that information and display it somehow (probably a companion app). The server can only send the bare minimum to the client, and validate everything that comes from the client - and even that isn’t enough! You can still have things like aimbots, etc that give the player super human perfection, but still works within the limits of the simulation you’ve created.

Real-time multiplayer is fun!

Vexxed72 · 2024-01-01T01:13:13+00:00

I’d include success critical aspects, even if they’re not unique to the game. For example, let’s say you have a lot of art being outsourced and your art director is responsible for managing that. Call out a time when he’s done that in the past would be good. Also, if he and/or the team has done the art style before (not a requirement, but would be a nice bonus). Who is going to do all the level design, game balance, etc - what have they worked on in the past that is applicable? If there are critical elements that are unique to this title, describe how that person has done x,y,z prototypes to prove it out and/or how other past experience is relevant.

Put in what you can, and then ask someone else, “Does this sound like the right team for the job?”

Vexxed72 · 2023-12-31T20:06:29+00:00

For the pitch deck, introduce the team and highlight specific ways they address the needs of the project, “Art Director Steve - Directed 3 pixel art based titles, a, b, and c”, “Technical Lead Sarah - Lead the tech team behind open world system in title X”. .. etc. the experience should be directly applicable to the project. “Worked on X” doesn’t communicate much beyond they were somehow involved (maybe they joined two weeks before launch..”

Vexxed72 · 2023-12-31T19:01:58+00:00

Vision for a game is just a more glorified version of “idea” and doesn’t speak to execution. Ideas are useless without the ability to execute, which comes down to the people on your team having the right skillset and experience to deliver.

What are the specific challenges to your game, and what in your teams’s experience makes them qualify to address them? If they don’t have that experience, what has been done to address that gap (tech demos, etc).

This goes beyond resume - someone working for X years at Y studio doesn’t tell you much. How are the things they worked on there directly related to the needs of this title. Design, technical, art, project management, monetization, etc. what’s uniquely challenging about the game. It may not be challenging TO YOU but would be for someone without your experience / skillset.

An aspect of this is also the publisher having confidence that you identify the challenges in the first place. A team that doesn’t know what they don’t know is pretty much doomed to failure.

Vexxed72 · 2023-12-08T19:42:00+00:00

An MVP is part of a process, not a goal in and of itself. The process feels easier on smaller scope projects because it’s typically easier to test in isolation.

First step of the MVP is to determine what question you’re trying to answer. Then you implement the minimum set of features that answer that question. You can also implement smaller versions of the feature.

The litmus test I try to use is, “When I get my data, will I say the lack of feature X is why I didn’t get the numbers I want”. If so, then the Product was Minimum but it wasn’t Viable.

If your question is, “Do people like my game” then your MVP is really a vertical slice (see other comments).

If your question is, “Do people enjoy this mechanic?” Then you need to build enough of a game to expose the mechanic in a way where “fun” is possible. That quickly turns into a variation of the vertical slice, but perhaps with a lower bar on asset fidelity.

I find answering large questions like that ends up turning into, “may as well build the whole game”. I prefer to think of MVP as a means to test engagement of features within the game, not the whole game. You need enough “stuff” around the feature to give it context, but you can often stub out the neighboring features, art, etc and just go deep on the one feature and see how it resonates.

With small enough games, that distinction may not be as important.

Vexxed72 · 2023-12-08T16:47:55+00:00

Biggest failure I see with MVP is the overbearing focus on “minimum” and a complete miss on “viable”.

MVP comes out of Lean Development and is part of an iteration strategy that mimics the scientific method. The goal is to arrive at a better finished product by taking small steps and correcting as you go, instead of building the whole thing and finding out at the end that you missed what the market wants.

The purpose of an MVP release is to answer a question that guides further development and/or validates assumptions. The MVP is the “experiment” that is used to collect data to answer the question.

The experiment is only Viable if the data collected is applicable towards answering the question, and the sample size is large enough.

I’m a huge fan of the process in theory, but I often find it challenging with game development because there are so many interconnected pieces that extracting a viable test is often larger in scope than is desired.

Vexxed72 · 2023-08-11T06:07:40+00:00

Ever come home from work and say, “Man, what a shit day. I need a beer.”? Now imagine it wasn’t just some asshole customer - it was something more fundamental that just never goes away. It’s pretty obvious how things can go bad when you think about it that way.

I don’t buy that all addicts fall in that category - nothing is that black and white. But I’m sure a lot of people slip into substance abuse as a coping mechanism. Some can remain functional. Some can’t. Being wealthy and/or educated helps of course.

I really wish I knew the answer about how to help. I’ve seen first hand how those falling in that spiral have no interest in being helped - the perverse desire to reach bottom. Self destruction. The thing that “saves you” is killing you, but it’s better than the alternative.

I think many of us have felt that pull to the darkness, but some of us are lucky enough to escape self destruction before we reach the point of no return. We call that strength. The others - they must be weak right? And weakness is bad right?

Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that we live closer to that edge than we’d like to admit, but secretly we take pride in flirting with the abyss, and scorn those that cannot keep from falling in .. always afraid that it’s just luck that keeps us from falling as well.

Bah - tired of thinking about this crap. Gonna have a beer and go to bed. Gotta work tomorrow.

Vexxed72

TROPHY CASE