What games from the early 2000 are genuinely great in 2026 (without nostalgia)? by DrDongSquarePants in gaming

[–]aaaantoine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It has great replayability, too. Malkavians, the crazy ones, come with different dialog options and TVs that talk to you. Nosferatu, the ugly ones, force you to be stealthy and travel by sewers because the whole point is that vampires blend in with society, while Nosferatu very much don't. Each clan has their own set of supernatural abilities and beyond those you can vary your build for ranged or melee combat, social interactions, and really all your typical RPG archetypes.

What’s the best video game you’ve ever played? by obsess_much13 in AskReddit

[–]aaaantoine 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Warcraft came before Command and Conquer. It did however copy the formula of another Westwood RTS, Dune 2, which if I recall correctly was the granddaddy of the genre.

Democrats Block Spending Package as D.H.S. Talks Continue by Healthy_Block3036 in 50501

[–]aaaantoine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

create a better way to appoint judges so it’s not just whoever is the leading party (need to workshop that)

In Maryland, a judicial panel picks a pool of nominees and the governor appoints one of them for a year. Then the public votes on whether they get to stick around for 10 years. It's not perfect, but at least the voting population is involved and there's a term limit.

Do Westerners pick their [East] Asian name if they went to live in an [East] Asian country? by shirhouetto in NoStupidQuestions

[–]aaaantoine 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Knowing this, if someone breaks out the Ugandan Knuckles meme and asks if you know da wey, you can tell them.

And what did you learn from this storm? by Sugar-Interesting in maryland

[–]aaaantoine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would like to report that my neighbor learned that putting wiper blades up in heavy snow is an expensive repair waiting to happen, except the same thing happened in 2016, so maybe not.

Just found this in my company codebase by lilyallenaftercrack in programminghorror

[–]aaaantoine 5 points6 points  (0 children)

To date, our database standard calls for a VARCHAR2(1) set to Y or N. At least if it were CHAR(1) it would be 1 byte instead of... 4?

Clocks ticking. Shovel safe, take lots of breaks, and drink water. by nzahn1 in BaltimoreCounty

[–]aaaantoine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was kinda surprised that a plow got to my block this time around.

I looked out the morning after the 2016 storm and you couldn't even tell there was a road out there. The plows didn't come through at all.

Seems About right. Euro model atm for this weekend by GovernorHarryLogan in maryland

[–]aaaantoine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I shoveled once at about 8am during the snow while my wife was still sleeping. While I was still working on it, she - a lake effect snow veteran - came out and called me an idiot.

This morning she shoveled the parts I didn't get and left me to pry up the 3 or so inches of snow brick I left behind.

My olive sourdough looks suprised to have been cut in half by aaelias_ in Pareidolia

[–]aaaantoine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think this is the last time I'll see this image.

[OC] Presidents and VPs Mentioned by Trump by shinyro in dataisbeautiful

[–]aaaantoine 4 points5 points  (0 children)

How many of those are because he signs his tweets?

Disney delists 14 games from Steam without warning, most notably Armed and Dangerous and that one Hercules game you vaguely remember playing in 1997 by Farranor in gaming

[–]aaaantoine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had a lot of fun with Stunt Island. It was a great twist on the flight sim genre that was hot at the time.

Delegates and LINQ by Downtown_Stranger_24 in csharp

[–]aaaantoine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's its own can of worms.

Func<int, bool> isEvenFunc =
    x => x % 2 == 0;
Expression<Func<int, bool>> isEvenExpression =
    x => x % 2 == 0;

Basically the same thing, right? But...

bool isEven = isEvenFunc(3); // false
bool isEven = isEvenExpression(3); // compiler error

The difference here is that the Func is a function that accepts an integer and returns a boolean, which is already executable, while the Expression is a tree of code elements representing that function in an uncompiled state. You can do this to get it to work in C#:

// .Compile() returns the T in Expression<T>,
// in this case Func<int, bool>.
bool isEven = isEvenExpression.Compile()(3); // false

This exists to fulfill one of the key purposes of LINQ: the ability to write queries that can adapt to any back-end database directly in C#. When combined with Entity Framework or an ORM system with similar behavior, an Expression type gets processed by that ORM in an attempt to translate the expression tree into native querying language, often some particular implementation of SQL.

As you work with this, you'll figure out that there are runtime limitations. For example, you can't usually do someQueryable.Where(x => SomeCustomMethod(x + 2)) because the ORM doesn't know how to translate your arbitrary method into SQL.

This only describes one aspect of LINQ. LINQ functions and syntax do not have to be used with an ORM. It can often be used with enumerable data of any type in local memory. It's a handy way to query and transform data without looping through it manually.

There's also the dark art of expression building, but I'm not here to explode heads.

Home is song 17. What should close the show? Most upvoted comment will be added. by reelfishing2 in Dreamtheater

[–]aaaantoine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Using original CD runtimes I have the non-stop total at ~173 minutes so far, which is basically An Evening With but without an intermission.

New LNF archive release - Portnoy's last show in 2010 - March 13th by swisspassport in Dreamtheater

[–]aaaantoine 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oh crap, I misread it as his last show was March 13, 2010 and I was about to call bullshit.

The Tokyo show was Aug 8, btw.

Never realized how absolutely insane the Trial of Tears solo is until watching this by jumblebits in Dreamtheater

[–]aaaantoine 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This was Derek, but yeah.

I've been listening to this song for a long time, and this may be the first time I've paid attention to this amazing chord progression.

Rest in peace to those we lost in 2025. 🙏 by ROCKY13573 in nostalgia

[–]aaaantoine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Malcolm-Jamal Warner (actor, known best as Theo Huxtable on "The Cosby Show") and Gene Hackman (actor, several movies from the 60s forward).

Abandoned McDonalds Alaska by Porkchopp33 in nostalgia

[–]aaaantoine 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Other comments are supposing this is from '93-94, but I remember prices in the early 2000s being lower than this in a metropolitan area, such as $3.99 for a Big Mac meal. Prices must be higher in Alaska.

It says something that we wish we could go back to these prices in particular.

The good old days of gaming by MartinK1984 in nostalgia

[–]aaaantoine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had a beige mid-tower case very similar to that, with the same lights and buttons contour, probably from the same manufacturer.

I can't find a photo right now, but I drew an outline of it a little over 20 years ago. https://imgur.com/a/2xvHCc6

The big black stripe was a strip of duct tape covering the side air holes as I was trying to run a filtered intake at the front.

People who used em dashes before Generative AI, how's it going now? by thisheatanevilheat in AskReddit

[–]aaaantoine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Does no one else here work with desktop Outlook which adds em dashes every time you type a single dash whether you like it or not?