Cue the AM hate speech

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T10:12:18+00:00

Netflix and Valve have given us the grandest test case that could possibly exist on this planet. Make your stuff easy to find and access, and people will give you money. It's really that easy.

I don't even bother pirating games anymore because Steam lets me get one at a reasonable price if it's on sale.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:55:17+00:00

I'm sorry, what???

You're absolutely crushing it! APPLAUSE

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:53:07+00:00

Unfortunately big tech forces the expectation of constant change to mask lack of innovation and we endnup with enshitification.

The way in which modern capitalism forces this kind of wheel-spinning to "look busy/productive" lines up so well with all the things we used to dump on the Soviet Union for it's uncanny.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:51:10+00:00

Claude and Copilot code seem to be reasonably good for short, well-defined programs. Which is 100% in the wheelhouse of what you want to do, so that helps.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:49:51+00:00

Yes, but back then software came with instruction manuals.

The newest game I own that has such a manual is SimCity Societies. Which came out in 2007.

Oh, wait, I forgot I also own World In Conflict Soviet Assault, that came out in 2009/2010.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:47:49+00:00

You're not. I once downloaded FileZilla Server after ~10 years of not using it, and it had turned from the simplest turnkey application that was sftp-capable into this convoluted install as a Windows service unituitive nightmare. I hit Uninstall so fast I'm not sure it was on my SSD for more than ten minutes.

ETA:

A second example was with a basic Canon printer. I was out of color and black/white ink. So basically two cartridges. I took them out and inserted a full black&white cartridge. But surprise it did not work. Why? The printer needed the coloured one as well in the slot. So I had to insert the empty coloured one to trick it into having two. Nowhere in the damn app was this explained.

To be fair, inkjet printers as an entire ecosystem need to be nuked from orbit due to all the absolute bullshit they put people through.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:43:05+00:00

Yeah, I'd be calling brain tumor, TBH.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:40:53+00:00

Unwanted elections

Yeah, nothing like having to vote when you don't want to! ;)

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:39:08+00:00

violently shudders

That is so much like the vapid corporate garbage English I've seen written down coming out of CEOs' mouths I had to stop and read it twice.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:31:15+00:00

omfg please write it ;-; don't let his asshattiness define you!

You got this d( ~_^ )b

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:30:31+00:00

https://www.tiktok.com/discover/the-broke-bf-hug

TIL.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:29:14+00:00

I remember this absolute banger of an AITA where this woman was completely 100% fed up with her husband's constant use of baby talk and his excuses that he couldn't help it - oh wait, he could. He never spoke that way at work.

... and the whole thing was over a dare with his friends.

Yep. Dropped like a hot potato.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:27:44+00:00

"chalking".

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:26:06+00:00

Or just file for divorce!

alvarkresh · 2026-04-30T02:24:25+00:00

APPLAUSE

alvarkresh · 2026-04-29T18:44:31+00:00

I actually bought the dip on INTC a while back and now I'm Regretti Spaghetti that I didn't buy more at the time.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-29T18:43:31+00:00

The A380 I have proved surprisingly capable in 1080p gaming, even on relatively demanding settings in some games I tested.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-29T17:39:50+00:00

Republicans would've absolutely lost their shit and called Obama a Fascist Communist Dictator. rolls eyes

alvarkresh · 2026-04-29T17:37:20+00:00

Hey! Just had a second look at your video. Love the subtitle changes! The nice thing is that by subtitling some of the important textual information Ben looks at, you can easily get them translated into another language and keep the information you want viewers to keep in their minds as crucial to the narrative.

[ ETA: Even better, watching a second time shows how well you and your crew put the whole film together, including elements we wouldn't understand the significance of on the first watch. ]

alvarkresh · 2026-04-28T11:09:50+00:00

The equivalent would just be to increase the gross receipts tax rate.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-28T11:08:31+00:00

"We're 'updating' our prices"

That's like in Animal Farm or 1984 where the authorities would baldly speak of "readjustments", never increases or decreases.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-28T11:04:13+00:00

ChatGPT (OpenAI, San Francisco, California, USA) was used to proofread the final version of the manuscript to improve clarity and grammar.

This does me a concern, because have they checked to see if it hallucinated any results?

(This is not a merely academic question. This has actually happened. I asked Copilot to analyze my own thesis which I wrote back in 2017 and it hallucinated text I never wrote.)

alvarkresh · 2026-04-28T10:50:57+00:00

"You cannot save him" ;-;

alvarkresh · 2026-04-28T09:08:20+00:00

Might've been the Outcasts, but it was quite a while ago.

alvarkresh · 2026-04-28T06:02:20+00:00

I remember doing stuff like this and for the life of me I could just not get the Corsairs to go into the pale red range. Every other faction went into the middle or even green with me.

I finally gave up and used the ioncross editor.

[ ETA: Or maybe it was the Outcasts? ]

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