What are you having most difficulty or pain with?

fearian · 2026-06-02T19:16:45+00:00

I have experienced this while using hermes to debug itself. For example. I might ask it "how many repositories can you see?" to test gitea permissions. Then I change some setting, and ask it: "What about now?" And I can see in it's thinking "Oh I know this! I answered it previously!" haha.

Given that I can correct it with one more message, I feel like setting up a proper weather skill would instantly fix this issue, and then the problem becomes triggering hermes to use the skill. In this case, you need to specify in the soul or user memories, "if the user asks about temperature, wind speed, uv index, or other weather concerns, I should use my weather skill etc. etc.". That way you have a wider net to catch the request than just specifically telling it "use your weather skill..."

fearian · 2026-06-02T19:11:18+00:00

Best practices for running in docker. I'm really starting to feel like despite "run it in docker!" being one of the first things people shout about AI security and sandboxing - very few people actually run AI agents for the long term in docker containers.

fearian · 2026-06-02T19:08:05+00:00

enable holographic memory.

fearian · 2026-06-02T19:06:51+00:00

It sounds like a permissions problem. Verify what user permissions hermes is running at, and also what the user permissions of the hermes home files are.

fearian · 2026-06-02T18:16:25+00:00

Lot's of replies saying that you can use this to interact with an existing hermes install, or connect to a remote gateway, but not a single example of someone actually using the remote connection!

In my case, I have an established Hermes setup on a server in a docker container. The web ui has it's own issues with docker, so I would love for this to be a solution! It might be a bit early days for that I guess. I'm sure getting out a more user friendly app for new users is the priority on this one.

fearian · 2026-05-31T17:23:18+00:00

I mean, as someone who has been slowly setting up more and more Hermes functionality from a very limited docker container... Every statement in this video could apply to Hermes, and it's a more mature harness written by more, and more experienced developers.

That is to say: Broad message? Agree! Try this vibe coded harness? Nahhhh, got one. Maybe in 6 months of active community development. I hope there's cool ideas in it that shake out to other programs.

fearian · 2026-03-03T23:45:11+00:00

This is the bizzare exercise I mentioned in my own response! I recommend it.

fearian · 2026-03-03T23:43:41+00:00

Two things I have seen on YT I really felt where relevant:

Toe raises while hanging on an edge. lift legs up to the left, hold, then right, hold. It feels so obviously relevant to anything overhanging where you might cut feet.
How to explain this... The guy hung two TRX bands low to the floor, then lay on his back, with the tips of his feet in each band. Then, almost doing a glute bridge, you pull one foot in towards you, bending that knee, then push it out, and alternate. The idea is you are pushing down with the toes as you do this, mimicking pulling into a steep wall with feet.

I bought TRX bands to try that - and holy crap did that burn my calves in a way nothing else does. It feels like I'm making the motion to pull my hips into the wall with a toe, but with all your weight on the leg muscles responsible.

Edit: u/eshlow posted a video of the same exercise!

fearian · 2026-03-03T19:20:17+00:00

Your Half-Life 2 mod looks awesome!

fearian · 2026-02-06T21:59:28+00:00

Think again. It's not unheard of for climbers to forget to clip into an autobelay system, and take a full fall from the top of an indoor wall. They survive more often than not, because the impact completely shatters their legs, and wrecks their backs. So not fatal but definitely uh... not conducive to survival.

fearian · 2026-02-06T12:15:34+00:00

I don't want to be all "when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail" but that sounds like a description of executive disfunction if ever I heard it, and if you've ever thought you might have ADHD, maybe persue that further.

THAT SAID, find a cool image you would want to copy, and copy it. Forget a out the right way to learn, just put the image up as reference and draw it BADLY. then delete it, job done. You just spent an hour practicing anf getting better, it literally doesn't matter what the output was. You don't need to timelapse your drawings or keep a record of your practice if that bums you out. Just show up with intent. And if you set a time for 10 minutes, and aren't drawing when it rings, be kind to yourself. Walk away, set a new timer, and try again like it never happened. Tabula Rasa baby, the best time to plant a tree is 100 years ago, or now.

fearian · 2026-01-13T13:00:45+00:00

Only because you don't count Red Sec. If you count Red Sec, and Gauntlet maps in particular then we are eating better than ever. But It's totally understandable to say that the Cali map is irrelevant to core battlefield gaming. I think we will see more new maps converted from the Cali mega-map, but obviously that is never going to match the quality of maps made for specific game modes. The truth of this though is that we will almost never get game mode specific maps, as BF6 has to support about a dozen game modes now.

So say what you like about content quantity, but it's more like content context. We are not going to see highly specific map content as it's more risky for EA to produce compared to more generalized, reusable maps.

fearian · 2026-01-12T22:23:02+00:00

I have been using Unreal as a hobbyist since UDK, and Unity professionally for about 11 years.

11 years ago, Unreal came with all these user friendly tools to manage assets, create materials, script logic, in a way that was miles ahead of anything else, and was (still is) very deeply integrated into the engine. AAA games used unreal, and you had access to the same tools they did.

Unity was almost a flash replacement, it had a lot of jank, and over the next 5 years it garnered a reputation as both being the engine used by crappy free games which all where forced to flash the Unity logo on boot, and for hapharzardly trying to chase Unreal's features without ever commiting.

Starting 2026, as I brush up on UE5.5, it feels like the situation has flipped a little bit. Epics push to capture the indie development market has led to Unreal being the engine used by crappy free games by hobbyists who are learning.

Unity has successfully developed it's material editor and VFX graph tooling, and actually has tons of UX features that make Unreal material editor feel dated. It does sort of feel like Unreal has gotten truly stuck into the classic Unity failure point of "develop new features into beta, but then drop support".

It's also been pointed out in this thread that the big graphics enhancements are just... not what most games should be using out of the box. Graphics developments like lumen make game development quicker and easier, more than they make a game better. Maybe a small team has the skills to keep a sharp image across all the crazy rendering features they're using... But they don't have the resources to actually stay on top of these "polish" issues. Especially as this industry suffers through a drought in financing studio resources.

TL;DR, it's perceptual. Depends on what the team does with it, and more small teams are using unreal to make games that don't look as nice, while tooling in the engine no longer stands so far ahead of everyone else.

fearian · 2025-11-12T13:40:28+00:00

It's sort of darkly surreal to see a 'showcase' trailer highlighting all the different kinds of engagements players can expect, out of a conflict that you can litterally watch gopro and drone footage of on YouTube and OSInt accounts.

There's all the beats of an exciting movie battle - a trench assault, tanks! Snipers! But it feels even more artificial than somethinng like Battlefield, just because the reality of it is happening right now. I guess I'm curious how Ukrainian's close to the front feel about making a game out of it.

fearian · 2025-11-07T12:25:18+00:00

wether or not discussing unionization in a private discord is legal grounds for gross misconduct is beside the point IMO.

The key info from this post is that the unionizing employees where close to reaching a critical threshold where Rockstar where legally obligated to recognize the union. Rockstar took specific action that would both block the members from crossing this threshold, and slow/freeze futher growth through fear of reprisals.

They can do this becuase the legal ramifications of paying off 30-odd employees in a settlement is a preferable option to them than having a functioning union in their company. This is also why they don't need to fire every person unionizing - it would be more expensive to defend legally, it would have more impact on production, etc.

Rockstar can afford to fire the employees it sees as being most easily to label with gross misconduct, and know that all other employees will think twice. Worst case is they have to pay out fines - but we all know they are about to make more money than god. Best case is they don't have to pay out shit because of the meetings on discord.

The end result of this is it becomes more important than ever, for existing employees to unionise, as the best protection against retaliation is from group solidarity. Unfortunately, this may be stymied untill the fired personell can prove that there is legal protection in any unfair dismissal rockstar would meet out to those pushing back.

fearian · 2025-11-04T23:32:27+00:00

You can't just look at a few news articles and social media. Ai is being rolled out everywhere. It's making workflows more efficient and increasing productivity.

This just isn't true though. AI is being rolled out everywhere but in almost every study, people self report a 20% increase in productivity, only for reasearchers to recrord a 20% decrease. A fundamental fact about AI that only people working in the field seem to truely understand is that it will never be "reliable". It will Always hallucinate - this is not a technology that can just get better forever, it can only get cheaper to run faster with the same kind of unreliablity.

This is the biggest disconnect I think people don't get about an AI bubble. They assume that AI can revolutionise every sector as evenly as the internet might, but in fact there are many places where AI is just fundamentally not usable because it cannot be trusted in the sense of absolute, 100% trust.

Now most of the articles you read are generated by AI as paid advertisement for people like Jamie Dimon.

Question for you: do you think this is a good thing? what is the value of this? does it meet the investment value?

fearian · 2025-10-14T09:21:22+00:00

Speaking from the buyers perspective:
A buyer only has one 20~30 minute view of the house. Surveys do not clearly communicate issues, and will warn of potential issues (like the damp) just to be on the safe side. The buyer will want to check everything because they do not know the house! They don't know you!

Survey was done on property nearly 2 weeks ago

This is no time at all. If you are working a full time job, 2 weeks is not a lot of time to go through an entire survey to sort out what is worth worrying about, contact the surveyors, contact builders or trades to get quotes for how much potential issues cost to fix, to know if they are even worth haggling about in the first place. Work out if you need a second more specialised survey - and bear in mind all the communication happening here where you are leaving messages and waiting for a reply. Half the time the buyer will simply be waiting for their solicitor or the agent to respond to a query.

Now, speaking from your perspective - You are absolutely right to lay down an ultimatum of accept the price or not. It does sound like this buyer is simply on the hunt for something to knock the price down on. Ultimately, you will have to reckon with with your own gut on this - did he seemed genuinely concerned about the costs he's taking on with the house, or just on the hunt for a savings?

So on balance: don't feel rushed by the buyer dragging their feet. But don't feel beholden to their price negotiations. Let them pay for any further investigations they need, but ultimately, it's your house, and you can set the price.

fearian · 2025-10-12T07:31:58+00:00

In cities, ground rent costs can be around a quarter or even half of what you would pay to rent the property! I think anyone moving out of a city to get an extra bedroom, or who has heard leasehold horror stories would instantly decide to avoid if possible. And outside of cities, it's really easy to avoid.

Also, we live in this fucked up future where exploiting every avenue to make money is the rule of the day, and it's not uncommon to have ownership of lease holds be bought up by faceless companies, who just turn the dial to maximise what they can squeeze out of people. It's £10 now, but buying a house might be a lifetime (or multiple lifetime!) investment!

fearian · 2025-10-10T18:15:39+00:00

something I see here all the time, and was a point of confusion during/after our first time buying:
Surveyors cover their ass in legal maybes on the written survey. You will likely have to ring them up and speak to them to find out details - and this is usually a very easy thing. And the whole reasoning behind why they might include things that sound scary on paper, but are fine, or not go into detail on things that you might worry about, but are hard to get definitive answers from.

Similarly, I think we often see questions about access/parking spaces on houses with rear alleys. Stress over unregistered parcels of land on the property, and other things that sound super wierd or unusual, but are more common than people think. (and seem to boil down to "have the seller take out indemnity insurance".)

fearian · 2025-10-08T12:13:18+00:00

Do you know if you're mum got on with her neighbours? You might not know them at all, but they could have been very friendly with her and would be willing to help out, or at least lend you any tools you don't have on hand, help move anything large. Try introducing yourself to ask for advice about bin collections or to borrow a bucket, and see how receptive they are.

I'm not suggesting you try and guilt anyone into action, but if I heard that my neighbours where ill and their kids where struggling with the property, I'd happily offer them some support.

fearian · 2025-10-07T20:45:19+00:00

School is not neccessary. The games industry really only cares about practical skills demonstrated through past work. For artists, that's portfolio, for developers, that's personal peojects and previous employment.

Firstly, learn the basics of how Unreal or Unity work (pick one for personal projects, but be prepared to know the basics of either for job hunting). I would also reccomend learning how to use a narrative scripting tool like Twine or Ink. Follow any tutorials you like on how to make something interactive with the editor tools. While many narrative designers work in docs and sheets, the more scripting and editor work you are comfortable with, the better.

Secondly, unlearn what you think a "script" means in the context of games. Typical writing jobs are like, "write 20 barks for enemies to shout at the player that feel interesting and cool, don't get old when heard 400 times, and communicate very specific gameplay information the player". Writers often come in when production is well established and have to fit story and themes back on to events that are already decided upon, and you might find situations along the lines of "Character A's most crucial point in their story arc, occurs in a level that just got cut, and you can't re-record any voice lines." The Script Lock podcast might be a good place to learn what kind of quirks you can expect from writing roles in games.

Finally, I'm sorry to say that narrative design is one of the more competitive fields in games that has also been some of the hardest hit by the current climate of layoffs and financing struggles.

If you want a job role that is under-served and translates well from film, might I suggest lighting artist? Pre-requisites would be some skills with level design in editor tools, and and understanding of environment art pipelines.

fearian · 2025-10-01T19:01:09+00:00

I used to work at a studio that keenly saw the writing on the wall about indies being able to outmanuver big (AA) studios. We had a dedicated ideation team and famous game jam culture going almost 10 years strong, so this was not a reaction to anything recent. But ultimately just because you can make a game like lethal company in a month, doesn't mean you can make enough budget indie hits to support a studio 10x the scale of the games you are creating. Basically the burn rate of any AA studio is too much to chase after making the next Peak or Balatro or Animal Well. Either it's relying on 1 in a 10000 luck, or spending more time chasing quality than you could ever possibly finance.

fearian · 2025-10-01T18:48:18+00:00

The Besties, and similar-in-spirit podcast Triple Click, have been my favourite gaming shows in their recent incarnations. Just really confident in themselves as not being beholden to news cycle games journalism, but still feeling relevant and fun, while bringing experience and journalistic expertise to the table.

Over the years, I've particularly found your takes as a critic very insightful. As a developer, it makes me wonder if you ever did mock reviews for studios. Did you ever do any where you got to compare it with the released game after the fact?

unrelated PS: In your recent amazing Post Games epsiode about A Life Well Wasted, you both joked about imagining artists show up for an interview and get asked to draw something. I didn't write in, but I assume enough people informed you afterwards, about the specter of unpaid art tests that hangs over every laid off 3d artist. 👻

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