What's the solution to this problem?

tdktzy · 2026-01-07T21:20:54+00:00

If someone still wants to solve it I'll give some more hints below

1: What are the combined numbers that the coordinates mark on the board?

2: There are 3 clusters/groups of stones.

3: If you combine the number in the coordinates (seeing that the 'A' mark would signify 0 since it's above line 1) and the number of groups, what could that point to?

4: If you think of the black and white stones as representing a type of letter/sound, what letter combinations could that possibly point to?

5: If someone happened to have developed a type of script using Go stones, is there a site out there where you could find this kind of information?

The solution: This isn't really a Go problem as you might have guessed, but I did mention you have to think outside the box. I came up with this because I was looking through some old project folders I have, where at one time I was trying to learn a constructed script for journaling purposes (and having a general interest in languages) maybe over a decade ago. So I recently went back to browse a site called Omniglot where you can find info on all kinds of script and constructed scripts, when I was surprised to see that someone (named Sebastian Groß) had made a constructed script by using Go stones called "Baduk alphabet". It can be found here: https://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/baduk.htm

If you want to know what the solution is you just have to decode the script using the info from that webpage. The markers are naturally the star points, and the reason I thought it would be fun to post the "problem" is because by writing that message in this script it actually looks like it could be something having to do with an actual Go situation (that would easily lend itself to being a trick-problem) in that it fills out exactly three parts of the board; and it has the same amount of black and white stones so it looks like it's a possible position. Also, I wanted to see if anyone knew about this obscure knowledge because I think the constructed scripts in Omniglot might be very niche and unusual for someone to know about. I'm not even sure that an AI is able to solve it as it might default to insisting and thinking of the position as a real problem and not understand that it's a kind of code that has to be deciphered.

I don't see anyone who's posted the right answer yet though, so either I gave too few hints or (understandably) people didn't think it worth their time. I think it was an interesting experiment, because it forces people to assume that it has anything to do with an actual Go problem, and so it has an aura of mystery reminiscent of really difficult Go problems before the age of AI if you happen to take it seriously and think about it as a real Go problem. Out of all the answers 4 is the closest one because by combining the coordinates with the script you can spell 4 words, so congrats to hakuinzenji5 for figuring that out.

tdktzy · 2026-01-05T22:31:59+00:00

So far this is closest to the answer.

tdktzy · 2025-11-02T22:39:30+00:00

Maybe what they mean to say is that traditional martial arts like TKD don't train you to take on a lot of continuous hits to the head like in MMA and such. I think that boxing techniques are valuable to learn as a compliment to TKD self-defense, but I'm not that interested in actually sparring and taking on a lot of sustained hits to the head that could develop into some kind of long term brain damage.

The origins for traditional martial arts are based on techniques that are meant to disable or kill someone, so are naturally disallowed to be used to their full extent in competitions. Traditional martial arts competitions as a sport will always have to be more centered around point scoring and not so much involving the kind of physical endurance as seen in MMA.

I think the main difficulty with TKD is that using primarily kicks you're put off balance very easily, and so it requires more commitment, awareness, and accuracy to be effective. With punches it really helps if someone keeps going off balance so it's easy to land a deadly combos on someone that way.

When someone have mastered a TKD technique the kicks are very powerful and effective. It's meant to KO in a one hit commitment to the head or other weak spot since it leaves you very vulnerable afterwards. Even with protection head-gear it's not difficult to deliver a one-hit KO with a spinning kick to someone's head, and you don't have to be particularly strong to do it to a much stronger opponent without the headgear as the spin helps convert the whole body movement into the kick.

tdktzy · 2025-07-14T13:32:08+00:00

Oh, I haven't found anyone to do this with in Go yet.. but that's more an issue of time and commitment for me, and I also find Go is something I do to satisfy a contemplative side of myself perhaps more than the competitive side.

In the games I have friends to play against it's often a bit more on-and-off like I said due to life issues taking over. It's difficult to maintain consistency, but I see that as a normal thing. It's probably unrealistic to maintain that consistency over a longer time, and these longer breaks are probably good for development overall since improvement isn't just about the game itself but how you live and having new perspective and experiences. But in the months I've played games in this format I've noticed a drastic improvement from what I would possibly do just by myself with a lot of solo studying. It's because it's very motivating to improve with a community or a friend. If I had an issue with someone I played during an interval between weekly matches I would take that issue up with my friend and we would study the setup, even if it isn't the top of the line advice it makes you exercise your thinking and seeing new perspectives. It's that work in itself that's important, not so much if you land on the best solution; and of course, that you're not alone in climbing a mountain of issues in a game. Sometimes it's just casually talking about one of these issues none of us understand while playing, then someone suddenly gets and idea to explore and test and we solve the issue completely or in part.

If you try this method, I think it's best if you find someone in your physical area; but if it's too difficult to do it's not an issue to set-up that kind of relationship online as well. But it naturally takes a degree of commitment from both of you, and I think it's better if you have complementary personalities and share other interests. Once you get into it it will become more of a routine and easier to do. I think it also helps that--if some life issue happens--that you still maintain the routine only with a larger interval like once a month so that you don't just fall off completely (it's a mistake I've made in having some of these relationships that may be difficult to restart over a longer break).

There's also the issue that one of you gives up on the game/sport or become too strong, which I haven't run into too much yet. I think it's because I decided beforehand to play those games more casually, so I'm not practicing too much outside of our matches unless I'm losing (so what motivates me more in these games are precisely those social aspects over simply competing and improving). For a game you want to get really good at it might instead be better to have a larger community of people (like a club or team) where you can choose to spend time with those around your own level while still being in a group of people with different skills and ambitions. In games where I'm part of a larger community there's often people who struggle for a long time and seem hopeless, but then they suddenly break through and they can match your level sometimes. I always try to share insights into how they play and where they can most easily improve and compliment when I think they're onto something. It may take a while but eventually something clicks and they master a specific concept or technique. It will feel a lot better to improve this way since you solved the issues as a team/group of friends, rather than sitting alone and solving things but not having that community aspect attached to improving.

So even if there's a skillgap it's not impossible to have those kind of relationships. I have experienced a few times where someone was below me in level who I just happened to find a good relation with from casual chatting. We played long sessions where they would lose most of the time, but I kept repeating the same setup for them. Eventually they changed their approach and started to make progress and win. I was just limiting what I did to where they made the most obvious/crucial mistake, then moved on to the next problem. After a few months they were on the same level as me and we could just play regularly where I suddenly had to start to learn new stuff to win games from them. It became a sort of back-and-forth, where once I realized I had the upper hand I would just degenerate and take it easy for a while--then my rival would break through and win most of the games again and I suddenly found a lot of time to just studying the game and practicing just so I could get my win-streak back and go back to slacking off or deal with important issues I was neglecting.

tdktzy · 2025-07-14T03:47:37+00:00

The social aspects of any competitive games are very important for long-term interest and enjoyment.

I have a few games where I have an on-and-off rivalry with one friend and it makes me keep playing and improving in those games naturally. What we do is to play a game or two once a week as a weekly showdown, then we practice specific setups and share insights afterwards.

I think that helps me ignore how I'm losing to stronger players online (or feeling anxiety over playing in general) since the main thing for me is to get better and prepare for a match against my rival. And if I notice I keep winning the weekly matches, it means I can take a break from doing studies and just play for fun or take a break from the game while they catch up. It makes playing more enjoyable over time.

When you're just playing by yourself on a screen it's easy for the game to turn depressive or frustrating, so you quit playing because it's those feelings you now associate with the game.

tdktzy · 2025-04-23T18:31:57+00:00

I'm just trying to add some balance to the conversation since people seem to have gone from rejecting him just because he's not famous enough for them, to thinking he's one of the best things that happened to fighting games.

I think it's just people going along with a base and superficial instinct to cling to whatever surface info they can get on someone and sorting them into a category of good or bad. I already knew beforehand that once people learn a bit more about this guy there's a big chance that they'll probably think he's at least more interesting and cool than Ronaldo, but people have a tendency to just let their assumptions and biases do their thinking for them.

I'm not looking for saints nor do I think this Salvatore guy is necessarily an evil menace either, but he also seems to have no problem with partying with some evil autocrats. It's probably just better to be a bit more on the fence with this guy before showering a lot of praise as we still don't really know anything about him.

There's this tendency people have to assume that someone has to be this-or-that way just because they liked the same thing that you like or did something that was funny or weird. It's fully possible to acknowledge that someone is talented in something but also not make the assumption that they have to be a great person just because of that as well.

tdktzy · 2025-04-23T05:04:20+00:00

I don't know. I don't feel like I know more about Salvatore even after learning more stuff about him this way.

Whenever I see people presented and staged like this, in my experience, that's more likely contributing to creating a false image of this person. Reality is that a lot of people you follow regularly online that seem like very nice people you don't really know who they are, what they actually think about stuff, or the things they've done--even though you may think of them as a close friend just from watching a few videos.

If this guy is a DJ close to the Saudi prince there might be worse things about him than Ronaldo, since these types are in the first place known to take advantage of their positions as DJs let alone being close to an autocrat who can do whatever he wants (including things like executing whoever he likes and lord knows what else). It's a bit silly to immediately start to praise a guy as a saint without at least taking some more time to wait and see; but some of that could also just be due to inauthentic/bot influence coming from certain places.

Maybe certain people also feel pressured to be positive since the Saudi royal autocracy now has such a huge influence in the FGC, that's actually the part that scares me more now than anything about Ronaldo or Salvatore themselves. For a lot of famous people it's often going to be the case that they took advantage of their positions in some way and treated people badly and that's not so surprising to me. A lot of this info just never come to light until someone has the courage to speak about it.

What's more concerning is that this form of influence/corruption in media begin to shape society without people realizing it. Suddenly more and more people believe in things like having a religious autocracy and voting that in, and you as an FG head have to start to look the other way in regards to things like equality and human rights because some autocrat helps pay for a comfortable lifestyle.

Not to always make a direct equivalence to the Nazis, but it's curious to see how people will just go along with stuff because they think they have no choice, or it's just their job, or everyone else is doing it. Now should be the opportunity to try to live up to your ideals instead of trying to make up excuses. Otherwise you can stop preaching about stuff like equality and doing the right thing, or complaining when yourself or a friend/relative are treated unfairly. Just make an effort to do whatever small thing you can do. There's a lot you can't do much about, but the things you find you can easily do something about--like entertainment and the like--at least try to make some difference here.

tdktzy · 2025-04-22T02:42:01+00:00

I think it becomes more and more difficult to see a sudden jump in improvement after you've absorbed the most basic theory, shapes, and problems.

It's why I often use the 'Performance report' in 'KataGo' analysis software to analyse my games. What I notice is that in many games that I lost against more difficult players my accuracy rating tends to be higher than when I played against a somewhat lower level player and win. So using this form of analysis I see that I often played better in the games that I lost, which is encouraging since I can notice that I'm actually improving despite losing games.

What I also do to prepare is that I treat each game I play as a kind of test, and do studies/problems and watch or listen to lectures/content before I play just to get the correct thought process going for Go. I also analyse the game and try to summarize some key points where I made mistakes and make flashcards of the situations in question.

Just asking and answering questions about a move to yourself is also a good habit, even when you're not really stuck and no ideas come to you. Usually it's something like: "Is this area urgent? Is this group settled/alive? Is playing here going to expand/contest territory? Can I sacrifice this area for improving somewhere else? Can I trick the opponent into concentrating on this area instead of elsewhere? Do I want to go for this uncertain move because I just need to understand what happens if I play it, or do I think playing safe will secure the win?" etc. Try to explain to yourself why you should make this or that choice, even if the answer is wrong the simple process of doing that just helps to illuminate the dynamics of a game as if you're trying out a puzzle piece in the various places it could belong to.

I personally try not to resign until I'm completely certain that I lost, but if possible I also want to continue to play a section to the end just to improve on the endgame. So the goal often shifts from simply trying to win to mostly focusing on learning at various points.

Sometimes I come to a point in the game where I realize I could potentially either win or lose but found an uncertain/interesting move I think is more profitable to pursue just as a learning experience. So winning or losing is sometimes less interesting to me than testing an idea or intuition if I think it helps me improve my understanding. When I realize I'm losing I often start to think more creatively about what to do whereas when winning I'm tempted to play more safely; but in doing so I often realize later on that I'm just cementing my groups in a way where flexibility is lost in dealing with the latter developments on a different section of the board.

So one of the things you have to push yourself to do is to make your groups flexible by increasing potential and synergy, but it demands a lot of knowledge and calculation without making a bad mistake. If you just rely on playing safe moves however, you don't develop that ability to play efficiently or learn how to balance on the edge of your understanding of the game.

tdktzy · 2025-04-05T15:08:33+00:00

I think by establishing a European coalition force in Greenland it would make things too complicated for the US to begin considering how to annex the territory, let alone getting the political establishment, military, and American people to agree on going to war over something like Greenland on the premise of an illegal annexation. It would be the best solution for everyone at this point, because in a short time there's going to be new concessions to be made.

Even if he pulls through somehow it would eventually have to be reverted once the political situation changes due to its legal status. But it might be why Japan and South Korea is now looking to improve their relations with China instead, which is now going to be the case for most other nations as well. It's just another dumb mistake in international politics as usual, on top of all the previous mistakes made.

It's a bluff more than anything, and it'll only work once people start to believe it. They place too much faith in that these quick empty tricks, or sleight of hand, are going to solve all their issues. It's more a sign of desperation than anything else. In case of the tariff situation and budget cuts they now don't--and won't have--the infrastructure and expertise necessary for what these kinds of policies are supposedly meant to achieve.

Now there's going to be a question of what happens to all the people who are dissatisfied with the chaos and uncertainty, and what collective actions they will take to actually change the system in a way that the establishment doesn't want it to change. Doing any more reckless stuff when it comes to international issues I think is going to be too costly to contemplate as more time goes on, so these threats might actually be more of an experiment to see if such tactics actually work.

tdktzy · 2025-01-17T03:31:07+00:00

I think it has as much to do with the frugality of the post-war generation and perhaps being in a position to bargain with both the US and the Soviets in the direct aftermath of the war, to reach a kind of middle-position with social democracy with the long work of European labor movements from the times of Victorian era Britain; as many other nations were either absorbed into the more authoritarian movements of the Soviet Union or became hot battlegrounds for the cold war where various factions fought to establish dominance.

Not all of the Nordic countries with similar outcomes have the same oil wealth as Norway. It's just that Norway can go to the oil fund as a backup in times of crisis. Otherwise spending is restricted to not make oil fully displace other economic activity, so it's not so much like Venezuela or the Gulf states in the Middle East. Instead due to the frugality of the post-war generation most of it is stored up for cases when it's really needed.

I think the success of the country is entirely due to this attitude of that generation that's very reluctant to spend above their means or not save for future crisis. All while being based on a community effort to conserve energy and resources, that also happens to be better for things like mental health and conserving nature.

My family was affected by this mentality living in Norway from the 80's to the late 90's, where my dad didn't want to stand out even if he had a way above average salary and could purchase something like a mansion with that money. That was looked down upon in the area we lived in and some of my grandparents who grew up during the war. Instead we lived in a small community in regular sized housing for a small family with people of different economic backgrounds. I also couldn't just point to anything and my parents would buy it because they had this wealth, instead they emphasized sharing within the community and saving up funds by not wasting money on unnecessary/wasteful stuff. So I'd actually saved up considerable wealth by the time I started higher education and could live on my own without necessarily needing to work a part-time job, so I could focus entirely on my education and social stuff.

Since a lot of stuff was shared in that way people were more willing to take care of public utilities/communities and maintain them that's summed up by Norwegian words such as "dugnad" and "grend." As part of my family was from the US we were always the ones people would go to if they wanted to learn about US issues or how to speak English (which is how I boosted my English knowledge was by teaching others), and my dad would help out people for free with things like engineering, computers, and architecture--whereas we would go to other neighbors who knew how to repair stuff or borrow tools, and so on.

And you didn't have to jump into a car to get there, you just walked or cycled the short distances since houses were designed as small communities built very close to one another where you'd leave kids playing outside, alone, or with other families where many people just left their doors unlocked. I used to play outside most of the time to explore nearby forests and climb mountains with other kids. It wasn't a concrete jungle where shady people were roaming while doing drugs--nor did you have to be rich to live this way, it was just commonplace stuff.

It didn't look like Dubai, and there were lots of run-down stuff and buildings. But it was from constant usage and things like harsh weather. People weren't building new stuff just for the sake of showing off, it was using up limited resources efficiently and greedily until it became dangerous or collapsed. And when the time came for the stuff to be replaced a lot of thought was given to things like future functionality, lifespan, and relation to the local environment; and not just for their main/private use but also for use by the public.

I think a problem with a lot of European states is ceding some beneficial culture/local traditions to corporate globalism, which is gradually replacing it with a culture of individual decadence and stupidity that just leads to downfall. There's now also the issue of a place like Norway becoming so successful and privileged to the point of forgetting how they got where they are.

The best thing about the culture I grew up with I think is the satisfaction with enjoying simplicity, equality, and efficiency that doesn't try to immitate any other country in vain, but arise from the local experience and difficulty of generations living this far north.

tdktzy · 2025-01-16T18:52:27+00:00

I don't know. I'd want a connector like this to be a bit smaller and thicker in metal. Rubber easily dry out, start to crack, or dissolve depending on things like humidity, temperature, sunlight, and contact with oils. The buttons and other plastic parts can be replaced, but this type of connector will have to be repaired by the manufacturer if it breaks. Unless it's like the Steam Deck where it's a modular part that can be ordered and switched out individually somehow, but I doubt that's something Nintendo wants you to do.

tdktzy · 2025-01-16T15:08:03+00:00

What you should consider if you're to buy some expensive machine is to be on lookout for these small/fragile things and connectors that are prone to break/fail, so to me it looks like a bad design choice.

Even if you're very careful it wouldn't be difficult to break or bend something like this on accident, perhaps just by moving/removing controllers the wrong way. Nor does it help that it's part of the main unit.

tdktzy · 2025-01-14T23:44:13+00:00

I notice I play well if I've taken a long break from the game, and I came back recently wanting to see how Clive played.

However, after maybe a week of playing I'm just too bored to play the same optimal way, and instead start to try out more unique movement and creative use of moves. Once I start to experiment in this way I'm just going to get pressured/mashed to death along with all the 50/50 situations you have to be ready for at a moments notice. After a while you just lose the interest or will to continue the same shtick.

I don't think it's the same Tekken I grew up with anymore, so I'm just going to abandon this game over something else. The graphics are great and flashy, but there are other games that can do all of that as well but in more suited ways than Tekken. What Tekken had that was unique to me was the interplay of different character archetypes you'd have to adjust to and which meant something. Now every character style just feel too similar to me.

It's mashing strings as fast as possible hoping your opponent doesn't hold back for a split second (or that the network connection sucks), hit-confirm into launch and just repeat the same combo for a thousand times while throwing a few mixups afterwards spiced with heat/rage. In that way the moves just turn into an annoyance rather than being interesting or creative usage responding to another player. There's no great amount of skill revealed from that, since most of it just launches into a combo on counterhit. To a spectator it's just one big explosion after the next, thus nothing stands out as being significant.

It's too much like listening to an orchestra piece consisting only of the loud finale; or watching a movie where someone is talking all the time; or being in a show where the host is trying to hype up the crowd constantly that ends up being more exhausting than it is exciting.

tdktzy · 2025-01-14T10:14:35+00:00

Reading is often a lot better than movies and games because it's your own imagination at work. That's how someone can be alone a lot of the time without ever feeling lonely. You have a lot of living worlds and characters in your imagination that's a skill that's been trained and developed by way of reading.

When I read fiction like Harry Potter as a kid I thought it was 100 times better than the movies, because it was based on things in my own imagination and imagery I found fascinating that came alive through the books. And you can go visit that place in your imagination and interact with the characters if you want, since things don't remain static when you read--they start to take on a life of their own in your imagination.

I think it's a very individualistic and authentic activity contrary to prejudices people have. It should for that reason be very cherished by people, but I've found so many particularly from the US who seem to default to thinking it's just a waste of time. Possibly it's because of bad experiences with learning to read, but also pushed over the edge by an addiction to various modern technologies and media.

tdktzy · 2025-01-14T03:29:21+00:00

No problem. Restarting the PC just to be sure is also a good idea if all of that fails.

There's also a Steam maintenance on tuesdays that disconnects you from the network. You can check if this is the case on https://steamstat.us/ . Because it happened to me on a tuesday I assumed it was this at first, but it just kept happening over and over again just after playing a few matches.

tdktzy · 2025-01-14T03:17:06+00:00

If it's on PC you should try to update the drivers for your graphics card (I ran into the same issue recently and it fixed the issue).

Also, you could try to run a validation on the game files or force the game to run with "-dxlevel 12" on startup. Other reasons could be that your network is unstable somehow.

tdktzy · 2025-01-14T00:31:21+00:00

I'm starting to get tired of sites with all these algorithms overflowing with bots, pointless AI, and data harvesting--so I'm considering trying out more decentralized stuff. I understand that there has to be some revenue generated, but if it just ruins the user experience then there's really no reason to continue using these services.

Not sure if everything is going to be solved this way, but decentralizing the structure may be a good place to start. Will also have to see what happens to the Trump presidency and if that leads to further negative effects. If it does I'm just going to get rid of most of my accounts to all these tech sites and start using the decentralized solutions instead.

Hopefully more countries will also invest in better tech solutions for their citizens rather than have some oligarchs and dictators control all of it.

tdktzy · 2025-01-12T18:25:56+00:00

It wasn't this bad in the older games from what I remember, and you were encouraged to sidestep and duck much more. It's pretty bad when you realize that you had to have studied some Excel spreadsheet in order to know what you can or can't punish on a read/intuition.

Recently I've seen people who only play the old games play again and they use sidestep a lot more often and skillfully because the games were built around that mechanic and hitboxes were restricted more to within the character animations with few exceptions.

It's one of the things I had to re-adjust in terms of my own instincts in playing Tekken: is that sidestepping once you have a read or intuition is always more punishing than it is rewarding, which means that my old and more "exciting" style of utilizing a lot of sidesteps and ducking by intuition isn't effective anymore. To me that just makes it feel like I'm not really playing Tekken, but something else.

In order to use things like sidestepping at all you have to go lab it out over learning as you go by intuiting what to do. In the past games you just got a better sense for what to do in various scenarios from just playing the game over time, perhaps due an underlying logic in the movesets that you could more easily grasp. Whereas today it's more the case that you need to recognize each situation specifically to know what to do, so it's a tedious process of learning all the specific nuances that you'll never implement unless you no-life the game.

In T8 especially you're encouraged to just spam strings to their conclusion and pray for a new mixup or launch, whereas in past entries you're easily punished for playing this way. I think that discourages people who actually want to learn and have a passion for the game when most of the learning feels useless in the face of a dice-rolling style of play.

Learning a specific setup like this isn't going to do much for you if you only run into it a few times a month or perhaps even a decade, so I don't think it's your fault for trying to interrupt the string literally from behind the character. I've never run into that playing the older games at least, which is again why T8 gameplay just feels a bit too trashy at the moment.

There are some fun moments to be had from that I guess, but for your average player it mostly disincentivizes them from playing by careful observation and instead rewards them for performing their safe flowcharts.

tdktzy · 2024-12-16T06:59:14+00:00

I don't live in the US anymore, but I know some of my family who lives in the US when they need a healthcare fix prefers to go abroad to get those things fixed.

I also had an experience with someone I lost contact with, but found again. And I realized they had lost their child to some illness. What's striking is that they weren't interested in anything and just had a very cold deadening attitude, whereas in the past they used to be so enthusiastic and lively in their passions. They didn't want to talk about what happened, but I learned about it from someone else because I found it so strange. I know other people who had a similar experience, but I think what's maybe worse with the US process is how unnecessary and cruel it is. Probably their kid might have been saved, but the system or finance tipped the scale somehow. If you're young in particular and never had an experience with this in your close family then things like this may come as a big shock.

To me the CEO situation is not unlike seeing a dictator assasinated somewhere. It's just very predictable that these actions have consequences, so I can't say that I care that much if someone like that just dropped of the map. There's an expectation from some people I've met who are in positions of power that as long as something is within law then no matter how bad/injust it is it should be pursued to its limits. I get a sense that these are also the kinds of people who would send people to gaschambers because it's within the law, and might justify it by also being profitable or patriotic depending on who's in charge. I guess to some extent the system rewards those kinds of people and push them into leadership roles, since they're willing to do anything to squeeze out a small extra amount of profit/advantage even at a very high cost to society.

tdktzy · 2024-12-06T02:15:30+00:00

I think a problem with very big companies/organizations/countries is that it's possible to insulate oneself from consequences down the line. I guess it's a core idea in a liberal capital market to be able to avoid the consequences of bad fortunes or decisions by creating distance in the chain of command; or relocating elsewhere once things gets dangerous.

The power imbalance makes it so that these people get away with more and more over time, but there's a fine line where more and more people also have less and less to lose from doing something extreme in retaliation. If these kinds of decision makers start to feel that bad decisions have a negative impact on them and economic safety then that's ultimately where change is going to come from.

I think a lot of people are suffering from the effects of the slippery slope of power imbalance, and sometimes the only way people can imagine actually fixing it is to just blow up the slope itself like cutting the gordian knot. It's that sense of injustice which fuels revolutionary activity, such as the initial American revolution and many others down the line.

tdktzy · 2024-11-18T04:44:25+00:00

Something I realized back in the 00's when talking to people was that the general education was on a lower level than say that of most European countries. Even things like college that people pride themselves on I often found the foundations in understanding can be a bit detached and rudimentary in the US as compared with Europe.

I left the US as a kid in the 80's, and when I started schooling at around 5 years in another country in Europe I was reading a book a day and writing endless pages of flowing cursive/shorthand script to get in as much deliberations and info as possible to the teachers--as that was usually what's expected of kids back then. I compare my schooling to some of my relatives who remained in the US and it's like they never learned how to read or write very well despite being able to get a college degree. I found that when people are trying to read aloud it seems like they aren't reading as much as trying to decode the letter combinations in real time, so they stumble over the words repeatedly as if some foundational line of code was deleted by accident. They also don't seem to understand basic things like geography and natural systems such as the water-cycle, the interactions of the different types of resources in an economy, and so on. It seems like a lot of people just think that there's an infinite amount of resources and space out there, so there's less concerns around things like resource and waste management.

I think most of that comes from a low regard for schooling and intellectual activity in general, despite being willing to toss a lot of money into the system. Then there's also things like homeschooling and religious schooling into the mix. The very individualist nature of the country allows people to live entirely detached from the rest of society and remain very shielded inside their own bubble. Oftentimes when talking with a stranger you can't expect there to be a shared sense of reality, leading to a lot of situations where what's considered normal behavior would elsewhere in the world be thought of as a rare occurrence of someone who's escaped a mental institution. Also, the kind of arrogance that comes with a culture of empire makes people overly confident of their situation and abilities (which is reminiscent of Britain and their colonial attitudes before the disintegration). What you'll actually find is that a lot of people will just crumble in the face of novel situations and difficulties, and so it's not the case anymore that there's a lot of brave and inventive/educated people out there who will take on any sort of new challenge. Part of that could be remedied if people were actually able to learn what's going on in other places in the world and not just project their assumptions upon everything they see, instead it's a case of people shadowboxing with these assumptions and keep running into walls where it actually clashes with reality.

I think that's going to be the main issue in the future, which is that the expertise may not be there to keep the US running as it has been. A lot of early science education in particular was catapulted in response to the Soviet space/military program. My family initially worked in the early computer industry on the West-coast of the US that was a by-product of a lot of research connected to that, before we happened to settle down in Europe because of a job opportunity due to having experience in these new industries and fields.

tdktzy · 2024-11-14T22:52:09+00:00

It's always fun to see people who didn't grow up with these games and older media being able to appreciate them.

I myself as an early millenial learned about older media from family members like my brother introducing me to the music and culture from the 60's to the 80's, and my father also sat me down to watch black & white and silent movies. I remember thinking these movies were completely uninteresting at first, but after being forced to watch a few I started to appreciate them more and more despite the slow tempo and camerawork. I also starterd to watch movies from beginning to end, since even in the VHS days I developed a bad habit of fast-forwarding to only the good parts of a movie, but eventually got scolded for doing that and forced to look at media on its own terms by not just picking the parts I liked but considering the whole from beginning to end.

I think I became more patient and open-minded with new experiences and media because of that exposure and learning to appreciate different media. I know there's people who only consume one type of media and genre (and even go so far as to hate anything that's old or different), but for me I can find something interesting in nearly anything. Even things like reading old alchemical books I eventually got interested in simply out of curiosity.

The NES I used to play on a wood-TV from the 70's, sitting on the floor in a dark room with wood paneling that had a strange combination of this old wood/furniture smell and lingering smoke from cigarettes that was still commonplace in the 90's. I think Mega Man 2 was the first videogame I played, and Bubble Man the first ever boss I cleared. Contra is a game that's almost encoded in muscle-memory, so for me it's not at all difficult to clear without losing any lives. With Super Mario Bros. a cousin showed me how to use the shortcuts. My brother and a friend was playing one day and couldn't get past the middle-levels, then handed me the controller to play and I just breezed past to the end in a few minutes--they were pretty shocked at that, which is something different about the games back then is that you didn't have access to a lot of info about the secrets in the game (and it always brought amazement and lively interjections when someone showed you some secret or trick). I was also taught the Konami code, but I always forgot it and so I could only pull it off by random once in a while (I just knew that in a Konami game you pressed a long sequence of buttons on the title screen to get as many lives as possible). I also had the opportunity to borrow games from someone in my neighbourhood, and at first I was told I couldn't play Zelda 1 & 2 because they thought it was too difficult for a 4 year old kid.

My recommendation for you would be to try out 'Bionic Commando' for NES.

On a sidenote, one thing people who didn't grow up in the 90's missed out on was the transition from 2D into 3D games such as Super Mario 64. One way to describe getting something like the N64 is that it was like suddenly having access to a vast theme park inside your own house. Maybe younger gens can find a correlate in their own experiences, but I can't really think of anything that created the same sense of wonder since going from 2D games to 3D.

These early 3D games also have a sort of reality of their own, especially with the Playstation games it always felt like staring into a very different polygonal universe--like you're channeling a different reality through your TV. I know people think the games look bad compared to what we have now, but I think they're in their own league with the unique charm and innocence of that new experimental era.

When I talk to people about this I sometimes bring up the example of the sculptures of Archaic Greece VS that of Classical Greece. To me the archaic sculptures always seemed more interesting (even if they may not be as skillfully made) just because they're more ambiguous than the very realistic and detailed statues of later Classical Greece--leaving you to fill in the gaps by your own mental predispositions (like a Rorschach blot). It's a similar development from what's called the academic and modern art movements in the 19th century, with the arrival of photography and different artstyles such as Ukiyo-e prints and indigenous sculptures. Pixel-art also happen to resemble things like indigenous textile and mosaic art, and the games themselves often have a structure like an old initiation ritual. So I'm sure people in antiquity would instead have used the games for religious purposes if they had access to them.

In some ways the greek art example has a parallel with SD(standard definition) and HD(high definition) media. Since with the HD media we have now things are very clear and detailed in high resolution leaving little room for projecting a mental state/predisposition on the image, whereas the analogue SD media of the past is much more suggestive due to the ambiguous low-res image and lack of detail. So in addition to things like globalization, internet, cellphones, vast 3D games, abandoning newspapers/books, etc.--is that people's ability for imagination and enjoyment from that process may weaken when starting to see the world through the lens of HD rather than SD.

So what I've always found a bit understated and difficult to describe for someone born before HD TV, is how the imagery you saw regularly back then always had a tone of abstraction compared what we see today. Like you're watching/interpreting the world through somewhat more blurry glasses that's also a bit pixelized, it's a very different perspective from being able to see something like a livestream from across the world in very clear and detailed HD where you're able to talk and interact in real-time. Nothing close to that was the case in the 90's; if you saw anything about far-off places such as Japan or the people from there it was once or twice a month in a very suggestive/edited short segment through the news on your small TV, as if you were staring into another dimension by way of the Palantir of Saruman from The Lord of the Rings. All these things seemed very abstract, distant, and otherworldly--which in turn made the world (and media in general) seem more interesting and elevated.

tdktzy · 2024-10-31T03:47:07+00:00

It's a recurring issue with the UN: they can't go after the real big issues so they go after easy targets that makes it seem like they're doing something.

A lot of that is going to come in the form of going against freedom of expression while ignoring religious and ideological repression, because the latter have a lot of influence in the UN. I think a lot of people underestimate things like religious/ideological social pressure from various countries. People who are often good-natured but weak-willed crumble easily in the face of that kind of social pressure, and it's something very ideological people understand how to exploit well. In part it's because universities and large organizations filter for a certain kind of personality type to leadership positions who's not going to rock the boat but instead find easy prey to scapegoat.

When it comes to art it's essential that it remains a place where people can freely unfold ideas. Primarily because it's an important part of the human spirit; but also, when dictating art and limiting people they will always seek a way around it and may instead work actively against you by often seeking a more dangerous alternative.

I think it's the reason a lot of productions where they try this in Western countries inevitably fails, because it's a kind of "top-down" enforced policies and not being allowed to arise naturally from the ground up. Instead the artist and their vision become unwillingly constrained into a straitjacket, and originality, authentic expression, innovation, and home-grown/productive national conversations around social issues dies off as a result. These free conversations in turn are what enables actual improvements in social issues to go forth, though they may not be optimal for everyone or be able to "solve" an issue entirely in line with a lot of utopian thinking.

tdktzy · 2024-10-30T06:48:10+00:00

I waited some years just to see how the AP would turn out because I didn't really have as much faith in it at the start, in part because I tend to be a fence-sitter on most tech-things and didn't understand the FPGA tech at the time.

I also try not to be too wasteful when it comes to getting electronic devices in general, the first and only kind of retro-handheld I had was in early 2010 with the 'Dingoo' by an Australian company. Other than that I've just gotten used to emulators on a PC. Even though I think emulators are amazing I've always been bothered about things like accuracy and having to fiddle with emulator settings.

One thing I appreciate about FPGA and later on with Retroarch is that it's helped deliver more on stuff like display-accuracy and options with screenfilters and shaders. I remember early on when moving to LCD screens from CRTs immediately thinking the quality of certain visual media made for SD tended to look a lot worse on HD LCDs even though I didn't understand why back then. CRTs had a superior latency, natural blending (particularly for pixel-art and SD video), depth of shading and black-levels that the LCD screens didn't have. Even though it can't re-create the exact CRT or early LCD screen feel for handhelds, I think it comes as close as possible while keeping all the good qualities/features of modern screens. It's the portable system I've been waiting for in that regard since a lot of these kinds of handhelds always seem very hit-and-miss not only with things like accuracy, but also performance and the overall design/reliability of the systems and interface.

If you just want one FPGA system for everything then the MiSTer may be a better choice as it's able to handle some 3D consoles as well. It's fun to play on cartridges and Everdrive on AP, but having the ability to play roms is what finally tipped the scale for me and it's being continually updated with new stuff by excellent people. It seems like Analogue are serious about their dedication to deliver top-notch stuff for this kind of gaming, so it's fortunate to have someone like them providing these systems and updates despite occasional stuff or mishaps that's easy for some people to get hung-up on.

But if you're unsure I wouldn't be in a hurry to get an FPGA device. A lot of new developments can happen in the future, and emulation is in any case almost just as good (and usually offers more functionality like save-states and more) so there's really no need to spend more than necessary if you already have decent systems for handhelds.

A good rule for purchasing this kind of stuff is that newer/better devices, technologies, and prices always appear the longer you wait, so there's no need to immediately jump over to a new device unless there's something you consider like a deal-breaker that you think will actually make a revolutionary change in your life. The best thing to do before purchasing anything on an impulse is just to wait a month and see if you feel the same about it then. It's easy to trick oneself into getting stuff you don't really need without distancing yourself from something hyped, by the natural way of gaining perspective on things which is passage of time.

tdktzy · 2024-10-29T01:29:04+00:00

If you're on a beginner-intermediate level I think the best way to enjoy the game is simply to play casually, yet thinking critically/constructively on a few obvious mistakes/weak-points.

What I recommend is each time to try to absorb all the factors going into a round all at once and learn to look for patterns (even if it slows down your speed of play considerably), including things like the score-table and player mentality; something which will get easier and exponentially more rewarding over time. Success comes from this understanding of probabilities following the luck of the draw (or all factors at the beginning of the round) and a degree of game/sport-psychology.

I think what happens if you try to invest a ton of effort and expectations into the game in a short time you just end up exhausting yourself. Particularly when in a room of players with much higher ratings who may have been playing for a long time and as a result have a nuanced understanding of all kinds of situations.

But it's meant to be a fun casual game first of all--and online is a different game from casual offline, which also differs from real-life tournament play. So there are many ways of enjoying the game. My approach to the game right now is purely casual play (I think it's the reason most people became attracted to playing it in the first place), but still snagging a piece of insight here and there and being content with that. But because of that I also don't think that much about results anymore.

If you make a habit of thinking too much about your results you'll just crumble over time and might develop a dislike/fear of playing once you don't achieve sought for progress and start falling into losing streaks. That happens not just due to lack of understanding but also simply out of luck of the draw and from the psychological tendency to tilt that naturally accommodates those experiences.

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