Notices by Joe Cooper 💾 (swelljoe@mas.to), page 2

What is this, a NodeJS app? That's a lot of files.

OK, it's probably real dumb to start on a new project at 9:30PM on a Saturday, but I'm going to finally start learning my way around #Unreal Editor. Considered using Godot, but since I have no effing clue about 3D, I need all the help I can get. There's lots of docs about building scenes and animating people and things in Unreal. Here we go...first step: Installing it on Fedora Linux and making it go.

OK, the lack of the Epic Games Launcher was proving problematic...all the tutorials tell you to get project files from the marketplace and you seemingly can't download files without the launcher. None of the Unreal+Linux docs even mention the launcher. Turns out there's a thing called Lutris, it's in the Fedora repos, that installs the launcher with Wine. Yet again, it somehow Just Works™. Things aren't going fast, but they're going well enough, I reckon, given my stubborn insistence on Linux.

Somehow, it works. I was nervous about all the shared libraries and millions of other files just hanging out in various directories, but running `UnrealEngine` in-place Just Works™.

And, now have the Online Learning Kit project loaded up (weird, non-intuitive, location: `~/Games/epic-games-store/drive_c/users/joe/Documents/Unreal Projects`). My GPU has never worked so hard in its life. But, we're getting somewhere. Now we make a game. How hard can it be?

@emilygorcenski they all look like American cars in the first picture! There's an American flag! But, I guess Holdens often look like various GM models. I was pretty confident that was gonna be Venice beach or at least somewhere in California. So, I also did terrible.

@thomasfuchs A few years back, I sort of imposed a new rule: I won't start using anything that's not directly in my area of expertise until it's survived ~five years. I figure the shine will have worn off by then, and I'll be able to make an assessment of its worth based on sentiment among its users. If I know enough to judge it myself, I may use something new and shiny, but only if I can pick it apart and understand all the pieces. This rule protected me from React (and a lot of other JS hell).

@kfury to be fair, Amazon sold a bunch of fake eclipse glasses. Some people still think Amazon is something other than a front for thousands of Chinese counterfeiting operations that also occasionally sells real products to keep the scam going. Some folks with permanent eye damage may have trusted Amazon to sell them legitimate products.

Recently had to explain to a web developer I work with why we won't allow him to use AI.

First, it is not good. Generative AI is amazing in the sense that it works at all, making pictures we recognize. But, the work is bad absent our amazement that a computer made it.

Second, it is a copyright minefield. OpenAI says you can use the things it generates, but I have no reason to believe they have the right to grant me that copyright. It sometimes copies work verbatim.

But, first, it is not good!

This is a classic technique, used by cops and spooks worldwide. Good cop, bad cop. Cause pain (emotional or otherwise) to break the subject down, then provide a path that removes the pain, if the target just does what you want them to do...just this one little thing, and all the pain goes away. Insidious stuff, but especially here. A volunteer who's been doing this critical work for over a decade unpaid, targeted because of the criticality of the work and because it was done by a lone volunteer.

The abusive behavior that was being used to manipulate Lasse Collin into bringing on more maintainers for #xz went unnoticed because abusive behavior in Open Source communities is so pervasive. In context, we can clearly see it was part of an orchestrated operation. Out of context, it looks like just another asshole complaining about stuff they have no right to complain about. https://robmensching.com/blog/posts/2024/03/30/a-microcosm-of-the-interactions-in-open-source-projects/

@lcamtuf

@thomasfuchs I wonder why it failed? It's a mystery, I guess we'll never know.

@robpike People when I was young: "You'll become more conservative when you're older."

Me, older:

@tokyo_0 there's a book (and a cult) called Nonviolent Communication, which you might find helpful. I think one has to take it in measured doses and integrate the ideas slowly and as appropriate for what you need right now...as embracing it all at once can be weird to those who know you. But, the basic premise of communicating from a place of empathy is sound, and it has a lot of tools for approaching conversations that way.

@brunogirin @mekkaokereke @jshirley in a lot of places police are considered a "first responder" for any 911 call. If there's a police unit closer than an ambulance or firetruck, you get police first, even if they have no training for the problem they're responding to. In America there's bipartisan agreement that police are superheroes who should be invited to every stressful situation, just in case someone needs to be shot or beaten.

@krismicinski @brunogirin @mekkaokereke @jshirley water is invisible to fish. Cities spend 35-50% of their budget on police. The solution to every problem has to be "police" because there's no budget left for anything else.

@danhon @thomasfuchs if I were a wagering man, I'd bet on, "Banks need a profit motive to encourage them to service these otherwise high-risk, low-profit, customers. If they can't gouge them on overdraft fees they have no reason to allow poor people to have bank accounts."

Gonna be 11°F tonight. I guess that makes it a good pizza night, so I have a good excuse to run the oven at 500°F for an hour or so to heat up the pizza steel.

@thomasfuchs good luck enforcing probation when I'm invisible.