@RogerBW@emacs.ch
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

RogerBW

@RogerBW@emacs.ch

#Emacs, #Perl, #Rustlang, #PostScript, #Linux sysadmin, polyglot programming, #boardgames, #RPGs, too many #podcast s, 3d modelling and #3dprinting.
He/him or they/them.
Here's a nickel, kid. Get yourself a better computer.
If I unfollow you it's probably for my mental health/distraction rather than anything you've done. If you want to follow me, have a profile that looks as if it was written by a human.

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deinol, to books
@deinol@dice.camp avatar

I have finished reading Chapterhouse Dune. My fools errand is finished. It’s not good, and of course ends with loose ends.

I think my personal recommendation is reading the first two books. Although just one or even zero are solid choices. Three is alright, except it’s a trap if it makes you curious and want to read more.

I’m tempted to revisit Heinlein who I haven’t read in at least twenty years, but I’m also afraid he’ll be disappointing.

#Reading #SciFi #Dune #ChapterhouseDune

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@deinol @satsuma I don't think one's an answer to the other, really. Heinlein (in ST) is writing about post-WWII police actions that he wasn't involved in; Haldeman is writing about Vietnam that he was. That alone would give you a completely different set of assumptions, and then there are their individual personalities, and so on. To me they both have value, and I don't reread either very often.

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@GoblinQuester @deinol My solution to that last bit was software. Assign a weight to each series, higher per day since I last read from it, lower per book remaining, so as I get towards the end of a series I'll read it more often. Then at least the software will say "read this next" and it's less trouble to do it than to say "I don't wanna".

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@GoblinQuester @deinol FWIW that was the way I was feeling and being told what to read next has helped. Not saying it'll work for you of course.

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

So, the reason I was looking at Star Wars - and other games - was because I'm questioning the whole point of "Character Advancement" in games that aren't power fantasies.

There are many games where you're just a "normal" person or "Normal+" 😉

Why do so many of those games have "advancement" or "levels" or whatever? Is it just because it's become expected? If you're not playing a Power Fantasy then why do characters just gaining power and capability at an impossible rate?

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@masukomi Classic Traveller has even less character improvement. It expects to spit out some characters at age 22 with Pistol-1, Medic-0, and that's you for the rest of your adventuring career. And, frankly, that's not great to play; everything interesting about your character you have to invent yourself, and the rules won't help you. You might as well just make up a story.
Call of Cthulhu has the virtue of less randomness in CG, so you may not have been able to choose your stats, but you could at least choose your background and job.
I think CoC shows that you can have very little character improvement, certainly not enough to compensate for the progressive loss of sanity, and keep things fun.
An "iconic" character like Doc Savage or the Shadow doesn't improve, indeed comes fresh out of the box for each adventure. That's fine if that's the sort of narrative you want to engage in, but that isn't all narratives.
Of course a big part of the problem is the blighting effect of D&D's baby version of the Hero's Journey being the default way to think about RPGs.

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@Da_Gut @masukomi Yeah, for clarity I'm talking about original Traveller, "in four years of game time you might get +1 to one of your skills". Basically every other version of Traveller has changed this, along with dying in character generation.

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@masukomi @Da_Gut Sure, I think the two go together though. Improvement is something I want more of if I didn't get much choice up front, or if there isn't much detail to be had, because I want more to the rules-visible part of the character than a class-and-level..

wcbdata, to random
@wcbdata@vis.social avatar

Found my ideal job:

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@wcbdata Aw, man, I knew I should have taken that course in {Soft Skill 2} at my last gig.

Faintdreams, to DisneyPlus
@Faintdreams@dice.camp avatar

Disney Plus: Oh we see you've been watching Justified: City Primeval.

Based on this, we think you would really enjoy watching the film - Twilight

Me: Wait, what? How ? Whhhhhy ?

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@Faintdreams "We see you have a subscription. Based on this, we think you would really enjoy something we want to get some more views on this month."

peter, to random
@peter@area51.social avatar

They should be sanitising their database inputs rather than change the input data!

"A local authority has announced it will ban apostrophes on street signs to avoid problems with computer systems."

North Yorkshire Council to phase out apostrophe use on street signs - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-68942321

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@peter Out of band signalling. Learn from Captain Crunch.

BigJackBrass, to random
@BigJackBrass@vivaldi.net avatar

#Ukulele

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@BigJackBrass Clearly therefore more ukuleles are a sign of more happiness.

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@BigJackBrass The only remaining question: is a straw boater appropriate wear for the first-class lounge on a trans-Atlantic Zeppelin?

Jennifer, to scifi
@Jennifer@bookstodon.com avatar

I need some new science fiction to read, who has some suggestions? I don't like military sci-fi. For reference, my favorite series is the Expanse, I also enjoyed Scalzi's Collapsing Empire, I love Robert Charles Wilson's books. I mostly enjoy space operas and unique stories about technology, for example I really liked the recent book Mountain in the Sea about AI and intelligent octopus. Suggestions from the awesome Bookstodon community? @bookstodon

RogerBW, (edited )
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@Jennifer This is a very broad church but…
Yes to other people's mentions of Martha Wells (Murderbot) and Becky Chambers. While Vorkosigan is technically military SF, it's about the people, not huge space dreadnoughts.
In the solid recent SF I read last year, I'd recommend Kate Elliot's Unconquerable Sun and Furious Heaven and Emily Tesh's Desperate Glory; both of them have military activity, but again it's not at all what the books are about. Nicole Kornher-Stace doesn't get mentioned much but I've found her work very impressive (starting with Archivist Wasp from 2015).

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@Jennifer I have been reviewing everything I read since 2014 so https://blog.firedrake.org/books.html may be of use.

mrpjevans, to random
@mrpjevans@mastodon.social avatar

One for fellow software devs out there.

I thought 'Oh, a silly grammar cock-up that makes for a fun local news story'. Then I read the first line. I won't spoil the surprise but maybe make sure there's no-one close when you yell 'OH FOR FU...'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-68942321

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@unvisual @simonwood @mrpjevans @Edent St Mary 's Street. (Yeah, met the real-world equivalent.)

Rhodium103, to random
@Rhodium103@mastodon.social avatar

I guess computer literacy peaked with Gen X and Elder Millennials because they grew up with computers being ubiquitous, but also with computers being an absolute fucking pain in the arse to use.

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@Rhodium103 Back then the computer mostly worked for the person who owned it, rather than constantly trying to steal their data for Google or Facebook or…

lucretia, to random
@lucretia@final.town avatar

The 02:00 Tinder "Super Like" from a man who looks grumpy af and has used up half his writing space to complain about women is not the great opening move you think it is, Adam 41.

Also one of your top artists is Lostprophets, why would you be telling people this, your vibes are terrible my dude.

Man's going fishing with poison.

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@lucretia I wonder…

I mean, sure, dude's probably an asshole. No shortage of them. But I'm remembering that analysis of 419 scams a few years ago—the initial come-ons are deliberately crude and easy to see through, because the cost of sending them is near zero, and if the victim is going to wise up they'd rather it happen at the start before they've put a lot of money into the scam.

RogerBW, to raku
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

The Weekly Challenge 267: The Line is the Sign That Your Product Counts https://blog.firedrake.org/archive/2024/05/The_Weekly_Challenge_267__The_Line_is_the_Sign_That_Your_Product_Counts.html

DrHyde, to Amazon
@DrHyde@fosstodon.org avatar

I would be very grateful if someone else could try this and then not tell me how awful it is #amazon #gin

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@DrHyde The Aldi own-brand gin is excellent.

DarkestKale, to random
@DarkestKale@mastodon.social avatar

Good morning folks

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@DarkestKale Google basically panics if you're not in a car. Foot and PT routing get much less attention from their devs.

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@DarkestKale Really glad to hear it. Must be a local team thing.

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@DarkestKale Or (in UK) whether it will magically vanish from the display after having counted down from 20 minutes to 1 minute.

alicemcalicepants, to boardgames
@alicemcalicepants@ohai.social avatar

#BoardGames played today: Deep Sea Adventure (most of us died because we got too greedy), Scythe (it was okay. I'd probably do better on a second run), Skyjo/Skyjo Action (I won when we played without the action cards but with the wilds 😄).

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@alicemcalicepants Every time I teach DSA I say "the air supply will go down faster than you think". Players always get too greedy. Sometimes this includes me.

DrHyde, to random
@DrHyde@fosstodon.org avatar

Am I missing something obvious with ? All the vdevs in my pool have names like /dev/disk5s1, and the numbers can change depending on what order they power up. I can't find any way of giving them names like "ssd-with-red-sticker-on", "ssd-with-blue-sticker-on" and so on, which would make swapping out a failed disk soooo much easier.

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@DrHyde My secret recipe on Linux is to zpool import -d /dev/disk/by-path/ POOLNAME. Then they're named consistently by bus position

RogerBW, to random
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

One for - dodging the mud on a morning walk.

worthlessbums, to random
@worthlessbums@mastodon.social avatar

when the dice gods bless you

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@worthlessbums I doubled the PCs' initial investment by goods speculation in Islands in the Rift, but consignment freight and mail were generally better long-term earners. The UWPs were a bit weird, though, and I haven't tried it in the Spinward Marches. Universal consensus was that passengers were Too Much Trouble.

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