@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

j_bertolotti

@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz

Associated Professor of Physics at the University of Exeter.
Scientific visualizations (grouped under the hastag #PhysicsFactlet).
He/lui/on. All opinions are my own fault.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

carnage4life, to random
@carnage4life@mas.to avatar

Every earnings call, WB’s CEO confirms that the things we thought were bad ideas were actually bad ideas.

A game where the Suicide Squad kill Superman, Batman and the rest of the Justice League is such a terrible. Who wants to play Captain Boomerang killing Batman? Who? 🤷🏾‍♂️

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@carnage4life I assume that if the game was good people might have played it. But it looks like that forcing a team specialized in open-world single player narrative-focused games to develop a looter-shooter is not a great idea indeed.
Sadly nobody in the upper management will truly pay for this, and the lesson will not be learnt.

demofox, to random
@demofox@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

I woke up and had a sleepy brain idea that uncountable infinities were uncountable because they were multi dimensional.
For instance, a real number being a 1d integer part plus another 1d decimal part.
Has anyone seen this thought before?
Am I wrong to assume that the space between two integers is a countable infinity?

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@demofox If you can label all elements with a finite number of integers, then your set is automatically countable (e.g. rational numbers can all be labelled with two integers).

j_bertolotti, to random
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

People studying brains: "We found no correlation between number of neurons and IQ."*

People talking about AI: "If we just add more nodes to our deep neural network we are surely going to create a super-mind!"

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@apodoxus We didn't get LLMs or generative models by using the same networks as in the '60s but a million times bigger. We got them by rethinking the basic way these networks are structured. Any qualitative step forward is also likely to be due to a smart idea and not more brute power.

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@topher_batty No, it is false. But a lot of people like to talk about NN like they were brains 🤷‍♂️

j_bertolotti, to random
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Out-of-context 6 y/o: "We are going to ignore the facts."

j_bertolotti, to random
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Imagine: you make a game expecting it to do ok. It turns out to be an overnight success, with everybody loving it and your biggest problem is that you didn't expect so many people to want to play it.
Then your publisher gets greedy and makes a large chink of your playerbase super-angry.
https://www.engadget.com/what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-helldivers-2-163829512.html?src=rss

HauntedOwlbear, to random
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

Show me your Top 5 #CRPGs, Fedi. These are mine right now.

  • Baldur's Gate III
  • Citizen Sleeper
  • Disco Elysium
  • Ultima VI: The False Prophet (with Nuvie to turn the viewport into a full map)
  • Divinity: Original Sin

This list is in the order of which I played most recently and - with the caveat that I'm only 64 hours into BG3 - these are honestly all perfect, no-notes gaming experiences for me.

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@HauntedOwlbear

  • Fallout 1
  • Planescape: Torment
  • The Elder Scroll: Morrowind
  • Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura
  • Gothic 1
danjac, to random
@danjac@masto.ai avatar

I never understood the rule about Clerics in DnD only being allowed to use blunt weapons. Perhaps this might have been a thing with priests in Medieval Europe but clerics can belong to any number of imaginary religions. What if you are high priest of some Holy Pointy Objects cult, where clubs and maces are considered ungodly?

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@danjac Even in vanilla DnD the "blunt weapon" thing is only for the standard cleric (and is 100% there only for game balance). Otherwise clerics should use the favourite weapon of their god, which can range from whips to holy pointy objects.
DnD is not famous for being internally consistent 😉

j_bertolotti, to random
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Theorems where invented by Mathematicians to sell more coffee.

drskyskull, to random
@drskyskull@mastodon.social avatar

Okay, it's taken me 30 years, but I finally understand conical refraction.

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@drskyskull And you are never going to tell anyone, so we allmhave to suffer for 30 years? 😉

j_bertolotti, to random
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Every time I see a "xyz explained without Math" kindnof post, I always wish more people wrote explainers WITH the Math, without skipping 90% of it, so that the explanation is actually understandable without having to rely on leaps of faith.

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@lisyarus Explainers without Maths have their role and place. But they are the beginning of the understanding process, not the end.

BTW: Same reason I actively dislike cooking book that tell you what to do without ever explaining why.

j_bertolotti, to random
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Dear wannabe barista: there is a difference between "warm milk" and "scalding milk". The difference is especially important when you are preparing it for a kid.

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@christianp It is sheer lazyness. The "warm up milk" function on a coffee machine is meant to make the foam for a cappuccino, so it is VERY hot. To make it at a decent temperature you need to mix it with cold milk, but that requires extra time/thinking, and thus it is often skipped.

eniko, to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

Would I rather encounter a man or a bear in the woods? I'm an introvert so I'd rather just stay home

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@eniko On the other hand, trees do not try to make small talk. Trees are good.

ThomasNoppers, to Transformers
@ThomasNoppers@mastodon.social avatar

Transformers shirt idea.
Am I on to something here?
Is it too loud or busy?
Any pointers?

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ThomasNoppers How does it look on a more neutral background? I feel the electric blue background makes it look more chaotic than it really is

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ThomasNoppers Yes, looks much better 😃

j_bertolotti, to godot
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Keeping in mind I don't really have the time or mental space to truly learn it, and I definitively don't have the skills necessary to actually make a game: any advice for a beginner tutorial?

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@K_REY_C Interestingly, the one I started watching while waiting for advices 😃

j_bertolotti, (edited ) to random
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Linear algebra is easy.
Just remember that real numbers are vectors, polynomials are vectors, integrable functions are vectors, matrices are vectors, tensors are vectors, and so on.
As I said, easy.

d_yellowlees, to random
@d_yellowlees@mastodon.online avatar

More pictures won't save your presentation

lots of images or busy images can be just as overwhelming as lots of text. It's about how much 'information' you are putting out not what form it's in.

Use simple visuals & words or take the time to go slow.

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@d_yellowlees In September I have to give a seminar about making scientific animations, and I will probably have this post in one of the first few slides!

testtubegames, to random
@testtubegames@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

Want to recreate your eclipse experience? Or perhaps see what an eclipse on Neptune would look like?

Eclipse Explorer by MinuteLabs 🔭

A fun variety of options to choose from, and cool chill vibes.

https://labs.minutelabs.io/eclipses/#/earth/luna

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@testtubegames TL;DR: Earth gets the coolest eclipses 😃

christianp, to random
@christianp@mathstodon.xyz avatar

My immunosuppressed wife just booked her covid booster jab. I got one last autumn as her carer, so I went on the form to book for myself, but it looks like that's not a thing any more. 😞

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo @christianp
Same (anecdotal) experience here. If they have plausible deniability, they will give you the jab irrespectively of what the government rules say.

j_bertolotti, to random
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

#FediHelp
Dear hive mind: is there a simple to use, and decently stable macroblogging platform on the Fediverse that one can use without having to self-host?
Thank you

p.s.
Main big requirement is the possibility to categorize the posts so that they are easy to find even after some time has passed.
Second big requirement is that it can't be a beta or a personal project that is likely to be abandoned in an year.

j_bertolotti,
@j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ab78702 Thanks, but it feels that approach requires javascript coding, and I have neither the time, nor the mental space to learn js.

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