Basically, Sony owns a patent that forces you to say the brand name during a commercial break to end said commercial… it’s from 2019, and it understandably stirred up some controversy back then.

That’s really amazing! Thank you for sharing and providing so many sources. I’ll be checking out the book you recommended as it seems like a good starting point.

I wonder what’s stopping us on training a neural network on whale noises and trying to translate it using another neural network…

I’m making it sound easy and I’m sure it’s not, but I just wonder how far away from such endeavour we are?

Get yourself a sparkling water dispenser and make your own at home! Less bottle waste and you can get refillable co2 containers for the device.

I’m so used to generated art, that seeing something with intact details like the text is actually surprising and refreshing!

Try something like sharedrop.io or intel unison for windows. Both are basically airdrop, but for non-apple devices.

That’s exactly where I dropped off with that game as well!

Finishing projects at work that are meant to be done by this week, and then going home to play more Starfield and later watching a few more episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender with my partner before going to bed.

Need to think of meals for the weekend as our fridge is running a bit dry now… so many jars though!

How do you find your learning with Duolingo? Been using it for almost a month now for German and I’ve been pretty good, using only a few freezes so far…!

Eh, you can never be too sure that they’re that incapable. There was a post from some Ukrainians the other day, saying that despite all the articles deeming the Russian military tragically useless, there are still some bloodthirsty and horrendous people fighting for Russia out there on the battlefield. And it is a bloody battlefield for both sides, whether the people there want to be a part of it or not.

But on the other hand I suppose it is reassuring for western countries citizens to read all the articles saying how weak Russia might be.

Since I went with a MiniITX build I’ve never felt more free in where I can place my PC.

My computer used to sit under my desk for years, gathering dust and just being this bulky annoying thing that I never knew what to do with. I made an eBay filter telling me when a new listing with the words ‘mini itx bundle’ came up, and after a few months I managed to snag a great mini itx bundle. I needed then was a case and a power supply.

Tinkered with it for a day and it works great. The PC lives on my desk now, and I can easily change a drive, or move a cable that is grinding on a fan if I need to (damn CPU cooler fans and their long cables!!). I even ended up moving my pc to the living room for the weekend to play Armored Core on the projector, as streaming to the living room would have latency.

All I’m saying is that a mini itx build is a liberating build, and it’s much quieter and runs as cool as my full tower that is supposed to have ‘great’ airflow.

Eh, if it disappoints at launch I’ll sink back into AC VI and get S rank on most levels. Hopefully by then they would’ve fixed starfield enough so it’s playable.

I’ve not played any Bethesda games day one, but from all I’ve heard it will either be a shot show or the best game ever and no in between.

I’m just glad it’s on game pass.

Assuming that you’re referring to “pulling information out of your ass”, you could try: “Pulling facts out of thin air” or “making it up on the go”. Getting more creative with it: “unscripted intellect”, “on the spot expertise”.

Balteus was such a challenge! Was travelling yesterday so today I played some more and explored different loadouts for my AC. I find light weight loadouts with lots of rockets to be more my jam. I don’t like being heavy and clunky, instead I love jumping and sending salvo after salvo of rockets at the poor mass produced mechs and it’s inexperienced pilots.

I find the story interesting. I just beat the roomba boss, and the story is a lot more linear than I initially expected. I haven’t played any from software games before, or any souls like games either. My background is with fps shooters, but I always admired the armoured core world, and I remember the cinematics for the older games fondly. I also love the Japanese concept of mecha, but I’m not heavily invested in it. I guess I was expecting the world being a bit more open, or maybe being able to choose which faction I prefer more and do more missions for them, but either way, I’m really happy with what the game is so far. I’m sure I’ll get my fix of open world and freedom of choice with Starfield in a few days!

Playing around with my loadout in the VR testing grounds is a blast and really helps a newbie like me understand most weapons and timings. The world is gorgeous and the game runs great. The feeling of the mechs is so tight, and free, it’s a breath of fresh air from something like mech warrior or other mech type games.

I’m daunted by the idea of multiplayer mainly because this game is very niche, and I can only imagine most players playing this game would be veterans from the older games, and would probably crush a newbie like myself. I’ll give it a go eventually but for now I’m focusing on the campaign.

Algorithms have become so powerful that for a forum community to form, there are so many hurdles.

Biggest issue right now are the information “silos” that any algorithm-led social media platform algorithm will choose for you. It’ll show you similar content, but rarely from the same person because there are just so many people posting content online that there’s always a next better thing, a trend to chase. People who chase those trends end up exhausting themselves and replaced by others who are willing to be more different and engaging, until they get burnt out as well.

I used to follow a few forums, and I loved the mindless scroll of Reddit, but I found myself going back to YouTube or Instagram when I slid further into the doom scroll mentality. Those forums have now gone, due to increasing costs of hosting, and being unable to monetise a community to a sustainable degree. Reddit have understood the value of user attention and platform control to push their ads, got greedy, and locked everything down. Instagram (and meta) are, in my opinion, the leaders in algorithm based social networks, and they drive the trends without being in direct control of them.

The emotional rollercoaster that I’ve caught myself experiencing, where I get a photo of a friend suggested to me, and I start subconsciously comparing myself, only for the next post to be a soothing, highly targeted video that the algorithm knows I would enjoy and it dulls the emotional impact of the previous post, making me forget about it. The algorithm doesn’t care how you feel, but it knows what will make you engaged.

My reply became a bit of a rant about algorithms, but that’s where we’re headed. In fact, a friend has a theory that suggests that we’ll be reduced to a burst of quick content blocks. Inputs of little importance, like yes/no questions, because only us, humans, can make those little decisions that will add up to something bigger. When we get exhausted we get our rest and back in the machine we go. What would the bigger thing be? Who knows.

Gosh look at me, I sound like one of those internet prophets that talk out of their arse.

Reviews from sites like IMDb and rotten tomatoes. As a movie or series is older, or finished, the general audience has had plenty of time to review it and if it’s fondly remembered, then it might get mentioned on here or other social platforms.

The issue with new content is that it can be amazing at first and then they release the last two episodes and ruin pretty much the entire series, eg. Game of thrones, and more recently, secret invasion.

Been using VideoLite a lot, there’s a single ad that plays as you open it, and then you’re set. Optionally you can pay £1.59 every three months and skip that initial ad.

All the cousins you’ve never heard of suddenly chime in