flamingarms @ flamingarms @feddit.uk

Posts

1

Comments

135

Joined

2 yr. ago

Big thank you for writing all that out. There's a lot of dynamics here I am not knowledgeable about, so I appreciate you providing links as well. I'll have to read more on this before getting back to you. After your explanation, I have a much better understanding of the intended value of STAR. My gut is still saying that STAR will not allow 3rd parties into a polarized political environment, but I have no data to back that up. I just feel that people will vote 0 for the candidate they least want, 5 for the one they want, and 3 for the one they're ambivalent about and that will devolve STAR to a two-round ranked choice that favors the two biggest political parties. Again, that's definitely possibly me just not fully understanding the system. I'll have to read more, crunch numbers, and see what numbers others have crunched and get back to you. Definitely very interesting and I love the concept of rating politicians independent of each other.

I may be off here because this is the first I'm reading about STAR, but it seems worse than instant-runoff ranked-choice voting because of the "top two candidates based on first results are the final two candidates". It seems like ranked-choice but broken to keep the States in a two party system.

For instance: Let's say there are 4 parties: blue, red, green, and yellow. Let's say the majority of people have red (27%) and blue (26%) as their top pick, so those are automatically #1 and #2. Green is a close third (25%). The remainder (21%) vote for yellow, then green, then red, then blue. STAR would say every other candidate is eliminated except Red and Blue, and then redistribute the other votes. Instant-runoff would say: eliminate yellow and redistribute based off their second choice. In this example, all those votes would switch to green and green would become first. Then blue would be eliminated, those votes redistributed, and then you'd have to see what would happen. Instant-runoff to me allows for the opportunity for a meeting in the middle - everyone potentially agreeing on their second choice; while STAR seems like it will just continue to encourage people to put their primary pick up top.

It was not originally for just the activation and licenses. Their plan was for it to launch as "always on". If I recall correctly, it was going to require phoning home every 24 hours; hence the outcry at the time and the infamous Keighley interview. They rolled back a ton of the stuff with that console that they said was a "requirement" for functionality. Regardless of whether it launched, if it wasn't for the outcry, they would have launched it. That's an entire console. I have a hard time believing they wouldn't roll out a "cloud only" game - you feel me?

How would they even break up Steam? Separate their software and hardware development from the store? Can't imagine that making any real impact on their practices.

Last generation, Microsoft was trying to sell the Xbox One as "always on" and told Keighley that, if people didn't like it or didn't have internet, they could buy an Xbox 360. An entire console was going to roll out as always online. So, video game companies have already rebutted your argument themselves.

I've played a few hours of Ender Lilies. It's a metroidvania where you play a young priestess who is protected by spirits that you equip to attack for you. It's pretty, has solid music, and the combat so far has been pretty fun and well-balanced for me. Grow the shame pile...

But just because something existed before the Internet doesn't mean it doesn't still exist now. You say you're using pre-90s expectations, but it's a modern object still - so why would that help at all?

Saw the other comment about Linux and did some searching. Found it on Wikipedia; appears to be a window system for Linux or a protocol that enables a window system for Linux? Don't know enough about this stuff, but here's the link I found: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_(protocol)

It should be noted that canvas is only one method of fingerprinting, so just randomizing that will not be enough to prevent fingerprinting.

Ok!

Ah, the arrogance of not knowing what you don't know. Except people are telling you that you are lacking knowledge of mergers, and you're still demanding that you're right. So now it's willful ignorance.

...they're talking about that ToxicAvenger person in this thread that you're replying to.

Ohhhh I see. Yeah, I think Sync uses Chrome too. Sync has an option to always open links in external web browser, so that's how I got around that.

Dunno if this is what you mean, but you can definitely set another browser as default. Any context menus will change too: "Open with Firefox", or w/e you're using.

Ah ok, gotcha. Who knows, I might agree once I actually pick the game up. I just don't want a map filled with what feels to me like filler.

I just started this too! Agreed on all fronts. It's gorgeous, the combat is refined and a combination of a lot of great old-school JRPG mechanics, I like all the winks and tongue-in-cheek mentions of classic tropes. I was just really hoping the story wasn't going where I thought it was going. But now that I have gotten a certain bit in, it feels like it's going exactly where I think it's going. But it's such a self-aware game that I hope I'm wrong. Because you're right, the characters are actually likeable and do at times subvert tropes, blatantly even, like they know we expected them to behave a certain way. Fingers crossed.

That's really great to hear. I heard an estimate of the game length elsewhere too. I'm really glad to hear that overall it's generally a tighter experience rather than including a bunch of collectathons.

Took a quick look at the first few messages and the links: seems like BiglyBT is banned by a lot of private trackers because it's possible to mod it to spoof the numbers required to stay a member in the private tracker, while also being able to create a torrent file that allows others using the mod to utilize the private tracker without permission. Not sure if any of that functionality has to do with I2P.

I believe the States have that already, with their age verification bullshit for porn. Doesn't seem like serious privacy violations are a concern for them.