Eskating cyclist, gamer and enjoyer of anime. Probably an artist. Also I code sometimes, pretty much just to mod titanfall 2 tho.

Introverted, yet I enjoy discussion to a fault.

  • 38 Posts
  • 765 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • The bouncing around isn’t a bad thing.

    In fact, if anything, I try to be sensitive to when I start to burn out on a game, and when that happens I avoid playing until the desire is really strong again.

    Sometimes looking for something to play means having a LARGE number of false starts before I find the thing, but I make a note of not trying a bunch of similar games whenever something isn’t scratching the itch. I make each attempt with something very different.

    And coming back to a game can take years.

    That’s kind why you need a TON of games if you don’t want to take breaks from gaming entirely, because otherwise the medium just doesn’t have enough variety to keep the human brain engaged.

    You should try shorter games, and completely ignore whether something is “big” enough to be worth your time. The big stuff is what’s boring you right now, so don’t waste time on trying to force the enjoyment.

    Plus, if you’re restricting yourself to stuff that achieves critical acclaim, you’re limiting yourself to games everyone likes. That means you’re probably missing some stuff only you and people like you would like.

    Not all good things are enjoyed by everyone universally, some things are just for a subset of people.







  • It mostly does.

    As someone with big hands, I can’t use the touchpads comfortably without scooting my grip downwards in a way that makes it precarious and less than comfortable.

    I have a similar problem with the Index controllers. My thumb is too long to comfortably rest on any of the controls if I grip the grip where you’re supposed to to be able to strap your hand in.

    Good economics is supposed to work for everyone, and I’ve yet to try a valve hardware product that fully pulls it off. Maybe the first controller did, but I haven’t tried that one.









  • It does. Kinda.

    The police are seldom allowed to be in possession of CSAM, except for in terms of grabbing the hardware which contains it in an arrest. The database used in modern detection tools is maintained by NCMEC which has special permission to do so.

    And of course there are risks, but it’s just digital data. Unless you are creating more, you’re not actively harming anyone. And law enforcement absolutely needs that data to take some of the most obvious steps to prevent it being spread further.

    Obviously, someone has access, but to get to the actual media files wouldn’t be simple. What typically happens, is that anyone wanting to detect CSAM, is given a hashed version of the database. They can then scan their systems for CSAM by hashing any media they are hosting, and seeing whether there are any matches.

    Whenever possible, people aren’t handling the actual media. But for any detection to be possible to begin with, the database of the actual media does need to be maintained somewhere.

    AI is a touchier subject, as you can’t train a model to recognize CSAM not already in the database using hashes, so in those cases you have to work with actual real media. This is only recently becoming a thing.

    It also leaves open the possibility for false positives. An oft cited example is parents taking pictures of their own children for innocent reasons, or doctors and parents handling images for valid medical reasons. In a system that flagged such content, it would mean someone else would be seeing that “private” content because it was flagged.


  • There are laws around it. Law enforcement doesn’t just delete any digital CSAM they seize.

    Known CSAM is archived and analyzed rather than destroyed, and used to recognize additional instances of the same files in the wild. Wherever file scanning is possible.

    Institutions and corporation can request licenses to access the database, or just the metadata that allows software to tell if a given file might be a copy of known CSAM.

    This is the first time an attempt is being made at using the database to create software able to recognize CSAM that isn’t already known.

    I’m personally quite sceptical of the merit. It may well be useful for scanning the public internet, but I’m guessing the plan is to push for it to be somehow implemented for private communication, no matter how badly that compromises the integrity of encryption.


  • ActivityPub unfortunately does need some work, and there’s drama about properly following the protocol and not extending it with non-standard stuff that then breaks things when federating with stuff outside the given application.

    I’m optimistic, but I’m also making sure not to put too much of a stake in it, as it may eventually become an inferior system when compared to some future hypothetical standard.

    And other standards like diaspora and ATProto, are around, and seeing use.