Pablo

@Devon_Eriksen_ This is why I disliked No Country for Old Men Supposedly full of symbolism and hidden meaning and the mysteries of the universe But wrapped in an otherwise boring movie with only one memorable scene and one of the worst endings The Emperor's New Western Thriller wasn't for me

Most appreciation of "great art" is a performance. People are very, very susceptible to "if you didn't appreciate it, it went over your head". Whether that something is a $100K bottle of wine that tastes like Two-Buck Chuck, improvisational jazz that sounds like someone turned on an orchestra and walked away, or the... unique... style of David Foster Wallace doesn't make much of a difference. These sorts of "refined" tastes are actually just unusual tastes. They are in the same category as really, really liking model trains, or birdwatching. Except people who like birdwatching don't run elaborate psyops to convince everyone that birdwatchers are intellectually superior and more sophisticated. They just buy expensive binoculars and get on with doing what they like to do. But some people with niche tastes in art seem to need to proselytize them to others. And a lot of weak-willed people go along with it. They wouldn't want to look dumb, now would they? Well, I don't go for that. I think that the greatest obstacle to learning is the fear of looking stupid. And I'm particularly not impressed by things that have a reputation as "great literature", but are dull and opaque to the average reader. Writing is my thing, see, and that means I have an easy time remembering that the purpose of writing is to communicate. Not everything is going to appeal to 100% of everyone, but if your writing is opaque or boring to all but a few, you cannot, by definition, be a great writer, because you just failed the basics of craftsmanship. Great woodworkers don't make sturdy furniture that's rough on the surface and full of splinters. They make chairs that are not only durable, but comfortable AND beautiful. Because if they are great, they can do all these things at once. If a book is boring, I set it down, instead of pretending that I had a hands-free orgasm because I am so super-duper-uber sophisticated that I can read the hidden messages in gibberish. Maybe there are hidden messages. Maybe I'm smart enough to see them if I bothered to look. But I don't. Because I don't care about any hidden message from a man too unskilled to wrap his message in an interesting story, or too contemptuous of his audience to try. So, no, I don't dislike Monet, I might even hang a print of something he did on my wall. But it's not a big deal to me, and not only can I probably not tell the difference between Monet and a good enough AI imitation, I don't even care enough to try. Which is an approach I highly recommend to others, unless they need to tape a banana to a wall for tax purposes.

@BladeDoc @Devon_Eriksen_ @grok @EndWokeness I was legit wondering if he was going for "slav" Going all the way back to the beginning 😆

@Devon_Eriksen_ @grok @EndWokeness Slave is a five letter word though. You keep asking it for a four letter word.

Chicago Alderman William Hall wants to see Walgreens face charges for closing (over a shoplifting crisis)

@SlenderSherbet @TheFigen_ Reality is messy. At the end, see the shadow partly hiding the woman's face, while another shadow is on the guy's junk? See the random marks on the concrete? AI is trained on staged scenes with models. Not junk shadows. This is real.

"LOOK AT ME I'M A PENGUIN, I'VE GOT A SILLY WALK AND I'M A BIRD BUT I CAN'T EVEN FLY" "Just ignore him Tony"

@rodneythebody @SlenderSherbet @TheFigen_ Look at the shadow of the man when he walks in front of the woman. See how it goes over her face, then off as they both move? AI doesn't simulate ray tracing. It can't get shadows right for objects that aren't placed similarly to what it was trained on. This is real.

@SlenderSherbet @TheFigen_ This is AI. Sad to say, but you shouldn't trust most dog videos on here anymore.

@AiPinfu2003 I love Battleship. My whole family does. Maybe we're just weird.

男は大好きだけど女が観ても全然面白くない映画ナンバー1は『ダークナイト』 女は大好きだけど男が観ても全然面白くない映画ナンバー1は『プラダを着た悪魔』 日本人は大好きだけどアメリカ人が観ても全然面白くない映画ナンバー1は『バトルシップ』

(spoiler alert for Theft of Fire) I have a few predictions for the sequel to ToF. But the one I'm most looking forward to is the alien tech. Directed magnetic fields + visual links = holograms. Leela will be like the doctor on Voyager But then, so will the AI inside the tech.

@harukaawake I always loved the idea that Japan loves baseball so much. USA pitched the ball, Japan hit the home run ⚾

🇯🇵🇺🇸 Yes, there is a whole subculture in our country dedicated to the Southern United States (especially Texas). I'm glad people people abroad can appreciate it too!

@GPrime85 This just doubled your credibility in my eyes. It's easy to praise a popular game. It's not easy to criticize one. ... But you did say "couches" 😝

"Press Square to jump" > Hold Square to interact > Jumping at people "Press L3 to use Ultra Hand" > Couches > Maybe I'm standing in the wrong spot > Press L3 on ledge, sits down > Press L3 against wall, climbs it > wtf > Look up on youtube > You have to HOLD L3 > Turn a crank > Nothing happens > Detatch > Look it up on youtube > You have to turn the crank and then WAIT for a platform to appear Okay fuck this game

@elonmusk I did. Click it, buy it, wait for it to ship. It never ships. Contact support. They lie, say it's coming. 2 months pass. I ask PayPal. They look into it. Adfolk beg me to close the case. I don't. PayPal refunds me. Never trusting an ad here again.

Have you ever bought anything based on an ad on this platform?

@klara_sjo Today I learned animal protection organizations have more money than brains.

The tale of Joey, the unlucky bear.

@BlackDumpling "I can customize my character how I want. But I hit Apply like, 4 times. My face is 2 pounds heavier now." It looks like she could fan the emperor by blinking. It looks like the Hamburglar's 10 year old daughter discovered TikTok tutorials. But... Insightful post!

SCHRÖDINGER'S GIRLY: You don't know, do you? If she's doing a parody, I mean. You don't know if she's serious or not. And you think you're going to game the system because me asking is the tell. But it's not. There's a discussion to be had here, on femininity, a deep one. Importantly in this single instance I want you to laser focus on the line "I can customize my character how I want every single day...". I try to give insights on men, to men, but this time I'm going to share one on women for men. Fellas, you are the main character. Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, it's true. Lock on to that definition of character, because here comes the punch. Men are the character, women have a character. Is there cross over? Sure, but in this instance it is lopsided with women to so much that you people have kind of normalized it as a thing to such an extent you merely accept it without analyzing it too much. Like how you just kind of accept that human beings are the only creatures in the history of the universe that can properly throw anything and it doesn't blow your minds on the daily. Such as it is with us and characters, personas, ever shifting self definitions that often feel tenuous at best. Floating. Men, almost always, are defined by something concrete, what they do. Who they are. And I do mean the hard are. What ARE you is something almost every man I've ever met can instantly define. But us? Our definitions are dependent largely on how we're perceived rather than what we actually do. It's the kind of inverse of the Girl At McDonald's. "Nobody cares if a girl works at McDonald's". So what DO you care about? Our good looks? Our winning personality? You picking it up yet? You care about what you perceive us to be. And don't even get mad at me because you know I'm right. "She's got big tits." According to who? "She's hot!" According to who? "HE'S A DOCTOR." According to who? The Medical Board of Insert State Here. See the difference? You don't care if we work at McDonalds. You care about things that are fluid, subjective, ever changing but will (we both hope) stay the same enough that your affections won't diminish. Now, don't get me wrong. Men DO curate perceptions, typically through status symbols or achievements, but even these are concrete, serving to represent what he has done or what he's capable of. But fellas, when you accuse us of some variation of inconstancy I want you to consider how often you tell us that our value to you is dependent on that very thing. That fluidity. And so as you watch the video keep that in mind... is she doing a parody of Femininity or not? And does it actually matter?

@Devon_Eriksen_ @DrInsensitive @GraysonJams Regular reader of both of your books and posts here I don't see an attack. I don't see friendly fire. I see 2 smart guys both trying to reach the truth This is what men do. We challenge each other. You don't get sharper without scraping against something

I don't understand how to talk to you. That's not sarcasm or a rhetorical statement. I actually have no idea what will upset you and what won't, or what you will think I obviously should have known would upset you. Clearly there are things you think are obvious to everyone, which are not obvious to me. I thought "support" meant promote, not "never disagree with in public". I don't know what it means when you call yourself "Dr. Insensitive Jerk", and pride yourself on valuing truth above politeness, and then.... whatever this is. Perhaps you shouldn't engage with me, because I can't parse out what you expect from whatever it is you think I am, which I don't understand either.

Your Hollowpoints Don't Help You; They Help Everyone But You. Did you ever wonder why there is zero data available on stopping power versus bullet type, FMJ vs JHP? A hollowpoint round is designed to increase soft-tissue damage, at the expense of reduced penetration, especially through bone. In other words, it causes more bleeding. Here's the catch: Bleeding almost never settles a self-defense shooting. Even if you destroy an attackers heart, he still has 10-15 seconds of consciousness left in which to shoot you. The overwhelming majority of self-defense shootings are settled in less than 10 seconds. The FBI suggests the 3-3-3 rule: three shots from 3 yards in three seconds. Consider the self-defense shooting videos you have witnessed. How many lasted longer than three seconds? I can't think of any. Even gang shootouts end in less than 10 seconds. Instant stops are overwhelmingly caused by surrenders (the other guy doesn't want to get shot anymore) or a central nervous system hit. That hollowpoint won't help you hit the brain or spinal cord, and might actually reduce your odds of a glancing blow penetrating. Here's the caveat: If a hollowpoint expands and still has enough penetration to reach the spine, it will be slightly wider, maybe 0.2" in both directions. So a shot that would have missed the spine by 0.2" could instead nick a vertebra, perhaps bruising the spinal cord to cause temporary paralysis. In my opinion, that thin chance is not enough compensation for losing penetration. So why load hollowpoints? I can think of one bad reason and one good one: The bad reason: To protect the guy behind the mugger. Grok says it is extremely rare, perhaps even unheard of, for a pistol shot to pass through one person and seriously wound another. So kudos for good intentions, but not really. Of course I'm not talking about long guns. Here is the good reason to load hollowpoints: So if the target runs away, he won't run very far. This won't help you, since the risk of being sued by a mugger is actually very low, and zero in many states. Most high-profile cases are filed by dead muggers' families, and they fail. But if a mugger bleeds to death, he won't mug anyone else. So your hollowpoints won't help you, but they might help the rest of us. The picture show grok's conception of FMJ vs JHP vs Fluted. grok.com/share/c2hhcmQt…

@deanasc1 @Devon_Eriksen_ I've backed all of the Rifftrax and mst3k Kickstarters Except this latest one. The new episodes were not good. Too chatty and cute, not witty with an edge of dark humor like Rifftrax and the original series in its stride. The new stuff might be good. It might not. We'll see.

At the time, Rifftrax was doing well. Joel got the idea to bring MST3K back. Maybe he wanted to reassert control or needed the paycheck. It had been years since there was new MST3K. I threw them $80. About 6 out of the 12 were great. Netflix paid for some more. I found the girl to be unwatchable. I'm excited for Mike to come back. I think the SciFi Network episodes were consistently great. That seems to be the crew doing this new round. I threw the new kickstarter $80 too.

Stop this. Don't you understand? They are not looking for sales. They do not want your approval. They hate you, and they want to humiliate and demoralize you so they can be socially ascendant and feel good and momentarily forget that they were weird theater kids in high school that no one liked. And so they can pave the way for a communist revolution that they imagine will put the theater kids in charge. In reality, they'll all be machine gunned into mass graves by thugs within the first 18 days after the fall of the old order, but they don't know that. So every time they hollow out another franchise and wear it like a skinsuit, they don't care if you buy it. They just want to hear you cry. So if you tell them you don't like it, you won't buy it, you're very upset, then you might as well be giving them a smoothie and a handjob. But you can't help it, though, can you? You see the death of your beloved Warcraft, your Star Wars, your Warhammer 40K, and you can't help but mourn. You think something precious has been destroyed. You're sad for what might have been, but never will be. You're wrong. You don't understand. You don't understand because you are an electrical engineer who designs high-voltage grid hardware, and reads and watches stories in his spare time. You are not a professional maker of stories. Well, I am. So I'm going to explain this to you. Star Wars, Star Trek, Cowboy Bebop, Lord of the Rings, Warhammer40K... these aren't stories. They are story ideas. And any professional author will tell you that ideas are the cheapest and easiest part of our whole job. That's not the hard part, or the part that requires talent and skill. The real work in storytelling consists of turning that idea into a complete, satisfying story that is ready to publish and be read and loved. I can come up with ten story ideas in ten minutes, but I dream of someday having enough control over my writing process to publish one good novel a year. The reason you loved all these franchises is that they were a garment worn by good writers, who were able to make you love the characters and situations. Now they are a skinsuit worn by bad writers. Good writers are always going to make stories you like, regardless of which characters and settings they use. Bad ones are always going to disappoint you, no matter which franchise you hand them the keys to. If all the good writers are kicked out of Games Workshop, they still exist and can write good stuff. And if they are not kicked out, but merely disenfranchised and overruled by managerial theater kids, but they have to stay for a paycheck, then it's because YOU give more money to Games Workshop than you would to all the independent projects they could start. You thinking you are fighting for the soul of Warhammer40K and Star Wars. But you are fighting against the people who own the copyrights, so you will always lose. The best you could ever do is to kill the franchise by rallying the customer base to defect. And you can do that right now by giving your attention to storytellers who don't hate you, instead. But you are attached to the familiar, to what you are used to instead of to what could be. So you follow franchises and intellectual properties instead of artists and writers. And you get so mad that there won't be more Star Wars that you reward critics like @TheCriticalDri2 for his tenth angry rant about how Star Wars sucks now. Sure, I could tell him to spend his time promoting good new stuff instead, but the only reason he is able to promote anything is because he has an audience, and you are that audience, and you are rewarding him for ragebaiting you, demanding that he ragebait you, because that's the only thing you tune in for. That's why there are so few good writers in your field of view who are making good new stuff that you like. Because you've never heard of the ones that exist, and if they're not attached to one of your beloved franchises, they can't raise any money. I would love to spend 100% of my working hours writing novels. I'd certainly finish them faster that way. But I can't. Because I have to be on Twitter most of the time, so I can pay my bills now. And I'm considered one of the fortunate ones, because the time I spend on publicity actually earns me enough money to do that. Most other authors, good storytellers who don't hate you, can't even quit their day jobs. Which means even less time and energy for creating. I know you loved these franchises when they were alive. I did, too, some of them. But you have to let them go. Because they are dead now. They are still moving, but they are dead. We're in the part of the zombie movie now where your son has succumbed to the infection, and you have him locked in the basement, feeding him raw meat while he lunges at the end of his chain, trying to devour your flesh. You're just too attached to let go, hoping against hope that you can hang on until a cure is found, but there isn't a cure, there's never a cure, and that isn't your son. It's pure evil piloting the husk of his body. The only thing left for him is a quick 5.56mm bullet in the head. Do you doubt me? Do you think you can win against the copyright holders? Well, tell me then, when have you ever won one of these? Name one franchise that fans have rescued. Not rescued from financial cancellation, there are plenty of those, but name one that was rescued from woke infiltration, and brought back to its roots. Well? I'm waiting. The truth is, wars are not won by being bold and resolute and surrendering no inch of ground. That's just a strategy for filling graveyards with your brothers. Wars are won by fighting the enemy where you are strong and he is weak. If every one of you gave an independent author, or artist, or filmmaker, or developer, one tenth the time and money you spend on overpriced plastic army women made by neomarxist feminists who hate you, then a lot more of them would thrive, and there would be just as many new things for you to love are there were old ones. You're not selfish, or short-sighted, or tight-fisted. You just loved too deeply, and you can't let go. But he who cannot cast away a treasure at need is in chains. Stop stalking your crazy ex-girlfriend who got fat and hates you now. There are younger, hotter, nicer women who would love to meet you.

@deanasc1 @Devon_Eriksen_ And people believed in it But it turned out badly Money and belief do not guarantee quality

@PabloVonPablo @Devon_Eriksen_ For 12 episodes. It comes out to about the same per episode.

@deanasc1 @Devon_Eriksen_ The Kickstarter for the Jonah led reboot got 6 million

@PabloVonPablo @Devon_Eriksen_ There's over $2,000,000 in a kickstarter with hundreds of backers who believe in it.

@deanasc1 @Devon_Eriksen_ That's actually a great example. But only if the 4 new episodes are good.

@Devon_Eriksen_ Mystery Science Theater 3000 is about to drop 4 new Mike episodes after that fat pansy Jonah and the girl killed the franchise.

@elormkdaniel At least 3 "it's not just X, it's X+1" phrases Usually a sign of being written by AI

Most people assume that because Linux is free, the person who created it must not be making any money from it. But that’s not how open source works. Linus Torvalds doesn’t sell copies of Linux. There are no licenses to buy, no subscriptions, no product keys. Instead, he’s paid to maintain it. For years, Linus has worked for organizations whose entire businesses rely on Linux staying fast, stable, and secure. Today, he works full-time at the Linux Foundation, which is funded by major tech giants like Intel, Google, IBM, and Microsoft. And they’re not donating out of kindness. They’re paying because their entire infrastructure depends on Linux. Linux powers most of the internet, cloud platforms, Android devices, enterprise servers, supercomputers, and massive data centers around the world. If Linux has serious bugs or instability, it’s not just a technical problem; it’s a billion-dollar business problem. So instead of “owning” Linux, these companies invest in the people who keep it reliable. Linus’s job is to review code, approve what gets merged into the kernel, reject risky changes, and guide the technical direction of the system. Think of him less like a seller and more like the chief architect and gatekeeper. His expertise and judgment are what companies are really paying for. Beyond that, he also earns from speaking engagements, recognition awards, and compensation from past roles. But the core idea stays the same: the money isn’t in selling Linux; it’s in maintaining trust in Linux. That’s what many people miss about open source. The business model doesn’t disappear. It simply shifts. Instead of charging for access to software, companies pay for reliability, support, and long-term stability.

@klara_sjo Avatar: The Last Fishbender

Remember, mocking the government is an old and proud profession.

@Pentadact Hey Tom! Do you still have Michael Hussinger's contact info? You made a blog post about how his art was almost used for Gunpoint. I saw that same art from that blog post used in another game, and I didn't see Michael's name in the credits. Hoping to clear it up.

@TheRealGeiger5R @heywildrich Thank you! Who was it in reference to? The new Microsoft gaming CEO?

@heywildrich He deleted it 😂

I knew this guy who ran a pretty large pizza chain. Worth tens of millions of dollars. One day I saw him walk into one of his pizza stores, they were short staffed, he literally went in the back, in his suit, and started making dough and pizzas to help out until other employees got there. He knew every detail of the business. He could repair any of the equipment. He could do any job in the whole place. At a certain point in society people like you came to accept that management was just about spreadsheets and useless meetings and email chains. And I think that's part of why it's all so abysmal and low quality now. "Car guys" used to run car companies, now it's accountants. This is true of all industries. Accountants suck at everything, sometimes even accounting. Every justification people have for this unqualified clown is another example of why the quality of everything has fallen off a cliff. My pizza guy knew when the pizza was made right. Would this CEO even know a good game if it smashed her over the head? Doubtful. Would the manager who doesn't know about cooking temps make for a good boss to the chefs, servers, and line cooks? No. Would somebody who has no idea how cars work be able to explain anything to a customer or supplier or really anybody they worked with daily? Of course not. The idea that you don't need to understand the business to run the business is plainly absurd. Would you hire a family law attorney to negotiate a multi-million dollar business deal in an industry they don't understand at all? I hope not. I've seen it happen, didn't go well for the client. You people have no common sense or business experience and frankly need placed into some sort of work camps to make you useful to society.