jeremywc

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Posts posted by jeremywc

  3. Posted

    Someone pointed out to me that π Day is basically the same thing as the fetishisation of science that e.g. Portal engages in. No-one observes e Day or √2 Day, and both those numbers are just as important. It feels like tribalism; we flatter ourselves that we are the smart ones, because we observe π Day and call out SCIENCE!, when they are merely totems.

     

    To an extent, I think you are right. There's absolutely a nerd culture springing up that loves the ideals of science much more than they love actually practicing any hard science. But then again, most people are really just applying the scientific method to engineer new things or to solve problems in different ways. And really, I think that's what is important anyway. Not everyone has the mental chops to be a full time scientist, but you can still apply their methods to your daily life. Celebrating pi day is just a way of saying you want to support that type of investigative and/or critical thinking. Complaining that you're not also celebrating a bunch of other days that correspond with mathematical constants just seems like pointless elitism to me.

  4. Posted

    There's a higher-res version of the art for retina devices, if you guys would like it. 

     

    (My buddy and I, by the way, were pretty impressed by the way that the site builds the page such that if you happen to have an insanely wide screen it still looks real nice, what with the repeating mountains in the background. Whoever designed that, kudos! )

     

    Awesome, thanks for that. It looks really good with Ubuntu's default themes. :tup:

  6. Posted

    Maybe it's an age thing? I think it's telling that the people that aren't that into it are saying they are 26. That's my brother's age, and while he appreciates the show, it doesn't seem to be that big a deal for him and his friends compared to my friends who are in their early 30s where the show did take on like a second language for all of us. Or maybe it is something else... who knows..

     

    It's weird to me how just a few years can make such a big difference in terms of what pieces of pop culture you latch on to when you are young. I'm 32 and everyone my age watched The Simpsons when it came out. My sister is 3 years younger than me and really doesn't identify with it that much. On the other hand, she was right at the sweet spot age for Pokemon when it came out. All her friends played it and watched the anime. Meanwhile, no one my age would have been caught dead playing it at the time. I've still never played a Pokemon game.

  14. Posted

    All of your authentication details and such are passed through it too, not to mention any private messages and password-protected channels. If you're OK with that then that's fine, but I've personally discussed some fairly private things on IRC over the years, not to mention have at times had privileged access to channels and servers. I dunno, to me it's like using some web-based thing for Skype or something: not a problem for some, huge problem for others — it depends on what you use it for. Just be aware of it. :tup:

     

    Yea, I get it. It is important to point out the privacy concerns there. But, seriously, securing IRC is on the same level as securing SMTP. Too much legacy crap that has poorly designed security controls around it to be trustworthy. Unless you've gone to some extremely great lengths with your operational security, assume anything you do on IRC is already public.

  20. Posted

    No fucking clue what I'm doing. :P

     

    I just downloaded Pidgin and put in my yahoo e-mail, and copy pasted the nearest QuakeNet server in File Transfer Serve, but I can't join the room. Or any room in fact.

     

    What am I missing here?

     

    You want to a create an IRC account, not use one of your existing IM accounts. The account setup screen should just look like this:

     

    i65fFUc.png

  22. Posted

    I got an invitation to the beta. After the massive download, I logged in and created a character, but before I started playing I just backed out and uninstalled it. After losing over a decade+ of my life to playing MMORPGs almost exclusively, I feel comfortable saying that almost anything they offer has already been done better in a single player offline RPG. The only thing that remotely interests me is large scale PvP. Or it might if most of the good PvP experiences weren't rolled up in shitty pay to win monetization schemes these days.

     

    The genre is dying and I think it's for the best. I'd really give anything to have all the time I sunk into EQ, WoW, etc. back so I could have put it something constructive. Just play Skyrim, there's more meat to a game like that than anything a theme park MMO could offer you.

  25. Posted

    I watched the pitch videos with my kids and gave them each a pick. One thing I love is seeing their reactions to the games through the lenses of their own gaming experiences, which is increasingly unique to them and separate from my own.

     

    Anyway, our picks were:

     

      - Dear Leader (Me. I'm a sucker for Soviet Russia aesthetics)

      - Jet Girl & Ghost Dog (My 13 year old son. He literally said "Why does this remind me of Earthbound?" seconds before Earthbound was mentioned as an inspiration.)

      - Dum Sim (My 9 year old daughter. Her comments were "It's made by a girl!" and "I sounds like Diner Dash and The Sims!")

     

    Our consensus pick for the Pendleton pitches was Little Pink Best Buds, which I was outvoted on (I liked Cupid, You Fat Little Scamp).

     

    Other cool / funny comments from them while we were watching:

     

      - "Wooo, it's a mystery!" - Mnemonic

      - "This feels like Slender." - Fathomless

      - (In unison) "Too scary." - What Could Go Wrong

      - "Are they ripping off Minecraft?" - My son, anytime a pitch mentioned crafting

      - "Wooo, CATS!" - Cat in a Box

      - "BAD GOLF 2! BAD GOLF 2!"