Random Thoughts II

[wazza]

nerd in erp is raving about Palworld, built using Unreal Engine 5. he was showing me some in-game youtubes, must admit, shit looks amazing.

Palworld sold over one million copies in the first 8 hours of early access on January 19, 2024,[29] which rose to two million copies within the first 24 hours,[30] and three million copies within the first 40 hours. [31] The game would end up selling over four million copies within the first three days of early access, with a rate of 86,000 copies per hour. [3] It also reached over 1,000,000 concurrent players,[3] leading to server issues.[32][30]

[Cyberbob]

It's so dumb, but it's now the record holder for the largest concurrent player count on Steam.
Crazy stuff.

It's blatantly copying Pokemon and adds the odd AK-47 to spice things up. It's launched pretty cheap too, which helps.

I won't get it until I see if it's got any longetivity once the "Pokemon with guns" novelty has worn off.

[Lightspeed]

Hows yous fullas doing over there in Aus right now? I hear it's starting to cook a little?

[DrTiTus]

Numba allows you to write [basic/primitive] code in Python, and it uses a JIT compiler to translate it automatically into C/CUDA code for GPUs. I got a 1700x speedup from a test doing 51200 x 2048 element array of int16 operations (basic carry operation after doing convolution [long multiplication-ish]). I wasn't operating on each element independently, because they had to run sequentially (n+1 values depend on prior n values), so it was basically just massively parallel (51200 threads) "Python" code. Considering Python is terrible with threading, jumping straight to GPU automatically is fantastic, and just requires a one line decorator (@cuda.jit) and another line to fetch the thread ID you're working on and using that to pick the part of the array (in this case a row) you're working on.

1.083 seconds with GTX1060 vs 28 minutes 22 seconds with Ryzen 5500 (yes, I let it run for half an hour).

It's slower to use CUDA for a single operation, because you're compiling a kernel, copying memory, operating, copying back, but when you scale up, it doesn't even flinch. Loving it.

Lots of "brogrammers" mock Python, and there are good reasons to criticize it if you stay only within the strictly Python sphere and try to do things outside its use cases, but Python is more than Python. It's Verilog (MyHDL), it's CUDA (Numba), it's C (numpy), it's a better Perl, it's fast to write, and it's so simple but very powerful.

Use the right tool for the job, but 90% of the time it's Python with the right libraries (insert xkcd comic). I did sidestep to C++ for a bit, but if CUDA happens automagically, I'm going to stick with Python. Straight from prototype (CPU) to "production" (GPU) by adding a decorator. Magic.

[StN]

Originally Posted by Cyberbob

Speaking of which, anyone read John Romero's "Doom Guy" yet?

Ok, I'll admit it - I don't inhale books like I used to.

Got around to finishing this one, and I kept thinking that something was missing. It was a bit hard to keep track of his various girlfriends, but a note in the epilogue summed it up - some people were missed out, by request - that's why I didn't click to any mention of KillCreek. (She was mentioned as Stevie, a manager when they left Ion Storm but that was about it.)

Lots of detail around level design. Refers to "Masters of Doom" a bit so a good companion piece. I didn't know (or remember) that they used SGI Indy's for graphic design - I assumed it was all on NeXT boxes.

A whole chapter on Columbine, but this time my schoolmate Brendon Wyber doesn't get name checked.

He mentions that he has a massive archive of all the original design docs, which he is slowly donating to various pop culture museums.

Not a bad read if you have an interest in the industry, or even if you worked in a similar environment over the years.

Next on my list is BritSoft:An oral history.

[Mabd]

Had a random thought to visit the old haunt. Good to see it's still around.

[DrTiTus]

I did 208 000 steps over a 3 day + 3 night festival. 6 hours sleep. My ankle was swollen but I took ibuprofen and ignored it.

[xor]

Gotta load up on energy drinks and socks for that kind of activity!

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Mabd

Had a random thought to visit the old haunt. Good to see it's still around.

NEW PHONE WHO DIS

[wazza]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

I did 208 000 steps over a 3 day + 3 night festival. 6 hours sleep. My ankle was swollen but I took ibuprofen and ignored it.

actual? that's insane

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by StN

Might be a lean Xmas in the Whittall household this year...

$3.4M and all charges (including criminal H&S) dropped.

Buried Truth: Why the Pike River Tragedy Won't Be Laid To Rest - John Campbell

[Biggus]

Originally Posted by Mabd

Had a random thought to visit the old haunt. Good to see it's still around.

How weird is that, I saw a truck on Wednesday with writing that looked like is spelled Mabd from a distance, which made me check in here for a look.

Spooky...

[Ab]

Simulation confirmed!

[xor]

my 8 year old kiddo has his first nogi submission tourny in 2 weeks time.

[wazza]

gg, time for proxmox

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2107518?lang=en_US

[Mabd]

Originally Posted by Biggus

How weird is that, I saw a truck on Wednesday with writing that looked like is spelled Mabd from a distance, which made me check in here for a look.

Spooky...

That's fairly weird... though somethings stick in your mind forever - like driving past the Mobil beside Taka's Foodt...Countd... Woolworths yesterday ... it made me smile (almost chuckle!).

@Ab - some days I'm not sure myself, but will settle for still married, still playing, still gaming, corporate sellout.

[DrTiTus]

According to my analysis of a wordset/dictionary definitions, the 10 most "ambiguous" words in the English language (as far as parsing plain text by a machine that has no context) are:

cut
break
run
play
make
light
draw
clear
give
hold

when ordered by number of meanings. For example, "cut" has 70 definitions (some similar, some quite distinct)!

[sidbo]

355 million lol's today, plus interest.

[Cyberbob]

Interest will add about $100m to it, too.

GG

His legal team have decided against appealing a court’s decision that found he is not immune from civil lawsuits that blame him for the Jan. 6 attack too, so there's those to come.

[Cyberbob]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

According to my analysis of a wordset/dictionary definitions, the 10 most "ambiguous" words in the English language (as far as parsing plain text by a machine that has no context) are:

cut
break
run
play
make
light
draw
clear
give
hold

when ordered by number of meanings. For example, "cut" has 70 definitions (some similar, some quite distinct)!

IIRC, The Guinness World Record for most meanings in the English language is “set.”

[DrTiTus]

I bought some replacement earpads for my Sennheiser headphones from eBay. The listing included my model number, so I assumed they were correct. But of course, China. While the material was better (fake leather rather than the original very thin layer of rubbery plastic stuff which dries and flakes from shaving stubble leaving you with black shit all around your ears and mangy looking pads), the dimensions were wrong, and the earpads were too big compared to the originals, so they moved around on the plastic mount and would come off very easily.



I did the obvious thing, which is take photos and request a refund, but then I cut some plastic washer/spacers out of an ice cream container lid and traced around a coffee cup with a Sharpie and used the plastic mount as the inner template so I knew how big to make the hole for the sound to go through. The pads fit tight around the lid, and the mount clips in, holding everything in place and now the pads are snug and don't move and are comfortably larger around my ears, and hopefully won't put black shit on my face. No obvious sign of ghetto mods.




China obliged, and I got my refund.

[Ab]

Basically if there's a NZ news story involving railways, I assume there's been some incredibly expensive fuckup for which noone is responsible.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wairar...HA55A63BL7NZI/

[Lightspeed]

It's our political cycle. We flip between the builders and the "fiscally responsible".

I hope you don't have plans to cross the Cook Strait anytime in the next 30 years.

[wazza]

guy in team remarks he's put on 15kg since he started working here, walks in with red bull and a pie for morning tea.

shrug

[DrTiTus]

Mad Professor coming to Wanganui in a couple of weeks.

Also a show in Wellington [@ Moon] (and Raglan) for any dub heads.

I don't think I've ever seen a dub person perform live, so it will be interesting if he just mixes tracks, or does live dubs.

[wazza]

bought dune 2 tickets, gg

[StN]

I listen to a few paranormal podcasts for S&Gs, and one of my favorites is the mashup of Rhys Darby and Dan Schreiber, one of the chaps from "No such thing as a fish" (ie QI elves) called the Cryptid factor. In recent months (it's a very random production schedule) there was no mention of the Hoff.

But, when travelling down Bealey Ave just before the end of the year, the lights had me stop next to a Telco fibre kiosk - in ChCh (maybe nationwide?) these are painted by street artists to stop them being tagged. This one had a couple of portaits, which on closer inspection, were signed.

Darby and The Hoff.

Subsequently, several articles have pointed to them touring he country in September last year, filming a road trip series called "Hoff the beaten track" - which by current accounts, may never see the screen.

Whilst I can appreciate Darby is not funny to everyone, I am a little sad that this may go unseen.

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by wazza

bought dune 2 tickets, gg

I’m so hard for this movie I found Dune “1” intense as fuck. I’m going to need to stay off the coffee for when I go see #2

[wazza]

Originally Posted by MadMax

I’m so hard for this movie I found Dune “1” intense as fuck. I’m going to need to stay off the coffee for when I go see #2

yeah brah pretty f'n pumped on this end, too

[DrTiTus]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

analysis of a wordset/dictionary definitions

Almost any word in the English language can be used to mean 'drunk' (drunkonyms)

the most prototypical form of which is

be/get + intensifying premodifier + -ed-form.

eg. "utterly gazeboed", "fucking pyjamaed"

[Ab]

Originally Posted by MadMax

I’m so hard for this movie I found Dune “1” intense as fuck. I’m going to need to stay off the coffee for when I go see #2

Yeah. Definitely one for the cinema, not at home on the couch.

[fixed_truth]

Music is extremely powerful in taking me back in time. Smells somewhat. Had a sip a Smirnoff Ice and fuck me I'm back in the mid 90s.

[fixed_truth]

Got his account back 16mins later, phew

[xor]

Originally Posted by xor

my 8 year old kiddo has his first nogi submission tourny in 2 weeks time.

Oooof, i think i had a bigger adrenaline dump than him. It was tough to watch. Little man did his thing, didn't get submitted and managed to score a few points but ultimately lost. Fucking intense to watch

[wazza]

GG

[xor]

Yeeeep, he was standing too tall and got thrown by a slick osoto gari.

Was down on points and tried to sink in a spicy Ezekiel choke while he had his opponent in half guard.

Pretty wild to think of how UFC+BJJ has changed school yard antics. Once upon a time if there was something happening at school the kids would throw wild haymakers. Now, there's a generation of kids who can do slick take downs, choke out peeps, or throw tight jabs.

[Ab]

Newshub closing the doors:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/...ne-sources-say

[DrTiTus]

Is that a show on TV?

I don't even own one. Not surprised.

[wazza]

wait, isn't that channel 3 news at 6pm?
that's insane, like actual

[Ab]

Yeah , 3 is gone.

David Farrier makes a good case for why this is bad:

In a few months, the only major TV news channel in the country will be the state-owned outlet TVNZ, which is itself going through a restructure and recording financial losses.

Rumblings are coming out about money troubles at New Zealand’s biggest news producer, Stuff, and some journalists are pointing to it as the next media company that might shut down.

Meanwhile, fringe sites and voices are getting louder. Government ministers are appearing on the anti-vax conspiracy pipeline Reality Check Radio, even as it runs interviews with the white nationalist who helped shape the views of the terrorist who committed mass murder in Christchurch.

More:

https://www.webworm.co/p/futureshock...m_medium=email