bookwormstory.social

How much more dystopian can it get? Hang onto your hat!

The US Department of Homeland Security is reportedly considering an “out-of-the-box” pitch to participate in a television gameshow that would have immigrants compete to obtain US citizenship.

Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin described the pitch to the New York Times as a “celebration of being an American” and said the show would include challenges based on American traditions.

In a statement, McLaughlin said: “We need to revive patriotism and civic duty in this country, and we’re happy to review out-of-the-box pitches. This pitch has not received approval or rejection by staff.”

>fixing notebook for a ~70 years old lady 
>comes, pays, asks about gaming tier GPUs for her desktop 
>little took back I inquire about the price range and what 
games, solitaire, sudoku, puzzle games...
>nope, I play the Assasin
>Assassin's creed? 
>yes, on my grandsons console, I just love Venice
>she pauses
>and killing people

Meta’s reliance on fossil fuel to power data centers flies in the face of the company’s net-zero pledges and risks higher costs for families

As some of you know, there were a couple of L4D-influenced games, like Killing Floor, Dead Island and Yakuza: Dead Souls for some reason.

One of these, Warhammer: Vermintide, developed by swedes in FatShark, flew under radar for a long time, until their second Vermintide game, where, with much pain, they finally brought out the product that is a highly addicting PvE coop shooter\slasher. Just like in games of old, there were certain mechanics you could abuse to become invincible, but instead of bunnyhope, there were enemy positioning mechanics and evasive dodge. It led me to put in hundreds of hours, and due to the PvE nature I rarely had any toxicity as a newby and learnt to care about other gamers as we as a squad were moving through the map to the common goal. I won't say about outstanding voice acting, character writing and stuff, there are a lot of things to love besides the gameplay, but the gameplay is the core to why I liked it.

BUT

FatShark decided to get EasyAnticheat there, and with their setup it completely prevents any online gaming from Linux unless you are a host - you get kicked out from other's games every other minute. Hosting games means waiting for others to connect or playing with bots, so it means they slashed a game in half for those not indulging into the windowsphere.

After leaving Windows for good, I had this one reason to be sad - that my favorite game is no longer playable in full. But later they shipped another one of their games.

Enter the Darktide.

This one does have anticheat, but it works right with Linux, and it presents another spin on the same formula.

When Vermintide was mostly melee based, and ranged enemies felt like cheaters, there nearly every threat has a gun like it's the US. It's narrative is based around being a random escapee from a prison camp slowly going up the hierarchy of faschist Inquisition, and every quote and every loading screen title reminds you that you are a disposable resource.

And it's gameplay, while in moba fashion depends on individual skills and equipment, still has this L4D breaking points: this games shoots hundreds of heretics onto you, and your positioning and clever timing is the only way to survive. Unless special enemies, that can disable you or deny area, would arrive. Unless someone from your team walks off and go solo only to die.

Skip the antifascist messaging, skip the cooperation implied there, this game has a hard and vulgar core of purely kinetic violence. Since the first game, they made sure, that your melee attacks feel like you are swinging the blade youself, and coming to Darktide, they worked on making the same for the guns that making the show there. Shooting there from various guns feels like in Doom 2016, and that's very enjoyable too.

I joined this hype train long after release, but I'm joyful to find a game that scratches me in all the right places without kicking me, and the one that shows real progress over what I've seen and got addicted to before.

Immerse yourself in an exciting journey where you'll assist Juninho, a child trapped in a coma due to social media overload. Engage in a series of diverse puzzles that will test your musical, spatial, logical, and linguistic skills, all aimed at awakening Juninho from his slumber.

• 4 Unique challenges.
• Generative musical and linguistical challenges. (It's always a new game)
• Run timer and best time. (hone your skills and try to beat your friends)
• Fun for kids and adults alike.

Game developed as part of WCD Brazil Game Jam 2024.

1st Place of WCD's People's Choice Award.

Moody’s Ratings has stripped the United States government of its top credit rating, citing successive governments’ failure to stop a rising tide of debt, a surprise move that could complicate President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut taxes and send ripples through global markets.

On Friday, Moody’s lowered the rating from a gold-standard Aaa to Aa1. “Successive US administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs,” it said as it changed its outlook on the US to “stable” from “negative”.

Artist: Nikorashi-Ka | pixiv | twitter | danbooru

Mine is 2 laptops and 2 phones, an RPi5, and a small VPS I never use

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/20042987

How much more dystopian can it get? Hang onto your hat!

The US Department of Homeland Security is reportedly considering an “out-of-the-box” pitch to participate in a television gameshow that would have immigrants compete to obtain US citizenship.

Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin described the pitch to the New York Times as a “celebration of being an American” and said the show would include challenges based on American traditions.

In a statement, McLaughlin said: “We need to revive patriotism and civic duty in this country, and we’re happy to review out-of-the-box pitches. This pitch has not received approval or rejection by staff.”

From this paper:

Data points indicate best performers by year of market introduction.

The magnified plot shows progress in cool white LEDs from 1996 to 2020. For comparison, efficacies of best performers in legacy lighting technologies for 2020 are shown as coloured horizontal lines.

Note the logarithmic scale of the vertical axis on the main plot and the linear scale on the magnified plot.

From this article:

most improvements in the energy efficiency of LEDs were driven by research and development efforts. Surprisingly, however, R&D contributed relatively little to reductions in the cost of the devices, which were instead linked to economies of scale and continuous manufacturing process improvements over time.

You can't let out a breath. The creature is only inches away. Its sole purpose - to feed off your terror. And so you crouch in the dark, trying to stop the fear rising, trying to silence what lies within you.

"I know you. I know what you're capable of."

In Amnesia: Rebirth, you are Tasi Trianon, waking up deep in the desert of Algeria. Days have passed. Where have you been? What did you do? Where are the others? Retrace your journey, pull together the fragments of your shattered past; it is your only chance to survive the pitiless horror that threatens to devour you.

"Do not allow yourself anger, do not allow yourself to fear."

Time is against you. Step into Tasi's shoes and guide her through her personal terror and pain. While you struggle to make your way through a desolate landscape, you must also struggle with your own hopes, fears, and bitter regrets. And still you must continue, step by step, knowing that if you fail you will lose everything.

Aus dem Handelsblatt-Archiv: 400 Milliarden Euro werden in Deutschland pro Jahr vererbt. Was ist mit jenen, die leer ausgehen? Ein Soziologe erklärt, was Nicht-Erben fühlen.

https://archive.is/G3rC5