HexesofVexes

I dunno about a fun game to play, but it’s a really neat way to explore Markov chains!

Well, next time I need to fart while lecturing I know what I’m doing…

Really neat post, I’d not heard of a few of these (never knew libre office draw could edit pdfs!).

Couple of extra ones:

Note taking and pdf annotation: Xournal++ is amazing, it’s also great to use on larger whiteboard screens. Plug and play support for scribe tablets on both windows and Linux.

Emulation (up to ps1): Mednafen is lightweight and comes with a gui. It also supports recording, though not netplay.

Ebook management/reading: Calibre - allows easy importing and exporting of ebooks to devices, also has a great built in search letting you find DRM free versions of a book.

It’s always about Ads…

Oh, they start off as unobtrusive; maybe a little banner that shows when the app is opening, or a written mention with a link.

But, this doesn’t generate much revenue. Next the banner persists, and suddenly a video plays. Just one, just once.

Eventually you open the app to pop up banners and autoplay videos, and wonder where the app is. Every line you cross with adverts makes the next line easier to cross.

Yes and no; I’ve met some people who were great to date but hell to live with.

A good relationship starts with both people knowing what they want - and continual contact helps determine if the other person is being honest about what they want. Post 35/30, this process is often a lot faster, and dating skill matters less than ability not to annoy the person you’re suddenly around 24/7.

If it matches from the start, or a compromise grows, you’re in for a winner. Otherwise, back to the sea of the undead you go, no matter how good your dating skill!

Intention and reality are two different things - although I can’t say I ever managed casual dating for 2 years! Usually most folks are in a relationship after 1.

I think it goes further than that - post 35 (post 30 really) there is a lot more pressure to shift from casual dating to a relationship at a faster pace.

Life experience talking here too, it isn’t just “being upfront”, it’s also being willing to move at a faster pace.

The real secret to dating after 35 - don’t.

Folks are not looking to “date”: they’re after long term commitment OR quick hook ups. The middle ground really vanishes when you get older!

Fun UK fact - we use a different ranking system for lecturers:

Lecturer Senior Lecturer Reader Professor

That means, at some point, someone has been a “Reader in X at Reading”.

Exactly - if you don’t want to date a trans person don’t. If someone conceals it, that’s not an issue with them being trans, that’s an issue with them being dishonest. It’s ok to dislike dishonest people.

The use of the word cis has its roots in an obscure Usenet group; it’s genesis (apparently) rooted in a desire for more inclusive language for trans folks (the notion that “gender” Vs “transgender” was too othering).

It hit Tumblr like a train in the 2010s, and became a symbolic phrase in trans counterculture. “Cisgender” was less than popular with non-trans people, as it robbed them of the illusion of normality and turned the word “gender” into a social trap.

It later found derogatory use in the phrase “cissy” (a counter for the popular derogatory term “tranny”).

It’s a fun word with an interesting history, and it has helped contribute to the wider acceptance of trans folks.

Yup, Google are launching their yearly attempt to convince folks YouTube premium is worth it.

Think of this time not as an annoyance, but as a time to reflect on how shitty Google has become.

Extra fact - in the USA almost all games use long weighted reels.

I believe this is by law, but may be misinformed.

Also, if you know the rng gen you can game machines: a very very clever group in Russia bought up old machines from defunct casinos, reverse engineered the games, and then developed an app that let a user photograph x number of spins to find out what the seed was for the next spin, and from there told them to bet high or low based on the upcoming game. They made millions, and farmed it out to make more. (https://www.wired.com/2017/02/russians-engineer-brilliant-slot-machine-cheat-casinos-no-fix/)

Never really worked with them (we never made them).

I think they’re lower prize threshold cat Bs.

In the UK, slot machines fall into 4 main categories. Of particular interest are category C machines, as these can remember a fixed number of previous games. I.e. the “myth” that a machine is “about to pay out” because “someone lost a lot to it” can hold for these games.

Cat A and B machines are completely random, previous games can have no impact on probabilities of winning (though pots can climb).

Online games have different rules, not always fair ones!

Oh, and ALL games (in a physical location) must (by law) show “RTP” (return to player) somewhere. It usually gets stuck it in a block of text in the manual since no-one reads them. (If it’s below 97.3% just go play roulette as it offers better returns).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Im4YAMWK74

Relevant follow-up (videos explore Korean gender politics and hierarchical society).

You definitely have a point; informing and evangelising are closer than we’d like to admit. Then again, the messenger is often as important as the message - in the case of the vegan debate too many folks choose the moral option rather than the pragmatic one.

As a species, we find it hard to empathise with the death of our own at massive scales, why would we be capable of doing it for organisms we were brought up to consider food?

However, almost all of us are on a massively reduced budget, it’d be a shame if folks shared delicious recipes that can be made cheaply and just so happen to be vegan right?

The next best thing for a non-vegan to do isn’t to switch right away, it’s to start finding vegan things you enjoy more than meat!

Sorry to hear that, I hope things start looking up in the future.

Happy trails!

To enjoy life as a vegan?

The best thing for a vegan to do is to keep being a vegan. Seriously, just keep on doing it.

It doesn’t mean evangelise, it doesn’t mean denigrate, it means just carry on doing what works for you.

If you’re insulting other folks, or trying to push a lifestyle, odds are folks don’t dislike you because you’re vegan.