What is this I don’t even.
If you’re wondering what the hell all these reblogs are suddenly, this is because my brother has started a tumblr, and as his natural state is to be entirely wrong about everything unless I’ve already said it, much debate has ensued, over everything from Doctor Who to Alexander the Great (but mostly Doctor Who). Have a look over at http://mdltt.tumblr.com to see his misguided views :)
This is still my glorified dumping ground for my writings, so more may come at some point, I have been writing things, but mostly parts of larger pieces, which would make more sense once I have all the parts, hence, little has been posted on here.
Anyways, enjoy/ignore the walls of text and if you want to join in, consider these questions: King John (of England) good or bad king? Why? What makes a good monarch? Extrapolate those questions in whatever direction you see fit.
mdltt:
thealarmclockproject:
mdltt:
Gah.
This really, really, REALLY rustles my jimmies.
Just finished watching the new episode of Doctor Who (it’s good, and this will be a non-spoiler-article) and there was an instance of ‘hacking’ in it.
Except, as usual, it wasn’t.
I should really reveal an important fact at this point - I’m…
I’d like to be clear at first that this frantic tapping of keys just looks ludicrous to me, and as such I also find it annoying, however…
I think there are a few problems with accurate hacking in tv shows and movies etc, hell, even in video games (which you’d expect to be more accurate considering some of there target market, at least on pc is, chances are, computer literate enough to see flaws in usual OPEN ALL THE DOS WINDOWS! hacking).
1) Realistic hacking would be stricken by similar problems to realistic crime scene investigation - it would be a fair bit slower than what they’re demonstrating, in that most of the episode would probably be spent on one successful attack.
2) If we used fairly realistic (even not realistic in terms of time) hacking techniques, a few things would be required which weren’t there in the episode:
a) resources - DDOSing for example requires a botnet of compromised computers, which the Doctor and Clara don’t have, and couldn’t get very quickly as thy’d have to make the virus required to compromise those computers, and get the computers compromised. For an organisation running such a large cloud based operation, lack of servers is not gonna be a problem, so DDOSing would be out of the window for the Doctor and Clara, unless they had like half the world compromised.
b) sloppy security - especially for more skilled, less brute force attacks, like the DNS attacks you mentioned - you require open DNS resolvers, which requires your network security peeps to be sloppy at their job - again an unlikely thing for a cloud based operation
3) Pace - Doctor Who is usually quite fast paced, or at least, quite fast paced at the critical moments - real hacking (as far as I’m aware, my experience of being a l33t h4xx0r is not exactly large) is more like a lengthy game of cat and mouse - which isn’t exactly fast paced. Quick typing on keyboards increases the pace, realistic hacking doesn’t (although it could still make for an interesting plot, just maybe not in 45 minutes)
One of the main problems as I see it is that as much as using such annoyingly unrealistic hacking is undesirable, it cannot be made more realistic without a very tailor-made plotline specifically for the purposes of realism (which leads to a place in which the night is dark and full of terror), and not using plotlines dependent on unrealistic hacking often means not using modern technology based plotlines, which would be a shame, as they are often the plots which are more relatable, and therefore more exciting and/or scary.
Wall of text Uploading…100%
1) The speed or otherwise of the hacking, though, could surely be a plot point? It’d also be a nice realistic break from the normal trend…
2)
a) I wouldn’t put it past the Sonic Screwdriver… But yes, it would be difficult - but that just means that they should use a more sophisticated plot, not just handwave it.
b) See above.
3) But it isn’t beyond them to have slower-paced episodes based on investigation (with a finale pay-off at the end) and, while I understand that hacking like that can keep the pace going, it seems silly and crude compared to the other techniques and monsters used to enliven the pace. Compare frantic tapping to, for instance, using the Sonic Screwdriver to do, well, anything - it’s much more interesting, provides more acting potential and allows for funny faces from Matt Smith.
You’re right. Using modern technology right is easy to relate to, instantly more interesting and much better at retaining a sense of immersion than the ‘fake hacking’ used in many TV shows, even if it is more difficult. Maybe CSI can get away with it, but I can’t help but feel that Doctor Who should be held to a higher standard.
1) That would probably need a two parter episode, I don’t think 45mins would be enough for a slower paced more investigative hacking plot.
2) a/b) I don’t see how using the Sonic Screwdriver to solve all the problems is any less sloppy plot wise than magical hacking.
3) Funny faces from Matt Smith it may provide, however, see 2) a/b).
Yeah, sure, hold Doctor Who to a higher standard, and sure, this sloppy hacking is something that perhaps should be avoided for the sake of a better plot, that doesn’t follow the maxim “Significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. I think not following that idea is part of what Science Fiction is meant to do, but you seem to be suggesting that the Sonic Screwdriver being used as an alternative is somehow better. I think that that’s just repainting the walls when you really need to knock them down.
confusedconcern:
So I left work today and came home, just like I do every day (that I’m at work, I mean it’s not like I do that every day… I’m only half being sarcastic.) Home is a really interesting idea, as complex as anything else I’d like to try to explain away. On the one hand you have the advertising…
This is quite the interesting post (should it be called a blog? a tumbl? a tumblpost? I know not), and I think the idea of home or a homeland in general is what has motivated most of history, in that it links into the key ideas of nationhood, nationality and patriotism - the idea of fighting to protect not necessarily just your own home in itself, but the potential of a home that meets your expectations.
Reminds me of “Of Mice and Men” by Steinbeck - “We could live offa the fatta the lan’.”“Sure,” said George. “All kin’s a vegetables in the garden, and if we want a little whisky we can sell a few eggs or something, or some milk. We’d jus’ live there. We’d belong there. There wouldn’t be no more runnin’ round the country and gettin’ fed by a Jap cook. No, sir, we’d have our own place where we belonged and not sleep in no bunk house.”
On the end point talking about how Wales and England see each other in terms of language - the Medieval Welsh for England is Lloegr - meaning “The lost land” (at least that’s one translation, there are a fair few) - perhaps from that we can get the image of a wandering Welsh people, who feel that their homeland is lost to them - a lost land. I think this is probably far too speculative, and if anything it probably shows more of an ambition for reclamation of territory than a mournful longing, what with medieval kingdoms never being particularly satisfied with mournful longings…
mdltt:
Gah.
This really, really, REALLY rustles my jimmies.
Just finished watching the new episode of Doctor Who (it’s good, and this will be a non-spoiler-article) and there was an instance of ‘hacking’ in it.
Except, as usual, it wasn’t.
I should really reveal an important fact at this point - I’m…
I’d like to be clear at first that this frantic tapping of keys just looks ludicrous to me, and as such I also find it annoying, however…
I think there are a few problems with accurate hacking in tv shows and movies etc, hell, even in video games (which you’d expect to be more accurate considering some of there target market, at least on pc is, chances are, computer literate enough to see flaws in usual OPEN ALL THE DOS WINDOWS! hacking).
1) Realistic hacking would be stricken by similar problems to realistic crime scene investigation - it would be a fair bit slower than what they’re demonstrating, in that most of the episode would probably be spent on one successful attack.
2) If we used fairly realistic (even not realistic in terms of time) hacking techniques, a few things would be required which weren’t there in the episode:
a) resources - DDOSing for example requires a botnet of compromised computers, which the Doctor and Clara don’t have, and couldn’t get very quickly as thy’d have to make the virus required to compromise those computers, and get the computers compromised. For an organisation running such a large cloud based operation, lack of servers is not gonna be a problem, so DDOSing would be out of the window for the Doctor and Clara, unless they had like half the world compromised.
b) sloppy security - especially for more skilled, less brute force attacks, like the DNS attacks you mentioned - you require open DNS resolvers, which requires your network security peeps to be sloppy at their job - again an unlikely thing for a cloud based operation
3) Pace - Doctor Who is usually quite fast paced, or at least, quite fast paced at the critical moments - real hacking (as far as I’m aware, my experience of being a l33t h4xx0r is not exactly large) is more like a lengthy game of cat and mouse - which isn’t exactly fast paced. Quick typing on keyboards increases the pace, realistic hacking doesn’t (although it could still make for an interesting plot, just maybe not in 45 minutes)
One of the main problems as I see it is that as much as using such annoyingly unrealistic hacking is undesirable, it cannot be made more realistic without a very tailor-made plotline specifically for the purposes of realism (which leads to a place in which the night is dark and full of terror), and not using plotlines dependent on unrealistic hacking often means not using modern technology based plotlines, which would be a shame, as they are often the plots which are more relatable, and therefore more exciting and/or scary.
Wall of text Uploading…100%
mdltt:
thealarmclockproject:
mdltt:
thealarmclockproject:
mdltt:
This is a response to the Alarm Clock Project’s post, as I can’t find how to reblog properly…
Gah. I cannot into Tumblr.
1) To clarify: I think the Pope Francis is very unlikely to change or modify significantly the Roman Catholic stance on the popularized media issues (abortion,…
On number three:
Yes Alexander is great in that he conquered a large amount of territory, no he is not in that as soon as he died (which he did at quite a young age) that empire rapidly collapsed, which isn’t really that great from a long term perspective. Generally, Alexander wasn’t the most longsighted of leaders - considering his “party hard” attitude, which lead to his death at a young age, and him killing one of his best friends, which is also not particularly great. Good general he may have been, far-sighted empire ruler he was not. He reminds me to a certain extent of Robb Stark, but with less getting murdered and more alcohol - from a long term view, he could win the empire, but he failed to create any other sense of loyalty other than to himself, and although that may have been useful in life, it was not conducive to creating a long-lasting empire.
I don’t know much about Darius, but I doubt he was quite the paladin of “good and truth” that you make him out to be. You could say…*puts on sunglasses*…I’m being sceptical…YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!
As to Genghis - again, suffers from a similar problem to Alexander - I think a truly great leader would be one who perhaps didn’t conquer quite the landmass, but managed to create an empire that lasted more than five seconds after their death without civil war/large territory loss/some other catastrophe/the Joffrey problem
6) Ah yes of course, Infinite has just been released, well, usually it takes a bit of time for a lot of the problems to be seen, unless it’s a completely terrible game, which I’m sure it isn’t.
7) Yes and no - I agree with what you’re saying, but I’m wary of examples from history - take for example the so called “Wirtschaftwunder” or Economic Miracle of the 1950s/60s in West Germany - there were many critics of the recovery, in that it used a series of dangerous techniques for the rebuilding process, notably relying on american loans through Marshall Aid and on contracts for weaponry for the Korean War - these contracts in particular put massive strains on the German economy, and as such many economists of the time, or at least a notable few, considered the methods of recovery reckless. Nevertheless, it’s called the Economic Miracle for a reason - in around half a decade, West Germany went from being completely obliterated after WWII to having the highest standard of living in Europe, along with a series of other massive improvements.
This is the fear I have, and the difficulty that I see here - economic recovery is not instantaneous - even Konrad Adenauer and Ludwig Erhard almost crashed the economy a few times, in the process of creating what came to be known as the economic miracle.
tl;dr *treebeard voice* Don’t be so hasty…hoom hoom…
8) Coffee taste = something;
something = horrible;
Hot Chocolate taste = something;
something = chocolate;
chocolate = me likey;
therefore
Hot Chocolate > Coffee
10) I would like to start by replying to the questioner that posted “While Origin is completely useless and shit, that doesn’t definitely mean Steam is better” - erm… It sorta does. With some basic logic we can ascertain that as Steam is not completely useless and shit, and Origin, at least according to this person, is, then surely Steam is better than Origin?
Aside from this, there aren’t really many technical differences, a few things to take note of however:
Steam Guard - Origin doesn’t have an equivalent, the only protection for your account is a username and password
EULA - Origin is far vaguer in it’s EULA on data collection. Steam focuses it’s data collection on detecting hacks and cheating, whereas Origin’s EULA suggests that EA wants your data for marketing purposes, and the EULA effectively allows them to take what they want from your PC (this is an exaggeration, but not far from the truth, see here for more: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1631814)
The main difference as you say is the size of steam’s library of games - as in, the number of games available for purchase, which is currently crap on Origin, and quite good on Steam.
The problem as I see it, which is a problem across teh interwebplushes (technical term), is that a few select services have ended up almost forming monopolies over certain sections of the internet - Google over search, YouTube over online video, Steam over digital distribution, Amazon over purchasing pretty much anything. This is not a healthy economy, it stifles competition, and the real problem, especially in Steam’s market is that the companies who are competing with Valve over the market don’t seem to be able to mount an effective attack on Valve’s position. The smaller platforms like Desura, GreenManGaming, and to a certain extent GamersGate (although not so much) struggle because they don’t have the capital that EA and Microsoft do, and yet EA and Microsoft, despite their dragon’s hoard of capital are unable to make an effective platform to challenge Steam. This is not good for a market that is rapidly replacing the brick and mortar stores, because currently I’m seeing little to no competition.
Yes, but both Alexander and Genghis accomplished far more in their lifetimes (and enjoyed life far more) than, say, Alfred. It feels somewhat unfair to blame the failure of their legacies on their policies in life instead of, ya know, blaming the inferior squabbling nobles who split their empires after they were dead…
Darius, on the other hand, probably wasn’t Zoroaster reborn - but I like to give the man kudos for the pair of giant Persian balls it must have taken to claim such a thing. He effectively said Darius = TRUTH, and then made that the founding principle of his empire…
You’d notice, though, in said “Economic Miracle” the methods used were not the deficit cutting we are currently suffering through - quite the opposite in fact. While I acknowledge that economies take time to recover, and that risks are often necessary in the pursuit of a successful economy, I’m not challenging that. Rather, the current method of ‘economic recovery’ the dominant parties espouse I don’t just consider ill-advised, but also actively damaging to certain areas of the economy that, in the example you gave, were *crucial* to said recovery (the public sector generally) and as such I don’t believe that the cuts to these areas are being done to ‘cut the deficit’ but for ideological reasons instead.
Have you tried different types of coffee? ‘cause I don’t like expressos - they’re too bitter - but I do like flavoured lattes. Can we agree, then, that hot chocolate is better than tea? :P
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t hackers (not sure if that’s the right term, but still) get through Steam Guard recently like a hot knife through butter? I agree on the EULA though - hell, that was the first main controversy surrounding Origin - and the chronic lack of games in the Origin library. I own one game on Origin (Mass Effect 3, and only because I had to) and want precisely one game on Origin (Dragon Age II, and if I can get a CD copy instead I will). I disagree, however, on your pessimistic assessment of the game supply economy. The fact that Steam and Youtube have a ‘monopoly’ as you call it is because, well, they’re better than the other competitors. If anything, it’s an example of a healthy economy working right - it wasn’t too long ago that Steam was the underdog, and it’s rise has been meteoric due to good customer service and a willingness to engage with the gaming community in a positive and meaningful fashion.
The squabbling nobles are a large portion of the problem, but it is perfectly possible to create a more lasting legacy by creating a more permanent loyalty to the idea of the state - like Rome did, although this is usually detrimental to the health of the individual rulers, it does tend to mean that their achievements last a bit longer.
I think we agree on that, if I had a time machine (that didn’t have detrimental effects on history somehow etc), I’d probably organise a meeting between Ludwig Erhard and George Osborne, I think Osborne would have a lot to learn to be honest. I’m glad you agree on the idea that risks are required to deal with economic crises, and on the topic of ideology, as much as I dislike many of the things that the current government is doing, it is in a colloseum-logicky kind of way nice to see some ideological differences, and people sticking to their guns on ideology (like Mr Gove for example, who I like for his backbone, but not for the quality of his education reforms).
I think we can agree that Hot Chocolate > Tea, and I haven’t tried different kinds of Coffee, I probably should at some point, but I’m not made of monehs.
Very possibly, I didn’t do the research on Steam Guard to be honest.
As to what you call my “pessimistic” assessment of the interwebs, I think that you’re right in that the economy did work right - in that Steam and YouTube rose because of the right reasons, but I don’t think it does any more - especially with YouTube, people (myself included) constantly complain about the feature changes, homepage changes etc of YouTube, and yet nobody switches to another service, because there is no real competition because of the fact that nobody switches! Because the content creators that make YouTube YouTube are on YouTube, and not on, say, Vimeo, YouTube has a monopoly of the online video market, despite it’s various changes for the worse , and various problems, like for example it’s homepage design. It may once have achieved dominance from it’s own achievements, but there is a tendency amongst websites and services like YouTube that they can sit on their laurels, break stuff, and nobody can do anything about it because of the nature of the cycle - content creators, game devs, whoever, don’t put their stuff on other services or sites because they percieve that their audience is on that site or service, and as such, their audience uses that site or service because the creator has put their stuff on it - this allows for no new underdogs - no new Steams or YouTubes, because of the very nature of the cycle, not without an extreme uphill battle. That isn’t too much of a problem yet (certainly not with Steam), but ironically, the Frankenstein’s monsters that are Steam and YouTube, and similar services, are now killing Frankenstein, the very thing that created them.
I think expecting people to not only conquer most of the world but *also* somehow ensure that said empire lasts the test of time before we can consider them merely ‘great’ is perhaps a little unfair. All this is doing, however, is making me a) want to play Total War: Rome II more and b) claim that in fact the person who most deserves the title of ‘the Great’ is good ol’ Gaius Julius Caesar.
Ludwig Erhard would also probably learn a fair amount from Osbourne, although I’m not sure West Germany would want him to…
I’m all for genuine ideological conflict. I just don’t agree with the current government’s ideology :D
I’ll buy you some different varieties of coffee the next time I see you so we can settle this once and for all!
I sincerely doubt that the people who run Youtube are just ‘resting on their laurels’ as you so eloquently put it. It simply isn’t in their own interests to ‘break stuff’ because while there isn’t currently much competition, the more they alienate their users the more likely competition will appear! It’s a difficult balance between adding and experimenting with new features (a necessity for any website for two reasons: 1) to bring in new users and 2) to improve - or give the impression of improving at least - the experience for existing users) and retaining the specific features that current users value.
Yes, Gaius Julius probably deserves it more than most.
Thinking about it, exposing Erhard to Osborne might not be such a good idea…
Well then, if it isn’t in their own interests to break stuff, then why the hell have they chosen to left align their homepage? *ahem* *straightens tie* Seriously though, I understand what you’re talking about here, yesn it is necessary for YouTube to change stuff - I liked most of the new layout changes - it’s just a few niggling things that just make the whole effort to change the look of the page seem sloppy - like as I said, not centreing the page. I can understand some of the changes, like defaulting to “What to Watch”, but although they make sense in that they can make people spend more time on the site looking at other content that Youtube recommends, it’s not very useful in creating that goodwill you speak of, certainly not amongst the most frequent users of Youtube.
mdltt:
thealarmclockproject:
mdltt:
This is a response to the Alarm Clock Project’s post, as I can’t find how to reblog properly…
Gah. I cannot into Tumblr.
1) To clarify: I think the Pope Francis is very unlikely to change or modify significantly the Roman Catholic stance on the popularized media issues (abortion,…
On number three:
Yes Alexander is great in that he conquered a large amount of territory, no he is not in that as soon as he died (which he did at quite a young age) that empire rapidly collapsed, which isn’t really that great from a long term perspective. Generally, Alexander wasn’t the most longsighted of leaders - considering his “party hard” attitude, which lead to his death at a young age, and him killing one of his best friends, which is also not particularly great. Good general he may have been, far-sighted empire ruler he was not. He reminds me to a certain extent of Robb Stark, but with less getting murdered and more alcohol - from a long term view, he could win the empire, but he failed to create any other sense of loyalty other than to himself, and although that may have been useful in life, it was not conducive to creating a long-lasting empire.
I don’t know much about Darius, but I doubt he was quite the paladin of “good and truth” that you make him out to be. You could say…*puts on sunglasses*…I’m being sceptical…YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!
As to Genghis - again, suffers from a similar problem to Alexander - I think a truly great leader would be one who perhaps didn’t conquer quite the landmass, but managed to create an empire that lasted more than five seconds after their death without civil war/large territory loss/some other catastrophe/the Joffrey problem
6) Ah yes of course, Infinite has just been released, well, usually it takes a bit of time for a lot of the problems to be seen, unless it’s a completely terrible game, which I’m sure it isn’t.
7) Yes and no - I agree with what you’re saying, but I’m wary of examples from history - take for example the so called “Wirtschaftwunder” or Economic Miracle of the 1950s/60s in West Germany - there were many critics of the recovery, in that it used a series of dangerous techniques for the rebuilding process, notably relying on american loans through Marshall Aid and on contracts for weaponry for the Korean War - these contracts in particular put massive strains on the German economy, and as such many economists of the time, or at least a notable few, considered the methods of recovery reckless. Nevertheless, it’s called the Economic Miracle for a reason - in around half a decade, West Germany went from being completely obliterated after WWII to having the highest standard of living in Europe, along with a series of other massive improvements.
This is the fear I have, and the difficulty that I see here - economic recovery is not instantaneous - even Konrad Adenauer and Ludwig Erhard almost crashed the economy a few times, in the process of creating what came to be known as the economic miracle.
tl;dr *treebeard voice* Don’t be so hasty…hoom hoom…
8) Coffee taste = something;
something = horrible;
Hot Chocolate taste = something;
something = chocolate;
chocolate = me likey;
therefore
Hot Chocolate > Coffee
10) I would like to start by replying to the questioner that posted “While Origin is completely useless and shit, that doesn’t definitely mean Steam is better” - erm… It sorta does. With some basic logic we can ascertain that as Steam is not completely useless and shit, and Origin, at least according to this person, is, then surely Steam is better than Origin?
Aside from this, there aren’t really many technical differences, a few things to take note of however:
Steam Guard - Origin doesn’t have an equivalent, the only protection for your account is a username and password
EULA - Origin is far vaguer in it’s EULA on data collection. Steam focuses it’s data collection on detecting hacks and cheating, whereas Origin’s EULA suggests that EA wants your data for marketing purposes, and the EULA effectively allows them to take what they want from your PC (this is an exaggeration, but not far from the truth, see here for more: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1631814)
The main difference as you say is the size of steam’s library of games - as in, the number of games available for purchase, which is currently crap on Origin, and quite good on Steam.
The problem as I see it, which is a problem across teh interwebplushes (technical term), is that a few select services have ended up almost forming monopolies over certain sections of the internet - Google over search, YouTube over online video, Steam over digital distribution, Amazon over purchasing pretty much anything. This is not a healthy economy, it stifles competition, and the real problem, especially in Steam’s market is that the companies who are competing with Valve over the market don’t seem to be able to mount an effective attack on Valve’s position. The smaller platforms like Desura, GreenManGaming, and to a certain extent GamersGate (although not so much) struggle because they don’t have the capital that EA and Microsoft do, and yet EA and Microsoft, despite their dragon’s hoard of capital are unable to make an effective platform to challenge Steam. This is not good for a market that is rapidly replacing the brick and mortar stores, because currently I’m seeing little to no competition.
Yes, but both Alexander and Genghis accomplished far more in their lifetimes (and enjoyed life far more) than, say, Alfred. It feels somewhat unfair to blame the failure of their legacies on their policies in life instead of, ya know, blaming the inferior squabbling nobles who split their empires after they were dead…
Darius, on the other hand, probably wasn’t Zoroaster reborn - but I like to give the man kudos for the pair of giant Persian balls it must have taken to claim such a thing. He effectively said Darius = TRUTH, and then made that the founding principle of his empire…
You’d notice, though, in said “Economic Miracle” the methods used were not the deficit cutting we are currently suffering through - quite the opposite in fact. While I acknowledge that economies take time to recover, and that risks are often necessary in the pursuit of a successful economy, I’m not challenging that. Rather, the current method of ‘economic recovery’ the dominant parties espouse I don’t just consider ill-advised, but also actively damaging to certain areas of the economy that, in the example you gave, were *crucial* to said recovery (the public sector generally) and as such I don’t believe that the cuts to these areas are being done to ‘cut the deficit’ but for ideological reasons instead.
Have you tried different types of coffee? ‘cause I don’t like expressos - they’re too bitter - but I do like flavoured lattes. Can we agree, then, that hot chocolate is better than tea? :P
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t hackers (not sure if that’s the right term, but still) get through Steam Guard recently like a hot knife through butter? I agree on the EULA though - hell, that was the first main controversy surrounding Origin - and the chronic lack of games in the Origin library. I own one game on Origin (Mass Effect 3, and only because I had to) and want precisely one game on Origin (Dragon Age II, and if I can get a CD copy instead I will). I disagree, however, on your pessimistic assessment of the game supply economy. The fact that Steam and Youtube have a ‘monopoly’ as you call it is because, well, they’re better than the other competitors. If anything, it’s an example of a healthy economy working right - it wasn’t too long ago that Steam was the underdog, and it’s rise has been meteoric due to good customer service and a willingness to engage with the gaming community in a positive and meaningful fashion.
The squabbling nobles are a large portion of the problem, but it is perfectly possible to create a more lasting legacy by creating a more permanent loyalty to the idea of the state - like Rome did, although this is usually detrimental to the health of the individual rulers, it does tend to mean that their achievements last a bit longer.
I think we agree on that, if I had a time machine (that didn’t have detrimental effects on history somehow etc), I’d probably organise a meeting between Ludwig Erhard and George Osborne, I think Osborne would have a lot to learn to be honest. I’m glad you agree on the idea that risks are required to deal with economic crises, and on the topic of ideology, as much as I dislike many of the things that the current government is doing, it is in a colloseum-logicky kind of way nice to see some ideological differences, and people sticking to their guns on ideology (like Mr Gove for example, who I like for his backbone, but not for the quality of his education reforms).
I think we can agree that Hot Chocolate > Tea, and I haven’t tried different kinds of Coffee, I probably should at some point, but I’m not made of monehs.
Very possibly, I didn’t do the research on Steam Guard to be honest.
As to what you call my “pessimistic” assessment of the interwebs, I think that you’re right in that the economy did work right - in that Steam and YouTube rose because of the right reasons, but I don’t think it does any more - especially with YouTube, people (myself included) constantly complain about the feature changes, homepage changes etc of YouTube, and yet nobody switches to another service, because there is no real competition because of the fact that nobody switches! Because the content creators that make YouTube YouTube are on YouTube, and not on, say, Vimeo, YouTube has a monopoly of the online video market, despite it’s various changes for the worse , and various problems, like for example it’s homepage design. It may once have achieved dominance from it’s own achievements, but there is a tendency amongst websites and services like YouTube that they can sit on their laurels, break stuff, and nobody can do anything about it because of the nature of the cycle - content creators, game devs, whoever, don’t put their stuff on other services or sites because they percieve that their audience is on that site or service, and as such, their audience uses that site or service because the creator has put their stuff on it - this allows for no new underdogs - no new Steams or YouTubes, because of the very nature of the cycle, not without an extreme uphill battle. That isn’t too much of a problem yet (certainly not with Steam), but ironically, the Frankenstein’s monsters that are Steam and YouTube, and similar services, are now killing Frankenstein, the very thing that created them.
mdltt:
This is a response to the Alarm Clock Project’s post, as I can’t find how to reblog properly…
Gah. I cannot into Tumblr.
1) To clarify: I think the Pope Francis is very unlikely to change or modify significantly the Roman Catholic stance on the popularized media issues (abortion,…
On number three:
Yes Alexander is great in that he conquered a large amount of territory, no he is not in that as soon as he died (which he did at quite a young age) that empire rapidly collapsed, which isn’t really that great from a long term perspective. Generally, Alexander wasn’t the most longsighted of leaders - considering his “party hard” attitude, which lead to his death at a young age, and him killing one of his best friends, which is also not particularly great. Good general he may have been, far-sighted empire ruler he was not. He reminds me to a certain extent of Robb Stark, but with less getting murdered and more alcohol - from a long term view, he could win the empire, but he failed to create any other sense of loyalty other than to himself, and although that may have been useful in life, it was not conducive to creating a long-lasting empire.
I don’t know much about Darius, but I doubt he was quite the paladin of “good and truth” that you make him out to be. You could say…*puts on sunglasses*…I’m being sceptical…YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!
As to Genghis - again, suffers from a similar problem to Alexander - I think a truly great leader would be one who perhaps didn’t conquer quite the landmass, but managed to create an empire that lasted more than five seconds after their death without civil war/large territory loss/some other catastrophe/the Joffrey problem
6) Ah yes of course, Infinite has just been released, well, usually it takes a bit of time for a lot of the problems to be seen, unless it’s a completely terrible game, which I’m sure it isn’t.
7) Yes and no - I agree with what you’re saying, but I’m wary of examples from history - take for example the so called “Wirtschaftwunder” or Economic Miracle of the 1950s/60s in West Germany - there were many critics of the recovery, in that it used a series of dangerous techniques for the rebuilding process, notably relying on american loans through Marshall Aid and on contracts for weaponry for the Korean War - these contracts in particular put massive strains on the German economy, and as such many economists of the time, or at least a notable few, considered the methods of recovery reckless. Nevertheless, it’s called the Economic Miracle for a reason - in around half a decade, West Germany went from being completely obliterated after WWII to having the highest standard of living in Europe, along with a series of other massive improvements.
This is the fear I have, and the difficulty that I see here - economic recovery is not instantaneous - even Konrad Adenauer and Ludwig Erhard almost crashed the economy a few times, in the process of creating what came to be known as the economic miracle.
tl;dr *treebeard voice* Don’t be so hasty…hoom hoom…
8) Coffee taste = something;
something = horrible;
Hot Chocolate taste = something;
something = chocolate;
chocolate = me likey;
therefore
Hot Chocolate > Coffee
10) I would like to start by replying to the questioner that posted “While Origin is completely useless and shit, that doesn’t definitely mean Steam is better” - erm… It sorta does. With some basic logic we can ascertain that as Steam is not completely useless and shit, and Origin, at least according to this person, is, then surely Steam is better than Origin?
Aside from this, there aren’t really many technical differences, a few things to take note of however:
Steam Guard - Origin doesn’t have an equivalent, the only protection for your account is a username and password
EULA - Origin is far vaguer in it’s EULA on data collection. Steam focuses it’s data collection on detecting hacks and cheating, whereas Origin’s EULA suggests that EA wants your data for marketing purposes, and the EULA effectively allows them to take what they want from your PC (this is an exaggeration, but not far from the truth, see here for more: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1631814)
The main difference as you say is the size of steam’s library of games - as in, the number of games available for purchase, which is currently crap on Origin, and quite good on Steam.
The problem as I see it, which is a problem across teh interwebplushes (technical term), is that a few select services have ended up almost forming monopolies over certain sections of the internet - Google over search, YouTube over online video, Steam over digital distribution, Amazon over purchasing pretty much anything. This is not a healthy economy, it stifles competition, and the real problem, especially in Steam’s market is that the companies who are competing with Valve over the market don’t seem to be able to mount an effective attack on Valve’s position. The smaller platforms like Desura, GreenManGaming, and to a certain extent GamersGate (although not so much) struggle because they don’t have the capital that EA and Microsoft do, and yet EA and Microsoft, despite their dragon’s hoard of capital are unable to make an effective platform to challenge Steam. This is not good for a market that is rapidly replacing the brick and mortar stores, because currently I’m seeing little to no competition.
mdltt:
“You can’t be sceptical about everything, it just isn’t practical.”
Everyone, everywhere, everywhen talking about scepticism.
Hi.
I’m mdltt, and I’m a sceptic. This basically means my initial reaction to pretty much anything new is to question it somehow. I think this helps me learn things and…
1) In some ways, perhaps.
2) If you say so, I have little idea.
3) Is anybody with the title “the Great” that great?
4) Indubitably.
5) I still like the Problem of Evil to be honest, at least I can actually remember that one.
6) Not so sure myself, I haven’t played enough of one or two yet, and Infinite isn’t even out yet…
7) I think we’ll only be able to judge that in a fair few years time - we’ll have to see how the economy turns out first.
8) I think both of them are the spawn of satan frankly - tea tastes of nothing, and coffee is so bitter you have to pour five tons of sugar into it, meaning you are effectively drinking dissolved sugar by the time it’s actually drinkable. Hot chocolate FTW!
9) If you say so, I have little idea.
10) Yes, in that steam actually has a fair number of games on it, but although it’s a good thing in the short term, it does make things rather scarily unstable.
The Sniper’s Litany
I wrote this because I wanted to write a scene in which a sniper times his shot with the words of the Our Father. I’m not religious, but the prayer makes for a good scene in my head, so I thought I’d type it out, with a bit of a build up so it makes sense.
Stephan shifted his position, shuffling his whole body slowly sideways through the mixture of rubble, snow and ice that he lay on, attempting to not dislodge too much rubble, lest he attract unwanted attention to his position. From his position in what he thought must be some kind of industrial building – too small to be a full factory – perhaps a tool shed, or storage unit of some kind – he could see…nothing. At this point he wished he could see swarms of Soviet troops, all unaware of his position, all too stupid to look for the glint of a scope, or the small plumes of his breath on the freezing air, but he couldn’t see these hordes of conscripts that he wished for – they were all most likely already dead, or not conscripts any longer. Instead he could see rubble, and twisted steel, the remains of a city turned into a fortress – a fortress without a roof.
At this point Stephan wished for a roof, and perhaps a fire, maybe a chair, maybe some food that wasn’t frozen solid. He fiddled with the mechanisms on the side of his rifle, careful not to cause any clicking noises, and scanned the area around him again.
The landscape was not devoid of all markers, but the excessive amount of rubble and collapsed buildings, all courtesy of the Luftwaffe, which was doing a fine job of doing absolutely fuck all at the moment, made it rather difficult to pick out buildings. Nevertheless, some could be picked out – there was what remained of some kind of loading area in front of the ruined building he lay on, and on the other side of this area, was a row of taller buildings, possibly residential, half collapsed from right to left.
He hadn’t eaten for the last three days – for two of them he’d been following a Soviet platoon, and for the last day, he’d been moving from place to place looking for a new target – he had lost the last Soviet Platoon near a tank factory, where he’d thought it best to cut his losses, as a sizeable group of Siberians had dug in around the factory – likely as not accompanied by snipers of their own.
There was a road that ran alongside the residential buildings, to their left, leading into the rubble strewn loading area. To his left, other buildings not unlike the one he lay on, with similarly dug in German troops, an SS unit, he thought, else their uniforms were so dirty they appeared black rather than grey. The presence of the SS made him wary – not out of a dislike of them, but out of a fear for what they were here for – he had yet to see a single soviet in the area, but the SS didn’t locate themselves randomly, they must have perceived some threat.
It made him nervous knowing that someone somewhere knew of the danger he was in, and yet – he could see…nothing.
Wait.
What was that.
He saw some movement in the residential buildings directly across from his position – the glint of binoculars – a Soviet spotter. He cursed under his breath – his rifle wasn’t loaded, and chances were that the spotter was spotting for a sniper – if he tried to load his rifle now he’d be dead before he could even start to aim. If he could just stay still, then perhaps the spotter would just start picking targets from the SS men to his left, and he could identify the sniper’s position and take him out.
He heard a scrabbling behind him, as an SS man crawled into a position less than half a metre from him. The SS man dislodged enough of the bank to almost give Stephan a heart attack.
Shit.
The spotter would have heard that, or at least saw it, and now he’d be looking straight in Stephan’s direction – more importantly, so would another set of eyes – the sniper’s. He waited for death, but it never came.
Instead, death, not to disappoint in a city full of it, approached in a different form. Stephan could hear the rumblings of an engine, the squeal of wheels, the crunch of rubble and steel under tracks, far before it emerged.
By the time it surfaced, he was already crawling as fast as he could go, risking the sniper’s shots, hearing the whizz of bullets as the Soviet sniper saw movement.
The SS man was not so lucky.
A Soviet tank, by the looks a T-34, broke through the rubble from underneath the building that Stephan had been lying on – smashing through the SS man who had been lying next to him, and throwing his now broken and mangled corpse to the side like a sheaf of wheat.
Stephan crawled out of the site of the T-34, as it’s turret began searching for targets, and once in a new position, zoned out the rest of the battle – the constant pounding of the artillery, the sound of airplane engines overhead, the rattle of machine gun fire from the T-34, the boom of the 76mm gun of the T-34, the screams of the SS men as they fell, transfixed by the T-34’s attack.
He zoned out all of it, and began to mutter to himself while he loaded his rifle.
“Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…”
He found the sniper, crouching near a window of the residential block, not far from his spotter.
“…thy kingdom come, thy will be done…”
He selected a bullet from a pouch near his belt, and pulled back the bolt.
“…On Earth as in Heaven…”
He pushed the bullet into the chamber from the side, pushing it as far forward as he could, hearing the satisfying, reassuring click as the bullet came into place.
“…Give us this day our daily bread…”
He grabbed hold of the bolt, and pushed the bolt forward again.
“…And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us…”
He aimed the rifle, looking through the scope at the sniper crouching in the building opposite, avoiding staring into his eyes through the scope, he could never do that, not since 1918 – he had been more cold blooded then, but now, now he was less fond of killing.
“…and lead us not into temptation…”
He breathed out, and tightened his finger on the trigger, ignoring the T-34 rumbling in his direction, ignoring the bodies of SS men, the sound of the T-34’s turret rotating.
“…but deliver us from evil…”
He pressed the trigger, his target collapsed, with a slightly confused, slightly surprised expression, and Stephan began to reload.
Even as Stephan died, as the T-34’s machine gun sprayed him with bullets, as he was ripped to pieces, he still muttered to himself.
“…Amen.”
Ash and Blood (possibly the start to Death at Dusk/The Leopard Falls)
Ash. Ash, death and blood. The flickering of fire reflects off the murky waters, playing great and terrible shadows across the ruined stones. The sound of screams rent the air, screams and the neighing of horses, the clash of swords, axes, maces crunching into skulls, smashing through flesh. Above it all, voices raise in shouts of a single name, one word to make any man shudder, “”MADOG!”
The town burns, it’s wooden houses flickering and warping, collapsing under their own weight, as if God himself has smote the place in wrath. It’s narrow cobbled streets are full of wreckage, and the bodies of the innocent, their blood spilled, their bodies hacked to pieces, their belongings scavenged. Their only crime was that of being English, and being there that fateful day and night.
Men run through the streets, pillaging mostly, for the killing and raping has been done already. Some of them are armoured, with surcoats of various colours, all stained by blood and fire, but most wear very little beside their ragged clothes, armed with wicked blades, farm tools, rusty, notched blades of all shapes and sizes. Most of them have ragged dirty beards clinging to their faces, but some are younger, some even too young to shave. They all act the same, the fire unites them as one murderous body, spreading like a disease across the town.
Down by the harbour groups of these men have gathered, they have taken prisoners, and they cast them onto boats, before pushing them from the harbour front, out to sea, with the prisoners still tied up, no provisions, no water. One of the boats catches fire as it leaves the harbour front, consuming its occupants in gouts of smoke, like an image of hell itself, the bodies of the occupants twisting, writhing, screaming.
Above the town looms a castle, not just a castle, or even just the pile of ruined stonework it has now become, but a symbol, a symbol of oppression, of might, of power over others. It’s polygonal towers stand even now, even as the rest of the world burns, they stand tall, shouting out their defiance to the horde that assails them. The walls of the castle have been breached, the buildings inside burn and flicker, some already crumbling, the courtyard awash with blood and the bodies of the dead and dying, their weapons discarded, their armour ripped from them.
The horde runs through the breaches, through the passageways, and on the walkways, melding with the fire to form shadow men, flickering over walls like laughing demons, a vision into hell itself. A flag flutters defiantly over one of the towers, emblazoned with three gold lions, but not for long. One of the shadows scurries up from below, climbs the flagpole, and rips it down, screaming to all those below him as he hoists a new flag, a red dragon.
Below the castle, lying in the snow outside the town, four leopards lay dead, two gold, and two red, their life blood leaking onto the snow.
Macsen woke up.
His brow was covered in sweat, his aging muscles ached, as if from a long journey. He remembered his dream - a stone fortress, with towers like Constantinople, far away, covered in snow and ash and blood.
He knows that place. For he has seen it before. The stone fortress was not there, nor the fire, or the blood, but he has had such dreams before, and they are a gift from the gods. He knew the place - it was far to the north, across the sea, in Britannia, one of the wild provinces. Not as far north as Caledonia, but west - Wallia. He had seen the place before. He knew it. But he could not remember the specific place - he knew he must find it.
Streaks of morning light had begun to filter into his chambers - it was dawn in Rome, and when Rome awoke, the world did. He got himself up, summoned a slave to dress him, ordered for some food to be brought to him. He gazed out across Rome as he was dressed, smelling the cooking fires from the plebeians’ kitchens in the city, hearing the hustle and bustle as the city woke up for another day. A commotion broke out in the street below - another troublemaker baying for his blood, probably.
He was dressed in short order, going for fairly plain, travelling clothes. He intended to make arrangements for rule in his stead, and then set off for the provinces, heading for Wallia.
He sent a summons for his advisors, and walked out of his chambers to his personal gardens, not noticing the guards who followed him. They were members of the Auxilia Palatinae after all, the personal guard of the Emperor, what would they do to him? He was Emperor Maxen after all, so they were his guard. They had been handpicked for the job, and well equipped, with short sword, dagger, and a large rounded shield. They wore mail over a bright red tunic, his personal colours, and the symbol of the Western Roman Empire was emblazoned on their shields - the same symbol Constatntine had used in the days of chaos, when he had united the Empire once more. Those glory days were gone, but his sworn shields were not.
Macsen noticed the lack of people - where were the rest of his servants? More importantly, where were his advisors? They lived in the same building after all, so where was the slave he had sent to get them?
He turned to ask the guards. Before he spoke, they both spoke in unison, saying only one phrase, “It Is Finished.”
Then they drew their swords, and the Emperor was stabbed and died, his lifeblood staining the grass of his own garden scarlet.
His prophecy died with him.
