As a PC Linux gamer I hear you…I really do, but listen…I really just wanna stick something Steambox-esque on my face and finally have a smooth open source VR experience.

I’m really looking forward to that.

And I know when they announce it, it’ll probably be way out of reach for me, but I’m still looking forward to it lol.

I consider myself pretty knowledgeable with most computing tasks, not particularly great with basic spreadsheets, but unless there’s some kind of usable frontend to reliably manage a database, I mostly see databases as:

“A magic box that holds tons of cryptic information, would be tedious to open, risky to edit, risky to backup or migrate or update, and could corrupt at any moment.”

Maybe I should put more effort into learning DBs besides initializing them in a Docker compose and praying, but for human readable information that’s meant to be shared, I think you’re bang on the money when it comes to why spreadsheets are still so popular!

This was awesome when it was just me and my family in a hospital waiting room with like a few other folks who were doing their own thing. The TV just blasting ads and maybe some talk show or something, as it does.

Boop. Lowered the volume and could finally hear myself think.

Felt Watchdogs AF lol.

And we can’t have that, can we?

–Silicon Valley Giants That Force Design Paradigms

I’d really like to know if there’s any practical guide on testing backups without requiring like, a crapton of backup-testing-only drives or something to keep from overwriting your current data.

Like I totally understand it in principle just not how it’s done. Especially on humble “I just wanna back up my stuff not replicate enterprise infrastructure” setups.

First, we’ll deep dive into “What is a variable?”, then together we’ll examine “Who sets a variable?”, “What is an LLM?” and finally, “Who would set a variable without using an LLM?”

You’ll be a coding pro in no time!

How does that sound?

(I felt gross writing this lmao)

Y’know I actually enjoyed when churches would put on (actually) funny skits or silly Christmas plays for outreach or whatever because like, entertainment is a universal communication medium, and what’s wrong with having a little fun along the way?

But that was on the order of your local middle school production, maybe. Cardboard, craft paint, and a lot of suspension of disbelief. :p

This “Cirque du Holé” business in gigantic “campuses” is embarrassing. Like that time all those churches loaned out a literal micro roller coaster to each other for. . .some reason. . .?

What a grift.

Hey, that takes a lot of strength, and I greatly admire and respect you for it. You’ve got a good heart and I can tell you didn’t mean any harm by it. Thank you for considering my words with the best intentions. (I’m REALLY sorry if I came off harsh earlier!)

You are very cool. :)

I struggle with that right there with you, and I pray we both find the strength to be His light in dark places when it matters the most.

I wish you and yours a blessed Christmas/Holiday Season and New Year.

Stay safe out there! :)

I wanted to say something about this because it dont think this has ever happened? Can you give me an example?

Sure! I’ll be transparent with you, I could probably stand to memorize my history a little bit more, BUT…this is going a little bit far back.

There’s actually a REALLY GOOD pair of podcast episodes by “Behind the Bastards” called “How the Rich Ate Christianity.”

Part 1: https://youtu.be/gyHd6wEC4IE

Part 2: https://youtu.be/LL8s7N0TU-c

It does a very good job of detailing how churches back in the day just didn’t have the sorry reputation they have today among the general public.

The rich-n-powerful of the time actually considered Christians to be pesky bleeding-heart socialists that hurt their plans for maximum wealth extraction. Churches were busy feeding their communities and protesting landlords and stuff, rather than worshiping work.

So the fatcats got together and worked to supplant churches of MANY denominations by sneaking in pro-capitalism doctrine in exchange for financial support, for instance. It’s where we started hearing this absolutely bananas idea that God shows His love and approval by making one wealthy. (?!?!?!?)

As well as “preaching” about individualism instead of community and looking out for ones’ neighbors.

Along with lots of other weird nonsense like I heard in my non-denom circles growing up, like :

“Oh, the ‘eye of a needle’ was actually some kind of weird gate in the city walls that camels had to awkwardly pass through, so uh, it’s not impossible to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and be wealthy, just uh, difficult! Yeah! You have to be worthy of handling the wealth! But you can be rich, yes!”

(Zero anthropologic / archeological / literary / theological / historical support for this notion.)

So that’s what I meant about good churches doing God’s work getting “replaced” with profit-friendly religiously-flavored feelgood self-help seminar campuses.

I hope that helps explain where I was pulling that from! :)

This sounds like a good way to have multiple sessions of players playing lawyer and looking for the most ridiculous loopholes LOL. Take a shot every time a PC interjects with “WELL, technically…!”

It sounds like it could be really satisfying but REALLY complicated setting up a plot involving a contract with these things hahaha.

But I suppose they don’t have to be a source of lawyer drama at all. They’re a great tool for the DM to say “I prepped this quest arc and you agreed to it so you’re damn well going to do it or else!” Lol

What a fascinating concept though. Woe betide the party who doesn’t read the entire contract!

Coffee break from a bunch of paint masking at the local church when he had this funny insight and used the selfie cam without flipping the image. :D

> Post a meme. 
> It's not even an actual image. 
> PicardFacepalm.jpeg
> Fuuuuuuuuuuuu...
> But is it still a meme? 
> Philosoraptor.bmp
> Don't let your memes be dreams. 

I used to think this too, and it’s going around because it’s excellent and plausible outrage bait.

…But as of now, that is not how it works. They are simply a collection point for the nonprofit / charity / whatever, and cannot use customers’ donations to offset their own taxes.

I agree though, folks should just donate straight to good causes, but these “round up” campaigns actually generate a lot of money for charity organizations, and villainizing them is counter productive.

A few articles about this:

https://taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/who-gets-tax-benefit-those-checkout-donations-0

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/06/10/fact-check-false-claim-checkout-charities-offset-corporate-taxes/7622379002/

All that said: Yes, scumbag corpos should be strongarmed to pay their damn taxes, and those taxes should go to the public good instead of warships and corruption!

That’s lovely there’s still churches like that, which actually do measurable things to protect their communities, and give to one another freely without pretense.

These are the kind of groups that capitalists systematically dismantled and replaced with profiteering megachurches.

If you wanted to game the system…

This part makes me kinda sad though. I know Lemmy doesn’t have a huge reach but it can’t help but taste a little sour that everything you said sounded awesome until it ends with a “jus between you an me pal” nudge-nudge about how to take advantage of freely given generosity and communal resources. That’s called being a scumbag.

Like the people who got kicked out from my local foodbank line because they were trying to get free ingredients for their restaurant.

Such behavior sabotages the struggling remnants of genuine humanity left in this world.

Feels like 8 viruses were standard with any Limewire / Kazaa install! Lol

That wasn’t SOAD?

Nope! It’s hilarious how many people came across it through file sharing though. That’s so cool to have this weird culture connection haha.

https://kotaku.com/no-system-of-a-down-did-not-make-a-zelda-song-but-thi-5885558

In a lot of modern guides on dungeon design, they stress thinking this stuff out. Yeah you should definitely have some idea why the inhabitants are here and not elsewhere, where their supplies come from, and how they interact with whatever else calls this place home.

They should have a place to sleep, eat, maybe recreation even. While the PCs poke around, the dungeon denizens shouldn’t just be waiting around in preset rooms, fully ready to fight like MMO mobs. They could be on patrol, raiding their neighbors, sleeping, arguing, partying, whatever.

There’s even fun things you can do with this like inter-faction conflicts between floors or other regions. Do the Orcs fear the dragon at the bottom of the dungeon?

Do the bandits have an uneasy non-aggression pact with a lich? Or are they constantly embattled with seemingly limitless undead because they’re struggling for a legendary artifact?

Somebody’s gotta reset all those traps, too.

Players should definitely feel like trespassers in a living place. Few people enjoy that ancient style of dungeon delving anymore, where you slay a band of kobolds, answer a sphinx’s riddle, then bust in on a vampire who’s as confused about why they’re there as you are!

Where are the toilets?

Maybe the hallway but the local gelatinous cube roombas it up. (Eeeeeww) … Or a room has holes dug dropping into an underground river. Or just a really deep pit, or a convenient portal to the Abyss LOL.

You can have fun with this stuff.

Maybe this’ll strengthen the worldwide film industry.

Maybe I should finally see if Who Killed Captain Alex lives up to the hype. 🤔

I mean, the Vegas Strip has always been disgusting…but the fact that (more than?) half of it is owned by Amazon now is absolutely insane to me. . .

Netflix crap never comes to DVD.

I dunno if it’s a thing exclusive to libraries or not, but at my public library I’ve seen some Netflix movies, and things like Stranger Things and Castlevania come through.

Not sure if those discs hit traditional media shelves or not.