matt bluelander 🏴 @matt@cybre.space

My name's Timbothy, but my friends call me

I like in media when a villain makes a small, almost imperceptible hand gesture, and all their flunkies immediately start carrying out a complicated set of well-choreographed actions that are obviously meticulously rehearsed. I assume that the villain has drilled them on hand gestures for every possible contingency. I'd like to see a film about the flunkies going through gesture training

I wonder if this sort of thing is what "Minions" is about

We're well into the time of year that I get shocked every time I touch a doorknob in my office

I should probably also see a statictrician

I think I need to see an opthalmologistrician

@oriole Whoops didn't see your followup post, sorry. I didn't know next cubes had magneto-optical drives, that's pretty rad

@oriole It looks like a CD caddy - early CD ROMs used them instead of tray or slot-loading mechanisms to help protect the discs from scratches, etc.

Heh, just noticed that the Pete Shelley video was uploaded by Soundhog, AKA the Freelance Hairdresser, a mashup artist I really enjoy. Small world.

I say "music video", it's really just a pretty generic-looking graphics demo with the lyrics displayed in sync with the music. Must have been pretty impressive for the time though. If you could get it to work. https://youtu.be/UMtJjeX5UMk?t=36

If you like techmoan but aren't inclined to watch a channel called "retro man cave", TM recorded an interesting bit about the potential pitfalls of recording data as audio https://youtu.be/bEmMPOHEdE4?t=243

The setup is that an artist named Pete Shelley released a record with a ZX spectrum music video. You're meant to copy the audio data onto a cassette, load the program, and synchronize starting the program with listening to another track on the record. Interesting stuff

@srol "Cat bonus room" from Light Crusader https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1Y5Pb3-WqY

Vinny: "I am not a 'sitting at the bar' fan, no matter what. People don't need to see my buttcrack."

Alex: "You know, you can wear things that cover—"

Vinny: "Nope! Nope! Nope!"

BTW, the reason this is so unpleasant to look at is because it's a trap room, most of the rooms don't look like this. Because the player immediately hits a checkpoint upon entering, they'll have to tackle the previous room from a slightly more challenging position than they would otherwise. The terminal is just there for a joke, but depending on whether they go to the upper-right corner first, players will see one of two possible jokes

Now you know the secret. Keep it under your hat!

Here's an example that's less "RNG" and more "divergent possibilities" - I added a section of background to the top right corner that looks slightly off, so an observant player might see it and think "why does that look different? I should check it out". Nothing happens, but it'll invisibly set a flag that causes the terminal in the upper left to display a different message than they'd see if they went to it first.

The purpose of gameplay is to hide secrets

@trysdyn Unfortunately not, the scripting abilities for the level editor are extremely limited. I can't even really have variables, the game can only check if a flag is on or off. It's okay though, the limitations help keep me from over-scoping, and it's fun to occasionally find novel ways to do things

Oh dang, I just realized I can add pseudo RNG to VVVVVV by setting up seemingly divergent paths, and then choosing which flag gets turned on by which path the player chooses. So based on which tunnel the player picks here, the game would "roll" a d5

That rules, I wanted some way to make the experience at least a little bit different for each play, and this is better than nothing. I'll try to make it a bit more maze-like so players don't just default to the easiest path

And of course from the patient's POV, we can't do shit. I have no idea if my doctor is getting kickbacks and would never be able to prove it. I have no evidence to offer a lawyer even if I could find one willing to help pro bono. All I know is there's a pattern of a new drug becoming available and psychs jumping to try that first over proven, generally safe alternatives for which the patent has expired. I can't think of why that'd be the case except corruption.

These kickbacks are illegal of course, but *only* for federally-funded insurance plans! If you have private insurance, doctors are allowed to take whatever bribes the pharma industry wants to offer them. And I'm sure this bleeds over, because how do you prove a quid-pro-quo?

"For THESE patients the industry bribed me to prescribe the new drug, but for THESE patients I just thought it would be best for them. The bribe only affected my decision with patient group A."

Clinical trials will tell you what potential side-effects are but they won't tell you how bad they are for the general population until it's been approved & widely prescribed. "Side effects may include headaches" could mean "my head hurts a little for an hour after I take it" or "since I started taking prothiaden I feel a constant jackhammering in my skull that makes me want to die". I fully believe experimenting on the public is an accepted de facto part of the process

It's become clear that psychiatrists will prescribe new, expensive drugs for which the severity of the side effects is unknown instead of tried-and-true generic drugs, presumably because they're getting kickbacks or have some other incentive

You're not allowed to ask "can I try the normal cheap one first" because that's drug-seeking behavior

Never mind those commercials that say "ask your doctor about X". You're only allowed to do that if it's new and expensive

Who the hell is Link Edin