Homie? I want you to know that while I am going to be inflammatory, I am not insulting you. In a slightly sane world, that should be fine.

NEVER work with children. “Hey kids. You can go home or you can stay with me and a few others and learn how to use a computer!”. At best you are setting yourself up for some awkward phone calls when Little Jimmy gets caught looking at something his parents don’t approve of.

If you are a close family friend and the parents understand what you are going to be teaching their kid (and obviously want you to teach it), go for it. If you are just watching them while they eat orange slices? Don’t fucking go anywhere near that. Let the teachers who actually train in how to handle these situations do it.

And the other aspect: Kids (and most adults) are not rational or intelligent. They aren’t going to take “Hey, if Susie sends you nudes don’t put them on this server because it will get me sent to prison as a diddler” as education on why they should not fucking do that.

If you ever want to get scared straight as it were? Take a teacher out for drinks (and you better pay for them!). You’ll hear LOTS of horror stories and get even a glimpse into the kind of hell they have to put up with.

The show Black-ish (like a lot of Kenya Barris’s work) has a LOT of problems. But the number of times teacher friends have shared https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jqmj0ILwfM. And it is not at all exclusive to black people (or even men).

Just a general warning:

It is one thing to provide something for family. It is another thing to be a person in authority providing one for an org. And kids are horrible and basically all have cameras everywhere they go. They WILL do something horrible and, depending on what that something is, you might now be liable for a lot of stuff you don’t want to be.

You don’t want that smoke. They can use google drive. Or you can talk to one of the companies that host next/own clouds for people and ask for a discount since it is the boy scouts.

If you are thinking in terms of building a widget or making an industrial process, it makes perfect sense. Something like a wristwatch is the kind of innovation a LOT of people more or less simultaneously made and it is just impossible to definitively prove what country the first watch was made in. Even figuring out who was the first to file becomes a mess. Same with factory processes where the players who would even have the ability to iterate are often counted on fingers and toes.

But software (and research) in a global society is a real mother fucker. Because now the entire world can more or less see everything and reproducing things is fairly trivial. And… it isn’t like the patents actually matter all that much when so much gets done overseas. China Don’t Care but also the EU doesn’t really either and so forth. Sure there are avenues to try to pursue a studio using the patented Nemesis System but… at best you are going to be tied up in courts for years trying to get a judge to insist that a company in Germany needs to send you a check.

For the exact same reason that “fair use” is still so incredibly nebulous and twitch streaming/let’s plays still exist.

NOBODY is crazy enough to want to take that to the courts. Because maybe you get a judge who has “common sense”. Maybe you get an old white guy who thinks Pong was too complicated and decides that you are wrong. At which point you have now made a bunch of legal precedent for REALLY stupid stuff.

Its also kind of why so much stuff about video games actually never gets patented. It is playing with fire.

I ANAL and am not a lawyer.

The verbiage on this is RIDICULOUSLY specific (as patents generally should be) to the point that I refused to even pass the PDF through an OCR system and instead will trust that site’s transcription

    (1) There must be a PC, console or other computing device and the game is stored on a drive or similar storage medium.

    (2) You can move a character in a virtual space.

    (3) You must be able to summon a character. They call it a “sub character” by which they mean it’s not the player character, but, for example, a little monster such as a Pokémon that the player character has at its disposal.

    Then the logic branches out, with items (4) and (5) being mutually exclusive scenarios, before reuniting again in item (6):

    (4) This is about summoning the “sub character” in a place where there already is another character that it will then (when instructed to do so) fight.

    (5) This alternative scenario is about summoning the “sub character” at a position where there is no other character to fight immediately.

    (6) This final step is about sending the “sub character” in a direction and then letting an automatic battle ensue with another character. It is not clear whether this is even needed if one previously executed step (4) where the “sub character” will basically be thrown at another character.

All of those criteria must be met for this trap card to be triggered (shit… Yugioh lawyers getting revved up now).

Step 4 specifically covers the case where you summon your little guy to fight someone else. As worded, that actually would impact a Summon in every JRPG and Final Fantasy just got sweaty. Step 5 summons a character as an assist or to replace the main character in a fight (so… Pokemon).

What I find most interesting is that step 6 specifically says “automatic battle”. Which… to my Not A Lawyer brain, means this doesn’t even cover Pokemon since you specifically give your mons battle commands. Err, aside from S01E01 Pikachu who did not give a fuck. And then Charizard. And probably a dozen more pokemons after I stopped watching The Son Of Mr Mime’s Adventures. But, from what little I saw of it, it DOES cover Palworld where you just summon your pals to do work for you or fight for you. And it potentially covers Final Fantasy and Ichiban’s Like a Dragons (the Poundmates, not the Sujimon)…

Which is probably the most interesting thing and why I think Pokemon Co is going to be ridiculously selective of who they try to sue. Because any of the big hitters can just say “Dumbfucks, we were doing this before Game Freak even existed”. Whereas indie devs are small enough they don’t want to risk it.

It might be worth keeping an eye on MinnMax as Haley MacLean IS a lawyer who actually specializes in video game IP but I suspect this is too close to her day job for her to publicly speak about it even with the “not legal advice” disclaimers. Which hopefully guarantees she actually talked about it on one of the podcasts this week and I just haven’t looked yet.

It is also likely a matter of registration and safety.

Yeah, it is a funny sight. Unless you are another car on the road. Basically all the safety assists won’t work with what is a glorified plastic dolley and you have someone whose head is basically at bumper level on even sane vehicles. Its similar to how good drivers actually slow down or veer into the oncoming traffic lane (assuming it is empty) when they are overtaking someone wobbling back and forth in the bike lane.

Not sure about every pack, but every kit (which is usually worth grabbing just because it is a cheap way to get the basics and a couple colors of thread) definitely does. But it is one more thing to faff about with and you still need to thread the wire loop. Versus just putting some thread in the slot and pulling/pushing.

Sewing machines also are much worse for patching things.

Just think through the logistics of how you would use a sewing machine to reinforce the knee of some pants or to reinforce/repair a well loved stuffy.

If you are actually Making things, a sewing machine is well worth it. But it doesn’t replace knowing a few basic hand stitches.

Depending on where you live, those thrift store shirts are not material you really want to use for anything you would touch. “Lightly worn” means very different things in different areas and the more bougie areas tend to get picked clean REAL fast by all the “life hack” kids. And the less bougie areas… there is very much an argument for leaving the thrift shops for those who need them but that ship has sailed.

But yeah. I would just add on that it is well worth it to pay the extra buck or two for some self threading needles and a thimble. If you can’t thread a needle for physical reasons (e.g. vision or dexterity limitations) you probably don’t want to be doing too much sewing for things that experience wear, but not having to thread a needle is borderline life changing. Just stick the needle in something to stabilize it and then pull the thread down into the eye and boom, you are done.

Which puts you ahead of the curve. But you are still depending on enough other people to be watching every update and so forth.

I am not saying I am much better. But it is one of those things where anyone considering the selfhosted Fun should REALLY spend some time dealing with software supply chains and the like. Too many people just figure “it is open source so it is safe” or, even in this thread, assume something is more or less safe based upon what app pulls it.

If anything it is easier to self audit the script.

But nobody ever actually audits the stuff they run so…

Too lazy to dig for it myself but would love to see someone do a deep dive on what an “upgrade” actually would be.

How many of the gen 1 parts are just plug and play in a gen2 chassis/mobo? How much of the gen2 parts can be put into the old gen 1 case? The upgraded heatpipes already make that questionable.

I am obviously not the biggest fan of Framework Corp (and I genuinely think they are contributing to significantly more e-waste than traditional “upgrade” paths). But this also feels like a good use case to study for anyone who actually thinks they are going to meaningfully upgrade their laptop every 5-10 years without just buying a new laptop.

Because didn’t the 16 just get a pretty massive (possibly backwards compatibility breaking?) design upgrade like last year? I remember all the tech youtubers (except GN for whatever reason…) talking about the adjustable keyboard layout for people who hate their wrists.

Which is also one of the dark secrets of desktop PCs. Okay, AM4 was fucking insane and that STILL gets new CPUs? But, generally speaking, if you are the kind of person who “upgrades” your PC every 6-10 years (so roughly a console gen)? Your “upgrade” is a full rebuild more often than not but you re-use that nvme so it still counts.

Those already exist (they are basically just pressure washers). And plenty of protesters and activists DO use them.

Hell, a drone, a can of spray paint, a radio, and a servo can go a long way if you really want to.

In the sense of stealing yule celebrations to attack Germanic people? Yes

In the sense of “Those pagan bastards are defiling the celebration of our lord and savior’s birth”? “The War On Christmas” is a tried and tested method of mobilizing the troops.

Ignoring the sexism bordering on mild misogyny:

We’ve literally seen how this plays out. Walz calls trump “weird”. fuckface calls for the murder of Kamala. “Both sides traded barbs”.

The vast majority of christians don’t actually hate The Gays. They insist “I don’t approve of your lifestyle but I tolerate you”/“I don’t respect or tolerate you but I also don’t want to consider myself a bigot”. It is why “bathroom bans” and the like are so popular. They are a direct attack on people’s very self and a way to remove their ability to function in society but they also don’t immediately seem like hate unless you think for even a few seconds.

But once The Gays are outright attacking christianity? Guess what? “Both sides traded barbs” becomes “They are literally coming to destroy your beliefs” and it is a literal holy war.

Or, to go back to your sexism: People love the idea of a victim standing up for themselves. When they do? Suddenly it just becomes “they are both a mess” or “they deserve each other” rather than “She finally struck back after her third visit to the emergency room”.

Everyone wants to act. Not acting is the definition of helplessness. But it is also worth understanding that retaliation is a thing. The call of duty generation loves the idea of being heroic guerilla fighters who scream “wildcats” every five seconds. But it is worth looking at the actual “stay behind armies” and how so much of their equipment and doctrine was designed around resistance without ever pushing things far enough to lead to genocide and eradication. Whether that would have been successful is a very controversial topic but… that is the idea.

That is what they want.

Right wing shitheads have been trying to paint themselves as the victims for decades. “The War On Christmas” being one of the best examples. And as much fun as it would be to burn down a church (but not Korean Jesus, that dude is okay), all it will do is provide them the evidence they have been trying to manufacture all this time.

Because news media won’t be reporting “As retaliation for the murder of a trans person, a bible was ceremonially burned”. It will be “The fucking gays are burning your bibles, go get them”

The Korean war spun out of the Chinese Civil War and how both (simplifying) NATO and the USSR were already using it as a proxy. We got involved to protect our interests, same as any other war.

If you want to argue that South Korea is better off because of it? I fully agree (I doubt North Korea would have become the hellscape it is now, but a Warsaw Pact Korea would never be as prosperous as South Korea is today). But it was the exact same “we fight a war over there so we don’t have to fight a war here” logic.

I mean…we’ve been fucking the world up since Korea and Vietnam. Arguably also WW1 (2 we sort of had an excuse because of Japan). And South America before that.

In theory it is the idea that we minimize harm to the heartland by engaging threats/“threats” before they burn down the white house again (mad props to Canada).

But nah. This is just the republicans continuing to be fucking morons. Like when perry (?) campaigned on killing the DOEnergy, got appointed as head, and realized that there were nukes next to all that clean coal.

We are a numbers species

And we only have power when we act in numbers towards a focused goal.

This is why we (should) have (more) Unions instead of just “Negotiate for yourself and everyone will benefit”. And that, inherently, needs leaders who know how to work towards a shared purpose.

Everyone should work towards making the world a better place. But we also need to understand what we are actually working towards and what those “somethings” actually can accomplish.

Define “death”.

For a book? There is very much an argument that the listed author would make sense. But… good authors tend to have ten or twenty solid pages of thanking their editors and beta readers and researchers and partners and so forth for very good reason. And while they tend to not get royalties (outside of the partner), those associated with the publisher sort of do in the sense of getting a continued paycheck in part because of their demonstrated “value”.

But let’s bump that up to a movie. Is the screenwriter the creator? What about a case where there were multiple “script doctors” brought in to punch up a premise? The director? The lead actor? The ridiculously good performance by the supporting actress that held every scene together? The people in the editing bay who turned “I want this scene to pop more” into actionable edits? The VFX team who did the entirety of every action sequence and half the dialogue because the costumes weren’t finalized until a week before it hit theatres?

And so forth. The time where works tended to have a singular creator was… closer to millennia ago than not. Even a lot of the “Willy Shakespeare was a fraud” is rooted in a misunderstanding of what editing and collaboration is.

I don’t know what a good model is. I like the concept of a fixed period with the idea that if you are continuing to use an IP then people will pay for the new stuff. Then I look at all the cash-in horror slop because Winnie the Pooh became public domain and… does that help ANYBODY?

My mind keeps coming back to the end of Sebastien de Castell’s Spellslinger series. He left a LOT of loose ends (in part because of the themes of the story he was telling which would be spoilers to elaborate on) but did a quick epilogue sequence of two characters reuniting. And then he wrote an afterward where he talked about how (paraphrasing) that is just one possible ending and that it doesn’t actually matter what he wrote because, after the years we all spent reading about Kellen and Reichis and Ferius and Nephenia and Shalla… they aren’t just his characters. They are OUR characters too. And what he can see as a potential future isn’t necessarily what we see. I forget if he explicitly said writing fanfiction was a good idea but… that is kind of the reality of it.

And in that sense? I increasingly come down on: Let the companies and creators keep their IPs. Only they get to profit. But also heavily strengthen fair use so long as there is no direct profit (we do need to understand the idea of ad revenue for a youtube channel or a website or something). Fill up AO3 with ALL the good slop but keep it out of theatres unless they are gonna file the mormon off and Fifty Shades of Grey it. Beyond that? Whatever.

And just for those wondering what those themes were: