I love this gif, I think it's an accurate representation of what we all do. At least what I do.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, to @dfox, @trogus: Thanks for creating a social media Web site which is actually tolerable, possibly even good. To the other users of this Web site: Thanks for not fucking up this actually-tolerable social media Web site.
Keep up the good work.

On a different note, _Deus Ex_ is by far my favourite video game. However, OpenBSD, which is my favourite operating system, does not support playing _Deus Ex_; as such, I was forced to improvise.
I own a few servers which run Ubuntu Linux, which can run VirtualBox, which can run Microsoft Windows XP, which can play _Deus Ex_. As such, I relocated my copy of Windows XP and spun up a new virtual machine, installing the operating system and the video game. After some minor hiccups, _Deus Ex_ was played without any difficulties, aside from the lack of audio, which resulted from having used VNC to access the virtual machine.
This set-up is janky, for I access the game by connecting via VNC to an Ubuntu installation which runs a virtual installation of Microsoft Windows... which runs _Deus Ex_ in windowed mode; however, I find that using this janky set-up is preferable to not being able to play _Deus Ex_.

On an even _more_ different note, future rants may be written in the third person; possibly as a result of having written briefings and whatnot in the third person for nearly two (2) decades and disliking pronouns, I dislike writing in the first person. I shall still be the author of the rants which are posted to this account.

Quite a few years ago (late 90s, early 00s maybe) I remember watching a TV show where they demonstrated what virtual reality might be like. It was all rough polygons, no lighting or texturing etc.

I'd heard about the Oculus Rift and considered trying it. I get motion sickness sometimes from certain 3D games (Deus Ex, Portal, sometimes even Minecraft) so was hesitant. Last week, decided to just get one and see how it went.

Didn't expect it to be as good as it is - compared to what was envisaged ~20 years ago. No motion sickness. Not only was the graphics detail amazing but the responsiveness is insane. In another 20 years time what will there be?

Anyway on dev topic: Now it makes me want to play with a 3D/VR engine. Considering Unreal Engine but not really sure where to start learning. Maybe a book? Though reviews tend to say they go out of date quick, I do prefer a physical book for learning tech stuff.

Where do I get one?

i find comforting hearing good villain AI videogame dialogues.

for example, morpheus in deus ex.

one obvious reason is that the voice representation has an unrushed pace and low tone.

another more significant reason is that there are no emotions affecting the course of thought of an AI

because of that, villain AI characters can describe brutal but possibly actual aspects of humans without flinching.

as a developer or person, that is a commodity because you want to be as objective as possible.

if you had no feelings of self doubt, fear, laziness, shallowness, then you'd become an exceptional free man

Developer vs. user experience: it's 2024, tech is used by the masses, and still, every day, I see messages that something "failed", an "error occurred" or that I did something wrong trying to use something supposedly simple like entering a phone number or a bank account IBAN into a web form.

Worse, I remember being part of teams coding and releasing antipatterns like that, spending time in hour-long best practice discussions and still failing to deal with user "errors" in the end.

AI, the deus ex machina supposed to obsolete developers, does the exact opposite of development: fail and err, but always find some positive and polite words to gaslight its users and make them feel happy.

AI will replace developers just because it's better in being nice.

I use documentation to develop a connection to a feature (connection that was said to be done, but whatever.)

There is an example in the documentation of implementation.

But that example is, like I like to say, bullshit-esque.

In the implementation, the code doesn't work, and there is another way of implenting that connection. But the thing is, it uses a variable that was never declared in the example, neither in the full page. They just made it pop-up from nowhere like a deus ex machina.

Gimme a table so I can flip it.

I originally played System Shock in 1994, and I remember being rather frightened by it, but I didn't complete it. I decided to give it another go, and it still creeps me the hell out, but I didn't make a mistake by reinstalling it; I quite enjoy it -- it's up there with Quarantine. Deus Ex is still my favourite, though.

Didnt realize i would put in 3 hrs on the trot for a 26 year old video game. What the wow..