kbal

As expected, the long-awaited ntsync has made its way into kernel 6.14.

ntsync "driver" to handle Windows locking types enabling Wine to work much better on many workloads (i.e. games). The driver framework was in 6.13, but now it's enabled and fully working properly. Should make many SteamOS users happy. Even comes with tests!

Meanwhile, in Québec... Carney demonstrates that he can parle français, Freeland goes on Tout le monde en parle.

If 2024 was the year of "age verification" let's build on this success and make 2025 the year of height verification. We must develop a consensus about where to draw the line, so that we can finally say "you must be at least this tall to use social media."

After reading a completely credulous article attributing the success of OpenAI's latest model on the ARC-AGI test to the spontaneous emergence of genuine AGI and not, as seems more likely, the fact that the benchmark has recently become fashionable and therefore they've been specifically aiming for it as they develop the model, I finally took a look at the test itself.

It's sort of a fun little challenge for the bots, but it's absolutely nothing compared to playing the game of Go as they managed to do in 2016. Meanwhile actual AGI as we traditionally think of it will be when an artificial intelligence can hear about the game of Go somewhere, having never heard of or trained on it, find it interesting, and teach itself to play.

If this be madness yet there is method, innit.

If modded Skyrim isn't the best game you ever played, you just need to add more mods. Sometimes they combine in ways that are better than expected. Today's discoveries:

1. Walking around at a somewhat normal pace in the game most of the time thanks to "Controller Walk Run Toggle" (speed configured with Autorun) means travel takes long enough that even the relatively mild effect of cold that's the default in Sunhelm becomes significant. It's not seemingly instant like some versions of survival mode, more like you've actually been outside for enough time that it makes sense you'd be feeling the cold.

My Skyrim time scale is set so there's still enough time to travel pretty far in a day but at one point it was getting dark and I had to think for a moment about how to stay warm that night. Just then the lights at the inn came into view. It felt a lot like it does irl when you're walking in the woods, it's a little longer than expected to get home, and it's getting dark. Peak hiking simulator. Combined with dense forests and combat that's deadly and quick, it feels pretty good.

2. With the dodge mod I'm using, going into sprint mode by holding the button for a moment toggles from walk to run, as it should. Exiting the sprint by doing a dodge roll doesn't toggle it back, so you're left doing the default Skyrim jogging. But then another dodge roll (if you're out of combat and no weapons drawn) does go back to a walk for some reason. So after a little practice to get used to the sequence you can just use that one button to toggle it, leaving the d-pad button free for other uses.

I guess it's safe to say that Honda never got its mojo back. It's been a long time since they were at their best and the whole industry is rotten anyway, but Honda was great once and it's slightly sad to see news of the impending end its existence as an independent automaker.

Holiday Skyrim binge initiated.

It's going to be a long time before I level up enough to start Dac0da. Best of the newly added mods to make a difference in the early game so far:

Passive Mudcrabs Controller Walk Run Toggle Cast Spells As Lesser Powers

Revel in the joy of our grand tax holiday! There will be no sales tax on thousands of items, to boost your solstice spending power! Video games, so long as you don't buy them the normal way. Some beverages, depending on size and ingredients. Pencil crayons, if they're bought as part of a package that contains blue ones. What spectacular benevolence!

NPCs keep the outfit even after uninstalling SPID or mods that distributed those outfits.

Oh damn, THAT was the problem with SPID 7.2RC1? I'm okay with that. I'm not one to uninstall things and not expect problems. According to tonight's test results that's the version that successfully distributes outfits that get equipped (unlike the previous version) and doesn't crash (unlike the newer RC builds.) It's no longer available on nexus but you can find it on github.

The snow today is perfect for making an igloo.

The local grocery store does delivery! This improves my life somewhat. They take orders by email, which are relayed to a man employed by the store to pick the orders and drive the van. No shitty big-data rent-seeking middlemen involved. It's pretty good.