You probably have a higher attack surface from the gremlins in your walls. OTOH, Amazon knowing that you use Mullvad is a tangible downside, as they will probably use that to stick you in a marketing group or something. Monero is still an easy solution with the ~same cost if you're concerned about that.
How would Amazon track a voucher? It's a physical scratch off code, sealed by Mullvad before they send it over to Amazon. More importantly, if you think that was possible why would Mullvad be unaware of it and/or lie about it? Just go with the vouchers if you want untraceability. They're also cheaper in USD than other methods IIRC, at $29/6 months and $57/12 months.
Version 0.10 of libjxl, the reference implementation for JPEG XL, has just been released. The main improvement this version brings, is that the so-called
Incredible improvements for a codec that was already far ahead. In the same way that JPEG has been given new life by mozjpeg and jpegli, I wonder how far the JPEG-XL codec is going to be stretched by better encoders in the near and far future.
Possibly, though I suspect that releasing your new DRM early is a good way to have it broken by the time you actually want to protect something with it.
I knew there was something wrong when my pirated copies of these games suddenly started vanishing from my hard drive! Curse you, DRM!
~ What the execs think will happen, I guess? What is the point of applying DRM to a game that has already released?
Yeah there's a few ways they could be acquired. I don't do Amazon or Kindle but they appear to be on Kindle Unlimited. They've also apparently been sent out for free a few times. I feel like it puts a bad taste in my mouth either way; even if I could sidestep the cost, by reading them it would still be supporting the books and therefore the gouging of others, in an indirect sense.
I haven't read this series yet but it's on my TBR. Is there some kind of actual justification for the price of these books? The combined total word count of all the books is ~350k, which is 50k words shorter than a few books I've recently read that cost $7-8 each. Meanwhile the entire Murderbot series costs $76 to purchase, most of them being 30k words for $12.
I'm lethargic on both getting around to reading it and not letting those hefty prices color my opinion if I were to read it, so I'm not sure if I ever will.
(It might be a little too easy though)
Source: TheHearthFox - https://twitter.com/TheHearthFox/status/1241335283871887362
Source: x6udpngx - https://twitter.com/x6udpngx/status/1544720341016055808
Source: @zurdomon - https://twitter.com/zurdomon/status/1701416049273680025
Source: @ultimatellurker - https://twitter.com/ultimatellurker/status/1621927209350070272
I just look through e621 for silly stuff. I'm not really involved in the furry community and don't follow anyone specifically, so it's probably of varying levels of freshness.
Alternatively, is your fursona sufficiently well-designed to avoid instant biological problems? Most foxes are missing their internal organs for example. As for fur, people with pets can attest that your cooking is going to have fur in it and that's just the way it's going to be.
Vote with your wallet regards any sort of purchase. By giving money to someone you are giving them the most encouragement possible to continue doing what they're doing. If you purchase something that you end up not liking, they will still receive your initial vote loud and clear. The gaming industry especially has shown us that companies will happily take both the money and the negative review and say 'thank you'.
I feel piracy for demo purposes is fully justified if you buy it after you like it. People always say vote with your wallet but it's more like gambling with your wallet if you don't get to see and touch the product before you make the purchase. Giving proper demos should be more common with digital media.
Everyone fully missing the point here. This is the banner image for [email protected] (that's not where we are right now for the record), and it has a normal JPEG size of 7.7MB. When it's served as WebP it's 3.8MB. OP is correct that this is very stupid and wasteful for a web content image. It's a triple-monitor 1440p wallpaper that's used verbatim, and it should instead be compressed down to be bandwidth-friendly. I was able to get it to 1.4MB at JPEG quality 80, and when swapping it out in dev tools and performing A/B testing I can't tell the difference. This should be brought to the attention of a mod on that community so it can stop sucking people's data for no reason.
Legoshi must be protected at all costs.
Source: @beetlesheIIs - https://twitter.com/beetlesheIIs/status/1683612281941250048
I like stories to have stuff to aspire to, rather than characters that share the pains of a hopeless millenial.
Yeah I feel that. I wouldn't call it a light read if you're feeling depressed, and there's some clear parallels and lessons from the book's world to be applied to ours. The story likes to punch you in the guts whenever it feels like it, and a hopeless feeling lingers throughout. I should make an amended edition where the characters frequently get the hugs they deserve.
it’s hard to come by good furry literature
Surely. Oftentimes it feels like any furry media that exists has to have a compelling reason why the people are animals, with human-based stories being the default if you can't think of a good one. It's nice to have a good story regardless, with the animalistic flavor largely just being garnish on top.
helping attract some more attention to a project
Hopefully at some point it will stick and be properly recognized. It was released in 2017 and has excellent Goodreads reviews, but the author is young and surely will eventually make waves if they can keep the creative spark going.
I just read through this giant book twice in a row, and my TL;DR is that it's a must-read for anyone that loves fantasy, furry or not. That's not to say it's an all-time masterpiece, but it's surprisingly strong in almost every aspect, and I think almost anyone will have a great time with its unique blend. I picked up an EPUB copy from Etsy, and the ~$7 price tag is a steal for its quality and length. It's a single book that's roughly the length of a trilogy (400k words), but I finished my first read in ~5 days because I couldn't put it down. The first 1/3 of the story is relatively straightforward and gets you comfortable with the world and characters, but as the story continues it slowly starts rolling faster and faster until it crashes through the finish line. There are very few, if any, dull moments in this book. The world-building is great, and the author describes every single object, character, and action in an appropriate amount of detail, which makes it easy to visualize every scene. They also never rush through a scene just to keep the story moving, which you may love or hate depending on how invested you are in the characters and world. This is clearly the passion project of someone who really valued their world and loved fleshing it out no matter how many pages it would take.
A few things to note off the bat:
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The concept art for this book has heavily-bara depictions of all the characters, but this doesn't come across in the story at all. I didn't see the concept art until after my first read and was shocked at how different my mental image was. Characters are usually initially described as muscled/athletic, but not in an extreme or even unusual way. Most characters are as strong as you would expect a guard/soldier to be, with hyenas in particular being shaped more like traditional gnolls. One character's large size is intentionally brought up repeatedly as a plot point (very early on). After a character is introduced they seldom reference their musculature again, but if a new character is meeting an old character for the first time you'll often get a re-description of the entire character from their perspective. Point being, the story is not going to force you to imagine the characters as bara or not bara, and I assume that either way will be supported by the text.
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The characters in the story are anthropomorphic wolves, hyenas, pigs, rabbits, etc, but there's not really a strong plot reason aside from being a more palatable metaphor for racism and classism. They're mostly anthro for style and aesthetic, and the author does an excellent job with their descriptions so you can easily imagine every character's unique visuals. I don't think you need to be a furry to identify with these characters - they're just complex people who happen to have tails.
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There are same-sex relationships in the story, but they're only ever vaguely-mentioned, and any sort of tangible same-sex interactions between characters are almost completely non-existent. Moreover, half of the references to same-sex relationships are negative, as in this world same-sex relationships usually equate to being someone's "beta" (don't worry) and most characters think that's degrading. Some of the characters momentarily find themselves nearing "beta" relationships and usually react negatively or with regret. Conversely, many characters in the story seem to be gay/bi/pan, but same-sex relationships are never shown as having the same weight in society as a "normal" hetero relationship (of which there are several prominent ones that we follow). The "homophobia" present in the book's universe is portrayed as old-fashioned and negative, but by mostly showing our own characters being vaguely homophobic and never showing any detailed positive same-sex relationships I feel the book missed a large opportunity to make an actual point. Even the subtext behind most of the "positive" same-sex relationships is a little troubling. I hope this is explored better in the next book, because the author was clearly trying to include these elements into the story in a constructive way, but never committed hard enough to make an impact.
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There are no sex scenes or anything of an explicit nature, though there's one fade-to-black. A mature teenager could handle this book, though the writing and plotlines may be a little too complex if they're not a strong reader.
Imperium Lupi is set in a fantasy/steampunk city where the main source of power and manufacturing causes atrocious pollution, "rotting" the citizens and causing them to live much shorter lifespans full of pain and suffering. It's not a happy world, and it's not a happy book. Thankfully, the characters in the story are almost always charming and upbeat, having long since resigned to their fate in this world, but the subtext of the overall universe and plot has a crushingly-negative trajectory. I often found myself longing for characters to catch a break or apologize for the negativity they inflict on each other. This book frequently grabbed my heart and sometimes brought tears to my eyes for a variety of reasons - plot twists, injuries/deaths, unexpected kindness, and oftentimes the cruelty of their world. Even on my second read I was unable to get through the fable of the "dayfly" without breaking down all over again.
The world-building is one of the highlights of the book for me, and learning all the mundane details about this society was one of my favorite parts. It clearly feels like the author created a robust world and history first, then set the story in just a small portion of it, occasionally showing glimpses of the world beyond. I would read any number of spin-off books set in this universe, as it seems there's still so much left to explore. There's a soft and semi-scientific "magic system" that isn't terribly complex but does have dangerous and long-lasting consequences whenever it's used, which keeps combat mildly fresh while contributing to long-term character growth.
There are a few dozen characters that the story is told through, and almost everyone that gets a name is detailed, realistic, and sympathetic. Aside from a few obvious protagonists, we're often not sure if most characters are truly "good" or "bad". This world isn't that simple, and characters perform misdeeds based on their own complex morality and on what you even define as a misdeed. Despite often being in conflict with each other, all characters think of themselves as "the good guys", which leaves the reader to decide which characters to cheer for - sometimes changing on a scene-by-scene basis. The PoV swaps seamlessly between characters within a scene, which takes a little bit of getting used to, and there are usually 2-6 sub-plots/scenes occurring simultaneously that the narrative interleaves into and out of whenever it feels like. Thankfully, it rarely leaves scenes on cliffhangers, so it usually doesn't feel frustrating to swap somewhere else. I think the main reason I couldn't put this book down is because there was always something fresh and interesting happening with this method.
I would say the main themes of the story are political scheming and mystery - every character in the book has their own unique motivations, and many of them are trying to achieve their own goals. As the story starts rolling, there's an endless onslaught of schemes, traps, and double-crosses that have long setups and payoffs. I was able to keep up with about 85% of the schemes on my first read, but still often forgot about pieces hinted at 800 pages earlier. I read most of this book in a few days, but if you're stretching this out over longer time spans I imagine it will be more difficult to keep track of everyone's plans. On my second read I had a much easier time following everyone's actions with the foresight of their goals, and I especially found the first half of the book rewarding to re-read as there were many small hints and character actions that couldn't possibly hold any value without the later story's context - e.g. a twitch of a character's nose at the mention of a certain topic. Unfortunately, the second half of the book was mostly void of any additional details that I would have missed on my first read.
By the final act of the book there are so many sub-plots occurring that it's hard to imagine everything will come together properly, but the story does mostly stick the landing and I'll give it an 8/10 in that regard. I enjoyed the journey and finale, but I felt like the post-finale was very rushed compared to the rich detail of the rest of the book. This is potentially justifiable by the fact that there's another book coming, so we aren't saying goodbye to these characters forever.
If you haven't guessed by now, this story is an easy 5/5 for me and is being archived as one of my favorite books. I absolutely cannot wait for the second book.
One neutral criticism: This is a self-pub book and there are a lot of typos that were really distracting on my first read. I won't hold it against the book because these things happen as self-pub. The typos were never indicative of poor writing quality, just simple mistakes. On my second and third reads I documented every error I saw and the author is currently working to get them all fixed, hopefully sometime in the beginning of 2024. If you've got an earlier copy and it's bothering you, check back after a while.
One minor criticism of the book, but it's a huge spoiler:
Characters are hard to kill, yet others still make earnest attempts on their life. After the first few times that someone takes a grievous injury and heals back to full, we lose the tension of someone getting shot, run through, or mangled. I understand that Howlers in general are more difficult to kill due to their unnatural healing power, but some of their attackers should start doing double taps to compensate. Currently, some of our characters survive severe injuries and then do nothing of consequence for the rest of the book. If this book was a standalone, some of the character "deaths" could have been final for great emotional impact. I suspect that these characters are being kept alive for a role in a future book, but in isolation it feels like a missed opportunity to give some extra weight to the story.
Happy holidays. I hope you all can pull off Omega Straight Mode if needed around extended family.
Source: @doginacafe - https://twitter.com/doginacafe/status/1445403906670923777
Very disappointing. Moreover I'm not even sure if they're allowed to do this with GPL and other contributors. If they sell I think it would need to stay GPL? Regardless I'm removing these either way.
It's half true. They enjoy certain privileges while others are beneath them. By giving others the same privileges they lose what makes them "special", even though they are not losing anything directly in a zero sum fashion. It's a greedy and fearful way of thinking, but those properties make it an easy ideology to adopt during crisis. That's probably the most favorable motive I can apply.
I really don't think it's "love" at this point. I understand that point of view, but I rarely ever see those types of people anymore. They don't even necessarily need specific religious litigation to back up their views, and they can pretend that their god "would support them" in their endeavors just as easily. These people want punishment for those they deem "other" because the normalization of "other" challenges their privilege and makes them uncomfortable. I think their fear of these outcomes is the most likely "rational" explanation. Semi-related, the world is not in a good place right now with capitalism running rampant. I think these people are even more frightened at their precarious living conditions and their sense of survival is pushing them to hold onto the privilege and lifestyle they have in any way possible.
That was my takeaway from this video as well. It was a lot of "aw shucks can't we all just get along" and not understanding that in today's world, getting along is a left-wing policy. I think there is still merit to saying that part of the reason we're so divided nowadays is that we are forced to interact more often, but it shouldn't be represented as the entire problem. In a way, I think a video like this is actually worse for discourse because it might convince people that there is only one problem that needs to be solved.
You're right, and I suppose I was half-thinking along the lines of "we have all the pieces to solve this, but we don't because we're frozen in place by greed" instead of "this is something we could do with infrastructure today". If everyone could collectively let go and re-distribute wealth and materials efficiently everyone would be much better off for it, but instead we're stuck in some game theory hell where the optimal personal choice results in one of the worst outcomes.
I'm not nearly as qualified as your professional help, but there are always bright spots and safe spaces to exist when you're low. Everyone is exhausted these days, and you're not going to change the world by dedicating your entire life to worrying about it. Take what you can and fight for what you're able to, but don't overexert yourself. Ideally half the fight needs to be done by people who are not the minorities in question - these people have the most privilege and population to actually enact change. E.g., telling the homeless to fight for themselves is not how you end homelessness.
I bet someone at some point said "256 is futureproof". We're well into Amdahl's Law at this point.
