I got no particular book recommendation, but this book seems more about the numbers than relations -- maybe my PDF search is broken, but both 'type theory' and 'category theory' return 0 results. I would recommend to also look into those if you are interested in mathematics of computer science.
>I think where Nix shines isn’t “one laptop every 6 years” but when your environment needs to be shared or recreated: multiple machines, a team, or a project with nasty native deps.
I'd like to add the third thing, which is just iteration. It's very tricky to maintain advanced workflows even locally. I'd guess many won't even try to compose things that could work in combination (often self-hosted services), when they know they can't reliably maintain those environments.
Speaking from the viewpoint of a whole operating system images, the main challenge is that while Nix allows you to create ephemeral environments, many people (myself included) have various hard-coded paths for mounting hard drives. If you want something to be shareable, you have to create a workflow in which the user environment is activated interactively after a tty session is acquired. Same goes for any system services that need persistence -- these have to be configured to be activated at runtime. It's a lot of work for a party-trick. It's probably possible to configure the system such that the log-in needs a FIDO2 key which is also used for LUKS drives, which would be similar to how macOS handles log-ins. But abstracting this such the login works on every machine possible suddenly requires filesystems to be networked, and so on.
That being said, we used NixOS images to boot several Windows PCs of my friends into RAM to play Halo 3 multiplayer split-screen. Most of my friends were mainly confused why they could play with any gamepad they had in their shelf. They also left the event with no permanent changes to their PCs.
Counterpoint: because most Finns think about Russian interference, the likelihood there's a tentative plan is high. Or you know, they call you. And in a country of 5m people, you can probably ask someone, who knows someone else, who knows whoever has that information in the government.
It's not a monopoly. While FedEx, UPS, DHL, and the likes are not obliged by law to deliver mail, they will certainly do it if the price is good. Even Uber does it.
Lysander Spooner tried offering letter services cheaper than the postal service in the US, and by most measures was better and cheaper at it. As it turns out as soon as you can do it cheaper, they just did what government does and used their monopoly on violence to put him in a tiny cage.
n 1844, hearing from citizens from every party and under pressure to reform the postal system, Washington lawmakers and the Postmaster General had no intention of sitting still for any of "that Spooner's shenanigans." Suits against Spooner and his cohorts began. Railroad heads were given full warning that contracts for government mails would be removed and fines imposed unless space and passage were refused to private letter carriers. It was "round one" for the government when an agent of Spooner's company in Baltimore was found guilty and fined for transporting letters in a railroad car over a post road of the United States. Spooner himself was arrested in New York on March 7 on three charges by special agents of the Post Office. Another of his agents, Calvin Case, was held to bail for $100 around March 23 for carrying letters on the train.
On a related note, does anyone have references which would explain VRChat (and the culture around it)? I'm not quite certain if the models are primarily used for comedic effect, role-play, or more of as a 'Ready Player One'-esque alternative identity. I think I know cases for the latter, but I feel like as someone who has never understood VR as a form of self-expression or played VRChat, I feel like I can't have the conversation with them.
I provide full livecast coverage by visiting every booth at Vket, which takes place in VRChat twice a year, and over time I’ve noticed some clear patterns.
In Japan, the market for 3D models and other VR/metaverse assets has steadily flourished. Within VRChat, it’s fairly common for users to purchase avatars from platforms like booth.pm and then customize them to their liking—sometimes as simply as changing colors, and other times by adding clothing, accessories, or other elements. The market itself is quite approachable: some avatars are used by thousands, or even tens of thousands, of people, while others cater to much more niche tastes. Either way, there’s something for almost everyone.
Originally, the focus was largely on avatars themselves. Over the years, however, we’ve seen a noticeable shift toward clothing and accessories. Looking at booths in recent Vket events, roughly 40%—if not close to half—of the offerings now fall into those categories. Tools such as ModularAvatar and Mochifitter have made applying and adjusting these items easier than ever, lowering the barrier even further. More broadly, many Japanese users don’t seem to find working with Unity particularly daunting, and that comfort level has helped form the foundation of the ecosystem we see today.
While comedy and roleplay certainly appear from time to time, many people treat their avatars as genuine representations of their identity. This doesn’t mean that identity is fixed—some users switch between multiple avatars—but there is often a strong sense of attachment. The avatar functions not merely as a surrogate in a virtual space, but as something that defines how they present themselves within that world.
This emphasis on originality, combined with a general avoidance of ripped game assets or avatars based on existing IPs (at least compared to trends outside Japan), appears to have played a significant role in shaping this distinctive Japanese VR culture.
I find the vtuber effect pretty offputting myself. It's so flat.
It's going to wander into entirely different problems (one with a much more uncanny valley), but i'm curious to see how the field develops when facial animation systems start being able to parallel people's faces more.
VTuber avatar expressiveness varies wildly depending on the software and avatar artists in question. With the right software and top tier avatars, it can be quite good, but high quality avatars are extremely time consuming to create and thus expensive so only the biggest streamers tend to have those. Some agencies also force usage of less advanced agency-proprietary software to prevent talent from using the avatars without authorization.
Not quite the same as Vtuber avatars, but what you said about their software makes me think (hope) you might be able to answer a question I was wondering about the other day: is any software/models good enough yet to be able to replace the face of someone talking into a webcam with a different, photorealistic face - either that of a different existing person, or an entirely fictitious face - in real time, such that it could be used to pretend to be a different person on a live video call? Or, if not real time, how about for non-live videos, is there a tool that can do it well enough to be convincing without needing any manual editing?
And if the answer is no, how far away might it be?
(I'd be curious to play with it myself if such a thing exists and is publicly available, but the main reason I'd like to know is to keep an eye on how soon we might see faked video calls joining faked voice phone calls in the toolbox of financial scammers.)
It’s not something I’ve looked into so I’m not sure. VTuber software output can be set up to appear as a webcam which can be used in Zoom and such, so that’d be the closest that I know of.
It's a bit perplexing, but 1st gen VTubers were all 3D. They evolved through natural selection into current 2D forms, only slowly growing back supplemental 3D forms.
My guess as to why is that full 3D must have been extraneous cognitive load to viewers - xkcd wouldn't have been as popular as it is now if it had been drawn somehow by Rembrandt himself. It owes its success to Randall Munroe's minimalist art style. That kinds of things.
It's probably because high quality 3d is just much more expensive to do. You can easily do all sorts of effects in the constrained environment of a 2d model that take a lot more skill to pull off in 3d.
Plus, ultimately, the anime aesthetic is a 2d thing. It's a lot harder to make a 3d model look good in a 2d art style, as a ton of anime over the years have shown.
If someone is socializing in VRChat it would follow they are able to be social. So a bit of a non sequitur.
Would it be more accurate to say you have a categorical disdain for the way they are socializing? Why do you think that is (other than the obvious stuff, which seems to be more an anonymous internet thing than anything particular to VRChat)?
I'm genuinely curious because I see this attitude a lot and I don't understand it.
I have no issue with it if that’s your thing. The dozen or so times I tried it, I had the above experience. I deleted it and never looked back.
Others have had similar experiences. While others say it’s the best thing since the internet. Some people like ToFu. I find it bland and without flavor.
When asked “What are the general experiences”, I pulled from a few sources that corroborated mine and others experiences.
If the attitude of “This is bad” offends you, it is not my fault. Your personal tastes are not my fault. However, more and more reading can be done on the hellhole that is VRChat from others, from researchers, and from victims.
I stand by my sentiment. I will never see it in any light other than what it showed me. I choose not to.
As to the point about socializing. You are correct, they are indeed socializing. Again, research has shown that there’s levels to this, with engagement. Not having the social skills in the real world doesn’t mean they aren’t social online. You’re right. Have you been online lately in these lobbies? The verbal abuse and mental health issues are all over the spectrum. Socializing by reinforcement of mental illness isn’t what I would call healthy socialization.
Not saying they are all like that. I’m not a totalitarian. When the majority of experiences border on my own, I draw my conclusion. Until then, I assume it’s just me.
No offense, but you really can't possibly understand how bad this place is if you have never been in VRChat.
Picture a 30 something guy in a hotdog avatar telling children how he can't help be a pervert.
Picture playing a game of chess in a chess room that should be really cool for all ages. Then a drunk woman is telling the room about the blowjobs she has given. Of course you can hear by the voices that some are little kids talking.
If you put on a headset and go in VRChat right now, you too can have the same experience. Anyone who says this is not true is completely full of shit because everyone inside VRchat knows this almost like it is an inside joke.
I would never bag on someone for being socially awkward. I was so awkward as a teenager. Social awkwardness is not the problem at all.
Oh yea how about kids running around yelling the n word for no reason other than they can? That is standard.
If you never used modern VR, the immersion is incredible. That is what makes the VRChat experience so disturbing.
Most people with any sense avoid public instances. Most of the healthy interactions in VRC are almost certainly in highly curated Friends instances at the broadest and Invite or Invite+.
The VR raves though at least kind of work. You can do a lot visually with the medium and sound.
The problem is that generally VRChat is like a masked ball with a combination of alcoholics, repressed perverted losers, obnoxious personalities and children.
Anyone who downvotes this to me is suspect as being part of that ingroup.
It is one thing to be socially awkward. I was quite awkward when I was young too. VRChat is something else. Like the worst aspects of a 90s chat room but with immersion and real voices.
Some Japanese people use avatars to be v-tubers, and post talking head content on youtube or similar while mailing privacy. In some cases talent agencies require them to use avatars, which remain the property of the agency.
Cheats aside, are there any competitive games that include Uber-like rating system? Meaning that you'd need to provide feedback whether you'd play with your opponents/teammates again after a game.
Overwatch (1) had something like that. Not sure if Overwatch (2) still has it, or how it functions now.
In higher ELO, people would target good players with "avoid player"^1, effectively soft-banning those people from match making because the pool was small enough. They would still get put in matches eventually but their queues would blow out a lot.
From memory it did not have an explicit "match me with this person" button, but you could thumbs up players in the post-match podium as well as endorse them which may have soft-factored into matching you with them again.
\1 I think it was called this. It was a general "bad attitude" marker, not a "bad team mate" or "bad opponent" marker.
Overwatch (1 and 2) had/have an avoid system, but it only avoids as teammate. Overwatch 1 use to at the very beginning have a system to avoid a player as a whole and they wouldn't be matched in your game at all, but that was remove really early on, as it is easily abusable against good player (I don't want them on the enemy team, they are too good so just get rid of them entirely) and there was a report system anyway for other kinda bad stuff.
Then there is just the endorsement system, which is just a level from 1-5 and you can endorse people you liked playing with. It doesn't really do much in matchmaking but you can't do certain things if you are below a certain level (I forgot what all it was but you can't make (public?) custom games if you are too low and I think text and voice chat could also get disabled if you are too low).
Overwatch 2 has a simplified endorsement system. It's just an optional thumbs up instead of endorsement for 1 of 3 reasons (roughly something like sportsmanship, good teammate, or good leader).
The avoid system is now more flexible. You have 3 pin slots for people you never really want to see on your team again, plus 12(?) regular avoid slots to avoid people for a week at a time like usual. In situations where too many avoid conflicts occur and the matchmaker struggles to create a match (e.g. high ELO), it will start to ignore people's avoid slots in order of (last regular avoid > first regular avoid > pin slots), i think.
Yes to some extent, I believe “The Finals” asked to rate how each match went in earlier seasons. But that stopped now that the game is more mature and feeling well balanced.
Cod MW2019 would occasionally ask, but once every X game IIRC.
Another anecdote: some gyms nowadays require an app to check-in and to get the door open. For me, gym is for relaxing, which also means no phone. The one I joined sounded slightly apologetic for charging me 10€ for a physical keycard.
If their keycard is NFC/RFID, they might consider adding existing NFC GUIDs (e.g. expired transit ticket or small tag on keychain) to their system, so that customers can use a single NFC tag for access to multiple venues.
What about using CoW file system snapshots and then mounting it on overlayfs as the lowerdir while having the agent's working directory be the upper directory? I wonder how the agent reacts to finding some files being immutable.
You want your minimum FPS to be your refresh rate. You won't notice when you're over it, but you likely will if you go below it.
In Counter-Strike, smoke grenades used to (and still do, to an extent) dip your FPS into a slideshow. You want to ensure your opponent can't exploit these things.
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