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teethflavoured · 2 months

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new guy i like just dropped

#teethdraws #i took him in my rp server hes growing on me #splatoon #splatoon art #splatoon fanart #splatoon 3 #splatoon fandom #splatbands #wet floor #kagi

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mostlysignssomeportents · 24 days

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Too big to care

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in BOSTON with Randall "XKCD" Munroe (Apr 11), then PROVIDENCE (Apr 12), and beyond!

Remember the first time you used Google search? It was like magic. After years of progressively worsening search quality from Altavista and Yahoo, Google was literally stunning, a gateway to the very best things on the internet.

Today, Google has a 90% search market-share. They got it the hard way: they cheated. Google spends tens of billions of dollars on payola in order to ensure that they are the default search engine behind every search box you encounter on every device, every service and every website:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

Not coincidentally, Google's search is getting progressively, monotonically worse. It is a cesspool of botshit, spam, scams, and nonsense. Important resources that I never bothered to bookmark because I could find them with a quick Google search no longer show up in the first ten screens of results:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Even after all that payola, Google is still absurdly profitable. They have so much money, they were able to do a $80 billion stock buyback. Just a few months later, Google fired 12,000 skilled technical workers. Essentially, Google is saying that they don't need to spend money on quality, because we're all locked into using Google search. It's cheaper to buy the default search box everywhere in the world than it is to make a product that is so good that even if we tried another search engine, we'd still prefer Google.

This is enshittification. Google is shifting value away from end users (searchers) and business customers (advertisers, publishers and merchants) to itself:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/#apor-locksmith

And here's the thing: there are search engines out there that are so good that if you just try them, you'll get that same feeling you got the first time you tried Google.

When I was in Tucson last month on my book-tour for my new novel The Bezzle, I crashed with my pals Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden. I've know them since I was a teenager (Patrick is my editor).

We were sitting in his living room on our laptops – just like old times! – and Patrick asked me if I'd tried Kagi, a new search-engine.

Teresa chimed in, extolling the advanced search features, the "lenses" that surfaced specific kinds of resources on the web.

I hadn't even heard of Kagi, but the Nielsen Haydens are among the most effective researchers I know – both in their professional editorial lives and in their many obsessive hobbies. If it was good enough for them…

I tried it. It was magic.

No, seriously. All those things Google couldn't find anymore? Top of the search pile. Queries that generated pages of spam in Google results? Fucking pristine on Kagi – the right answers, over and over again.

That was before I started playing with Kagi's lenses and other bells and whistles, which elevated the search experience from "magic" to sorcerous.

The catch is that Kagi costs money – after 100 queries, they want you to cough up $10/month ($14 for a couple or $20 for a family with up to six accounts, and some kid-specific features):

https://kagi.com/settings?p=billing_plan&plan=family

I immediately bought a family plan. I've been using it for a month. I've basically stopped using Google search altogether.

Kagi just let me get a lot more done, and I assumed that they were some kind of wildly capitalized startup that was running their own crawl and and their own data-centers. But this morning, I read Jason Koebler's 404 Media report on his own experiences using it:

https://www.404media.co/friendship-ended-with-google-now-kagi-is-my-best-friend/

Koebler's piece contained a key detail that I'd somehow missed:

When you search on Kagi, the service makes a series of “anonymized API calls to traditional search indexes like Google, Yandex, Mojeek, and Brave,” as well as a handful of other specialized search engines, Wikimedia Commons, Flickr, etc. Kagi then combines this with its own web index and news index (for news searches) to build the results pages that you see. So, essentially, you are getting some mix of Google search results combined with results from other indexes.

In other words: Kagi is a heavily customized, anonymized front-end to Google.

The implications of this are stunning. It means that Google's enshittified search-results are a choice. Those ad-strewn, sub-Altavista, spam-drowned search pages are a feature, not a bug. Google prefers those results to Kagi, because Google makes more money out of shit than they would out of delivering a good product:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/2/24117976/best-printer-2024-home-use-office-use-labels-school-homework

No wonder Google spends a whole-ass Twitter every year to make sure you never try a rival search engine. Bottom line: they ran the numbers and figured out their most profitable course of action is to enshittify their flagship product and bribe their "competitors" like Apple and Samsung so that you never try another search engine and have another one of those magic moments that sent all those Jeeves-askin' Yahooers to Google a quarter-century ago.

One of my favorite TV comedy bits is Lily Tomlin as Ernestine the AT&T operator; Tomlin would do these pitches for the Bell System and end every ad with "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company":

https://snltranscripts.jt.org/76/76aphonecompany.phtml

Speaking of TV comedy: this week saw FTC chair Lina Khan appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It was amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaDTiWaYfcM

The coverage of Khan's appearance has focused on Stewart's revelation that when he was doing a show on Apple TV, the company prohibited him from interviewing her (presumably because of her hostility to tech monopolies):

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/apple-got-caught-censoring-its-own

But for me, the big moment came when Khan described tech monopolists as "too big to care."

What a phrase!

Since the subprime crisis, we're all familiar with businesses being "too big to fail" and "too big to jail." But "too big to care?" Oof, that got me right in the feels.

Because that's what it feels like to use enshittified Google. That's what it feels like to discover that Kagi – the good search engine – is mostly Google with the weights adjusted to serve users, not shareholders.

Google used to care. They cared because they were worried about competitors and regulators. They cared because their workers made them care:

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/4/18295933/google-cancels-ai-ethics-board

Google doesn't care anymore. They don't have to. They're the search company.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

#pluralistic #john stewart #the daily show #apple #monopoly #lina khan #ftc #too big to fail #too big to jail #monopolism #trustbusting #antitrust #search #enshittification #kagi #google

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brisskwinds · 5 days

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out of context splatoon rp ft. @soveeee as Jessika, @teethflavoured as Kagi, @neopeixes as Aachin and me as tao blu <3

#real housewives of inkopolis type shit in here man #i put too much effort into this GOD #my art #splatoon #yoko a #yoko and the gold bazookas #tao blu #aachin #jessika s #jessika splatoon #kagi #kagi splatoon #shoalposting

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planetpanini · 4 months

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SRL Musicology here, we’re thrilled to announce the long-awaited return of Wet floor! They’ve brung their ink-fueled tunes from inkopolis to the splatlands.

#splatoon #art #splatoon fanart #splatoon art #wet floor #wet floor splatoon #splat2n #splatbands #mizole #ryan #kazami #kagi #tsumabushi

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ilybigman · 1 year

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SPLATBANDS DOODLES!!!!!!!!! had a fun sesh w my sibling @mudkipking where we told eachother to draw different splatbands characters

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thegentlemancollects · 9 months

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#KaGi #Redhead

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arogustus · 29 days

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Splatband Analysis - Wet Floor

(Disclaimer: This analysis is based on what I get out of looking into the character descriptions we have of the splatband characters. If you disagree with what I say, that is fine, we are all beheld to our opinions. Just don't be a jerk about it.)

Watch out, the floor is wet. Cause I’m about to spill the tea on Wet Floor all over this floor. Get it? You probably do.

Wet Floor was the Squid Squad of Splatoon 2, what with the previous one falling apart due to the leader and the bassist attempting to kill each other. They’re not a band I think about often, but hopefully this analysis changes it. It helps that, as the main band, they get privileges such as a section in Splatune 2 where they get interviewed, meaning actual dialogue from these people! Which also reminded me that I missed the one for Squid Squad… I think once I’m done I’ll do a compilation post of all information I missed for some of the bands, and maybe even some stuff you guys pointed out!

The band

Wet Floor formed through the magic of social media connections, and were evidently recently formed before the events of Splatoon 2. At the time they weren’t used to crowds or live performances. Their main motivation is to spread more kinds of music in a world dominated by pop stars. That part is said in Kagi’s twitter blurb, but from the interview it’s clear the opinion is shared between the whole band, even if at different levels. They use docs to write their songs. The process we’re given is that someone writes a riff on the doc, and everyone adds to it on their own time. Compared to Squid Squad, there’s a pretty clear level of communication going on between the group, they all seem pretty close, and just have fun together in their work. Outside of Tsumabushi, none of them are morning people.

Kagi

Kagi here’s the founder, and really the one with the whole motivation of restoring indie dignity to Inkopolis. Wet Floor are his like minded peers, discovered thanks to social networking. Likely he wouldn’t have met them any other way considering he seems pretty shy. He prefers being in a studio over performing, and prefers the others take the lead over him.

Rather famously, his skin is a particularly unnatural tone of teal compared to the natural skin colors we see in other inklings. Unlike Yoko, who has her mutation addressed, no attention is brought to it anywhere for Kagi. It might have something to do with how Inklings look when young, where they’re a uniform color of their ink before eventually gaining their kid forms. Maybe Kagi’s mutation made it so that his body never formed fully? It probably bears noting he also lacks an eyemask too. What an enigma.

Mizole

Compared to most Splatband characters, Mizole’s descriptions lay out a fair amount of his personality in front of us. He’s shrewd, cynical and prone to making cutting remarks, and is mainly motivated by a desire to either subvert or exceed people’s expectations. Despite that, he does get along with his bandmates as seen in the interview, he banters with them without being actively rude to them. That said, his relationship with Ryan is more vitriolic. The two work together, but are prone to bickering due to conflicting viewpoints (Ryan is a fan of Squid Squad, he’s an enemy of Squid Squad, though obviously there’s more to it than just that), a frequent enough occurrence that Kazami is perfectly fine watching the two argue without having to intervene. Again, outside of that, the interview shows the two do get along, and music wise, when they work together, the results are magical.

He’s got a personal rivalry with Squid Squad, which influences him more than he wants to admit. We don’t know if Squid Squad were aware of this (they were busy with other stuff), so it’s likely to be entirely one-sided. His name, Mizole, comes from Mizore, the word for shaved ice. Get it? Cause he looks like a cone of shaved ice? His hair is at least semi-transparent, since you can see his eyebrows, not to mention an almost snow-white skin tone. Is it a condition or perhaps something regarding his species of squid?

Ryan

Ryan is our last inkling of the band, and co-vocalist with Mizole. She’s a faithful follower of the church of punk rock, quote the Haikara Walker, explaining her style and interests. A particularly big fan of Squid Squad, which causes friction between herself and Mizole. That seems to be what her descriptions focus on, her relationship with Mizole, so we don’t get much about her outside of this belief. It wouldn’t be hard to view her as an opposite of Mizole, since that would naturally make the two contrast each other more Diss-Pair style, but that’s speculatory talk. Sorry girl. Not much else I can get out of you.

Kazami

Unlike the others, I like her english name, Candi. It’s cute. She’s the youthful type, someone who comes off as “spontaneous and right-brained”. Right-brained here means she comes off as creative and artistic, but secretly she’s very serious about her performance. She’s very self-critical about her performance when she listens to her recordings. I mean, read this quote of hers from Haikara Walker, she says, “That didn’t sound cool, ‘cause I sucked so bad.” What the hell.. She might have self-esteem issues, but she refuses to let the others know about it, probably to maintain that cheerful vibe she gives off. That’s kinda sad… At the very least she’s having fun when she plays, especially when Ryan and Mizole bicker, so she loves herself a little chaos. It’s her favorite pastime.

She and Tsumabushi have a friendly rivalry going with each other, and are overall pretty close, to the point of even secretly training with each other. Ooh la la.

Tsumabushi

Lastly, the bassist of the band, and an archetypical one, I.E. he’s a supporter. He’s described specifically as a big brother. He’s probably the type who wakes everyone up during mornings, especially since he’s outright stated to be the only one to work well during them. Goes at his own pace, so probably a relaxed personality type. A very talented bassist who only needs to glance at the sheet music once or hear a tune to get it down. I wonder if he has arms?

—

Wet Floor is not my favorite band, but I’m beginning to see their appeal now. My main criticism is that none of them have gotten involved in any kind of drama since their debut. How can you be the lead band of a game when you haven’t committed an act of plagiarism or tried to kill each other, come on people, step it up.

Anyways, if you guys have any questions or wanna point out something I missed, I’m gonna open asks to let y'all toss your thoughts at me. See you guys next week.

#splatoon #splatbands #splatband analysis #wet floor #kagi #mizole #ryan #kazami #tsumabushi #my work

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justn0t · 8 months

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