#tech features

[martin-james2121]

Apple may consider changing the name of Apple ID to Apple Account this year, with an expected announcement at WWDC

In the near future, Apple is looking forward to renaming its “Apple ID” to “Apple Account”, aligning with Android users’ reference to ‘Google Account”, as users will access services like iCloud and the App Store through their designated Apple Account. Reports from MacRumors indicate a system-wide rebranding to “Apple Account” in 2024, a possibility reinforced by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman for the coming year.

Mark Gurman, in his most recent newsletter, hints at Apple's intention to rename Apple ID to Apple Account, scheduled for later in 2024, accompanying significant software updates such as iOS 18 and watchOS 11. Apple could potentially unveil this transition at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, allowing developers enough time to adapt their apps before the autumn launch.

It is noteworthy that Apple currently uses the term “Apple Account balance” to denote funds added to an Apple ID, indicating a shift towards a comprehensive name alteration. Gurman's report, which references an internal “Apple Account” team, provides additional weight to the rebranding initiative.

Although the exact motive behind the change is not yet evident, “Apple Account” presents a clearer and more descriptive title as compared to “Apple ID.” The transition away from the familiar “Apple ID,” which has been in use for over two decades, will undoubtedly carry considerable weight for users. Nevertheless, the new designation likely seeks to more accurately portray the account's capabilities and the extensive range of services it encompasses.

iOS 18, An Important Upgrade and Interface Revamp

Amid discussions surrounding WWDC and upcoming updates, attention is also directed towards Apple's anticipated OS update – iOS 18. As per Mark Gurman, this release could signify one of the most substantial iPhone OS updates in Apple's history. Gurman discloses that iOS 18 is poised to unveil an array of innovative features, among them an AI transformation referred to as “Project Graymatter.”

To Read More Click here...

#WWDC 23 #Apple #Apple ID #tech news #tech updates #tech blogs #tech features #new technology #new version #iOS 18

[porschechantilly]

As with all things Porsche, the technological features available in modern Porsche models are certain to impress. Let’s take a look at some of the best tech features you can enjoy in a Porsche today. And for a closer look, visit our team at Porsche Chantilly without delay.

#porsche chantilly #tech features #chantilly va

[fellthemarvelous]

Echo appreciation (the one you want on your side when the odds are stacked against you)

#the bad batch #tbb spoilers #arc trooper echo #clone trooper echo #echo tbb #also featuring #arc trooper fives #obi-wan kenobi #ahsoka tano #captain rex #anakin skywalker #tbb crosshair #tbb tech #tbb hunter #tbb wrecker #captain howzer #riyo chuchi #tbb omega #i just really love echo #okay? #domino squad #star wars the clone wars #the clone wars

[collophora]

Hunter doodle in some hidden layer when I was figuring how to draw him

#star wars #star wars the bad batch #the bad batch #the bad batch fanart #tbb #tbb fanart #tbb hunter #how to draw him: simple! #you think really hard of Sylvester Stallone in Rambo I #and of Solid Snake in MGS2 #All of this while keeping in mind Temuera Morrison's features #easy right #(no) #next time we'll figure how to draw Tech #like and follow for more #Okay time to sleep bye

[hira492]

Trying to figure out how to draw the boys

#myart #the bad batch #tbb #sketch #star wars #clone trooper tech #sw #tcw #tbb hunter #sargeant hunter #trying to keep their canon features but making them less whitewashed #just some little boys #i love them a lot #made these at 2am yesterday

[crunchworldsupreme]

FinFin has been thinking thoughts [Audio recommended]

#you love finfin 🔪 #he is your best friend #come and see him #Adore him fr. what a little guy #but also he gives me feelings about the past and the future and everything that's going on in between #and the relationship that people have with art and technology and their ideas for the future #and why they make things and for who #like yes. ok. finfin was just capitalizing on a trend #but even in doing that they made something really unique and charming with lasting appeal #he's more than just a marketable product... and he was even then #he was a genuine curiosity for the tech featured in the game #it doesn't actually work the way it pretends to 😂 but still. The effort was there #fin fin #finfin #fin fin on teo the magic planet #windows 98 #windows xp #microsoft agent #I should have spent longer cleaning this up. It's still pretty rough #but it's one of those things you can tweak forever and never be happy with so :/

[eriexplosion]

I don't get complaining about resurrections or improbable survival in Star Wars.

Like, it happens a lot and not just with Tech, there's this big push that 'death needs to mean something' in Star Wars and a story needs to have an Edge to it and Stakes can only come from killing someone. But like... softening death in Star Wars by using force ghosts and bringing characters back and letting them survive things that should have killed them is something that goes all the way back to Lucas and the original trilogy. It's baked into the fabric of the franchise and that's not a bad thing, just a part of its identity.

There's a couple more realistic entries into the series sure, but Star Wars is not a story built on a gritty base. It can tackle serious, it can tackle dark, but it's still built on a more hopeful center, and sometimes that means death doesn't stick like it would in the real world. It's okay to not like that, but when you come to a franchise it's just not reasonable to demand that something that's been built in since the start Cease because it's not what you want to see. Death is probably always going to be kind of cheap in Star Wars, and there's always going to be unrealistic survivals because it's just. Part of what makes it Star Wars. Getting mad that the Star Wars show is probably going to be Star Wars-y about death is like going to Paris and being mad that you encountered the French. Like yeah you ran into hope in dark times at the hope in dark times store, what did you expect to find?

#eri talks #star wars #people are just SO mad at the thought that Tech might come back #And I think it really sets people up for dissatisfaction when they expect a core feature of the series to just Stop Happening

[worshiptheglitch]

Today's "AI" chatbots are no smarter than Siri. They only seem smarter because they're not doing anything useful. We notice when Siri fails because we ask it to do meaningful tasks. When we ask it to turn off the lights, for example, and it doesn't, we notice.

But we ask comparatively little of other chatbots, and they give us even less in return. This makes it easy for them to fail without us noticing or even caring. We don't notice because they don't matter.

I love this bit 👆 from Apple's Craig Federighi where he's kind of disgusted by the idea of having meandering conversations with a chatbot in order to get something done.

The "AI" should be doing the work for you. I think Apple knows how hard that actually is, because they've been working at it for a long time with very limited success. They know how hard it is to do because they're trying to use the tech to do meaningful things that actually serve people.

The difference is Apple taking on the burden of trying to make this tech do something, versus basically everyone else putting the burden on us. We're meant to contort to the inconsistent ramblings of their raw tech because if it was a real product that people depended on, we would ridicule it.

Just like we ridicule Siri.

#apple #ai #chatbots #open ai #chatgpt #products vs features #tech #craig federighi #siri

[faislittlewhiteraven]

Been having some ISaT tech level and timeline (as in 'when backstory things happened') thoughts and want to ramble a bit:

Tech

ISaT's setting is based on your classic sword and sorcery fantasy JRPG so its easy to assume that tech wise everything is 'fantasy medieval' and call it a day but consider:

Body Craft is at bare minimum is magic sex changing surgery (earliest known equivent in our world dating to 1930) that any old person can learn to do safely on themselves in only a few months, and more likely has many many broader applications like regular old surgery, the 'combat healing' Mira and Sif use, etc.

Cameras and photos are rare enough that Odile comments on it (namely she's happy the group get a photo in the House due to them being 'so rare') yet are also common enough that everyone in the party knows about them and doesn't question the existence of a camera beyond being surprised that the mirror was one. (In our world cameras date back to the 19th century, with the earliest manufacturing of them being in 1839). 

Printing presses and ways to make plenty of paper to feed those presses given absolutely everyone in this game can read, expects everyone else to know how to, and both mass produced book series and newspapers are a thing. (Note: Printing presses have existed since waaaay back but it's the mass paper manufacturing that makes newspapers and The Cursing of Chateu Castle possible that really has my eyebrows raised here, especially since neither Siffrin or Odile find either odd in any way, indicating such things are common everywhere, and while newspapers have been around since 1604 in our world, mass produced fantasy books didn't really take off until the start of the 20th century).

Food production and storage: despite being in the middle of a national disaster that almost certainly cut off trade networks and access to most suppliers for literal months now, Bonnie, a small child, is able to easily get their hands on fresh Pineapple, curry ingredients (for samosa), potatoes, plantains etc with no issues or anyone commenting on this being unusual or lucky. Oh and the only character who even brings up the concept of potential starvation is the Fishing One, and only in a sort of 'we're not at risk now but sooner or later...' kinda way due to noticing that the fish they fish up for fun are disappearing and likely being frozen. So yeah, that heavily implies Vaugarde has very good food storage tech/Craft (possibly better than ours), and likely also good food production and harvesting tech/skills also.

The Island's incredible knowledge of the stars: while the oldest known orrery in our world is dated from around 205 to 87 BC (ancient Greek, earth centric model), the fact Sif -who would've learnt this as a child/teen- is so very certain that stars are big balls of fire made up of gas is interesting as that's something our world couldn't prove the theory of until around the 1900s (note: it'd been theorized a LONG time but Sif talks like its complete facts to them . Additionally the earliest existing record of a telescope in our world dates to a 1608 patent and we see one of those in game.

Post posting EDIT: A wonderful user qds-place pointed out that Mirabelle has anti-anxiety medication in her room. This is in both ISaT and SAaP and though we're not sure what form the medication takes (pills? Valium? Megitech esc Craft boosters???) the fact they specifically have 'anti anxiety' medication at all (as opposed to idk dragging Mira off and drugging her through the gills) is kind of impressive and if it IS modern anti anxiety pills those could be as recent in creation as the 1950s! So um. Some high levels of tech implied in chemistry there <3

So... yeah. All this, plus the fact that the highest tech implied area, The Island, literally specialised in the study/Craft of turning wishes into reality (for a long enough time period that Wish Craft is culturally so ingrained in the King and Sif that they do it without thinking and it seems intertwined with their nation's religion) has been completely erased from memory to the point anything heavily associated with them has been forgotten, and also we only ever see Dormont aka a little village well away from the cities, it's not hard to conclude that you can basically justify giving the ISaT world any level of tech you want, so long as you lock any of the truly 'setting breaking' stuff like planes and rockets behind The Island's forgetting curse (I would've said trains too but thinking about it trains were invented in 1802 so it's honestly easy to imagine that they totally exist in the ISaT setting/Vaugarde but aren't ever on screen because rail is way too dangerous to consider using while the Curse is active and potentially time freezing things on the tracks).

Side note: We know absolutely nothing about Vaugarde's transport system but as a fan of fantasy RPGs it is honestly a travesty I have yet to see a fic that has flying dragons/wyverns or other fantasy mounts in setting. Like, ok yes, the party would probably have wanted to use those but maybe they don't like the Curse and fled? Maybe the King's Curse targeted them first? Maybe all their handlers dropped the heroes off in Dormont and said 'Well Saviors it's been fun, but well me and Scales here are off to Poteria until things wrap up so best of luck to you' before buggering off?

This isn't really a serious complaint just. Me reminding myself/potentially other fanwork writers out there that there's a lot about the setting we just don't know about and limiting all travel to walking, horse drawn carriage and boat is not actually required. (Also please mix up travelling to the Island. Boats are a wonderful classic and have great thematic vibes for Sif's original leaving of the Island but like. Imagine the sheer in-universe wtf of the memories of The Island suddenly coming back and people on the north coast suddenly realising there's a massive bridge, subway or underwater tunnel leading there that everyone just forgot about - potentially filled with all kinds of Sadnesses that need taking down. Or Warp Panels in a House of Change, idk XD).

Timeline

Canon notes first:

Bonnie is a preteen (8 to 12), Mira and Isa are in their early to mid 20s (with Isa slightly older), Sif is late 20s to 30, and Odile is 40+ Nille is stated to be around 18 to 20.

Siffrin ran away from home when they were a teenager (13 to 17? 18?) and this is heavily implied to be when the Island was Forgotten.

Bonnie (in ISaT specifically*) says that Nille told them that when it happened all the adults were talking about it, hence why they think The Island is close to their village. *In Start Again a Prologue, Bonnie says that they themself remember the adults talking about the Island disappearing, which er. Is a bit impossible given they likely weren't even born yet when that happened but that can be explained away by AU differences, InsertDisc5 still finalising details between SAaP and ISaT, and/or OG Siffrin having been in the loops so long they weren't actually listening when Bonnie was talking and just 'scripted' in their head something 'close enough' to what Bonnie was saying to get the idea (note: mentioned that idea before in my post here on the differences between the House and King in Start Again vs In Stars and Time for anyone curious so er please feel free to give that a read if you haven't already).

Odile mentions remembering 'when it happened' as well and has been 'travelling for years'.

The King 'appeared out of nowhere' sometime in his adulthood, and lived in the city of Corbeaux for a few years before he became the King.

The King became the King as was freezing people in time long enough before his attack on the House of Dormont that everyone inside knew he was coming, there were a wall's worth of newspaper articles about him, and everyone was expecting Euphrasie to defeat him.

Mirabelle's quest began 'almost a year ago' and Sif lost their eye 'recently'.

Thoughts on the above:

Calculating when The Island was forgotten:

Sif being mid 20s to 30 and having run away from home as a teen means that The Island has to have been forgotten somewhere between 9 to 17 years ago with nine only possible if he ran away at age 17 and is only age 26 now, and seventeen being the far opposite if he ran at age 13 and is currently 30.

To narrow down the timeline: Given Sif ran away from home because he 'didn't want to eat his veggies' and 'just wanted to scare [his] parents a little bit' it's probably safe to assume Siffrin was likely on the younger end of the teen spectrum (teens run off all the time sure but with loving parents and over veggies? That screams 'kid who has not yet learned that freaking out the parents will get their ass grounded and/or yelled at a LOT and is therefore best saved for doing fun forbidden stuff that ideally the parents will never find out about' XD) Additionally given Siffrin can't remember his age/birthday etc but Isabeau outright says near the beginning of the game "But you're older than most of the people here?" meaning Sif must be visibly older than Isa or Mira, so he's probably closer to 30 than not.

Those alone would imply the Island likely disappeared closer to the '17 years ago' side of things BUT Nille (tops 20 years old) told Bonnie that "[the Island's disappearance] was all the adults would talk about for ages" and kids usually can't remember anything prior to 4 years of age so with that in mind...

I'd say The Island most likely disappeared between 13 to 16 years ago.

Nille stuff:

This is more a general mention but. Nille is tops 20 years old. Bonnie is between 8 and 12 and doesn't remember their parents at all.

This means Nille ran away with Bonnie and gained emancipation and custody of Bonnie (if Vaugarde has formalised that kind of legal stuff) while she was at most 12 years old herself and could have in theory been as young as 6..!

Regardless, it's very likely the original home situation was that bad, Nille deserves a ton of credit for raising Bonnie as well as she has and I'd say it's very VERY likely she had a lot of help from villagers in Bambosche and/or the local House of Change in doing so. ...But also Bonnie is very adamantly 'my sister and village' and not 'my sister and [specific names who live with us]' so there's clearly by the time Bonnie was 4 or so they were living in their own place so... Yeah. Lotta drive for independence there too it seems (so the party might have more trouble adopting Nille into their group post ISaT than Bonnie might expect).

King stuff:

Already an adult 13 to 16 years ago so at bare minimum 33. Given his vibe probably much older though.

Newspapers get printed pretty quick though for there to be so much speculation and research done into his background so quick, either Vaugarde has some form of fast messaging system (something like a Chappe telegraph on top of the Houses of Change? Odile I think does mention that they'll have a message sent to let Nille know they'll be returning Bonnie...) or the King was freezing stuff for IDK around a month or two before reaching Dormont? Alas can't find out how long it takes to walk across all of France out very easily (I'm sure the numbers are out there but my brain is pudding rn) but if we had those numbers we could probably make some guesstimates based off the rough sketched map of Vaugarde InsertDisk5 did... Which I would link but apparently the tumblr post I had it linked on has been deleted???? 'wails at this very unhappy development'

Mira's journey and Sif's eye:

We really don't know a lot but almost a year ago gives us somewhere around 9 to 11 months to spread the journey out along and after eye removal surgery the patient can out and about as soon as 2 to 6 weeks after, maybe sooner with magic healing (though full recovery/growing used to the changed spacial awareness -which Sif clearly does not have- probably can't be sped up and takes around 3 to 6 months) so um. I'd guestimate Sif's eye injury is really recent; like two months ago tops recent. ...Which sorta explains a lot of why Bonnie is not dealing with it right now and also why the others might be trying to avoid bringing it up (since Sif clearly loves avoiding the issue but they haven't yet realised that maybe they really should bring it up even if it annoys them anyway?)

Odile with some Ka Bue speculation:

When it comes to The Island, how did Odile, presumably living in Ka Bue at the time, remember 'when it happened'? Was the Island well known enough even on the other side of the world that it's disappearance made waves? Or was Odile herself or someone she's close to paying attention to the region? (Like maybe her dad or a friend is/was into politics or trade, keeping up with overseas news and got concerned it could happen to Ka Bue? I'd say 'I remember when it happened' line implies it was more immediate knowledge than being informed by a messenger much later though...)

As for Odile's 'years of travel' I have to wonder, what's left behind for her in Ka Bue? She brings up going back there quite a bit, might just miss home and possibly her father if he's still alive, but given it took her years to get here for something so personal rather than idk 'materially rewarding' I think Odile might have some kinda family estate or something back in Ka Bue... Something she wasn't worried about potentially losing while far away, but solid enough to want to return to, beyond her father who she'd definitely want to see again if he's still around. (...But given how open she is to chilling about Vaugarde a few more months with the others, I really don't think he is alive, since well, given their respective ages and travel between Vaugarde and Ka Bue apparently taking years, there'd definitely an uncomfortably high chance of him passing away while she's gone and that seems like the thing that'd stress Odile out so... Yeah. Probably got an estate in Ka Bue she'd like to take the Family to visit/possibly sell off if she decides she'd like to live with them in Vaugarde so... Just my off the cuff headcanoning here and hoping that gives others ideas or something).

---

Anyway that's all the ramble I've got in me so... yeah! Hope this was interesting and useful for those needing a bit of a 'possible tech'/timeline calcs breakdown for the Island + a few more vague things and um. Probably will post a long winding ramble about my attempt at a ISaT Selkie AU fic I've been working on next <3 (Not to be confused with looped-140-and-counting's already existing and quite wonderful Selkie Siffrin AU which already has a completed oneshot fic, a snippet of sequel, two snippets of prequel/Sif flashbacking and I believe a comic too, all of which I highly recommend <3)

#isat #isat spoilers #useful notes #in stars and time #speculation ramble #isat timeline notes #hope some of my isat fans out there find this useful for their fanworks <3 #I know its pretty basic stuff but I find having things laid out clearly handy for working out backstory and what to change in AUs so yeah = #i link interesting things. read selkie sif fic rec plz #isat nille #isat siffrin #isat bonnie #start again a prologue mention! (sorry there's not more than that XD) #thinking too hard about what I can and can't get away with in the big beautiful void that is 'left open to speculation' worldbuilding <3 #the forgotten island allows so many shenanigans people are not taking enough advantage of and I will call this out XD #also isat features a surprising amount of 'more modern-ish' tech or magitech that can basically do the same or better so like #Also had way too much fun wiki walking and going 'ohhh that's more recent than I thought. Cool!' and would highly recommend it #please ramble back to me your own random thoughts and notes as I love them even if I'm never sure as whether or not (or how) I should reply

[eightiesfan]

Electric Dreams (Dir. Steve Barron - 1984)

#electric dreams #80s movies #steve barron #lenny von dohlen #virginia madsen #80s computer #80s music #philip oakey #giorgio moroder #80's movies #walkman #80's #1980s #vintage hifi #80s tech #80s aesthetic #80s design #vintage tech #audio stereo #creature features

[wreywrites]

The Sniper of Old Pabu

Summer of Bad Batch Week 1

Prompts: Water Gun Fight & "It's not what you think."

A/N: Decided to write little scenes and snippets in and around my current WIP "Shattered." I promise I'm working on it, but in the meantime, enjoy Summer of Bad Batch and all the Omega & Boys & Zara shenanigans. Warnings: None, it be fluff AO3

Echo dropped behind the crumbling wall. Missed shots plastered the brick behind and above him, where his head had been only seconds before. Footsteps pounded toward him. He raised his blaster and faced the corner, finger on a hair trigger. With a scuffle of scraping gravel, Omega skidded around the corner and dropped to a crouch next to him.

He heaved out a relieved breath and lowered his blaster. “Thought you might be—”

“I know,” she panted, pushing sweaty hair back off her forehead. “I thought about whistling, but then they’d know our signal.”

“So you risked it?”

Shouts echoed through the old compound.

“It’s usually not a problem,” Omega hissed back. “When Zara’s here, and I can just—you know—think at her, and she tells you not to shoot.”

“She’s coming back, right?”

Omega twisted around and peeked over the wall, ducking back down quickly as three more shots hit the wall behind her. “Yeah, yeah, she just didn’t know how long it would be when she left. Guess the Protectors—”

“They play fast and loose these days, with no throne to protect.”

“Should we be there? Since we’re Mandalorians too?”

Echo snorted. “We’re not the right kind of Mandalorians. Well…” he frowned, listening to the shouts and shots a few buildings away, trying to decide who was winning, “We’re not necessarily the wrong kind of Mandalorians, especially if Zara speaks for us—”

“She told me she could adopt us,” Omega giggled, “but that would make… things… weird.”

“What things?” Echo feigned innocence. “Things like none of our names sounding good with Rau? Wrecker Rau?” He shuddered.

“Omega Rau sounds good. And it’s not like any of your names sound more awkward than Zara Rau.”

“That’s fair.”

The compound fell quiet and Echo peered over the wall. He came back down with a frown.

“All gone?”

“All gone.”

“Huh. I wonder—” Omega cut off with a shocked yelp.

Echo, fully aware of his occasional shortcomings as a brother/father/mother figure, left her for dead and scrambled back around the crumbling wall the way he had come.

“Coward!” Omega laughed after him, slumping dramatically over the wall, the back of her shirt soaked with water.

“Yep!”

“Avenge meeeee!” she wailed in the throes of a badly-acted death scene.

“Will do, kid.”

Confident he had cover from whoever had sniped Omega—undoubtedly Crosshair—Echo looked toward the rest of the old market district—Pabu’s new official water gun and laser tag arena. Hunter was sprawled dramatically against the old burned-out pastry shop, chatting quietly with Wrecker, whose boots were just visible behind the old ice cream stand.

Hunter glanced up at Echo, then gestured between Wrecker and himself. “We’re both dead.”

Echo nodded. “As you were then.”

Wrecker sat up and leaned around the ice cream stand just far enough to give Echo a not-entirely-sincere salute, then flopped back down. “Should still sell ice cream out of this place,” he grumbled.

Hunter nodded as Echo jogged off in a crouch. “Maybe delivery-style. You get shot, they send a runner in with your consolation ice cream.”

Wrecker gasped. “We could train Batcher to run ice cream!”

“Yes!” Omega chimed from across the square. “Lyana and I will start tonight!”

Chuckling, Echo rounded the corner and crept up the stairs. With Hunter and Wrecker out as well as Omega, that left one member of each team—him, Tech, and Crosshair. He was sure Crosshair was sniping from the roof of the bar, but where Tech was—especially if he hadn’t been there to watch Hunter’s back—

Echo tripped as he rounded the corner, falling forward hard onto something definitely not stairs. Two shots hit the wall where he had been. Swearing, he shrank lower and hauled Tech into a sitting position in front of him to block two more shots that came from Crosshair’s rifle, very visible from here.

“Come on, help me out a little,” Echo grunted.

“That would be against the regulations,” Tech said, letting his head loll to the other side. “Per the rules of the engagement, I am functionally dead—”

“All right, all right.” Echo managed to prop Tech’s shoulder against the inside corner wall so he was sitting up and creating just enough cover for Echo to kneel behind him. “How many shots does he have?”

“I am deceased and therefore unable to assist you.”

Echo rolled his eyes. “Were you at least having fun before Crosshair got you?”

“Oh yes!” Tech’s eyes lit up the way they always did when he got to talk, uninterrupted, about something he loved. “I enjoy all of our tactical simulation games. And Hunter and I have worked out a new plan—143—that we both think will benefit the group. Though, of course, we will have to wait until Zara returns to truly test its effectiveness.”

Echo nodded, poked his head over Tech’s shoulder, and slowly straightened up. Crosshair’s rifle was no longer visible. Then again, Crosshair knew it was just the two of them left. He might have moved to a better position knowing Echo would head to his usual sniper’s nest to dig him out, or maybe he had taken a page out of Echo’s book and was hunting him down at this very moment, or maybe—and this way was the way to madness.

Echo took a quick breath and ran for it. He dodged around Tech, keeping his head low as he bolted up the stairs and dove behind a pile of crates. There was a scraping, scuffling sound overhead, the sound of Crosshair getting into a different position.

Echo nodded to himself. Still up there. He’d take the back ladder—Crosshair would never expect him to come up that way—hopefully there would be some tables or something up there for cover, then one quick shot to the back of the head, and Echo and Omega would win and receive that most glorious of prizes: picking tonight’s movie.

He crept across the empty balcony, eased his way up the ladder, and peeked onto the roof.

Nothing?

He frowned and moved up one rung.

There it was. A boot, just visible from behind a table that had been flopped on its side to provide some cover. Keeping to a low crouch, Echo crept closer. Only two more steps, then he’d stand up and shoot—he and Omega had picked a movie already—and—

BANG!

The table fell forward, legs sticking up in the air.

Echo jumped, nearly out of his skin and a good foot off the ground.

“It’s not what you think,” Crosshair grumbled, sprawled face down, a long red nerftail just visible behind and under where his neck and shoulder joined.

“Oh?” Echo said, raising his pistol and popping three shots into Crosshair’s back. “Because it looks like Zara got back early and decided to, uh, surprise you.”

“Already dead, idiot.”

From underneath Crosshair, Zara sat up, jerked his rifle to her shoulder, and pulled the trigger twice. She grinned as Echo hacked a cough, the impact of the water blasts on his throat sending him staggering. “Decided to surprise all of you, Cross was just convenient.”

“Hate you,” Crosshair grumbled.

Zara laughed. “And you’ll hate me more when you hear what I picked for movie night, as is my right as the victor!” She bounded to her feet, propped Crosshair’s rifle at shoulder arms on one side and reached down with the other hand to pull the surly sniper to his feet and then into a side hug. “Just admit it, you missed me.”

Crosshair rolled his eyes. “Missed you a little. And I wouldn’t have missed you when I tried to shoot you when you first got here, but you cheated.”

“Using the Force isn’t cheating.”

“It’s kind of cheating.”

“Listen, I can’t turn it off any more than you boys can turn off your enhancements, and we don’t tell Hunter to plug his nose and ears, so kriff off.”

Echo nodded. “You don’t tell her not to use the Force when she’s on your team.”

“Completely different,” Crosshair scoffed.

“Why?” Echo scoffed back.

Crosshair grinned and slung an arm around Zara’s shoulders. “Because I get to pick the movie then.”

“Not tonight!” Zara’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “Tonight we watch The Many Adventures of Togo the Tooka!”

#summerofbadbatch2024 #week1 #water gun fight #it’s not what you think #featuring the works of space aa milne #wrey writes #sw: shattered #oc zara rau #tbb omega #tbb echo #tbb crosshair #tbb hunter #tbb wrecker #tbb tech

[zvaigzdelasas]

personally i think it's pretty cool how quora has just automated its users posting factual inaccuracies & relegated it to a bot now

#like all the actual responses are saying 'oh yeah im x and I can understand 99.999% of y unless theyre like talking abt modern tech' #uzbek/o'zbek is also a Karluk Turkish language btw #'with distinct linguistic features' ?????? most turkic languages are basically grammatically identical just different letters #guess it wasnt enough to just add random unrelated questions to the list of comments i guess the site was still too usable

[jovial-thunder]

question about lancer tactics: with some modification, could it theoretically be used as a more automated version of a VTT? i've had the idea of making something similar to a tactics game, except multiplayer, the npc's are controlled by the dm instead of ai, and it'd have to be more of a framework you could easily add in any abilities/weapons you'd need, but part of me wonders if it's worth building the whole thing from scratch (as someone who would have to learn coding as well)

Not by us. Adding remote multiplayer is a huge swing (and has been the death of many projects), and we already are at capacity with the scope of "do a 100% port of Lancer to a CRPG".

For reference, Stardew Valley had an experienced dev from Chucklefish dedicated to adding multiplayer for more than a year (this was posted one year before the 1.3 multiplayer update released). We don't have anywhere near that level of resources.

That said, there's a neat project called IsoCON that is doing something like what you describe for Icon. The rules automation from what I've seen is very light (closer to having in-game reference ability text than AI-controlled units), but I think is a great model for what an game-specific indie VTT can realistically look like.

#lancer tactics #seriously multiplayer is the final boss of game dev #doing little tech demos of multiplayer is fine but it's a multiplier; once you have complicated game systems the whole thing balloons #“balloons” like the hidenburg to be clear #a Spec Ops: The Line dev famously called their added multiplayer features “a cancer on the disk”

[sososososososomething]

Enhanced CD menu for I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love by My Chemical Romance. This CD allows the music videos for Honey and Vampires to be viewed using Quicktime media player.

#anyone know if you can install or use quicktime on windows 10? itd be nice to actually use this feature on a modern computer #mcr #my chemical romance #bullets era #ibymbybmyl #webcore #old web #old tech #windows 7 #windows vista

[indigothemuse]

also, I don't think I've posted about it here at all, but I'm writing a hermitcraft/life series fic!! it's a high school theater au where they do the musical Something Rotten! because i am very self indulgent and my friends love me <3

currently at 3 chapters with a new one posted weekly!

#hermitshipping #team rancher #rancher duo #jizzie #life smp #tangotek #impulsesv #skizzleman #joel smallishbeans #lizzie ldshadowlady #jimmy solidarity #grian #goodtimeswithscar #mumbo jumbo #geminitay #pearlescentmoon #ethoslab #i thinkkk those are all of the featured characters #i dont want to flood tags but also. yknow #also rn its very tech focused because i just. didnt act in the show

[violynt-skies]

remember that one episode in rottmnt when leo and mikey were being overly competitive while working as waiters for hueso and doing the whole “whoever wins this gets to be the all time champ of tomorrow”

okay imagine same concept, but w leo and donnie and it’s “whoever wins this gets to be the claim oldest for tomorrow.”

and it’s just them doing stupid shit or on low energy days it’s literally rick paper scissors or smth ahA.

bc splinter probably didn’t rlly know who was older and just chose at leo at random and didn’t think much of it

which irritates donnie to no end because you KNOW leo would pull the older brother card 24/7.

donnie constantly being like “see this is why dad should’ve named ME as the oldest.” “yeah but he didn’t sucks to suck.”

eventually everyone got tired of the bickering and that’s how the oldest competitions came to be.

except it didn’t make the bickering any better at all in fact it’s worse and now everyone else just suffers pfff

#leo constantly claiming donnie’s cheating #donnie def cheating and using tech as an unfair advantage #bc leo keeps choosing sports knowing donnie’s bad at them #it’s like lair games 2.0 but just featuring the disaster twins #everyone now wishes they’d just go back to the normal bickering #april once asked who was older when she first met them and it devolved into this giant argument #she learned to never ask again #splinter often wonders what would’ve happened if he named donnie as the oldest #he does not know if it would be better or worse #the rock paper scissors sometimes will go on unending rounds bc the losing twin will refuse to accept defeat #anyways ahA can u tell they’re stuck on my mind #disaster twins #rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #save rottmnt #rottmnt season 3 #unpause rottmnt #rottmnt leo #rottmnt donnie #rise leo #rise donnie