There are many open ember controls on github. This one worked the last time I used it: https://github.com/zopieux/mugctl

There are many open ember controls on github. This one worked the last time I used it: https://github.com/zopieux/mugctl

I use my ember mug because sometimes that first sip of coffee in the morning triggers something… urgent.

It’s nice to come back and still have my coffee at the temperature I left it. I also like that it keeps the coffee warm without overheating and burning it, like a hot plate would.

IDK about later models, but mine has no screen and I control it with open source software.

I’m not going to say that all things created by people aren’t slop, but it’s also true that our context for understanding art can change over time. What we’re getting now, with certain art styles being associated with slop is a kind of Seinfeld effect.

To give a specific example: When the movie Annihilation came out, it quickly became a favorite of mine. I loved its visual style, and the narrative theme about broken people. A few months ago I re-watched it and realized that its visuals have been so coopted by endless slop recreations that I couldn’t disassociate it from AI output. Even though the themes were still there and no less resonant than when I first watched it, my brain couldn’t enjoy the film because I kept thinking about slop. The movie hadn’t changed and all the artistic intentionality behind its creation was still there, but my ability to enjoy it was destroyed.

Think about it like a mid-life crisis, or some other point in time where people say “What am I doing with my life?” and then decide (and have the means) to make a change. Now the second life has begun.

I really loved the 2013 Aleksei German film adaptation, even if it strays from the book details. Something about the claustrophobic camera work and the filthy sets helped me sense Rumata’s disappointment with Arkanar.

The visual style of this trailer reminds me of a mix between the 1989 Hard to be a God adaptation and Dune, I hope it turns out good! I’ll definitely watch this if I can.

Smoking during a cardio sport. People back then gave no fucks.

What I get out of self hosting services: Full control of my data and something to tinker with when the fancy strikes.

Graphs? Monitors? Failover? I get enough of that shit at work. If it’s down then whatever: I’ll fix it when the inconvenience is too great to ignore. External users? I only invite people who understand that this is my hobby, not my job.

In my house it’ll be Lake Ontario to my Canadian friends and Lake Fascismo to everyone else.

I heard there’s a lost director’s cut where Armstrong meets an alien

Trans men don’t want to go to the women’s bathroom, but they’re legally required to do so under Kansas law. This is a protest where they follow the law-as-written to draw attention to how stupid it is. I can guarantee you that these dudes (even the ones who didn’t get the cops called on them) were humiliated by using the women’s bathroom, but they overcame that to raise awareness for trans rights.

declining to fund the $10 million project

As far as a Hollywood budget goes, isn’t that basically nothing? Sucks that she can’t get any traction for it.

Calibre is an ebook library manager with a reader built-in. Koreader is purely reader software, and it works particularly well on touch and eink screens.

The Dirty Dozen has a very cathartic finale, nearly on the level of the cinema fire from Inglorious Basterds.

You nailed it. For me, the human-written stories were interesting because it’s not immediately apparent where they’re going. The prose evokes images and emotion, and I want to put the pieces together to identify the theme.

The AI stories blurt out the theme almost immediately, and then my attention wanes because there’s nothing left in the text except for a base retelling of events.

As the Ramones once sang:

twenty-twenty-twenty-four hours to go

I wanna be sedated

I think the window glow looks pretty good.

My suggestion is on the compositional side: The lighting on the humanoid lacks a physical source, so the highlight looks out of place as if the figure was composited into the scene separately. If you can think of an object that is casting light onto the humanoid and place it into the scene (a neon sign, light spilling from a rooftop access door, etc) everything would fit together just a bit better.

Another thing you could try is looking into 3-point lighting used in photography and film. Different 3-point configurations on the humanoid could help make them stand out from the background while keeping the highlights more subtle.

They have silly outfits because it’s fun to make your friends laugh and be goofy, and also because it protects privacy and creates a cohesive world.

The story I heard behind the costumes is that they used to play at a venue that only let a band perform once per day. They put on the outfits to appear as a different band and get paid for an extra set.

I haven’t found one yet. I think anyone who could offer the same would inevitability end up using the same slimy tactics as Amazon.

When I can, I wait and bundle purchases together in order to save on shipping costs. Almost nowhere can match the 1-2 day shipping on Amazon, but it’s rare that I actually need anything so fast.

Some of my go-to choices:

• If it’s some cheap product that Amazon sells 10,000 different versions of from brands with unpronounceable names, I usually can get it on AliExpress for cheaper. The tradeoff is waiting longer.
• For consumer electronics, I’ll look on B&H, BestBuy, Microcenter
• For PC components, although I dislike newegg, I consider them less bad then Amazon
• Books I order from my local store and pick them up in person
• Electronic components, microcontrollers, etc I look at Mouser, Digikey, SeeedStudio, Adafruit, Sparkfun, and others
• EBay is low on my list, because sometimes the seller is just drop-shipping you a product straight from Amazon and charging you more for it