Random off-topic stuff

[Norbert]

Also, the music somewhat spoils the atmosphere: in a cold dungeon you hear your footsteps and gates and such, not music.

Interestingly, no music for most of the game also helps the Souls games. Someone here also comments on this: "One thing that lends to the dreamlike atmosphere of the game...lack of music. The somber feeling this game gives me would pretty much collapse if there was a pervasive score."

Similar statement from a reviewer about Tomb Raider 1:
"I actually feel playing Tomb Raider 1 with sound effects only might be one of the most immersive ways to experience the game."
From this channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JoshStrifePlays/videos

[Norbert]

[Norbert]

Twitter now requires users to sign in to view tweets.
(From what I'm reading it's because of scraper bots, it's supposed to be temporarily, and for a few days there used to be just limits for unregistered users not a full block.)

[atrueprincefanfrom18]

Crazy how good platforms like Twitter and Reddit change over a period of time

[David]

Imgur has changed their terms of service and will soon delete "old, unused, and inactive content that is not tied to a user account". Hopefully Imgur images embedded on this forum still get enough (user/bot) views to survive.

I just ran into a deleted Imgur image on the front page of a site: https://www.midomi.com/
Apparently their front page did not get enough views, and they didn't upload the image with an account either.

I also wonder why do they even host their button image (logo) on Imgur.
All other images are on their own domain.

[Norbert]

The Campea folks saw the first 30 minutes of Lightyear, and they like it very much, and lots of viewers were in tears, apparently. Given their excitement about it, I'm now slightly interested in seeing the film, where I wasn't at all after seeing the trailer a while back.

So... Campea has 'cancelled' his own show (and is going audio-only). I still watched his channel, but had started skipping a lot of content because of Rob (Robert Meyer Burnett) no longer being there.

The show returned after only a couple of days (if not less), and I see that even Rob has returned - one day a week, according to someone in the comments.

[Norbert]

[Norbert]

[Norbert]

Also, this other channel has several entertaining videos:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheElephantGra ... sic/videos

[Norbert]

It took me some hours to OCR and translate [...]

Probably AI could do this for you nowadays.

[David]

It took me some hours to OCR and translate [...]

Probably AI could do this for you nowadays.

Nowadays Google Translate can work from on images.

I tried that now with the Famitsu 154 article, but as you can see below, the result is a bit messed up.

There are some large gaps between the paragraphs, though I think that's just because the translation is shorter than the original?
Compared with the translation I posted earlier, nothing seems to be missing.

And it seems the furigana confused the code which puts the translated text back onto the image:
Some parts of the translation appear in smaller font between the lines, where the original text had the furigana.
Annoyingly, these can be so small that I can't even read them. Can you read what's written above "In addition"?

Sometimes those are not even in order. For example the first paragraph starts with "of Persia", and the "Prince" part is above "PC version" in tiny font.

[Norbert]

Weird that I've never mentioned Payday 2 on this forum.
Anyway, I've been playing Payday 3 for hundreds of hours.
When it was just released, it was kinda meh; but it's fun now.

[Norbert]

Now that Copilot (copilot.microsoft.com) has dropped its previous 4-question limit (when not using an account), I've been using it a lot. I have to say, I'm impressed by it. It's useful for both serious work and entertainment. I'm particularly impressed by its ability to role-play, and go along with crazy stuff I come up with.

For instance, I had it create a blend of Harris, Trump and Musk. Then asked for a short fictional Wikipedia article about the person. Requested a fictional psychologist explain the person's success despite them being both blind and deaf, and having just an IQ of 80. Asked for a piece by a zoologist hypothesizing that the person was actually someone famous from 1900-1950 (the AI picked Tesla). Then had a president from an imaginative nation, with limited knowledge of the English language, give their view to it all. Etc.

With the mobile app,you can even talk to the AI, making the role-playing easier. Although with the app, sometimes it takes a bit of time to successfully interrupt the AI. And it can't understand Dutch very well, while the text interface can.

On the downside, it will stay away from anything even potentially controversial. For instance, where I wrote zoologist above, I actually picked a criminologist first, but it flat-out refused to continue that train of thought.

Also, I've noticed that instead of going to Google or Wikipedia when I'm looking for information/answers, I tend to now ask Copilot instead. Particularly when I'm looking for a particular answer, that I know when I see it I'll recognize.

[Norbert]

As another example. I first asked Copilot to summarize my post above. Then requested this: "Only for your next answer, use sarcasm and hyperbole, and very high-level English. Give me another summary of the review by Norbert, in 100 words." Its answer:

"Oh, dear Norbert's magnum opus on Copilot is nothing short of a riveting exposé, dripping with nuance and subtlety. He lauds its role-playing prowess, delighting in its ability to concoct the most outlandish amalgamations of personalities and scenarios. The mobile app, he declares, is a veritable game-changer, though it tragically falters with Dutch and timely interruptions. Alas, Copilot's aversion to controversy is its Achilles' heel. Nevertheless, Norbert finds it so indispensable that he dares to forsake the almighty Google and Wikipedia. In short, Copilot is his multifaceted digital muse, an oracle of modern convenience. What an epoch!"