Keyrock

The Fidelity FX Super Resolution source code was released today under the open source MIT licence.

I'm fine with CGI when it's used in concert with practical effects. It's when you have scenes that are entirely computer-generated and actors are just acting in front of a green screen, that's what I have grown to disdain. No matter how good an actor is at reacting to nothing, it's not the same as when there is a tangible object or puppet or another actor in a suit to work with.

Finally, an exciting and close game.

For me I guess it was Thor Ragnarok and I have to say I quite enjoyed it. However, I didn't enjoy it because of the giant CGI action scenes, but rather in spite of them. The performances of Cate Blanchett and Jeff Goldblum carried that movie. Cate is a terrific dramatic actress, but I enjoy it when she's in a role where she gets to ham it up a bit. As for Jeff Goldblum, he chews the scenery so ****ing hard in that movie and it's delightful.

It's funny how my attitude toward CGI has changed over the years. When it first started appearing in movies I was excited, even when it looked like $#!+. The CGI got better and entire action setpieces were made mostly in CGI and at first I was blown away, then just plain happy to see a giant CGI action scene, then it was whatever, now I'm at the point that giant CGI setpieces are a turn off. I've begun actively avoiding movies with giant CGI action scenes. I though about checking out Black Widow because, out of all the Avengers, she doesn't have any laser beam superpowers, she just kicks and shoots people. So I figured maybe this movie will be all practical action, like a John Wick movie, for example. Then I found out it has a giant CGI action scene with tons of SPLOSHUNS. It's a Marvel movie, of course it does, what was I thinking? Anyway, I'll give it a pass. All the reviews I've seen are lukewarm on it.

That's the magic of Sunless Sea (and Skies), emergent stories. The game is all about resource management and it's a roguelite, so you have to accept that failure is a part of the experience and that you will get screwed by RNG sometimes. Some of the most entertaining stories come out of things going horribly wrong and the desperate attempt to salvage the situation. It also helps that the writing in the game is delightfully weird and full of dark humor. It's definitely not a game for people that don't want to read. There is a lot of reading.

I wouldn't be surprised if Windows had killed IDE support years ago. In fact, I'd be surprised if they hadn't.

Gender is a construct set up by the patriarchy and imposed on fruits as a means of control.

It's too bad that singles tennis is so much more popular than doubles, and thus gets the lion's share of the attention, since I find doubles very entertaining to watch.

RIP "Mr Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, age 71.

The Career Slam, or whatever people call it, is a tremendous accomplishment, but the actual Grand Slam (all 4 in the same year) is significantly more rare. The Golden Slam (all 4 + Olympic gold same year) has only ever been accomplished by 1 person, who is coincidentally Andre Agassi's wife, Steffi Graf. Granted, tennis was only an official Olympic sport until 1924 and again since 1988. A lot of greats simply didn't have an opportunity at it.

In tennis news, Novak Djokovic won Wimbledon, his 20th major title, tying the men's record held by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. He now holds all 3 major titles this year and is a US Open win away from the Grand Slam, something no man has achieved since Rod Laver in 1969 and no woman has achieved since Steffi Graf in 1988.

I think I got rid of my box of IDE cables some years back, but I'm sure I still have a ton of useless stuff, like way too many cat 5 ethernet cables, USB A to mini USB cables, coax cables, and AV cables.

The upcoming Linux kernel (5.14) is killing support for IDE (ATA) connections. I still remember connecting a DVD ROM, a floppy drive, and 2 7200 RPM WD hard drives with those unwieldy ribbon cables...

It was nice of Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday to finally show up for the finals. For the Bucks' sake, let's hope they don't disappear again.

I have more faith in a pirate than I do a suit to give it to me straight.

If nothing else, hopefully the OLED model doesn't have the joycon drift issues some vanilla Switches had. I mean, I would hope more recently manufactured vanilla Switches as well as Switch Lites also have the drift issues solved.

I know they don't in practice, but aren't they supposed to? Even just obvious dives, never mind pretending to be crippled afterward and wasting an extra 5 minutes of everybody's time, are supposed to draw cards AFAIK, but in practice never do.

I'm really enjoying Assassin's Creed Rogue. All I wanted this game to be is Black Flag 2, and that's exactly what it is. All the Abstergo stuff sucks, but that's par for the course for AssCreed and is only a small bother that occasionally interrupts my pirate power fantasy.

@Bartimaeus There's Splatoon, which is about the most kid-friendly competitive shooter imaginable and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, which is in the Mario Universe, but doesn't star Mario, and is an adorable puzzle game. That's all I got off the top of my head. Back on the hardware side of things, I see a lot of people are disappointed by the Switch OLED, and I get it. I imagine they fell hook, line, and sinker for the rumors of a powerful new processor that would output at 4K. I never believed it; I thought it might have a slightly more powerful processor to help with a few of the games that struggle to maintain a steady framerate, but not a 4K-capable processor. It's certainly not worth upgrading from a vanilla Switch, but then mid-cycle upgrades never are IMHO, unless you can sell your old unit for enough to recoup most of its initial cost. For someone like me, though, who doesn't have a Switch yet, I might as well get the new model with the bigger and better screen, especially since I'll probably use it in handheld mode at least half the time.

So the rumored "Switch Pro" wound up being the Nintendo Switch OLED. Same processor as the vanilla Switch but double the internal storage (64 GB vs 32 GB), better audio (not sure if that means better DAC, speakers, or both), and a larger 7" OLED screen. https://www.nintendo.com/switch/oled-model I will undoubtedly cave and buy this since Nintendo has me by the balls with Shin Megami Tensei V. I'm also pretty excited for Metroid Dread and Bayonetta 3, assuming it's still happening, so it's not like I'll be getting it for just 1 game... Only mostly for 1 game.