Misc

I really, really, really want this. I tried to get in earlier, but Q1 2022 was the earlier I could get in, after 30 minutes of trying.

Anyway, I love the idea of playing anywhere, anytime, almost all my Steam games. I have the Switch, as well, but I don’t really like most of the games they have on offer (I own Witcher 3, Zelda, Assassin’s Creed, Skyrim, Mario Odyssey, among others). I love the handheld form, I would really love to be able to play the PC games I want (especially older ones, since for the new ones I kinda have the PS5).

Here’s a video of Linus from Linus Tech Tips using the Deck, as well:

I didn’t know this existed, but it’s so true: bullshit asymmetry principle.

Brandolini’s law, also known as the bullshit asymmetry principle, is an internet adage that emphasizes the difficulty of debunking false, facetious, or otherwise misleading information: “The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude larger than to produce it.”

Brandolini’s law on Wikipedia

I have some people that I “talk” to a lot via Whatsapp, iMessage, Messenger and the likes.

And it kinda annoys me when they say “hi!” every f’in time we restart the discussion.

I think the reason for this is that I see it as a continuous discussion, with bigger breaks, while they see it as different chats/discussions every time.

Well… it’s not like a phone call, ok? :)

It is also the only ocean not being defined by the continents around it, but by a specific current: the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC).

The Earth has finally attained popular recognition for its fifth ocean, with a decision by the National Geographic Society to add the Southern Ocean around Antarctica to the four it recognizes already: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic oceans.

Although the designation of the frigid waters around the icy southern continent as a separate ocean has kicked around for almost 100 years and is widely used by scientists, until now it has not had popular backing.

But on June 8 — World Oceans Day — the society announced it would henceforth be labeling the Southern Ocean as the fifth ocean on its maps of our planet.

From here: Earth’s fifth ocean just confirmed | Space.

Of course, the people that can’t really move their jobs and that can’t really work from anywhere are the people most impacted in a negative way.

Winners? High income men in their 30s and 40s.

Losers: Entry-level workers in less established positions

If the pre-pandemic office was like a fine-dining experience—a large group enters, sits down together, and leaves several hours later—the post-pandemic office may be more like a neighborhood café. People will come and go, you’ll recognize some of them but feel estranged from others, and the office might convey a sense of both vague belonging and day-to-day transience. That’s not an ideal environment for new workers to feel welcomed into a community of peers. “Deprived of desk neighbors, impromptu coffees, and any real way to, for a lack of a better term, read everyone’s vibe,” my colleague Amanda Mull wrote last year, “new hires and young people who work remotely risk remaining unknown quantities.”

From here: Winners and Losers of the Work-From-Home Revolution – The Atlantic.

Q is coming back to Star Trek in Picard, season 2! Here’s a link to the teaser (I can’t find it on YouTube, unfortunately):

From here: Star Trek: Picard Season 2, First Look | Star Trek.

We don’t have a launch date for season 2 of Witcher yet, filming being delayed by COVID and everything.

Still, the teaser for season 2 is out now and it shows a little bit more focus on Ciri’s story, which is closer to the Witcher 3 game story line. And since most of the people watching Witcher, including me, know about it from that game, it will make for an interesting season, for sure.

Lost in the woods no more. Meet Ciri in #TheWitcher Season 2. #GeekedWeek pic.twitter.com/zIweEHxtYw

— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) June 11, 2021

It’s interesting to see an explanation from the horse’s mouth about the algorithms that drive Instagram.

One of the main misconceptions we want to clear up is the existence of “The Algorithm.” Instagram doesn’t have one algorithm that oversees what people do and don’t see on the app. We use a variety of algorithms, classifiers, and processes, each with its own purpose. We want to make the most of your time, and we believe that using technology to personalize your experience is the best way to do that.
When we first launched in 2010, Instagram was a single stream of photos in chronological order. But as more people joined and more was shared, it became impossible for most people to see everything, let alone all the posts they cared about. By 2016, people were missing 70% of all their posts in Feed, including almost half of posts from their close connections. So we developed and introduced a Feed that ranked posts based on what you care about most.
Each part of the app – Feed, Explore, Reels – uses its own algorithm tailored to how people use it. People tend to look for their closest friends in Stories, but they want to discover something entirely new in Explore. We rank things differently in different parts of the app, based on how people use them.

From here: Shedding More Light on How Instagram Works.

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

I’m not 43 yet, so it’s not about me, but I’ll be soon, so I wish it was about me :)

I always wanted to stream. Not because I want to make money out of it, but because I enjoy talking about games and most of my friends don’t really play a lot.

This lady, though, started to Twitch in January 2021 and has a lot of fun, apparently:

Echoing from some cavernous depth I thought I’d sealed off years ago, the voices came, whispering every negative comment I ever received in 20 years of games journalism: “She’s not funny.” “Who does she think she is?” “This is why girls shouldn’t play games.” “What kind of dickhead gives Sonic the Hedgehog 4 a 9 out of 10?” (Fair.) But there, in the chat windows popping up on my screen, were new voices. Keep going, they said. You can do it. There were lots of laughing emojis and smiley faces. I started to relax, realising that it didn’t really matter that I was rubbish at the game. This wasn’t about skill, it was about people with a shared interest having a laugh. At me, mainly, but still – a laugh’s a laugh, as all attention-craving comedians (read: all comedians) know.

I want this!