Hiker, software engineer (primarily C++, Java, and Python), Minecraft modder, hunter (of the Hunt Showdown variety), biker, adoptive Akronite, and general doer of assorted things.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 10th, 2023

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  • You should try Brighter Shores.

    The original RuneScape developers and owners (i.e. Andrew Gower and his brothers) are back with a new game, at a new company, with an industry shattering $5.99/mo subscription price for all content.

    No micro transactions, no pay to win, no outrageous DLC pricing, no bull shit … just a fun game with many similarities to OSRS but also modernizations, formula improvements, and lessons learned.



  • like the umbrella wedge/spring to make it open automatically.

    That to me is a very specific algorithm. It’s a simple mechanism but putting it together might be a bit tricky.

    That’s very similar to SHA, it’s a fairly simple set of mechanisms but the actual composure of those ideas into something that works as well as SHA does takes very specific research experience. It’s not at all an abstract idea, it’s a very concrete and specific set of operations that you invented first.

    Imagine if the patent was “an umbrella can open itself with the push of button” no further details. That’s close to the level of detail some software patents are argued at and effectively what the “put a game in your loading screen” patent was awarded on.

    You can’t patent the idea that “an umbrella should be able to open [somehow]” so I likewise think it’s ridiculous that someone was able to parent “your game [somehow] runs another simpler game before it runs.”

    Patents should be to protect very specific research so that the private sector can do said research and profit from it. Patents should not block out broad concepts. The patent in the video game situation was and should’ve been ruled as bogus. It’s not the type of thing anyone needed to research or think about, you just literally go “what if I added a game to my loading screen” and you’re in violation.


  • I think software patents should really only apply to extremely tricky algorithmic “discoveries” (which I would consider inventions, as someone that’s written a SHA256 implementation from reference material, nobody is “just coming up with that”).

    “Ingenuity patents” like that loading screen game are everything that’s wrong with software patents. It’s not all that crazy of an idea to add a game while waiting to play the main game. There’s no radical research required there, just an idea.

    I don’t think vague ideas like “a game in a loading screen” are sufficiently creative to warrant a patent.












  • Which president pushed for the infrastructure bill that serves the public, including the poor by increasing mass transportation? Biden.

    Will it take decades? Yes, but it would not have happened under Trump.

    Which president got drug prices capped? Biden.

    Which president got the ACA passed giving poor people health care? Obama.

    Which president sent poor people that joined the military to get through college into pointless wars? Bush.

    Which president gambled with Ukraine’s security risking WW3 and a draft of poor people? Trump.

    Which president killed net neutrality risking ISP price gouging on popular services? Trump.

    Which president killed abortion and attempted to get contraception off the ACA? Trump.

    Which candidate is working on universal pre-K so families that can’t afford childcare don’t have to have one parent stay at home? Harris.

    Which party wants to empower charter schools to take money originally targeted towards public schools which will keep poorer folks disadvantaged? Republicans.

    Most people aren’t actually at the minimum wage anyways, they’re somewhere between minimum wage and a comfortable wage. It’ll never be what folks want it to be. The best way to improve quality of life for poor folks IMO is to cut stupid crap that gets in their way of getting a better education, better housing, and keeps them poor with junk fees like overdraft fees.

    Oh, btw, Harris is working on junk fees https://www.fidelity.com/news/article/top-news/202410100607RTRSNEWSCOMBINED_KBN3BG0MD-OUSBS_1

    I honestly don’t know if there’s any convincing you, but if there’s any part of you I’m resonating with you should SERIOUSLY reconsider your position that it doesn’t matter. It may very well be the difference between poor people living an okay life and fighting on the front lines. Maybe even you personally, we are in a very dangerous point in history.

    The whole Regan “are you better off than you were 4 years ago?” measure is some serious “do you feel better 4 minutes after maxing your credit cards on a sports car” logic. Long term effects are what matter, not whether a candidate increases or decreases your salary in the next year.