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having to discuss the minutiae of how long something will take because management got the idea that this will make the estimates "more accurate" is many times worse.
BIG AGREE on that one
What I really, really, really hate is the time registration tyranny where you have to do estimates, have meetings about estimates, remember to turn on and off timers, fiddle with timesheets when you forget about the timers, answer questions like "how will this change that everyone agrees needs to be done affect the estimates?" and defend why a task that was estimated to six hours took eight to complete.
Same. The time tracking is one of those things the more you spend time doing the more you realize it's a waste of time.
I have ADHD, I have trouble making a realistic estimate on how long it takes to cook pasta and you expect me to be able to accurately predict how long it takes to compete a 3000+ hour project with a ton of external dependencies, arcane legacy code and agile constantly evolving requirements?
That's one big reason I hate how individualized software development. It's crazy that it's all YOUR job to handle all that. There is no team, no collective, just single nodes in a collection of nodes. It's really a shame.
SCRUM is middle-management capture and all the middle-managers know they are not necessary.
Exactly. Management in the since of coordinating teams/organizations is not a fake job in and of itself, but the amount of bloat/inflation that has occurred to management has made a solid 90% of the "job" a make-work job.
A former co-worker once joked "we should find a way to make fixing infrastructure a new feature". Fixing the giant holes in our code-base as a service.
Getting my ass beat by reality. I refuse to give. I'm in my "Building emotional and spiritual resilience" arc
It really is. It’s crazy how the manufacturing mindset really is all of industry.
I think about this all the time. Before I got laid off from my MEGACORP software gig, we always had time for stupid bullshit, but never any time to fix the core issues in our software that was like years old. Delivering new things is the only thing that matters in most firms. Fixing existing things is a negative which is so goddamn backwards.
"AGILE"™®© wouldn't be so bad if any of it weren't a manager tool. Like all "project management" paradigms AGILE™®© is driven by sales, marketing, and business types. There is a lot of worthwhile "Project management" frameworks and tools, but because of the stupid profit motive and other capital-driven nonsense all of them turn into them into eternal sprints into oblivion.
No time for retrospective analysis, to build quality worthwhile solutions, no time to do the “Agile” stuff really.
It's really stupid that software has been MBA'ed into whatever the current abomination it has currently become. "Agile" assumes that developers have autonomy to create great software, build meaningful relationships with stakeholders, and even have the power to say no. Of course, AGILE™®© removes that on purpose. AGILE™®© is a tool for managers and bosses, not for the actual people who do the actual work.
As always, the capital holders and their minions love to wear the skin of systems or frameworks "benefit" workers but as always they are just the skin of the thing not actually a thing that would help workers.
Oh one more thing, the rise of AGILE™®©/SCRUM™®© has created so many "Bullshit Jobs". David Graber really nailed when he described "Duct tapers", software development in most shops is just duct taping problems because there is "never time" to actually fix the problem or address the root because we have to sprint on to something else.
Only a stupid system like neoliberal capitalism would allow for the creation of "Agile Industrial Complex". The amount of branding and certifications and all that nonesense is such a waste of time and resources.
It's why I feel Midnighter and Apollo's relationship works, which adds depth to their characters
Agreed! It's a bit of a shame the two of them were born out of what I would call a low-point in Wildstorm's edgy history but they are objectively a interesting couple. Yes they are "What if Batman and Superman... but gay?", which is reductive and lame but there are much more than that. They are two people who have complex and nuanced feelings for each other and their relationship has WAYYYYY more depth that most of the mainstays of the genre. Which is crazy because If I recall Midnighter correctly we was like the precursor to Billy Butch creatively speaking. Which is an odd thing to think about.
I haven't been keeping up with whatever the modern incarnate of the character is,
Anytime I hear "The economy is doing great" I parse it as "The king is so wealthy. The Lord of treasury boasts of his boundless coffers, he is rich, so I am too."
36
Clickbait Remover For YouTube - A small Firefox extension to make YouTube browsing slightly better.
(addons.mozilla.org)
I hate the current YouTube thumbnail meta. I found this extension and it just takes a frame from the content of the video and displays that. I believe that is fair and more representative of the video. I have been using this extension for a while and I find myself paying more attention to the names of creator and then considering if I want to watch the video; rather than being enticed by some intentionally inflammatory image.
I find it just make YouTube more enjoy in combination with Ublock Origin and YouTube Search Fixer.
Just wanted to share this extension with any Hexbears who aren't liking YouTube's thumbnail arms race of increasingly distracting images. I didn't know if I should have put this in c/videos or c/technology. I rolled a D6 and odds was c/videos and evens c/technology. I rolled a two.
48
America can't build houses. America can't fix roads, bridges, dams, pipes, or power grids. America can't provide high quality education for students of all ages and stages. America can't build libraries and parks. America can't provide medical care to all citizens. America can't provide childcare. America can't support public arts or media. America can't provide public transportation. American can't feed the hungry. America can't better the lives of its people.
America is powerless to do anything, other than expand the military industrial complex.
$14.5 billion is some COVID-19 level wealth extraction from working people. American oligarchs and plutocrats stole all our collective wealth yet again.
9
Tales Of Alethrion is I think one of the best online animations out there
(www.talesofalethrion.com)
45
I have been teaching myself more programming stuff for c/gamedev over the last several weeks as my ambition is to make a using Godot to share with people. Just making a game for the sake of trying my hand at a creative work, no real "profit motive" just wanna make a thing 
. However, but I was feeling like I wanted to get back into the old-school C++ programming rather than using a game engine and was looking for a primer as it's been a bit since I have done it. In my quest I discovered Academic Torrents, I found a ton of great computer science courses and the last weakened synapses of academic rigor in my internet poisoned brain to fire once again.
I have always been for open-information (most just downloading .pdf files of textbooks during college) and stuff but I didn't really know about the concept of a Shadow Library. I'm finding myself interested in just learning more computer nerd shit for the sake of learning. I like the idea I have access to pretty much every computer science department that has a webcam and torrent link, I think that's good.
This idea applies beyond not just for tech stuff of course, but just about anything. I think it's really weird that knowledge creation is soloed away behind nations, institutions, and IP laws. Everyone everywhere should have access to knowledge for the sake of knowledge. I don't know much about the actual process of knowledge creation but the created knowledge itself should be assessable to everyone in a library sense. Knowledge is one basic things that makes us human and should be free and open to everyone. Discovering a website reminded that learning is just cool and worth doing for the sake doing (if that's your thing of course, if you don't wanna learn that should be considered cool too).
The promise of the internet still exists outside the walled gardens and I think that's pretty dope. So long as people wanna learn I'm glad that these sorts of Shadow libraries are there to help people.
Also support your actual local library. Light and Shadow Libraries are cool and lefty and good.
0
Preface - It's never cool to be mean to developers or the rando who is running an official social media account online. Be cool.
One thing I will never understand about gaming and gamers™® is that they always seems to justify their own poor treatment. Worse yet they attack others for pointing out the way they are mistreated. Whenever I see good honest players point out that a system is predatory or designed in a plainly unfair way, other gamers™® will undoubtedly come in and defend that bad thing. It's so odd that gamers™® can min-max everything but can't seem to factor in the fact they are getting less than they used to. It's like digital inflation. Games are more costly in upfront costs, hardware cost, time costs, and yet are getting worse in general.
I'm very much anti-battle pass/anti-season pass/anti-microtransaction all that sort of stuff. I'm old-school, just want to buy a thing and have the thing and have the thing be whole and complete. That said there are semi-decent ways to implement a system that is profitable for the vampire executives and also don't siphon every single coin players have. It's so weird to me that gamers™® not only keep buying into these systems but seem to defend them so vigorously online.
From "Pay to Win" to weird obtuse purchasable currencies/resources to needlessly limited time rewards to create artificial scarcity (pre-order, in-game store "deals", general fear of missing out practices), all dark patterns make games worse. Gamers™® defend these things saying "I DoN'T HaVe tHiS PrObLeM. iT MuSt bE A SkIlL IsSuE!" or whatever dumb shit. Every dark pattern in modern gaming is making the games people play worse intentionally. People talk about the enshittification of internet all the time but gaming as a medium/hobby has been enshittifiying since the advent of Xbox LIVE. The worst part about it to me is seeing such vocal defense for it online (social media at large, game forums, comment sections of gaming news/articles). It's not just that sort of conceding "well what can't ya do?", it's more so this spirited "This is good actually, and you're not a REAL GAMER if you don't like this."
For example a decent battle-pass (regardless of the game/genre) usually rewards players with enough in-game premium currency to buy the next one and maybe have enough left over for an item or two. That way it keeps you locked for longer and feeds into the habit forming design dark pattern we all hate. You're constantly having just enough premium currency to buy something, and topping off your balance is just a few extra coins if need be. Yes, people talk about the "whales" and "minnows" but even just the regular players and worse yet the gamers™® get a bad deal. Setting the fact this is a dark pattern aside (however I can't stress enough how mobile gaming's/casino gaming inspired dark patterns have made gaming worse), it's bonkers to me that gamers™® just say "VoTe wItH YoUr wAlLeT BrO!". They will say that or these sorts of things support the development of the game, knowing full well that that money isn't recycled and invested into the betterment of the game.
It's just so strange to me that gaming of all things has grown worse in just about every way since 2000's and yet the online culture around it seems to take pride in it being so bad. It's so strange that gamers™® can datamine the most Ph.D level mathematical optimal way to play through a game before it's even released but can't seem to parse that games should respect them. Games should treat them better. Games should be better.
: "Wow this system sucks. We should either get more rewards faster or things shouldn't cost so much. I like this game but damn this system blows, and it probably doesn't have to. The developers should be better to us."
: "If you don't like it don't play it. If it were bad it wouldn't be popular."
My larger point is gamers™® are bad, gaming should be better, player != gamers™®.
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LGOrcStreetSamurai
joined 3 years ago
I still think game could have been mid/okay-ish to even decent if it was just a co-op hero shooter rather than a PVP thing. Like somewhere between a Destiny and a Borderlands. Also being PvE would have been one of the things it could have done to distinguish itself rather than just being yet another hero-shooter map control cart-pushing game.
I genuinely kinda liked the look and visual design. Honestly with i think co-op PVE could have been a big play for them.