sbeak

Besides being the first and last letters of the alphabet, why do we like abc and xyz so much?

In algebra, both abc and xyz are used, and occasionally pqr as well. Why those specifically? And for vectors, one of the notations is ij. Why is that? And in programming, it is a convention to use loops with ijk as the index. Why not something like cde (for count) or tuv(tally)? Why index? And in coordinates, we use xyz. Why is that? Why not abc? What about ijk, pqr, etc.? Also, why is y and z flipped in some 3D programs, and why is in some 2D programs, up is negative y rather than positive?

Finally, why do these kind of triplet letter combinations always use the Latin alphabet? Why aren’t there any conventions that use Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, or the Latin letters with cool hats? Is it because English became the dominant language? That can’t be the only reason, as we still use some Greek symbols for some things like pi, phi, alpha(for angles as well as the particle), beta, gamma (rays), etc. The Greeks figured out things like coordinates, algebra, etc., so why Latin letters? Is it because of the Romans?

I'm making a game about the 12 Greek Olympian gods. The idea is that Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods, instructs you, a duck, to travel to the realms of each god and steal their "fire" for the humans (e.g. mastery of the seas from Poseidon). It is a mix of platforming and puzzles where you can use the abilities of some of the nature deities (the four winds, Helios the all-seeing sun god, and Achelous the river god)

My question is, how should I make and/or get music for my game so that it fits with the theme of the game? Using something like Beepbox to make retro music doesn't really fit, so I'm a bit stuck. Is there a similar tool for making smooth/continuous music that doesn't require all too much musical abilities or is that not a thing? If there isn't, is there a place to find game music that's available for public use?

some screenshots for reference: (the first level is Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy)

What would the properties of an infinitely long wavelength of light be? And what about a wavelength of light that is infinitely short? What would that look like?

edit: light as in electromagnetic waves, not visible light. Sorry if it was not very clear

Lots of people have mentioned rsynx, restic, borgbackup, and others, but which would be best for backing up nextcloud, immich, and radicale? Do all of them have a method of automatically backing up every X days/weeks? Why use one over the other, what are the differences?

Things like large 1” camera sensors, SiC batteries that offer 6-8k mAh, and other cool tech that would improve phones a lot. It’s not just Chinese brands either (e.g. Sony has an optical zoom camera on their flagship, Nothing has some excellent budget to midrange offerings).

It seems really weird, Apple/Samsung/Google are massive companies with so much money, yet they don’t try to offer this kind of tech on even their most expensive phones. In contrast, other phone makers have budget to midrange phones with insane battery capacities, Ultra models with innovative cameras, etc.

To me, it makes sense that Apple isn’t offering these kinds of things. They’re already extremely profitable and have the whole walled garden ecosystem that draws people in. Google focuses more on software rather than hardware, and their cameras are helped by software magic.

What surprises me is that Samsung isn’t trying to get better hardware to get more market share. If they had huge SiC batteries, large camera sensors, or other cool tech, it would definitely help sway buyers from Apple and other brands.

Especially since Samsung is struggling against both Chinese competition and, to a lesser extent, Indian competition. And in the U.S., they certainly want to steal market share from Apple.

What is with the reluctance of these massive tech companies from using the latest tech in their phones?

Today I set up my old laptop as a Debian server, hosting Immich (for photos), Nextcloud (for files), and Radicale (for calendar). It was surprisingly easy to do so after looking at the documentation and watching a couple videos online! Tomorrow I might try hosting something like Linkwarden or Karakeep.

What else should I self-host, aside from HA (I don’t have a smart home), Calibre (physical books are my jam), and Jellyfin (I don’t watch too many movies + don’t have a significant DVD/Blu-ray collection)?

I would like to keep my laptop confined to my local network since I don’t trust it to be secure enough against the internet.

edit: I forgot, I’m also hosting Tailscale so I can access my local network remotely!

Hi all, I've made some more progress on my game about the 12 Greek Olympian gods! If you didn't know, this is a game where the player (a humble little duck) has to traverse the realms of the gods by solving puzzles and platforming. The aim is to help Prometheus (the Titan who stole fire from the gods) find each god and take their power for the humans (e.g. mastery of the seas from Poseidon). The first part will be on Dionysus, the god of wine.

I've added more dialogue and proper dialogue avatars (incl. different expressions!) for the duck, Prometheus, as well as the four winds. See here:

Duck: "W-Where am I? What is this place?"

Prometheus (beautiful orange hair + beard): "By harnessing the power of the Anemoi, the four winds, you can control air itself to eliminate obstacles in your adventure."

Prometheus: "This allows you to lower the sea level to create a path forward. Not parting the seas, that's Moses's thing."

Narrator (eye donut thing): "Humans do not listen to orders. They are violent, arrogant, and greedy. Ducks, on the other hand, are quite the opposite. "

Notus (the coolest embodiment of wind): "A civil dispute, that's all! We're not little kids! We're the embodiments of the winds! We are much more mature than that."

Eurus (the wind of storm): "It is funny to me. Haha! See, I'm laughing! Hahaha!" (note that this screenshot doesn't have the parallax background)

If you haven't noticed already, there's also lighting now! Wine glasses glow red, while totems glow their respective colours (white = the winds, orange = Helios, the sun god, blue = Achelous, the river god)

There's also a scrolling parallax background (using the "ParallaxBackground" node) that may as well have been made with paint. I've tried my best to give them at least a tiny bit of depth, but in the end I just made them very dark so it's harder to see the lack of detail.

Aside from these aesthetic changes, I've also made some more levels! These first few will be about meeting the four winds:

Boreas, the north wind and bringer of cold winter air, can freeze things (e.g. flowing wine). This freezing effect doesn't last very long though, so you need to be very quick and can't stand still for very long!

Zephyrus and Notus have an interesting duality. The former is the west wind, kind and gentle. Due to his connection with springtime and flowers, he can grow seeds to become big plants and can also move delicate flowers around. The latter is the self-proclaimed coolest embodiment of the wind. He brings hot summer air and has the power to decay plants. He really likes killing plants. These two get into a fight over whether to kill a big plant blocking the player's way.

Finally, there is Eurus, the east wind and the wind of storm. According to a Wikipedia article I read, he was revered as the "saviour of Sparta". No idea if that's accurate or not. Under-represented in Greek mythology with little to none of his own, Eurus is easily irritated. When the player complements him in the start of his level, he believes that the player is being deceptive and actually mocking him, and creates a storm to punish him.

I've also experimented with particles to show the wind and rain for the Eurus level, lmk what you think of it!

I've also added some dialogue on death, with different ones depending on how many times you've died (you get some tips on how to complete the level in the first 1-3, but after 5-10 the other characters basically give up on you. For instance, the last screenshot is Eurus laughing at you after death 10)

And finally, I've also FINALLY made my own player sprite. No longer am I bound to HeartBeast's from that tutorial (great tutorial btw, I learnt a lot from it!)

I am very proud of this duck, he is very cute and it's the first time I've made my own player sprite! His legs were the most difficult (they're very spindly, only one pixel wide) and I think they might need some work, the animations still look a bit off. The rest of the animation looks awesome though, and the legs still look fine in my opinion.

here's the duck running:

and jumping:

When I was a kid, we had a collection of most of the books in the series. They were meant to help improve our English reading skills and learn vocabulary, sentence structures, etc. I still remember those stories very well, which is kind of crazy to me.

I remember Chip (the older brother), Biff (the older sister), and Kipper (the younger brother) with his striped shirt very well, as well as the funny yellow dog “Floppy”.

I also remember a few of the side characters, like Gran, Nadim, and Wilma + her younger brother “Wilf” (I remembered him as “Will”, but apparently was wrong)

The first few “stages” involved normal things like going to the beach, Gran’s house, and going to school. The later stages had loads of fun adventures involving magical worlds.

Has anyone else read those books as a kid? I still remember each story very well, which I find really weird.

Is there anything like this? Something like Roblox, but rather than using a central server, using a network of decentralised servers with different self-hosted instances (a bit like the fediverse, but for online multiplayer games)

If there’s nothing like this, how difficult would it be to start something like this myself?

edit: Or maybe something like Scratch, where you’re not tied to a specific movement system and can program whatever kind of game you want?

Every year, tech reviewers position the latest chip as much better than the old one, and the same thing happens next year, and the next. The Snapdragon 8 Elite was better than the Gen 3, which was better than the Gen 2, and so on.

If the “flagship” chips are so good, why not just stop to save cost? Why upgrade the chipset every year with minimal gains?

If everyone stuck with the same generation of chip, smartphones could be cheaper (good for consumers) OR profit margins could be increased (good for companies). Or maybe a mix of both.

What drives the yearly update in chips? AI maybe?

Hi all, I'm making a game where you, the player, is tasked by Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods, to "steal fire" from the 12 Greek Olympian gods. First stage will be on Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy.

I've got the tutorial section mostly done now, and I think the pixel art I made looks great! I still need to eventually get on to making my own player sprite though...

What do you all think of this? Do you think anything needs to be added to make the world look better (e.g. more variety in the tileset maybe?) or have any ideas for some good puzzles I could add?

some more screenshots: