Inscryption, too. I didn't know it started as an LD game until after I played it, and it was great to see how much of the atmosphere and mechanics were already there in the LD version [1].

[1] https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/sacrifices-must-be-ma...

This is one of those bugs that taught me something, so I did this writeup. I hope it's interesting. I tried to write it like a murder mystery, showing you the bug first and then dropping clues until the reveal, so maybe if you're into graphics programming you'll go "aha!" at some point and figure it out before you get to the end.

I've been updating my game Blackshift (https://store.steampowered.com/app/741110/Blackshift/).

It released in 2020 but I've never stopped adding things and tweaking it. Recently I added mirrors that spin when you shoot them, called "flip-flops" because they work a bit like flip-flops from computing.

I'm also tinkering with some new game ideas, because I'd like to make something popular that can sustain me financially, and the gaming market, as difficult as it is, does still seem to value human soul and creativity.

I took the pilot one as an abstract logic type question where you're supposed to assume the premise is true, so I said yes and the page said I was right, because that's a "valid logical deduction" or something.

Then there was another question in the same format that said "if you study hard enough you'll pass the exam. You didn't pass, so you didn't study hard enough." So I thought, oh, another logic one, and said yes to that one too, but the page was like, "not quite! You might fail for other reasons!"

And if, as OP says, it’s necessity and sufficiency we’re testing—whether or not there were also other reasons contributing to your exam failure, wouldn’t failing that one necessary condition be sufficient to fail the outcome?

It was the same kind of logic question. You missed a key word in your quote. I think it said “If you study hard enough you _can_ pass the exam”. It was there to make it clear that studying hard is not a guarantee for passing the test, and therefore can’t be used as the certain reason for failure.

Weird article. The author talks about Unicode "public use areas" (which don't exist), clarifies that they're sometimes called "public use access" (a term appearing only in this article) and are invisible while also being used for flags and emojis and also having special meaning to JavaScript interpreters and also representing letters in the "US alphabet".

There's a real vulnerability here but whoever wrote this has no idea what they're talking about.

Good article, and I feel your pain. Sometimes it feels like there's no point creating anything anymore, because shitty people will just steal it.

In case you're interested, though, I just wanted to point out that there are things you can do.

In my experience, Google does respond to requests to scrub infringing sites from their results if you submit their Copyright Claim form. They even give you a dashboard with the status of your claims. Probably worth trying your luck if you can be bothered.

Also, many of the theives have X and Bluesky accounts, and I don't believe either of these services let users censor replies to them.

There's also the payment platforms that are collecting money for your stolen work on behalf of these guys. They might be interested to hear about what's going on.

Then there's the hosting companies themselves, of course, hosting the infringing websites.

It's a pain, and it would be better if you could just create stuff and people weren't shitty, but we live in a fallen world and sometimes you gotta defend yourself. Up to you, of course, and I totally get it if you don't have the energy, but I've been through the same thing and you do have some power.

There is a reason games and software have moved to the client server architecture even when it doesn't really makes sense. Its the only way to maintain copyright.

You can hate it, but for the creative types your options are: Assume it fails and no one knows about it / Assume it succeeds get stolen / build it on the server side

It also means everyone is on updated versions of software, or easier for devs to A/B different aspects. Anti-piracy is not the only reason

Yes I’ve had to do this but it does work. Unfortunately it’s a constant cost to have to look for stuff like this and then do the work.

With the amount of piracy that went on with the early 2000's videogames (doom!) I'm surprised anyone made money.

unless you're talking about doom 3 (which I can't really speak on), doom is from the 90s and was shareware

140. Good fun. I like how it teaches you things, too. I learned that toads are considered frogs, axolotls are salamanders, and that it's "anemone" not "anenome". If you type in Unicorn it accepts it as "Unicorn spider" with a fun message. Don't forget to think of insects, birds and fish too, all of which it accepts. I love this kind of detailed, handcrafted thing that someone put a lot of time and effort into.

If you wanted to develop this more, some fun features might be telling you the most commonly entered animals you missed and the most unusual ones you thought of. Appreciate you probably want to keep it a static site though.

It seems like AIs work how non-programmers already thought computers worked.

That's apt.

One of the first thing you learn in CS 101 is "computers are impeccable at math and logic but have zero common sense, and can easily understand megabytes of code but not two sentences of instructions in plain English."

LLMs break that old fundamental assumption. How people can claim that it's not a ground-shattering breakthrough is beyond me.

Then build a LLM shell and make it your login shell. And you’ll see how well the computer understands english.

I love this, thank you

"Why didn't you do that earlier?"

I don't have much to add to this right now other than to say this is really fantastic writing. I don't normally enjoy "my journey" kind of blog posts, but this one feels full of valuable insights, and I'm grateful to the author for sharing. It's also just nice to read something written by a skilled writer.

Because unlike the other my journey posts, this one is sharing acquired knowledge and framing it through his (in this instance relatable since it explains the reasons) experience.

Other my journey posts are look at me with only enough subject matter to disguise it.

This post is about sharing knowledge, the others are about sharing experiences.

It's funny how "think of the parents" is the new "think of the children".

It’s tragic how many are baffled by the idea someone might genuinely accept a minor inconvenience to benefit their community.

Right, if we could educate users on the tools they use, and if the trillion dollar companies could provide tools to help community members protect each other, we wouldn't be here. Apple doesn't have to be a dictator if they would help the community support each other. Instead they took the easy way out of stripping freedoms from everyone so they can control every device out there. It's a minor inconvenience to be involved in protecting vulnerable people in our community, it's tragic that people just said Apple should take that role.

I strongly dispute that giving megacorporations total control of how we're allowed to use our computing devices is beneficial to any community.