Random Questions

I wonder if this has anything to do with translations ala All Your Base. Besides just bad translation perhaps there was the memory and compression issues not being addressed so the translation got crammed into the same space as the Japanese text.

LZ77 was invented inā€¦ 1977. Maybe they already were compressing. Space was at such a premium on old-timey consoles.

Thatā€™s an interesting hypothesis, but given how much translation was an afterthought in many cases back then, I still think it was a case of translation by one Japanese dude, a Japanese-to-English dictionary, and a large pot of coffee.

From watching various videos about development during the 16-bit era, compression was very common for 16-bit cartridge-based consoles. Not just for textual data, but also sprite/graphical data as well, and perhaps even code on occasion.

I even recall a case where a SNES game got some negative reviews due to having bad ā€œload timesā€ despite being a cartridge-based game. These ā€œload timesā€ were in fact instances of the game decompressing data crammed onto the cartridge.

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I got a call back for an interview with a law firm nearby that I applied for when I was unemployed and applying to anything I was qualified for. On closer inspection of their reviews on Indeed, Yelp, Glassdoor and Google itā€™s really obvious they hired a PR firm to fluff their online presence and make themselves look good to both clients and applicants. Their website also looks like a 90s ambulance chaser commercial in website form. Should I run away screaming?

To give an update to a discussion earlier this year, WOTC announced yesterday at PAX that they are releasing a new Novel for MtG.

Is it common in companies for acceptable use policies to unofficially not apply to IT? Thereā€™s rules against using work computers and internet access for streaming, chat, and non work related stuff but every time I walk by the IT desks they have browser Discord open posting memes and streaming music on Spotify or YouTube while they kick phones off the guest wifi if they see them streaming music.

No matter what the policy is, trying to enforce it would be like trying to have cops ticketed for parking violations.

Also, no IT person would work for you if you filtered their Internet. If someone told me to stop watching YouTube at work, I would just quit immediately.

I guess itā€™s a just perk of the position. I suppose the other thing is being a law firm, theyā€™re not beholden to the same standards of tracking productive time since theyā€™re not doing work thatā€™s being charged to clients.

We donā€™t do a ton of filtering on our network and I can easily bypass all of them. I was asked to not go onto facebook/amazon etc. because if others see me there theyā€™ll be upset that the rules arenā€™t being applied equally. I donā€™t really care much about the things they block so I just follow along. Everyone knows that I can bypass all the filters, but because I ā€œdonā€™tā€ theyā€™re okay with it.

I wish I understood the policy however. We do allow streaming at desktop pcā€™s, we donā€™t allow phones on the wifi, only laptops, but you canā€™t get onto facebook/amazon ā€¦ itā€™s so weird. But what the boss man wants, itā€™s what he gets.

Itā€™s not even filtered I can go on all those sites weā€™re just not allowed to while IT does whatever they want and no one stops them. I know itā€™s like @Apreche said, theyā€™re the cops no oneā€™s gonna give them a ticket but they also flaunt the already lax dress code and other minor policies. This is my first white collar office job so maybe Iā€™m just not used to the way things work in that environment. And itā€™s not a huge deal it just irks my sense of fairness and Iā€™d like to preserve my data plan but still listen to Spotify.

I would quit and find another job, but Iā€™m also in the position Scott is: most of my jobs are going to be like trying to police the cops as the cops.

Iā€™m not in IT Iā€™m contracting for a law firm doing class action claim processing so Iā€™m constantly looking for something permanent. Itā€™s actually not bad all things considered, pay is good and itā€™s not retail. But in law thereā€™s consideration given to productive time and what can be ethically charged to clients. Like technically Iā€™m supposed to count going to the bathroom against unbillable break time so weā€™re not charging the clients for the time I spend pooping and not working on claims. I think the policy is mostly in place to prevent issues with that and give a defensible argument should somehow an allegation of unethical billing arise. Since IT doesnā€™t produce a work product charged to clients Iā€™m guessing no one gives a shit what they do as long as the systems are up and working.

Just go on all those sites and ignore the dress code. If and when someone calls you on it, tell them you thought it was acceptable because IT is worse.

I was considering that actually.

Hereā€™s the scene, itā€™s my birthday and all the family is over and my wife is so proud of herself and tells everyone that she writes down the names of games that I happen to mention over the last year and sheā€™d tracked down this one game that Iā€™d talked about. It was available in German everywhere sheā€™d looked online but sheā€™d worked super hard and found it in English!

So I open the gift. Itā€™s a game called Guilds of Cadwallon.

Iā€™d never heard of it.

I say ā€œOh, I donā€™t know what this isā€, and she was a bit crestfallen.

Iā€™m still grateful for the work she put in and Iā€™m sorry that I didnā€™t know it. I have an amazon wishlist if she ever needs it but she loves to surprise me with things I happen to mention but it never works out. There are so many misunderstandings and versions of cluedo and monopoly on the shelfā€¦

But my main focus for now is trying to work out what I must have been talking about in the last year she could have heard as Cadwallon. Itā€™s not a word Iā€™d have just saidā€¦ because I didnā€™t know it.

It doesnā€™t appear to even have a foreign language version so something was lost in translation there. Any ideas?

Super random question but I guess itā€™s what the thread is for.

I know itā€™s getting popular (especially here) to redraw states so that they are of roughly equal population so that Senate votes are more fair, but isnā€™t that just making a clone of the House? Why not just abolish the Senate?

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I mean, weā€™d still have a Congress, just a monocameral one.

Iā€™m torn by the idea, really. If weā€™re going to redraw them such that they equalize the population and make the Senate and the House basically equivalent it still doesnā€™t follow that the Senate should be abolished. Ostensibly the Senate should be representing the interests of the Stateā€™s Governments not the people of the State as an averaged whole.

But then why redraw the states when we can abolish them as separate quasi-independent entities and make them completely subordinate to the federal government?

What purpose should the States provide in todayā€™s society?

The distinction between the states feels quite arbitrary given the vast differences between the different areas of each state as a whole. One only needs to look at the gulf that separates St. Lawrence County and Nassau County in NYS. Or West Texas vs Dallas & Austin.

I feel like with the way the Fed is set up now you need the States to be separate and somewhat independent from the Fed. Completely getting rid of their representation at the federal level would severely weaken them.

Overall I think we are at a point where we need to completely rethink how we need to organize our political structures, whether it makes sense to maintain a local first ideal, a strong or weak separation between the State and Federal levels.

Even if both houses are represented based on population, the senate still has longer terms. This is supposed to give them more time to get actual long-term work done since they arenā€™t constantly campaigning.