CursedSilicon's comments

On: The gold standard of optimization: A look under the hood of RollerCoaster Tycoon

[CursedSilicon]

It's a shame that when a Redditor discovered the source code for the original StarCraft "gold master" on a CD, they sent it back to Blizzard in exchange for some fucking blizzard merch [1]

EA a while back released the source code to (most) of the old Command & Conquer games [2] though interestingly left out Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2, StarCraft's closest competitors at the time.

Would've been nice for historical preservation to be able to peek behind the curtain and see StarCraft's code in a similar fashion

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/gamecollecting/comments/68xzxt/star...

[2] https://github.com/electronicarts

[imtringued → CursedSilicon]

This entire reddit thread aged really poorly now that Blizzard is a shell of its former self. If anything, the attitude in that thread is what paved Blizzard's decline: complete disrespect for its origin.

The StarCraft source code is something that must be kept behind closed walls, under tight control by Blizzard, even though the original people working on the game at Blizzard have already left and there is nothing to protect here other than eternal shame.

[astrange → imtringued]

Game source code often includes other people's source code (eg middleware) under NDA, and Blizzard is still under contract for protecting that.

[netcoyote → CursedSilicon]

> peek behind the curtain and see StarCraft's code in a similar fashion

Oh, you wouldn't want to, believe me. You'd be scarred by code like this:

    class CUnit ... {
        #include "header_1.h"
        #include "header_2.h"
        #include "header_3.h"
        #include "header_4.h"
    };

It's remarkable the game functioned as well as it did. See https://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/tough-times-on-the-road-to-...

[CursedSilicon → netcoyote]

I've read the blog posts (actually we corresponded about Battle.Net back in 2012!) but I'd love to see StarCraft opened for historical interest :)

PS: Still waiting to hear about the "Westwood's reaction" blog post! :p

[Blikkentrekker → CursedSilicon]

That person obviously did not want to be at risk for legal issues from Blizzard by publhsing it though. I personally wouldn't take that risk either.

[DustinKlent → CursedSilicon]

I don't think [1] is 100% accurate.

[CursedSilicon → DustinKlent]

What part of it isn't accurate? They're the top commenter and said exactly what I stated

On: OpenBSD: PF queues break the 4 Gbps barrier

[CursedSilicon]

How much work is it to port drivers between Free and Open BSD?

[SoftTalker → CursedSilicon]

OpenBSD doesn't allow binary blobs. So if there isn't a fully open-source driver (or adequate docs for a developer to write one), it won't happen (hence, no Nvidia support). Not sure about FreeBSD in this regard, but AFAIK most of these drivers start as ports from Linux.

[traceroute66 → CursedSilicon]

> How much work is it to port drivers between Free and Open BSD?

IIRC there are two problems at play:

First, I'm not a C coder so this is a bit above my pay-grade, but from what little I do remember about the subject, the problem relates to the OpenBSD requirement to adopt their security mechanisms such as pledge, unveil and strlcpy. IIRC the OpenBSD compiler is also (unsurprisingly !) more anal about stack protector W^X etc. So the porting process is perhaps more time-consuming and low-level than it might otherwise be on other porting projects.

Second, the licensing thing might come into it. OpenBSD has a high preference to most-permissive, and so things like GPL-licensed origins might not be acceptable. IIRC FreeBSD is a little more relaxed within reason ? And when you're working with network cards I would think that is perhaps hard to avoid to some extent if you're relying on certain bits being ultimately derived from Intel chipsets or whatever.

I'm open to correction by those more knowledgable than me on porting intricacies. ;)

[toast0 → traceroute66]

The difficulty of porting NIC drivers is probably not in differences in the userland API; kernel drivers don't likely pledge anything. But OpenBSD and FreeBSD diverged a long time ago, and I'd be surprised if their kernel APIs are very close anymore. How to detect and interface with devices is probably a bit different, and rx/tx packets will be different too.

I think most of the vendor supplied NIC drivers in FreeBSD are BSD licensed, so that shouldn't be an issue. I checked Intel, Melanox (now NVidia), Cavium/QLogic/Broadcom, Solarflare. The realtek driver in the tree is BSD licensed but not vendor provided; the vendor driver in ports is also BSD licensed. I'm not sure if there's a datacenter ethernet provider with in kernel drivers I missed; but I don't think license is a problem here either --- anyway you could ship a driver module out of tree if it was.

On: OpenAI Has New Focus (on the IPO)

[CursedSilicon]

Hey uh. Slurs aren't cool.

You could've just as easily said "investors are morons" and had the same connotations without disparaging a group of people

[tartuffe78 → CursedSilicon]

Apparently morons once meant the same thing

ARCHAIC•MEDICINE a person having low intelligence or an intellectual disability.

[lelanthran → CursedSilicon]

> You could've just as easily said "investors are morons"

A distinction without a difference. They mean the same thing.

When "moron" started getting used as a slur, "retarded" was introduced. When "retarded" got used as a slur, "mentally challenged" was introduced.

Now that "mentally challenged" is being used as a slur, there'll soon be a replacement along .

[surgical_fire → CursedSilicon]

I disagree, and I also don't care. I really despise this sort language policing, it is clear what my message was.

The only group of people I disparaged are Tesla investors, deservingly so.

Other types of mentally impaired people have my full sympathy, and that includes charity.

[CursedSilicon → surgical_fire]

The thing about using slurs is when you respond with "but [group] deserved it!" you've implied that you're happy to use it against someone if you subjectively believe they're "deserving" and that the term should be received negatively

[surgical_fire → CursedSilicon]

Incidentally, I don't refer to other types of mentally impaired people as "retard". The word has a negative connotation, similarly to "moron".

Both terms obviously should be received negatively, they are insults. That's how insults work.

I am happy to refer to more groups, not only Tesla investors, as retards too. I'll leave this as an exercise to imagination.

[CursedSilicon → surgical_fire]

I'm very sorry for the person you choose to be, then

[surgical_fire → CursedSilicon]

Because I understand that insults are insults, and use them accordingly?

Maybe you are running out of things to feel sorry about.

Either way, this conversation has run its course. Have a wonderful rest of your day.

On: OpenAI Has New Focus (on the IPO)

[CursedSilicon]

Isn't that what Grok is for? It already called itself "Mecha Hitler" so it knows what its users (and creator) want

On: OpenAI Has New Focus (on the IPO)

[CursedSilicon]

People having different opinions to you is not "performative"

[llm_nerd → CursedSilicon]

"Why do I have to beg and ask multiple times to get an answer they already know I'm looking for but still decide to withhold?"

Performative with zero correlation with the actual topic at hand, but purposefully using ridiculously leading language to bait the gullible (which apparently includes you). It has nothing to do with a different opinion, it's someone choosing a polarised position and then just streaming nonsense to support it.

And I mean, then I looked at the rest of their comments on this site and it all made sense and was perfectly on brand. Facebook-tier rhetoric.

So maybe you should save white knighting for trolls?

EDIT: the troll is now opining that these are LLM-generated. Good god.

[CursedSilicon → llm_nerd]

Am I gullible or white knighting?

Or do I simply disagree with you enough to comment?

I guess you could go ask the slop machine and come back :)

[miroljub → CursedSilicon]

I'm pretty sure the last two llm_nerd's comments were AI generated.

What I am not sure about is if it was just laziness or a subtle prank showing how AI can be used to manipulate users to more interaction in a Facebook way.

[CursedSilicon → miroljub]

I don't think it's (all) AI generated. But they seem to be weirdly determined to gaslight me about my own opinions on their comments

Thinking way too deeply into it. Maybe that's the troll. "Look how easily manipulated people are. I don't even need AI to do it!"

[llm_nerd → CursedSilicon]

>Am I gullible or white knighting?

Why do you think these are exclusive choices? You are gullibly white knighting for an obvious troll. Their other reply to you betrays that they're just a noisemaker, and you're dutifully carrying water for them.

[CursedSilicon → llm_nerd]

Nah. Their reply was far more nuanced than your weird gaslighting of "you don't have your own opinions! You're being trolled by the person you agree with!"

[llm_nerd → CursedSilicon]

I have no idea what your "opinion" is here. You ran in to defend someone, bizarrely, and you keep yipping about how you're being gaslit. Bizarre stuff.

Wait, maybe you've been an LLM all along!

Anyway, I think I'm done with you, so hope you have a good day. Go back and reply with the alt, after consulting the "slop machine". :)

[CursedSilicon → llm_nerd]

Anything to defend your own ego I suppose...

On: What happens when US economic data becomes unreliable

[CursedSilicon]

They're handling Ukraine better than America is "handling" Iran

On: Rising carbon dioxide levels now detected in human blood

[CursedSilicon]

I mean. At least we'd still be living as a species

[slibhb → CursedSilicon]

Oh we're not living? Am I a ghost typing this? Are you?

[CursedSilicon → slibhb]

Sorry. Did you miss the term "still" ?

[slibhb → CursedSilicon]

You used the world still wrong and the space before punctuation makes me wonder if English isn't your first language

On: Mac mini will be made at a new facility in Houston

[CursedSilicon]

Not without a big beautiful bribe [1] I assume

[1] https://www.theverge.com/news/737757/apple-president-donald-...

[nessbot → CursedSilicon]

Yeah, not denying the bribing. But that doesn't change tax law. It still needsto be passed by congress. Does it affect enforcement, though? maybe

[CursedSilicon → nessbot]

So much of what this admin has done "needed" to be approved by congress. They're complicit in the overreach of power

On: Kimwolf Botnet Swamps Anonymity Network I2P

[CursedSilicon]

DMCA requests lead to legal consequences for ISP's in extreme cases. Botnets meanwhile there's no "lobby groups" that are directly impacted enough to 'care' at a financial level

On: Minecraft Java is switching from OpenGL to Vulkan

[CursedSilicon]

Wrong kind of death. Taking mods away after a decade and a half of the game being modded inside out would massively reduce the creative scope of the game for players. It would become "boring" and die out