BC GAMING
Saved by @Mollyycolllinss

So someone on IRC mentioned the ending(s) to Zero Wing and I found out there's a cheat code to skip to it. I thought it might have some more "All your base" style dialogue I could put in the generator, but I really wasn't prepared for what ending #1 looked like

 ending #2 is some very thin credits
ending #3 is reportedly the "true ending", at least on the European release. The Japanese version has 35 endings.

This one is... more serious? a little?
The other 32 endings are translated here, by @ClydeMandelin:
https://t.co/BN33w7zP2B
functionally all the japanese endings work like this. you get CONGRATULATIONS and then CATS says something to you.
usually something silly, or possibly the debug menu cheat code
The way the game selects the ending is apparently there's a "loop counter" which records how many times you've beaten the game. It's initialized to the difficulty, so if you're playing on easy it starts on ending 1, normal is ending 2, hard is ending 3.
so to get to ending 4, you either have to beat the game on hard mode and then beat it again without resetting the console, or beat it 4 times on easy mode.
or you use the cheat code to get to the test menu which lets you pick arbitrary endings.

The only problem is that you learn the cheat code from ending #35
fun fact: THE EXISTENCE of that cheat code was discovered in 2014. (the game is from 1991)

it wasn't until later that someone figured out how to use it
the problem is that the game uses "west" to mean "right", which is... confusing.
To use the code, you start the game, then pause it with start, and enter:
C↑B↓A←→BCC→←→A↓ and hit Start
as is often the case, TCRF has a bunch of info:
https://t.co/mUOCFgfwyV
it's really disappointing that the european release didn't get the extra endings.
admittedly just translating the intro apparently almost killed the translators... 32 more endings worth of text would have been a disaster.
so there's a weird thing with how the game controls endings:
so the way it's been explained is that there's endings 1-3 which are the "normal" endings, then endings 4-35 which are the joke endings, which are only in the japanese version, right?
but here's the thing: if you take the japanese cart and plug it into a european megadrive or US genesis, you can enter the code and you'll only get endings 1-3.

It gates you based on the firmware language! only Japanese Megadrives get the endings 4-35.
I thought at first this just meant that the japanese and european roms were the same, and it just picks language based on the rom language, but NOPE!
if you load up the japanese ROM with firmware set to US or Europe, you still get a Japanese intro.
so now I'm wondering... what happens if you load up the european ROM and set your firmware to Japan?
Maybe everyone was wrong and those endings #4 to #35 ARE in the european version, but people thought they weren't because of the firmware gate?
and the answer is... NOPE!

Even with the firmware set to Japan, the European version limits you to endings 1-3.
anyway, other fun thing:
a lot of the popularity of the whole "All Your Base" meme comes from a song, and later a flash animation.
That song is called INVASION OF THE GABBER ROBOTS
https://t.co/tEAkfp05G9
and it's by a band called The Laziest Men on Mars
which is a reference... to the only movie where Santa is threatened with explosive decompression!
That's right, the 1964 classic SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS!
which you may know from season 4, episode 21 of MST3K.
anyway, in the movie Kimar calls Dropo "The laziest man on mars" after catching him sleeping under a table.

More from foone

foone
foone
@Foone
So I got out some CF cards and noticed something odd about this one. Do you see the weirdness?


How the fuck is a CF card "USB Enabled"?


So CF cards are a weird beast that act as either a PCMCIA card or an ATA/IDE card depending on a mode pin.

They're definitely not USB.

And it's not like that weird SanDisk card I have which you can fold in half and plug it in as a USB device.


It turns out the reason for "USB Enabled" is because it's a Lexar drive from the jumpSHOT era.
This is a normal CF card in most cases, you can use it in normal CF card readers and such
FUN
foone
foone
@Foone
So there's a class of puzzles called "river crossing puzzles" which involve having to cross a river on a boat/bridge containing some set of individuals/items with restrictions on which ones can be on the boat/left on each shore, right?

and the most common subclass of these problems is the one where you have 3 items/animals to cross with.
This is alternatively called the "fox, goose, and bag of beans" or "wolf, goat, and cabbage" puzzle.

the idea is that your boat can only carry one item at a time, but if you leave the wolf/fox unattended with the goat/goose, the wolf/fox will eat the goat/goose.
and similarly, the goose/goat will eat the beans/cabbage if left alone

so you have to set up a set of actions that never leaves either side of the river in one of the lose-states.

the solution to this variant being:
1. take the goat/goose over
2. return empty
3. take the wolf/fox over
4. return with the goat/goose
5. take the cabbage/beans over
6. return empty
7. take the goat/goose over
GAMES
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foone
foone
@Foone
So I was in the shower this morning, and started wondering:
Do you think the people implicated in Jeffrey Epstein's book had a general "Dead men tell no tales" slush fund?
Or did they have to separately organize his assignation?

I'm just imagining that on August 10th there's a big traffic jam of hired killers all running into each other like


some guy's sneaking out of a vent when a guard walks in, sees him, and goes "HALT!" and the vent guy goes "SHIT!", then notices the guard's ill-fitting suit. "Wait, ...Steve? Is that you?"

"Alex! I haven't seen you since the Reno heist! What are you doing here?"
"Same thing as you, looks like."

"I'll be damned. Well, I've already knocked out the guard, you want to let me finish this?"
"Yeah, go ahead. I'll get paid either way."
CULTURE
foone
foone
@Foone
yesterday: somewhat viral post about shooting billionaires into the sun (and my stupid "WELL ACTUALLY" reply)
also yesterday: elon musk leaves twitter "for a while" and jeff bezos steps down

COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!

elon's gotta be off twitter for a while because they don't have wifi on the SunCrasher 9000, and bezos keeps stealing his phone anyway

elon thought he wouldn't need it because of starlink but THE SATELLITES ARE IN LOW EARTH ORBIT, MUSK, AND YOU'RE HEADED TOWARDS THE SUN

bill gates is the only one who still has internet access because he remembered to set up a long enough ethernet cable

(although tim cook joked that was just because his WinPhone doesn't have wifi support anyway)

zuckerberg asked if bill gates would let him use the network connection for a while and while billy g was fine with it, it turns out none of the other billionaires brought phones with built in ethernet ports

finally, the win95 phone comes up top!
FOR LATER READ
foone
foone
@Foone
1. in the beginning, browsers didn't have download statusbars
2. firefox got a browser statusbar extension. it was configurable and worked well
3. chrome cloned it without options and it didn't work as well

4. firefox realized chrome was faster and more secure at everything and therefore dropped extensions
5. now firefox doesn't have a download statusbar either

6. someone reimplements download statusbars in firefox's new web-extensions format. it's terrible because of the inherent limitations of the significantly less flexible and powerful extension format

7. CHROME WINS! (with its terrible download statusbar implementation which can't be fixed by users, because No Options and No Skins and No Extensions)

this is where we are now
SOFTWARE

More from Gaming

AbuBakar Siddiq
AbuBakar Siddiq
@BigManBakar
The Review: GW 20 - A thread

Hi everyone, welcome to the latest edition of “The Review” where I look at the GW gone by and Kane replacements with an eye on the upcoming GW21:

#FPL #FPLCommunity @OfficialFPL

(Data taken from @FFScout and @FFH_HQ with consent)

Before I start, I'd like to introduce to you this game Fantasy5
that I play each GW. It's free to enter and all you have to do is pick 5 players to beat their Fantasy points target. It's very exciting and you have a chance to win £10k! Link

At this point, I’d also like to mention that I post about FPL on my Instagram too, so if you have an Instagram account, follow up here!

Q: In this section, I talk about Manchester City.

I first run a comparison between Man City’s midfielders from GW 13-20:

(read below)

Gündoğan V Foden v Bernardo v Sterling

Mins per chance created: 46 v 26 v 57 v 51
Mins per shots in the box: 38 v 32 v 81 v 41
Mins per big chance: 92 v 208 v 285 v 124
Mins per expected involvement: 149 v 179 v 278 v 122
GAMING
Dan Kennett
Dan Kennett
@DanKennett
As nearly all teams have played 18 games, a thread checking in on who is ranked top/bottom of the #EPL for all the key numbers

Shots per match (FBREF)
16.0 City
15.8 LFC
15.6 Villa
14.5 Leeds
13.9 United
...
8.9 Newcastle
8.8 Sheff Utd
8.0 WBA

Shots conceded per match (FBREF)
7.3 City
7.9 LFC
8.9 Brighton
9.7 Chelsea
...
11.6 United (9th)
...
14.5 Leeds, Burnley
15.0 Newcastle
16.5 WBA

Penalties awarded (Opta)
10 Leicester (extremely high)
6 United, Brigton
...
1 Burnley
0 West Ham

Penalties conceded
7 Brighton, Wolves
6 Leeds, LFC
...
1 Sheff Utd, Leicester, Arsenal
GAMING
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eric81766 \U0001f579\ufe0f
eric81766 🕹️...
@eric81766
1/8
Some quick thoughts on delivering value and what is of value and to who (whom?).
A lot of indie developers make videos about indie game development -- but are the people who watch videos about indie game development the most likely customers for indie games?
Perhaps not.


2/8
Some #indiedev even go all-in on making YouTube videos and become entertainers that earn money primarily from entertaining rather than selling games.

My general quick take is:

3/8
- An artist (painter, writer, sculptor, or even indie game developers) needs an audience - fans of their work.
- Any way one can develop and nurture an audience is better than having no audience.

4/8
- Delivering value (entertainment, education, etc.) to that audience keeps them coming back.

5/8
- An audience might not help the artist directly. As I pointed out, fellow developers might find devlogs and programming tutorials interesting -- but they might not be a good fit as customers for the actual product being created.
GAMING
Alexander Peregrine
Alexander Peregrine
@AlexPeregrine
A little bit of fading video game history, inspired by both recent events and also how badly Cory Doctorow's graphic novel In Real Life (IRL) botches it.

MMORPGs in the 90s and 2000s used to rely exclusively on monthly subscriptions. That's how they paid for the servers to run them.

That's all well and fine, but even the most expansive games of that era capped out at 100 hours at most of "unique" content.

Most core gamers would finish within two months and quit. That's unsustainable.

So, how do you keep people playing? There are a few methods.

There is tried and true level grinding, of course. Make it take forever to level up.

But that's finite. How do you extend that further?

Make players do it all over again. If you want to play a different class, start over from scratch.
GAMING
PanzerLion \u2744\ufe0f\U0001f3d4\ufe0f Certified
PanzerLion ❄️🏔️ Certif...
@POCGamer
@Karnythia Staying warm while sleeping: use lots of blankets/comforters. Don't wear lots of layers to bed, they can trap sweat and oil and you'll kick off the blankets then get cold. Wear a toque or "beanie".

Use rolled up towels or t-shirts as draft excluders on your windows and doors.

If your bed is against an outside wall, move it away from it.

If you have some, hang rugs and spare blankets on the outside walls in your house. It's old school in the extreme, but it will create an air barrier between the cold transfering through the wall and the warm air in the house. Covering windows on the inside has the same effect.

Whatever you do, DO NOT burn charcoal of any sort inside your house. Or wood if you don't have a fireplace. The chances of suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning are huge and this kills whole families every year. Don't do it.

Past that, drink lots of hot drinks and warm water. You'll burn less energy than if you drink cold drinks.

And for clothes, layer up. Sweatpants and sweatshirts/hoodies are going to be your new besties.
GAMING

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Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
SRI CHAMPAKADHAMA SWAMY, BANNERGHATTA HILL, BENGALURU (KAR)
#bharatmandir

The shrine is dedicated to Sri Vishnu along with Devi Lakshmi and Bhoodevi.
It is built in an area full of Champaka trees.
As champaka flowers are offered to Sri Vishnu here, it is called Champakadhama.


It is believed that King Janmejaya had sarpa-dosha. To get rid of it, he took bath in the nearby pond. He emerged with a golden body and sarpa-dosha was also removed. The pond is called Swarnamukhi and believed to have curative powers.
Sri Vishnu murti was consecrated by him.


It is also believed that this forest area was the Dandakaranya where Sri Ram stayed in exile.
Some believe that the original shrine was built by Pandavas.
The pushkarni/pond is emptied once a year so that the rock at the bottom (which has image of Anjaneya) may be worshipped.
ALL
Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
HORANADU ANNAPOORNESHWARI, CHIKMAGALUR (KAR)
#bharatmandir

Annapoorneshwari is the Devi of nutrition and food. The literal meaning of Annapoorneshwari is “Feeding one and all”. Anyone who comes here is offered meals and shelter within the premises.
@LostTemple7


Maharshi Agastya is believed to have done pratishtha here.

Once, Shiva and Parvati had an argument. Shiva declared everything in the world including food to be Maya or illusion. To prove him wrong, Devi Parvati disappeared resulting in entire Earth becoming still.


Taking pity, Devi appeared as Annapoorna and relieved everyone.
Another belief is that once Shiva beheaded Brahma and his skull got stuck in Shiva’s hand. He was cursed that till the skull is not full of food or grains, it will remain stuck to his hands.


Shiva went everywhere and asked for food but the skull was never full. He finally came here and Maa Annapoorna filled the skull with grains and reversed Shiva’s curse.

It is believed that who ever visits Devi Annapoorna here will never be without food in their lives.
ALL
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Vibhu Vashisth
Vibhu Vashisth
@VIBHU_Tweet
राम-रावण युद्ध समाप्त हो चुका था। जगत को त्रास देने वाला रावण अपने कुटुम्ब सहित नष्ट हो चुका था।श्रीराम का राज्याभिषेक हुआ और अयोध्या नरेश श्री राम के नेतृत्व में चारों दिशाओं में शन्ति थी।
अंगद को विदा करते समय राम रो पड़े थे ।हनुमान को विदा करने की शक्ति तो राम में थी ही नहीं ।


माता सीता भी हनुमान को पुत्रवत मानती थी। अत: हनुमान अयोध्या में ही रह गए ।राम दिनभर दरबार में, शासन व्यवस्था में व्यस्त रहते थे। संध्या को जब शासकीय कार्यों में छूट मिलती तो गुरु और माताओं का कुशल-मंगल पूछ अपने कक्ष में जाते थे। परंतु हनुमान जी हमेशा उनके पीछे-पीछे ही रहते थे ।


उनकी उपस्थिति में ही सारा परिवार बहुत देर तक जी भर बातें करता ।फिर भरत को ध्यान आया कि भैया-भाभी को भी एकांत मिलना चाहिए ।उर्मिला को देख भी उनके मन में हूक उठती थी कि इस पतिव्रता को भी अपने पति का सानिध्य चाहिए ।

एक दिन भरत ने हनुमान जी से कहा,"हे पवनपुत्र! सीता भाभी को राम भैया के साथ एकांत में रहने का भी अधिकार प्राप्त है ।क्या आपको उनके माथे पर सिन्दूर नहीं दिखता?इसलिए संध्या पश्चात आप राम भैया को कृप्या अकेला छोड़ दिया करें "।
ये सुनकर हनुमान आश्चर्यचकित रह गए और सीता माता के पास गए ।


माता से हनुमान ने पूछा,"माता आप अपने माथे पर सिन्दूर क्यों लगाती हैं।" यह सुनकर सीता माता बोलीं,"स्त्री अपने माथे पर सिन्दूर लगाती है तो उसके पति की आयु में वृद्धि होती है और वह स्वस्थ रहते हैं "। फिर हनुमान जी प्रभु राम के पास गए ।
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Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson
@mijustin
A lot of bootstrappers think they have a marketing problem:

"I need to get better at marketing."

But, it's more likely that you have a product problem:

"Do customers really want this? Do they care enough about this to switch to a new solution?"

☝️ this is why most of my book, @marketingdevs, is about:

1. Choosing the right market
2. Building something they want

"If your product is remarkable, getting noticed is a lot easier." – @peldi


I was reminded of this concept again this morning while reading @pjrvs' book (Company of One):

"Sales increase when you honestly evaluate what someone needs and then teach them the value of what you're selling."


To succeed, your product has to offer an outcome that is highly desirable to a large group of customers.

The number of sales your product receives is a multiple of these two variables:

1. How big is the target market?
2. How desirable is the outcome you're offering them?
STARTUPS
Brian Cates
Brian Cates
@drawandstrike
A lot of people don't understand that Trump & his incoming team didn't face a normal transition period, like it was over a in a matter of a few weeks or months.

The DOJ transition period JUST ENDED when Sessions left. Almost 2 exact years to get it there.

Pompeo at the CIA took over a year before he was done and ready to shift over to the State Department.

All kinds of stuff has been going on behind the scenes nobody leaks or talks about.

We only had the barest mention of the fact the Clinton Email investigation restarted

Nobody leaked in a year that Huber was deep diving into the Clinton Foundation.
Keep that in mind as all the usual suspects continue to INSIST nothing is happening/going to happen.
POLITICS