Recent posts

#1

Off the Record / Re: 2024 US Presidential Elect...

Last post by Barrister - Today at 10:32:48 AM

If I'm not, you know, lawyering, but have to just sit in a courtroom for some reason (say I'm waiting for my case to be called, or I'm just observing) somedays it can be hard to fight nodding off.  It can be pretty boring if you're not directly doing something.

#2

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Syt - Today at 10:31:51 AM

Why is it a money loser?

I assume insufficient sales to cover publishing.

Publishing on Amazon or Smashwords doesn't cost you anything, and if you generate all content yourself, it only costs you time - and with AI generating the content for you, you just need to format it in the ebook format of choice and upload it.

#3

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Barrister - Today at 10:31:07 AM

Why is it a money loser?

I assume insufficient sales to cover publishing.

I believe the books in question are either e-books, or print-on-demand books.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Print_on_demand

So even if you sell a handful of books you're still profiting on each one.

#4

Off the Record / Re: 2024 US Presidential Elect...

Last post by Jacob - Today at 10:27:09 AM

I was geeked when I heard about the napping on NPR but there's no video, so didn't happen.

No video is allowed in the court room. Does that mean that nothing happens there?

#5

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Jacob - Today at 10:26:12 AM

Why is it a money loser?

I assume insufficient sales to cover publishing.

This assumption is probably incorrect given the evidence - that such ai generated titles are massively prevalent.

#6

Off the Record / Re: 2024 US Presidential Elect...

Last post by Barrister - Today at 10:24:39 AM

So Trump is really burnishing his anti-woke credentials, what with all the napping he is doing in court...

Heh.

#7

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Jacob - Today at 10:23:45 AM

Saw another article on a place where AI is making things crappier - Amazon self-publishing. It's always had a problem with content that was essentially (at best) wikipedia articles uploaded as books for suckers to buy. But now - according to the article - that market place is completely flooded with shoddy AI generated content. This shuts down a venue for aspiring and unrecognized authors to publish their work.

I guess more generally, AI is likely going to render non-curated or lightly curated places for content non-viable as the return on investment from flooding them with low effort derivative AI generated content is going to be significant enough that non-AI generated work will tend to be drowned out (or not submitted at all).

Isn't self publishing basically a money loser, not even counting writing time?  Why would AI people want to spend time generating content that loses money?

They're already doing it, so it must make sense.

Presumably using AI prompts to generate 500 "books" on different topics, uploading them, and using botnets to push them to the top of search rankings is something that is relatively easy to automate.

At which point the money from suckers buying any of those "books" (that it costs pennies to generate) is pure profit.

#8

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by Barrister - Today at 10:05:51 AM

My RRSPs will also be taxed when I retire. So I'm not gonna worry too much about a business owner being taxed on his million dollar business he sells when he retires.

So I've actually heard it argued that RRSPs are in some ways not a great investment vehicle.

So any money you put into an RRSP isn't taxed - but is taxed as income.  The RRSP is taxed though when it is withdrawn - again as income.  But if, while in the RRSP, the value of your investments say triples, you'd eventually be paying three times as much tax once you finally withdraw it.  (There's all kinds of calculations about the time value of money and the like, but the basic point stands).

Going back to the small business owner, they had a couple of different options with corporate profits.  They could pay them out in dividends over the years - or they could keep them within the corporation and invest them.  Lots of business owners, knowing the tax system at the time, kept the money in the business.  They knew they'd be taxed as capital gains once they sold however, but thought that was a wise investment strategy.

All those that did so just had a one third tax increase.

#9

Gaming HQ / Re: Cities:Skylines

Last post by garbon - Today at 09:04:08 AM

Paradox must have finally decided they were not amused.

#10

Gaming HQ / Re: Cities:Skylines

Last post by Syt - Today at 08:59:57 AM

Received a newsletter:

Dear Cities fans,

We see and understand the disappointment many of you have expressed after the release of Cities: Skylines II and the recent release of Beach Properties. We asked for your patience and support, and you've shown those. In return, we let you down. We thought we could make up for the shortcomings of the game in a timeframe that was unrealistic, and rushed out a DLC that should not have been published in its current form. For all this, we are truly sorry. When we've made statements like this one before, it's included a pledge to keep making improvements, and while we are working on these updates, they haven't happened at a speed or magnitude that is acceptable, and it pains us that we've now lost the trust of many of you. We want to do better.

The very first thing we're doing is to compensate those who purchased Beach Properties. We will change the pack to be a free addition to the game, refund it to the extent possible, and provide additional content within the Ultimate Edition. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to offer refunds for Ultimate Edition buyers. This is due to the distribution of the Ultimate Edition across digital and physical storefronts, which create significant complexities for executing a partial refund. We realize that this is far from ideal, especially given the dedication those who have stayed with us since launch have shown. We are committed to repaying that loyalty, and therefore, we will compensate Ultimate Edition holders by adding 3 Creator Packs and 3 Radio Stations which, together, sum up to a value of USD 39.99. This solution hopefully ensures that you, regardless of purchase method, feel you receive fair compensation.

Looking ahead, we also want to make immediate and meaningful changes in the way we approach the game's development and our communication with you. Firstly, this means a complete focus on improving the base game and modding tools, and secondly, we want to better involve you, the community, as we choose our priorities going forward. We will focus on additional free patches and game updates in the coming months before Colossal Order spends time on new paid content, resulting in a move of the Bridges and Ports Expansion to 2025. In addition, the aforementioned Creator Packs are being produced independently, and will not take any focus away from the work on improving the game. To make sure we focus on the right things, we're putting together an advisory meeting, where a small group of player representatives, together with Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive, will discuss the development plan for this year. The people in this group are chosen for the size of their following within the community to represent as many people as possible. The teams from Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive will provide them with full transparency and answer any questions and critiques voiced. Our hope is that together with you, our community, we can make sure that we do not repeat the same mistakes we have made in the past and bring this game into a bright future.

We also want to address the pending Console release. As you know, our plan was to release in Spring of this year. We have been hesitant to communicate an actual release window because of the uncertainty we are facing, and to not make further promises we might not be able to keep. We have been struggling to get Cities: Skylines II to the necessary level of optimization for a console release, but are now hopeful that an upcoming build delivery in April will demonstrate sufficient progress for us to progress with a release candidate, and then a release build targeted for October. Before we have seen and evaluated the progress made in these builds however, we will not be able to confirm the release date, and even then, some uncertainty always remains. Our ambition is to deliver the experience that you all deserved at launch, but it will take time. It's important to note that the team working on the console release operates separately from our PC development team, so it will be progressing without splitting our focus or time. In closing, we want to reaffirm our dedication to making Cities: Skylines II the best city builder it can be. We appreciate your support and feedback, and hope we can regain your trust going forward. It's our responsibility to earn it, and we hope these actions are a first step in the right direction. We are deeply grateful for your continued passion for our game. Please stay tuned for further updates on the game and the refund process, and thank you for being a part of our community.

Sincerely,
Mariina Hallikainen, CEO, Colossal Order
Mattias Lilja, Deputy CEO, Paradox Interactive

And a link to the "The Way Forward" FAQ: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/faq-the-way-forward.1663862