Buckshot Roulette

Buckshot Roulette

Buckshot Roulette is a great little game that’s gotten a fair amount of internet fame. I definitely enjoyed the unique vibe. Basically, it’s like playing your own version of the movie DeerHunter.

Delightful Kissboy gives us a great breakdown on how the AI works along with tips on how to maximize your odds. You can even go look at the decompiled code here if you are interested.

He also does a deep dive on why you should almost never shoot yourself, even if you think the odds favor you.

A Rare honest take on addiction

A Rare honest take on addiction

The United States has lost more than one million people to overdoses since 2000 — more than the number of Americans lost in all wars in the past 150 years put together, including both World Wars.

This New York Times article recounts the real story of Drew – an actual addict in Oregon that’s somehow survived the last few years of open legal drug use. In the end, he turned himself into police to be rescued from his addiction. His lawyers knew they could even get him off – but he, and the author, admit that open legalization is killing many more lives than ever before.

The data backs it up. Portlanders will hate this, but incarceration kept more addicts alive than legalization. Our death rates have doubled every year – an exponential growing rate – every year since legalization. Portland literally has around 1800 people dying a year in the streets vs just at 500 for years before legalization. That’s 4 dead bodies a day in the relatively small city of Portland’s 600,000 people.

What I’ve seen is that the fundamental leniency in recent years on the West Coast — toward drugs, toward shoplifting and toward homelessness — didn’t actually improve the well-being of those in desperate need. Our liberal compassion backfired: Instead of helping Drew, it endangered him.

I think the author sums the situation. These are people in deep need of assistance, but are often unable or unwilling to do it themselves. Despite a free treatment, free call center, and countless free resources – only a single digit number of people have gotten help. It doesn’t work voluntarily. The sad reality is that many people never hit ‘rock bottom’ and turn around. The majority of them die. Often die from the elements or an overdose laying in a tent beside an interstate, outside a building, or in a bus stop.

It’s more than time to admit these policies, predictably, are actually killing thousands of people each year in just Portland alone. That’s blood on the hands of those who refuse to realize that compassion alone creates a life of living horrors like Drew was living. If you were to design a policy to kill the most number of people in the most inhumane ways – I think we have achieved it.

Compassion must be tempered with wisdom of addiction behavior and understanding of the true value and dignity of the human person. It is not compassion to allow our brothers and sisters to sleep beside a busy interstate wallowing in the elements, ignorance, crime, poverty, and addiction until they die. The solutions are there – treatment is available. What is missing is the will to act on it. That action, however, may not look all that great. In European countries with legalization; they also throw addicts into prison if they refuse treatment – and they don’t hold punches. You are either getting treatment or jail. If for no other reason that you’re not going to be allowed to die in the streets.

It makes me wonder how many more thousands we will have to kill in the name of progressive policies before we come to the conclusions the data has already said loud and clear.

Robotic hand exoskeleton for piano players

Robotic hand exoskeleton for piano players

Expert musicians often experience a “ceiling effect,” in which their skill level plateaus after extensive training. Worse, practicing too much can lead to injury. So how can someone break through this issue?

Shinichi Furuya told New Scientist. “I was suffering from this dilemma, between overpracticing and the prevention of the injury, so then I thought, I have to think about some way to improve my skills without practicing.” Recalling that his former teachers used to place their hands over his to show him how to play more advanced pieces, he wondered if he could achieve the same effect with a robotic hand.

Passive training using a robotic exoskeleton hand could help pianists overcome that ceiling effect, according to a paper published in the journal Science Robotics.

Article:

Tech Interviewing in 2025

Tech Interviewing in 2025

It’s not news that tech jobs are getting destroyed the last few years. Large layoffs have hit just about all major tech companies over the last few years and tech companies have gotten battered in the stock market.

The Pragmatic Engineer has a wonderful analysis and breakdown of the current marketplace for those seeking a tech job.

He also offers some tips on how to prepare for various interviews and jobs based on current state of the market.

How many eggs does a dinner need?

How many eggs does a dinner need?

The price of eggs has become the new ‘Thanks Obama’ rating system for an administration. Interesting question – how many eggs does the average greasy-spoon diner go through in a week?

Make a guess? I think it would be an interesting interview question.

For an answer, it turns out we have some data. Tom’s Pancake House talked to local reporters on how the rising egg prices has affected them. According to the owner, they go through more than 9,000 eggs a week.

When a case of 180 eggs skyrocketed from $45 to $140, that means their weekly egg purchases went from $2,250 to $7,000. Definitely something you would see on the bottom line.

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AI Snow White better than the remake?

AI Snow White better than the remake?

The very controversial and firebrand issues/actors behind the Snow White remake has turned into a box office disaster and resulted in an apocalyptical round of firing at Disney (and rightly so).

It should tell you something when a decades old IP powerhouse like Disney and all their marketing efforts could only generate 18M views in 4 months on it’s official trailer, and an AI generated parody done by a likely single person YouTube channel gets 1.4M views in 12 days. And the AI content is honestly better.

Personally, I think Wicked AI‘s live version of the Little Mermaid with Danny DeVito is even funnier