I do agree it’s one of Bakshi’s better films, and perhaps I’m being a little too harsh on it, but despite some good aspects, after the end credits rolled it could only evoke a ‘eh, that was alright’ from me.

I’ve only read the first book of the John Carter series, and that story resonated with me far more than F&I, and seemed to have more intrigue and originality going on, IMHO.

I adore Bakshi’s rotoscoped animation style, but I could never really enjoy Fire & Ice beyond its visuals, personally. I found the plot to be rather generic and bland, and the characters are completely undeveloped beyond their basic archetypes to be interesting. It is truly a faithful recreation of a typical 1940’s fantasy pulp story, but at least for me, that makes it far less enjoyable than it could’ve been.

Most of Bakshi’s films are pretty heavily flawed, IMO, despite loving the animation itself. Folding Ideas did a great video on Bakshi’s LOTR that goes into that.

I think it’s still worth watching at least once for the animation alone, but I’d recommend going into it with low expectations.

PostmarketOS is our best hope for a Linux phone that has no reliance of Google whatsoever. For those who can’t code, donating toward to them (if you have the means) would be very helpful in combating the dystopia Google is pushing

Looks good to me! :D

I’m quite chuffed that the icon is centered so well in the banner version ^^

I believe graphically both the ST and Amiga were used to their full potential, I just think the games available on them aren’t actually designed well, as in they had access to so much more memory, but for the most part didn’t know how to create a compelling gameplay or story experience with the additional creative freedom those better specs allowed.

As I say there are a few exceptions on both platforms, I think Another World on the Amiga is a good example of a developer using that extra power extremely well to create a truly novel and innovative experience that stands the test of time.

Hunter is definitely trying to be innovative, but the hardware wasn’t ready for a full 3D open world, and personally I don’t think it holds up as a ‘good game’ today.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that within the still existing limitations of that era of hardware, most Amiga and ST devs did not have the design chops or writing ability to create a compelling game within those restrictions that would make it a standout even today. Consoles from around the same period such as the Sega Genesis and SNES have pretty similar hardware restrictions to the Amiga and ST, but still have a fairly beloved library of games due to those seeming to attract more talented designers.

To be honest, I feel the same wasted potential also applies to the ST :/

I’m not sure that entirely explains the reputation Babylon’s first season seems to have online, though.

As an example, TNG is almost entirely episodic and made in the same era, yet it’s generally regarded well. The first season there is also known to be bad, but more so because it’s actually poorly implemented until they discovered what works in season 2, which is still episodic.

The same for DS9, which has a poor season 1 that has to be pushed through as they find their feet. That too remains mostly episodic until the later seasons with the dominion war, yet I haven’t seen the same suggestions for watch guides to skip most of the early seasons to get to the serialized stuff, people usually still consider the good episodic standalones of DS9 to be worth watching, from what I can tell.

There’s something oddly unique about the Babylon 5 community suggesting watch lists to avoid any episodic content from the first season specifically, despite the show starting out on way stronger footing than either DS9 or TNG. At least for me, it gave a perception that the first season is nigh unwatchable dreck that most only tolerate once for the setup it provides, emphasizing to grind through it for the pay off.

But my actual experience with it makes the near universal dislike of it’s season 1 bewildering, especially as they are not entirely episodic in the sense that virtually all of them so far have seemingly contributed toward the bigger arc in some way, even the monster of the week episodes.

If you haven’t tried them in a while, the plant based meats on the market are now astonishingly good. My family genuinely can’t tell the difference between impossible meat and the real thing, and personally I prefer the taste of impossible meat to animal meat, coming from a previously life-long meat eater.

Highly recommend giving it a try, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, and it makes giving up red meat especially easy.

There’s also really good imitation steak made of mushroom, I adore the Meati brand ones.

To anyone who hasn’t played this; I’m a huge adventure game fan, been playing them my whole life, and I couldn’t stand this game.

The protagonist is insanely unlikable (and not in a good way), and the puzzles weren’t terribly fun in my opinion.

It has nice art, and the world is cool, but just beware that it’s very much a marmite sorta game (love it or hate it).

Holy shit, that must be what inspired the food man dummy puzzle in Space Quest 6. I’ve never seen that painting until now yet it was instantly recognizable.

I think the Commodore Amiga’s potential as a gaming platform was never truly taken advantage of despite the massive hardware advancement from the C64, and that save for a handful of exceptions, its game library is mostly poorly designed shovelware that people only go back to for nostalgia.

I’m watching for the first time now, so far on Ep 6, and I’ve read a lot about season 1 being bad, and specifically to use this guide to avoid the bad episodes, but I decided to watch the low rated ones anyway just to see and I actually found that I liked them quite a lot, even the monster of the week soul hunter episode I thought was quite well done.

I can see how some may bounce off the wooden acting of the main character/commander (and the second in command in the pilot who was really bad, but replaced with the other actress who plays the role far better. Though a shame they weren’t able to keep the doctor from the pilot, I thought they did a much better job than the replacement IMO), but overall I’m finding season 1 so far dramatically better than DS9, which I’ve bounced off like 3 or 4 times and never was able to enjoy due to how dull it felt.

B5 in comparison has such a rich 90’s soundtrack and is absolutely dripping with color and well framed shots, it’s a feast for the eyes, like a classic Baen book cover come to life. I also find I enjoy the characters far more than DS9’s.

I hope it’s okay if I weigh in too :p

I think my favorites are CNT, Original, and Tabby (cause cat), but if I had to pick just one, I think I’d choose Original.

And I realized I never provided any context for where I got the person holding the banner in Original! It is from this cool Spanish Civil War photo (and I just realized I forgot to create a CNT FAI flag version, oop). She was a militia woman called Anita (or Antoni Campañà), and there’s a cool backstory around her from this article in Catalan, but I’ll pop an English translation below in a spoiler (from Firefox’s built in translation ability, so hopefully fairly accurate).

I actually didn’t realize until afterward that she named her daughter Liberty, a fun coincidence ^^

Seems to work fine on my end, are you getting an error?

I fully agree being able to build your own DIY batteries is indeed very solarpunk. I only wanted to clarify that we allow non-literal BIFL suggestions, as you mentioned that all personal ev’s are not technically BIFL (which is true).

The replies you are receiving are not from slrpnk.net accounts, but instead are from off-instance, likely from people who simply subcribe to this BIFL comm or saw it in in the /All view, and who do not consider themselves solarpunks.

Modern integrated graphics are actually astonishingly good, the latest AMD desktop APU’s can play Cyberpunk 2077 quite well, for instance.

This community also allows recommendations for items that only last significantly longer than usual, not just literally something that will last for an entire lifetime :)

If you’re in a dry climate, it’s useful to coat the inside of your nose with vaseline to keep it from drying out.

Busses still use oil. Solar energy is still dependent on violent exploitation of the earth. If you choose to go vegan, you’ll likely still need monocultural practices to sustain yourselves.

Busses are quickly becoming EV powered, which when combined with a renewable grid, make them certainly a far better option climate wise. Ideally we would also advocate for solarpunk urbanism, which heavily encourages walkable and bikeable cities combined with electric trains/trams as much as is possible.

Even just monoculture veganism would be a substantial win for the climate (and animal suffering). However there are also non-monoculture ways of farming, as well as urban farming, which shows good promise.

what I’m saying is we’re going to be in the gray no matter what. No right life in the wrong one and all that.

IMHO that’s a thought terminating cliche, a way to continue to use harmful tools without it causing too much cognitive dissonance. Or in other words, it’s something we can choose to tell ourselves so we don’t feel as bad about it without having to make a substantial change in our lifestyles.

However, or so I like to believe, many there do wish to create tools to create a quote unquote better world.Honor those honest people and forget about the control freak of a greedy ceo.

Without meaning to offend, that is a very naive view of how corporations and CEOs operate, as they all ultimately are beholden to profit over all else.

When I use AI, it feels like what you’re describing: I’m trying. Trying to play the hand I’ve been dealt. What else can I do?

…Not use it? Like you and everyone else would’ve had to do just a few years ago before LLMs existed.

Perhaps, yes, we must leave everything behind and opt for some sort of primitivism

Solarpunk is not compatible with primitivsim, nor do we advocate for it (as that would only bring untold suffering and death).

Solarpunk is an attempt to be as logical and realistic at balancing having a habitable and stable climate/biosphere with an appropriate and non-ecologically damaging use of technology to achieve maximal individual and collective freedom and happiness. If you haven’t you may want to read our “What is Solarpunk?” wiki article to have a better idea of what we’re striving for.

I don’t see how AI with its undeniably emancipatory possibility can’t be part of that as well.

For the reasons mentioned before, it is genuinely in direct opposition to building a solarpunk or habitable world.

You don’t need a big team of well-paid engineers anymore to get actually functional shit of the ground anymore and that is frankly exciting!

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” ― Frank Herbert, Dune

One last note on degrowth:

Being more communal, having human connections, the other things you describe are all good, fostering community is essential to building the world we want, but there is also a hard physical reality that we are extremely close to making the planet’s ecology completely collapse due to our dependence and addiction to fossil fuels, meat, and now the tools that only further empower the very people who ensure those addictions continue until it is too late to reverse on any meaningful human time scale, and at that point all we will have left is our dances as the planet crumbles.

Collectively we can’t just keep taking the easy path because it feels good and doesn’t require us to feel like we’re missing out, otherwise there will be no future for our children to inherit.

It might feel good to see the AI make a somewhat functional app quickly, but it’s important to keep in mind the external cost to have that done quickly. Was it truly worth funding the billionaires that wish to enslave us further? Will that app be worth it 10 years from now if all our lives are made miserable from fascists rising to power with the aid of AI surveillance? When our family members are imprisoned, deported or killed, where healthcare is inaccessible to most, and we all seek ways to numb ourselves as the world burns around us?

We have to keep in focus what we are enabling by taking that easy route, and the suffering we may cause to ourselves and others in the future by not taking a stand while we can.

well of course, but this argument could be extended to the use of just about any technology (ethics of mining, reality of elecitricty etc.) and also most societal structures (opressive, classist, racist, sexist, whatever).

Yes, and part of solarpunk is about trying not to perpetuate those things as much as possible, which collectively makes a difference. That’s why Solarpunk advocates for degrowth (avoiding unnecessary consumption, repairing instead of buying new, gift and library economies), trying to avoid as much electricity and fossil fuel consumption as much as possible (using an public transport or an ebike where viable instead of a car, utilizing solar energy where possible), reducing meat consumption as much as possible to avoid unnecessary animal suffering and climate emissions, and to try to build the world we want to live in within the shell of the old through prefigurative politics.

Not everyone will be able to do those things 100%, but it is absolutely still worthwhile to do what they can to whatever degree is feasible.

Corporate AI use in particular is the easiest of all of those things to avoid using outside of a tech job that may enforce its use. If someone chooses to hand wave the harmful externalities it causes just because it feels convenient, then how are we to address any of the other problems humanity faces, which will generally require bigger lifestyle changes? All of us choosing to use it also sends the others looking at our movement that we are a “Do as I say, not as I do” group, who give lip service to trying to solve things while being unwilling to actually put our actions where I values claim to be.

We are ultimately incredibly unlikely to build the world we want to live in by directly funding the very people who most wish to oppress us and stop our efforts, who would see the world burn to a cinder without blinking an eye.

I’d really recommend checking out some of the links I provided in my first comment to fully grasp the scale of the problem that corporate AI is, and how supporting it by its use is incredibly self defeating.