MachineMachine /stream - search for final https://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss LifePress therourke@gmail.com <![CDATA[Nintendo Switch 2 finally revealed]]> http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/207213

After unbearable levels of speculation and leaks, Japanese gaming giant Nintendo finally announced the Switch 2 today, surprising nobody. Most of the leaked features were verified by the trailer, but in traditional Nintendo fashion the mysterious 'C' button was rendered blank. What could this little anonymous square be for?

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Thu, 16 Jan 2025 08:36:34 -0800 http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/207213
<![CDATA[It feels like Bluesky has finally tipped over the shitposting barrier in the last 24 hours. And I for one am extremely pleased to be here.]]> https://bsky.app/profile/therourke.net/post/3lapmtobtqk2n ]]> Mon, 11 Nov 2024 16:57:00 -0800 https://bsky.app/profile/therourke.net/post/3lapmtobtqk2n <![CDATA[[1hr Talk] Intro to Large Language Models]]> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjkBMFhNj_g

This is a 1 hour general-audience introduction to Large Language Models: the core technical component behind systems like ChatGPT, Claude, and Bard. What they are, where they are headed, comparisons and analogies to present-day operating systems, and some of the security-related challenges of this new computing paradigm. As of November 2023 (this field moves fast!).

Context: This video is based on the slides of a talk I gave recently at the AI Security Summit. The talk was not recorded but a lot of people came to me after and told me they liked it. Seeing as I had already put in one long weekend of work to make the slides, I decided to just tune them a bit, record this round 2 of the talk and upload it here on YouTube. Pardon the random background, that's my hotel room during the thanksgiving break.

Few things I wish I said (I'll add items here as they come up): - The dreams and hallucinations do not get fixed with finetuning. Finetuning just "directs" the dreams into "helpful assistant dreams". Always be careful with what LLMs tell you, especially if they are telling you something from memory alone. That said, similar to a human, if the LLM used browsing or retrieval and the answer made its way into the "working memory" of its context window, you can trust the LLM a bit more to process that information into the final answer. But TLDR right now, do not trust what LLMs say or do. For example, in the tools section, I'd always recommend double-checking the math/code the LLM did. - How does the LLM use a tool like the browser? It emits special words, e.g. |BROWSER|. When the code "above" that is inferencing the LLM detects these words it captures the output that follows, sends it off to a tool, comes back with the result and continues the generation. How does the LLM know to emit these special words? Finetuning datasets teach it how and when to browse, by example. And/or the instructions for tool use can also be automatically placed in the context window (in the “system message”). - You might also enjoy my 2015 blog post "Unreasonable Effectiveness of Recurrent Neural Networks". The way we obtain base models today is pretty much identical on a high level, except the RNN is swapped for a Transformer. http://karpathy.github.io/2015/05/21/rnn-effectiveness/ - What is in the run.c file? A bit more full-featured 1000-line version hre: https://github.com/karpathy/llama2.c/blob/master/run.c

Chapters: Part 1: LLMs 00:00:00 Intro: Large Language Model (LLM) talk 00:00:20 LLM Inference 00:04:17 LLM Training 00:08:58 LLM dreams 00:11:22 How do they work? 00:14:14 Finetuning into an Assistant 00:17:52 Summary so far 00:21:05 Appendix: Comparisons, Labeling docs, RLHF, Synthetic data, Leaderboard Part 2: Future of LLMs 00:25:43 LLM Scaling Laws 00:27:43 Tool Use (Browser, Calculator, Interpreter, DALL-E) 00:33:32 Multimodality (Vision, Audio) 00:35:00 Thinking, System 1/2 00:38:02 Self-improvement, LLM AlphaGo 00:40:45 LLM Customization, GPTs store 00:42:15 LLM OS Part 3: LLM Security 00:45:43 LLM Security Intro 00:46:14 Jailbreaks 00:51:30 Prompt Injection 00:56:23 Data poisoning 00:58:37 LLM Security conclusions End 00:59:23 Outro

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Wed, 22 Nov 2023 18:27:48 -0800 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjkBMFhNj_g
<![CDATA[Why so much of the world runs on counterfeit software - The Hustle]]> https://thehustle.co/why-so-much-of-the-world-runs-on-counterfeit-software/

LAGOS — Adegunji Kazeem vividly remembers the day his life fell apart. It was December 4, 2019. Kazeem was a final-year student at the University of Lagos and writing his undergraduate thesis, a requirement for graduation.

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Mon, 10 Jul 2023 02:52:58 -0700 https://thehustle.co/why-so-much-of-the-world-runs-on-counterfeit-software/
<![CDATA[ChatGPT proves AI is finally mainstream — and things are only going to get weirder - The Verge]]> https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/8/23499728/ai-capability-accessibility-chatgpt-stable-diffusion-commercialization

A friend of mine texted me earlier this week to ask what I thought of ChatGPT. I wasn’t surprised he was curious. He knows I write about AI and is the sort of guy who keeps up with whatever’s trending online.

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Mon, 12 Dec 2022 06:53:23 -0800 https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/8/23499728/ai-capability-accessibility-chatgpt-stable-diffusion-commercialization
<![CDATA[ChatGPT proves AI is finally mainstream — and things are only going to get weirder - The Verge]]> https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/8/23499728/ai-capability-accessibility-chatgpt-stable-diffusion-commercialization

A friend of mine texted me earlier this week to ask what I thought of ChatGPT. I wasn’t surprised he was curious. He knows I write about AI and is the sort of guy who keeps up with whatever’s trending online.

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Mon, 12 Dec 2022 01:53:23 -0800 https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/8/23499728/ai-capability-accessibility-chatgpt-stable-diffusion-commercialization
<![CDATA[Black Swan events disrupting or delaying (pop) cultural releases]]> http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/367655

I am looking for examples of (pop) cultural events/releases that were delayed or cancelled because an unforeseeable event eerily echoed their content in some way.

For instance, I just discovered that Kylie Minogue's 6th album 'Impossible Princess' was delayed by almost a year because Princess Diana died just before its planned release in 1997 (obviously because of the proposed title).

What other cultural creations suffered similar setbacks because of absolutely unpredictable circumstances (so-called 'Black Swan' events)? Three others that came to mind were:

  • Nintendo's recent delay of 'Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp' for the Switch because of the war in Ukraine.

  • The infamous summer 2001 trailer for Spiderman depicted a helicopter suspended between the World Trade Towers. This scene then, quite possibly because of the events of 9/11, never made it into the final movie.

  • And a more obscure one... the recall and reissue of UK Indie band The Bluetones' single 'Cut Some Rug', because the artwork depicted a classroom emptying... an image that then eerily echoed the tragic school shooting at Dunblane school in 1996.

All four of these examples are because of a serious, tragic event taking place that strangely echoed their proposed content. These are the kind of things I am thinking about, though they need not necessary be considered 'tragic' to count.

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Mon, 17 Oct 2022 09:51:14 -0700 http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/367655
<![CDATA[‘The Game is Over’: AI breakthrough puts DeepMind on verge of achieving human-level artificial intelligence | The Independent]]> https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-deepmind-artificial-general-intelligence-b2080740.html

Human-level artificial intelligence is close to finally being achieved, according to a lead researcher at Google’s DeepMind AI division.

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Fri, 03 Jun 2022 05:52:12 -0700 https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-deepmind-artificial-general-intelligence-b2080740.html
<![CDATA[‘The Game is Over’: AI breakthrough puts DeepMind on verge of achieving human-level artificial intelligence | The Independent]]> https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-deepmind-artificial-general-intelligence-b2080740.html

Human-level artificial intelligence is close to finally being achieved, according to a lead researcher at Google’s DeepMind AI division.

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Fri, 03 Jun 2022 01:52:12 -0700 https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-deepmind-artificial-general-intelligence-b2080740.html
<![CDATA[I gave my microwave a soul with AI and it tried to kill me]]> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1G5b_2PYj0

Share this so it isn't my last episode. Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/SrDAqQzQ

✳ PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=711561 ✳ Twitter: http://twitter.com/_lucasrizzotto ✳ Facebook: http://facebook.com/lucasrizzotto ✳ Instagram: http://instagram.com/_lucasrizzotto ✳ Website: http://lucasrizzotto.com]

Thanks for the wild ride, friends. This one was a joy (and hell) to make. Make sure you follow me closely on social media - got some big announcements to make this week!

I really appreciate you all, specially those of you who dig deep into the description to find hidden bits like this :)

This channel never really blew up the way I thought it would but it brought me close with some of the most passionate people I've ever seen and I'll always be eternally grateful.

Love ya,

Swooty McBooty

Special thanks to: Austin Beaulier (for helping me get the epic smooth shots in the memories sequence) Cix Liv (for all his expert insight as Dimitri) Max Noir (for dealing with all the bs of making this video for almost a year lmao) Stephen Hodgson (for helping out hugely with GPT-3 code)

Chapters!

00:00 - Teaser 00:38 - Introduction 02:35 - Jeff Bezos' Tale 04:22 - The Brain Transplant 05:07 - GIANT METAL DEATH MACHINES 06:00 - Okay Let Me Explain GPT-3 For Real Now lol 07:10 - Writing Fake Memories 09:30 - PLOT TWIST! An Old Friend 11:20 - Ad-Break 12:24 - The Conversation Begins 13:36 - Microwave Gets Personal 14:45 - Microwave Politics 15:43 - Oh God He Likes Hitler 16:18 - Dramatic Question Montage 19:34 - Unintended Consequences 20:19 - Microwave PTSD Montage 21:12 - The Murder Attempt 23:04 - Lucas Moves Far Away... 23:33 - ... To Uganda LOL 24:22 - Haunted By Nightmares 24:53 - Talking to an Expert 26:34 - Is Magnetron Fake? 27:06 - The Final Conversation 30:12 - Goodbye, Magnetron 31:34 - Is it over? 32:15 - Outro / Sad Announcements 34:20 - Goodbyes & Reminiscing

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Sun, 06 Mar 2022 10:00:11 -0800 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1G5b_2PYj0
<![CDATA[learning from history and future of AI!]]> https://www.designboom.com/design/history-ai-real-world-resemble-chess-02-19-2022/

in may 11, 1997, garry kasparov — the russian chess grandmaster — gave the final game against IBM’s deep blue supercomputer. a normal high-level chess game lasts up to four hours, but kasparov gave it up before even an hour was over, after a careless mistake.

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Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:52:07 -0800 https://www.designboom.com/design/history-ai-real-world-resemble-chess-02-19-2022/
<![CDATA[Garfield phones beach mystery finally solved after 35 years - BBC News]]> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47732553

image copyrightClaire Simonin‎ / Ar ViltansouA French coastal community has finally cracked the mystery behind the Garfield telephones that have plagued its picturesque beaches for decades.

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Wed, 31 Mar 2021 07:56:00 -0700 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47732553
<![CDATA[The Making of Monkey Island (30th Anniversary Documentary)]]> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgqEneDNQto

I'm finally proud to show you this little documentary I've been making for the past two or three months for the 30th anniversary of the release of The Secret of Monkey Island - The Making of Monkey Island. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I enjoyed making it. What an honour!

Thank you to everyone who made this possible...

RON GILBERT https://twitter.com/grumpygamer https://grumpygamer.com/

DAVE GROSSMAN https://twitter.com/phrenopolis

MARK FERRARI https://twitter.com/Mawkyman http://www.markferrari.com/ https://www.twice-the-serial.com/

STEVE PURCELL http://spudvisionblog.blogspot.com/

ORSON SCOTT CARD KRISTINE CARD http://www.hatrack.com/

ADDITIONAL PIXEL ART BY - PENNEY PIXELS https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpzHE1Jo-_Igft69WVschaA

STEVE PURCELL VOICED BY - SUNSET HOTLINE https://www.youtube.com/user/minihalo

ORSON SCOTT CARD VOICED BY - JENOVI https://www.youtube.com/user/uniject

FAN CLIPS PROVIDED BY Neil at RMC - The Cave https://www.youtube.com/user/RetroManCave Matt at The Game Show UK https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGameShowUK Dave Perry - GamesAnimal TV https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW9K53Gwvhj4lfH2RtPWvqg

QUALITY ASSURANCE Matropolis https://www.youtube.com/user/Matropolis86 The Game Show https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGameShowUK

GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE PROVIDED BY World of Longplays https://www.youtube.com/user/cubex55 MrWhitman https://www.youtube.com/user/MrWhitman Kim Justice https://www.youtube.com/user/elmyrdehory Mr Eight-Three-One https://www.youtube.com/user/legoking831 Mike Shade https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClFNfD-FN6VCw-eD8s2LGVQ Major Thriftwood https://www.youtube.com/user/thriftweeds

Renaissance by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://audionautix.com/

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Mon, 12 Oct 2020 12:00:11 -0700 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgqEneDNQto
<![CDATA[Critical Designer, Activist Engineer: Making Things and Making Things Happen]]> https://aplusa.org/courses/critical-designer-slash-activist-engineer/

What happens when design and engineering research results in activism, human rights work, politics, or matters of equity and justice? Engineers and designers are often thought of as “problem-solvers” in mostly technical, practical, and formal senses. But this class explores the equally compelling history of engineering and design projects that raise difficult questions, aid marginalized communities, address urgent social issues, or create new social conditions.We’ll talk to designers, artists, and engineers who work on issues of sustainability, power, health, education, and more. And we’ll run our own experiments in creative design work for the public good. The class includes significant reading, field trip(s) and guest lectures, short experiments, and a culminating project.We want you to witness and be inspired by the exciting, expansive fields of what are variously called social design, engineering for the public good, socially engaged art practices, and many other names. However, we also want you to be well versed in the many, many pitfalls of so-called “activist” work with technology—when it’s under-informed, poorly researched, focused on form and not on substance, it risks not only being ineffective, but can lead to actual harm. We take this risk seriously, so this course will have you mostly listening, learning, listening and learning some more, and, finally proposing—not carrying out fully-fledged projects in one semester. Trust us on this: We can have fun and be at play with ideas while also operating with due diligence as socially-minded engineers and designers. Humility and questions are your trusty companions here, your true north. We want to help you to lay a foundation; you will have many, many future opportunities to build the house.

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Wed, 09 Sep 2020 03:59:27 -0700 https://aplusa.org/courses/critical-designer-slash-activist-engineer/
<![CDATA[‘Queer Eye’, Jordan Peterson and the battle for depressed men | openDemocracy]]> https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/queer-eye-jordan-peterson-and-the-battle-for-depressed-men/

While I was undercover at a far Right conference in Italy last year, it was easy to hide how I really felt about the people I was ‘befriending’. I’d been feigning enthusiasm for years. Just before I went on that trip, I’d finally gone to see my GP.

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Thu, 03 Sep 2020 23:13:14 -0700 https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/queer-eye-jordan-peterson-and-the-battle-for-depressed-men/
<![CDATA[On The Importance of Exploding Heads]]> https://vimeo.com/411575923

Writer and Editor, Benjamin Shearn Narrator, Matt D’Elia Music J.S. Bach Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, Cantata BWV 22 - 5. Sanctify Us (Arr. Cohen) Performed by Alicia De Larrocha Featuring Clips from Scanners, Hellraiser, Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Fury, Dust Devil, Chopping Mall, Wild At Heart, The Fly, Saw IV, Dogma, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, Street Trash, Planet Terror, The Prowler, Kingsmen: The Secret Service, Stitches, Dawn of the Dead, Prometheus, Deadly Friend, Battle Royale, I Am Not Okay With This, Maniac This video is for not for profit. This video is for educational purposes only. No infringement is intended.

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Sun, 17 May 2020 09:26:56 -0700 https://vimeo.com/411575923
<![CDATA[PhD Thesis: The Practice of Posthumanism]]> http://research.gold.ac.uk/26601/

Post-humanism is best understood as several overlapping and interrelated fields coming out of the traditions of anti-humanism, post-colonialism, and feminist discourse. But the term remains contested, both by those who wish to overturn, or even destroy, the ‘humanism’ after that decisive hyphen (post-humanists), and those engaged in the project of maximising their chance of merging with technologies, and reaching a supposed point of transition, when the current ‘human’ has been augmented, upgraded, and surpassed (transhumanists). For both those who wish to move beyond ‘humanism’, and those who wish to transcend ‘the human’, there remains a significant, shared, problem: the supposed originary separations, between information and matter, culture and nature, mankind and machine, singular and plural, that post-humanism seeks to problematise, and transhumanism often problematically ignores, lead to the delineation of ‘the human’ as a single, universalised figure. This universalism erases the pattern of difference, which post-humanists see as both the solution to, and the problem of, the human paradigm. This thesis recognises this problem as an ongoing one, and one which – for those who seek to establish posthumanism as a critical field of enquiry – can never be claimed to be finally overcome, lest the same problem of universalism rear its head again.

To tackle this problem, this thesis also enters into the complex liminal space where the terms ‘human’ and ‘humanism’ confuse and interrupt one another, but rather than delineate the same boundaries (as transhumanists have done), or lay claim over certain territories of the discourse (as post-humanists have done), this thesis implicates itself, myself, and yourself in the relational becoming posthuman of which we, and it, are co-constituted. My claim being, that critical posthumanism must be the action it infers onto the world of which it is not only part, but in mutual co-constitution with.The Practice of Posthumanism claims that critical posthumanism must be enacted in practice, and stages itself as an example of that process, through a hybrid theoretical and practice-based becoming. It argues that posthumanism is necessarily a vibrant, lively process being undergone, and as such, that it cannot be narrativized or referred to discursively without collapsing that process back into a static, universalised delineation once again. It must remain in practice, and as such, this thesis enacts the process of which it itself is a principle paradigm.After establishing the critical field termed ‘posthumanism’ through analyses of associated discourses such as humanism and transhumanism, each of the four written chapters and hybrid conclusion/portfolio of work is enacted through a ‘figure’ which speaks to certain monstrous dilemmas posed by thinkers of the posthuman. These five figures are: The Phantom Zone, Crusoe’s Island, The Thing, The Collapse of The Hoard, and The 3D Printer (#Additivism). Each figure – echoing Donna Haraway – ‘resets the stage for possible pasts and futures’ by calling into question the fictional/theoretical ground upon which it is predicated. Considered together, the dissertation and conclusion/portfolio of work, position critical posthumanism as a hybrid ‘other’, my claim being that only through representing the human as and through an ongoing process (ontogenesis rather than ontology) can posthumanism re-conceptualise the ‘norms’ deeply embedded within the fields it confronts.The practice of critical posthumanism this thesis undertakes is inherently a political project, displacing and disrupting the power dynamics which are co-opted in the hierarchical structuring of individuals within ‘society’, of categories within ‘nature’, of differences which are universalised in the name of the ‘human’, as well as the ways in which theory delineates itself into rigid fields of study. By confounding articulations of the human in fiction, theory, science, media, and art, this practice in practice enacts its own ongoing, ontogenetic becoming; the continual changing of itself, necessary to avoid a collapse into new absolutes and universals.

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Thu, 08 Aug 2019 05:56:23 -0700 http://research.gold.ac.uk/26601/
<![CDATA[TIMELAPSE OF THE FUTURE: A Journey to the End of Time (4K)]]> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA

Support my work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/melodysheep | Get the soundtrack: https://bit.ly/2HKl9fi | How's it all gonna end? This experience takes us on a journey to the end of time, trillions of years into the future, to discover what the fate of our planet and our universe may ultimately be.

We start in 2019 and travel exponentially through time, witnessing the future of Earth, the death of the sun, the end of all stars, proton decay, zombie galaxies, possible future civilizations, exploding black holes, the effects of dark energy, alternate universes, the final fate of the cosmos - to name a few.

This is a picture of the future as painted by modern science - a picture that will surely evolve over time as we dig for more clues to how our story will unfold. Much of the science is very recent - and new puzzle pieces are still waiting to be found.

To me, this overhead view of time gives a profound perspective - that we are living inside the hot flash of the Big Bang, the perfect moment to soak in the sights and sounds of a universe in its glory days, before it all fades away. Although the end will eventually come, we have a practical infinity of time to play with if we play our cards right. The future may look bleak, but we have enormous potential as a species.

Featuring the voices of David Attenborough, Craig Childs, Brian Cox, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michelle Thaller, Lawrence Krauss, Michio Kaku, Mike Rowe, Phil Plait, Janna Levin, Stephen Hawking, Sean Carroll, Alex Filippenko, and Martin Rees.

Big thanks to Protocol Labs for their support of this creation: https://protocol.ai/

And to my Patreon supporters: Juan Benet, Kalexan, Laine Boswell, Holly, Dave & Debbie Boswell, Abraxas, Alina Sigaeva, Aksel Tjønn, Daniel Saltzman, Crystal, Eico Neumann, geekiskhan, Giulia Carrozzino, Hannah Murphy, Jeremy Kerwin, JousterL, Lars Støttrup Nielsen, Leonard van Vliet, Mitchel Mattera, Nathan Paskett, Patrick Cullen, Randall Bollig, Roman Shishkin, Silas Rech, Stefan Stettner, The Cleaner, Timothy E Plum, Virtual_271, Westin Johnson, Yannic, and Anna & Tyson.

Soundtrack now available: https://bit.ly/2HKl9fi and coming soon to iTunes/Spotify/Etc

Additional visual material sourced from:

NASA Goddard Google SpaceX 2012 Geostorm Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking BMW X1 Journey to the Edge of the Universe Noah How the Universe Works Deep Impact Wonders of the Universe Moon raker vfx reel

Peace and love,

melodysheep @musicalscience melodysheep.com

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Wed, 20 Mar 2019 10:15:01 -0700 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA
<![CDATA[Why this Two Pixel Gap is Among the Most Complicated Things in Super Mario Maker.]]> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQmfbfRWiKU

Since the release of Super Mario Maker the community found many many crazy ways to build levels. We found ways to activate pipes if mario takes damage, we found ways to forbid mario to jump, to run or to slow down in Super Mario Maker. We found ways to build binary storage and built turn based combat systems but there is one super weird, incredibly powerful, and unimaginably complicated Super Mario Maker technique we never discussed in detail before. Namely the giant gap, and pow block memory. So with Super Mario Maker 2 around the corner, it's time for us to tie up some loose ends, and to finally take a look at what are probably the most complex and weirdest techniques currently possible in super mario maker.


A couple of Giants fantastic Levels:

[3YMM] Life Without Mystery A2E5-0000-03C2-C05B https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/A2E5-0000-03C2-C05B

Rubik’s Stiffest Pocket Cube A09B-0000-036E-41BE https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/A09B-0000-036E-41BE

The Tower of Hanoi for n=4 7A55-0000-0354-526E https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintendo.net/courses/7A55-0000-0354-526E

--------------------Credits for the Music-------------------------- ------Holfix https://www.youtube.com/holfix HolFix - Beyond the Kingdom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CiGpsBLBX8

------ Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga OST Teehee Valley

------Kevin MacLeod "Adventure Meme", “Amazing Plan”,”The Show Must Be Go” Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Sun, 17 Mar 2019 09:00:05 -0700 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQmfbfRWiKU
<![CDATA[The World of Wakanda - Open Source with Christopher Lydon]]> https://huffduffer.com/therourke/463320

The World of Wakanda

Black Panther, the movie, is heading toward $1-billion at the box office on just its third weekend. Already it seems that commercial success is likely not what Black Panther will be remembered for. It is a grand coming-together of African-American cultural production. The story in it is a mix of myth and magic in the made-up African nation of Wakanda.  It’s a technologically advanced society in a land that was never got colonized; and it holds the world’s only big deposits of an all-powerful mineral element, vibranium. 

Wakanda is an immense showcase of black agency and so is the movie Black Panther, in all the arts: writers and actors working off fact and fantasy, imagination and history and tough-minded politics, too. In the stunned aftermath, not least of the marvels about this movie is realizing that Black Panther, the character—and a lot of his immense fan base—is built on the culture of comic books that lots of us have never read. So this hour’s inventory of Black Panther first impressions begins with those drawings going back even before the Marvel Comics series began in the 1960s.  

John Jennings leads the way. Prolific in comic books and illustrated novels—like Octavia Butler’s Kindred, for example—Jennings grew up drawing in Mississippi. He’s Professor of Media Studies now at the University of California, Riverside. He’s dedicated his new anthology, Black Comix Returns, “to all the little black boys and girls who never have to know what it’s like NOT to see yourself as a hero, as subject, as vital to the society you live in.”

Ytasha Womack joins us from Chicago. She is a dancer, filmmaker, and futurist, who describes herself as a “champion of humanity and imagination.” She also wrote the book on Afrofuturism—the cultural aesthetic which links T’Challa, King of Wakanda, to the great jazz eccentric from Alabama, Sun Ra.

Harvey Young is our resident theater critic as well as the new dean of the College of Fine Arts at Boston University.  He’s written a lot about black performance, most notably in his Chicago oral history, Black Theater is Black Life.  

Brooke Obie is a a full-time writer and novelist who’s seen Black Panther five times so far. In her review of the movie for the black cinema site Shadow & Act—she puts forward a strong defense of “Eric Killmonger and the lost children of Wakanda.”

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò grew up in the north suburbs of Cincinnati as the child of Nigerian immigrants He’s now a PhD candidate at UCLA and will soon be an assistant professor of philosophy at Georgetown. His family history makes him still wary of the warrior class represented by Killmonger in the film. 

Evan Narcisse, the lead writer for Marvel’s “Rise of the Black Panther” series, was born in Brooklyn of Haitian parents. He grew up with the legend of Toussaint Louverture, who led a slave rebellion against French colonists and finally beat Napoleon’s Army to liberate Haiti—the only time ex-slaves defeated a great power for their freedom, for which Haitians paid a terrible price. That too is part of what Evan Narcisse brings to his work on Black Panther.

Douglas Wolk of Austin, Texax is our unofficial “dean of American comic book critics.” He has made it his life’s mission to read “all of the Marvels” and will soon write about them. This week, he gave us the short form on what they all mean.

 

http://radioopensource.org/the-world-of-wakanda/

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Fri, 02 Mar 2018 05:21:22 -0800 https://huffduffer.com/therourke/463320