Getting a new phone. Current S9 is 3 years old and giving me trouble sometimes, and I could maybe factory reset it or if I'm gonna go to all that trouble I could just get a new one.

Pixel 6 Pro should be here in a couple weeks. I didn't want the big Pro, but I did really want the telephoto lens, so it is what it is. The pictures it's able to take in reviews look incredible. Looking forward to some great photos of the kids especially (and the face unblur will be great with the 3 year old who never ever stops moving).

My son was hooked on Rocket League to the point where it was affecting his grades, so we had to have a come to Jesus talk about his gaming.

Glad you were paying attention enough. Games can be incredibly addicting, but also very rewarding.

I skipped school so often to play Diablo 2 in high school that I got some bad grades my last couple years, and couldn't do certain stuff because I missed too many classes.

I haven't played an MMORPG since, because I know I get addicted to them. Rocket League isn't quite as bad for me personally, but it is still really addictive, both gameplay and the feeling of improving. There's no game quite like it, it's a really interesting study. The skill floor is relatively high (this turns people off when they can't even drive straight and hit the ball at all) but the skill ceiling is probably higher than any other game, and continually getting pushed higher. The physics based, you have to make the car do exactly what you want, exactly when you want it, you're not pressing a button to shoot or pass, if you miss it's because of you, not RNG or the "skill rating" of your player. But yet it still has all the strategy and team play and stuff.

I can't get over the fact that it's a hyped up video game version of Top Gear's car football.

My son accidentally downloaded Lord's Mobile onto my phone a year plus ago, when he was 7. He set up a player ("For that field you just put whatever you want, like this (and he just swiped his fingers all over the keyboard letters)" which is why the player name is asxc), played every now and then, got into a guild ("Well I just checked all the boxes on all the pages and one said yes"), etc. I discovered the game when I saw turf stuff (I thought it was just heros battling heroes). We were asked to lead our guild, and now two guilds have asked to merge with us (or us with them, which is significant). Our main guild mate is a guy from Norway. Both him and my son like Sabaton, he has a kid about my son's age, etc. It's been very good.

I meant to come here to ask how to reprogram those "It's easy!" buttons from Staples. Except my button is from work. It has an 8 pin female connector that you'd use to connect a cable to a motherboard.


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...08cb7a938e.jpg

Loving my pixel 6 Pro. All day battery (I could use battery sharing to charge my wife's S10e from 0 to full and still have like 45% left. It's really big), the assistant is lightning fast, everything just works. Photos are great, plus the AI stuff is magical. Just as a ridiculous test, I removed my wife and kids from the foreground of this picture using magic eraser (taken with my old phone), they were the subjects. Took me 30 seconds and obviously you can tell if you look closely, but at a glance it's really, really impressive. Background stuff and automatic stuff it's even better at. You can really make it look super clean in the background. I took a shot of my wife on the beach that used to be busy and crowded and made it look completely empty, just her.

For just a few seconds, directly on the phone, for free (no Photoshop license) it's impressive.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...777a117b1d.jpg

Anyone do any machine learning/reinforcement learning?

I got into it recently because there's some really impressive AI bots that can play Rocket League. I'm working first on the background to have a good foundation and then I'm gonna do some learning and practicing in open AI gym (a framework environment for RL), and then take on writing one myself. Reinforcement learning is what Alpha Go and Open AI Five (can destroy professional DOTA2 players) and other impressive game playing AI use. It's incredibly powerful and really interesting the way it works. Rocket League in particular is a real challenge for them because of the way the game is played and how open ended and strategic and stuff it is. But it's an excellent challenge to work on.

Man, I thought someone was interested in my reinforcement learning, but it's just a stupid bot.

Lame

I made another low-quality video for my unpopular YouTube channel.

I enjoy playing with chemicals a lot, but recording video and editing is not my forte.

Please like and subscribe. haha.

Fun video! Watched the electrolysis one too. Subscribed.

What are you gonna do with the product?

Also, my wife thinks it would be better with an actual voice over. I sorta agree.

Hopefully going to make some azo, and maybe azide, compounds.

I hate my own voice, as most do; but I should use my own voice, the use of text-to-speech is a common criticism. My biggest issue now is that I suck with the video editing software. I have done lots of stuff in my little backyard lab, and recorded it, but almost never get around to making the crappy videos.