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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
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completely blind computer geek, lover of science fiction and fantasy (especially LitRPG). I work in accessibility, but my opinions are my own, not that of my employer. Fandoms: Harry Potter, Discworld, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Buffy, Dead Like Me, Glee, and I'll read fanfic of pretty much anything that crosses over with one of those.
keyoxide: aspe:keyoxide.org:PFAQDLXSBNO7MZRNPUMWWKQ7TQ
Location Ottawa
Birthday 1987-12-20
Pronouns he/him (EN)
xmpp fastfinge@im.interfree.ca
keyoxide aspe:keyoxide.org:PFAQDLXSBNO7MZRNPUMWWKQ7TQ
blog https://stuff.interfree.ca/
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
Also, while doing my monthly "look at the things to make sure the servers stay healthy", I realized my media cache had grown to like 500 gigs. I aggressively cut the max file size and max days to cache remote media, because it's full of a bunch of giant mp4 videos from someone. That should fix it. Though I wish I could kick off a MediaCleanupTask now, instead of waiting for midnight. Oh well. We aren't going to run out of space in the next 24 hours or anything.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
This instance knows about 9202 other active instances. In the last 24 hours, it received 58027 posts. So that's like 6 posts per instance! There are a lot of underused servers out there. Though, of course, that post number only includes posts that hit one of the 26 relays we subscribe to, or were made by someone we follow. There could be a bunch more local only or private posts on instances we share a relay with, and a bunch of instances that don't use any relay at all. But still, that number is surprising!
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
Something something Vector embeddings with ollama? For urls and long chats? How to clear and start fresh? When to vectorize? Maybe there's a public API for this that users can provide a token for. OpenRouter doesn't do it. But maybe middle-out transform means it's not needed anyway. I dunno.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
Stuff for later in the roadmap:
1. Group rooms, objects, and npcs into worlds. Add a keyword attribute on rooms, objects, and npcs. Scan input for keywords and dump matching objects, names, and descriptions from the current world into AI context. Now we have lorebooks.
2. Figure out how to import and export worlds (with all npcs/objects/rooms). Now we can build a world hub to give people starting worlds like AI dungeon does. Maybe have worlds marked public or private? Public worlds can be accessed by all accounts on the server? Copy the world on modify I guess.
3. Some kind of time based trigger system or fuses or something? That way AI NPCs can act automatically to feel more alive.
4. Some sort of method for players to upload images and files? Maybe it just follows and ingests URLs.
5. Some way to have a global OpenRouter token and resell credits? Tie into squarespace? I dunno. But that's the way to make money for people who want to support the project and/or not sign up for openrouter themselves. Also quota for storage or number of worlds?

I don't know none of this is happening anyway so it doesn't matter. I just can't stop thinking about it so I'm getting the ideas out of my head.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
Thing I want to exist but don't want to build: a that does pretty much the same thing as or , intended for selfhosting. A MUD would be an excellent interface for assisted . With and , this honestly wouldn't be that hard. I just hate and don't wanna.

The way to do it would be:
1. Set up a environment, to make distribution easy.
2. Add an attribute on Evennia accounts to hold an openrouter API key, and a userflow to get a users key via OAuth: openrouter.ai/docs/use-cases/oauth-pkce
3. Use the Python API and hook it up to NPC's to let them chat, generating responses with the user's API key. Figure out function calling and hook it into the various creation functions of Evennia for extra fun. Probably need to store attributes for what models and parameters to use on each NPC, with global defaults probably from the user's account.
4. Dump the room name and desc, the player desc, and chat history into the AI context.
5. Something something MSP/MXP and ElevenLabs for sound effects and music.
6. Something Something MXP for images.
7. Dockerize the thing and upload it to let users run there own muds for AI roleplay for themselves and their friends.

If I either liked Python or was unemployed, I would do this. If only AI coding was good enough to just make the thing based on my design skeleton above.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
Also, the silly voice acting and humorous sound effects are almost worth the price of admission all on their own. Tip for players: press zed to advance. The game does tell you that, but it tells you just one screen too late. When it's showing a picture, pressing enter will activate one of the menu options like pause or save or whatever, instead of advancing. Pressing the letter z will always advance. I don't actually know if that's just a standard thing I didn't know and never needed before in other games? It would make sense; in Infocom and other z-machine parser games, "z" is the standard "do nothing and wait" shortcut. So it might be a standard shortcut I just didn't know. But anyway, if you're stuck on advancing past the second thing after new game, z is what you need.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
Spent a couple hours playing the visual novel Pizza Game. If you're the kind of person who finds bad My Immortal style funny, this will work for you. It's fully in the standard way, but also has descriptions of the visual jokes; the developer spent time thinking about , and it didn't just happen thanks to the engine. store.steampowered.com/app/710710/Pizza_Game/
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
Here's another service, free for now, called . playground.zyphra.com/audio
Or free for self-hosting on github: github.com/Zyphra/Zonos
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
This gave me a chuckle: throneofsalt.blogspot.com/2025/02/d100-ways-to-get-dragged-into-isekai.html
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
transphobia @jscholes @TheQuinbox @simon The various rationality cults, breeding hypocritical ideas like effective altruism and worse, are the biggest threat both to Christianity and the human race today. But most Christians are too busy fighting the gays and trans people to see what's coming as more and more of these people come to power. And, of course, banning stuff like Harry Potter because reasons, when it's way closer to the worldview of the people banning it than anything written in the past 50 years. Oh, good grief. I'm ranting. I could honestly do this for hours and hours. I'll stop, now. Thanks for listening to my TED talk. I sure am fun at parties! But the way people fail to understand Harry Potter always gets me going. And that always leads to me ranting about Methods of Rationality.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
transphobia @jscholes @TheQuinbox @simon Well, actually, I'll walk that back a tiny bit. You can remove or twist everything Christian in Harry Potter. If you Do, you get Methods of Rationality, an equally problematic work that claims that the western/European worldview that came down to us from the enlightenment is the only correct worldview, that emotions are bad, that nothing exists if it can't be measured, that people with low IQ are worthless and should die, along with a host of other unsavory implications. Though as someone who does believe in a soul, life after death, and objective morality, I will freely admit that as hateful as some of the things in Harry Potter might be, I'm still biased in favour of it over Methods of Rationality, and I find MIRI, LessWrong, and Eliezer Yudkowsky's other cults nearly physically sickening.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
transphobia @jscholes @TheQuinbox @simon Now onto the aspects of safety. JKR spends the majority of her time posting on social media, and fundraising, for anti-transe causes. While she continues to do this, and remains in the forefront of the media and cultural zeitgeist, unexpected mentions of people enjoying works based on JKR's original books could absolutely be psychologically damaging. Especially if you grew up loving Harry Potter, as I and so many millions did, only to discover you're trans as an adult, and were betrayed by the author of a work you hold dear. If you love Harry Potter as much as I still do (and wish I didn't), those feelings of betrayal and grief aren't going to fade quickly. Especially because as someone who isn't trans, I still get to enjoy those things without that personal baggage. So I'm sure there's also some bitterness and Jealousy to go along with everything else. And yet, I, and many others, aren't going to just give up Harry Potter, a friend we've had from childhood. But the verry least we can do is CW discussion of the works.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
transphobia @jscholes @TheQuinbox @simon Okay, let's start with the ways that a particular worldview is reflected in Harry Potter. , as a practicing Christian, I'm well grounded in fundamentalist beliefs. While Harry Potter was condemned by unthinking religious reactionaries, it is utterly, utterly soaking in both the good and true parts of the Christian faith, as well as the worst of our hatred and misguided heresy. From the Goblins that are obvious antisemitic Jew stand-ins (they have long noses and fingers, control all the money, have to be kept down to prevent rebellion, etc.) to the way the entire story depends on the existence of the soul (and a morality beyond death), to the pro-slavery allegory of house-elves ("Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart." -- Ephesians 6:5), to the way the only gay characters are either celibate or evil (Dumbledore, the celibate good gay and priest stand-in has to defeat Gellert Grindelwald, the evil gay), to the way the entire story is rooted in medieval alchemy and the concept of the alchemists journey of purification through Christe's refining fire. Without both the good and terrible of Christianity, you don't get Harry Potter. And it's not possible to remove that baggage from it. If that's something that interests you, I strongly recommend the book How Harry Cast His Spell by John Granger.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
transphobia @TheQuinbox @simon Yup, as I said a bit down the thread, I don't CW fics by trans authors with trans characters. And I won't CW at all once JKR is dead and gone. But right now, she's a clear and present danger, and actively harmful.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
I really enjoyed the first 22 or so chapters of this one. I finished the rest. It got a bit too dark for my taste, though, and the things it was trying to say, combined with the way it was saying them, just didn't quite land for me.

Nemesis Quest [Isekai + LitRPG Satire]by Charmpagne: "Nemesis Engine engaged.  Nemesis found... Transporting... 
And now that I had EVERYTHING going in the right direction, I'm sucked into another world as a scullery maid because some ex-boyfriend from high school still hates me?  Seriously?  I was pre-med!  I had a family!  And a cat!
What do you mean I can have my cat?  Well, that's a start...but once I get the hang of this, someone is going to pay because if I'm what you wished for, your genie doesn't like you.  Did I mention I can cook?
Finished and Complete" www.royalroad.com/fiction/68328/nemesis-quest-isekai-litrpg-satire
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
The amazing feeling of discovering that The Archive Of Our Own has a character tag for "Fediverse Network/Mastadon Platform (Anthropomorphic)", followed by the disappointment of finding only a single using that tag. I wanted to read a bunch of erotic about all that forking! Maybe a slashfic! Or some and lemons. A and hurt/comfort fanfic anyone? C'mon, people. The fact a tag exists means we should use it. archiveofourown.org/tags/Fediverse Network*s*Mastadon Platform (Anthropomorphic)/works
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
transphobia @Fragglemuppet @simon Though Simon has a good point that I should be more specific. In future I'll probably use something like "Transphobia due to views expressed by the author of the original work" or something. Because he's correct that just slapping "transphobia" on the post is tarring the fanfic author with a brush they may not deserve.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
transphobia @Fragglemuppet @simon Because not being a trans person, I am still able to read and enjoy Harry Potter and its related fanfics and works. However, I don't give the author any money, and I put a content warning on any Harry Potter related post I make, because I recognize that this aspect of my personality is harmful and unsafe for others. So the best way for me to be a person who's safe to be around is to put a warning on Harry Potter related posts.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
transphobia @Fragglemuppet @simon Even then, though, the basic premise of the work is infected with the opinions of the person who authored it. Yes, it's possible to be transformational and remove those views, or for them not to come into it. However, JKR is a clear and present danger. I'll stop putting content warnings when:
1. She's dead, and can thus do no more harm.
2. If I'm linking a fic written by a trans author with trans characters.

Death of the author as a literary theory kind of requires that the author, you know, die. Especially in the case of JKR, where she still exerts control over the Harry Potter world, still makes money off of it, and spends that money in ways that support her views. When she's gone, none of those things will apply, and I would agree that at that point, a content warning is no longer a requirement.
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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca
1y
transphobia @simon Yes. anything related to Harry Potter is deeply transphobic. The worldview of the author is the worldview of the work.
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