🎞️ Life#
Elden Ring DLC Golden Tree Shadow#
6.23#
Started exploring since last Friday night, but unfortunately, I wasn't feeling well over the weekend and couldn't play for long. The progress over the weekend only reached Mese Mor.
I think I still lack some shadow fragments; almost all the bosses can take me down in two hits, with very little margin for error.
Level 200 isn't enough.
I've heard there are many overpowered weapons now, planning to give them a try and see if the community has any fun suggestions, like the perfume bottle or blood monster's arm.
So far, my feeling is that bosses generally have a strong desire to attack, with many combos, and I often need to roll multiple times to get away.
💭 Fragments#
📰 Weekly Excerpts#
Putin's Visit to North Korea: Why Could Russia's Move Backfire?#
At first glance, Putin's visit seems very successful.
However, the "big brother" and "little brother" relationship between the Russian president and Kim Jong-un is likely to further weaken Russia's position on the international stage.
This undoubtedly indicates how much Russia has declined since its failed invasion of Ukraine.
Isolated from the most advanced economies, Russia now has to seek help from one of the world's poorest and most isolated countries.
Worse still, this agreement could have the opposite effect, leading Ukraine to gain military support from one of the world's most advanced arms suppliers.
Source
During the Cold War, did the U.S. side also have this kind of confident arrogance when the Soviet Union courted China?
Also, the "one of the world's most advanced arms suppliers" here refers to South Korea... Haha.
Academicians Li De-ren, a photogrammetry and remote sensing expert, and Xue Qikun, a condensed matter physicist, awarded the 2023 National Supreme Science and Technology Award#
The National Science and Technology Conference and the National Science and Technology Awards Conference were held in Beijing on the morning of the 24th. The 2023 National Supreme Science and Technology Award was officially announced, with Academician Li De-ren and Academician Xue Qikun receiving this prestigious honor in China's scientific community.
Li De-ren is a renowned photogrammetry and remote sensing expert who has been dedicated to improving China's remote sensing observation capabilities. He was born on December 31, 1939, obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Stuttgart (then West Germany) in 1985, and was appointed as a professor at Peking University's School of Engineering in April 2013.
He conquered core technologies for global high-precision positioning and mapping using satellite remote sensing, solved a series of challenges in high-precision processing of remote sensing satellite images, and led a team to develop fully automated high-precision aerial and ground measurement systems, making outstanding contributions to the construction of China's high-precision, high-resolution earth observation system.
Xue Qikun is a renowned scientist in the field of condensed matter physics, achieving several leading scientific breakthroughs. He was born in December 1962, obtained his Ph.D. in physics from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in August 1994, was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in November 2005, and became the president and deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Southern University of Science and Technology in December 2020.
He led his team to experimentally observe the quantum anomalous Hall effect for the first time, creating significant academic impact internationally; discovered interface-enhanced high-temperature superconductivity in heterojunction systems, opening a new research direction in the field of international high-temperature superconductivity.
Source
🫡 It seems like this award hasn't been given for several years.
2023 National Science and Technology Awards Announced: 250 Projects Evaluated, Companies like Huawei, BYD, and iFlytek Awarded#
The 2023 National Science and Technology Awards Conference was held today in Beijing, where a total of 250 projects were evaluated.
Among them, the National Natural Science Award had 49 projects, with 1 first prize and 48 second prizes; the National Technology Invention Award had 62 projects, with 8 first prizes and 54 second prizes; the National Science and Technology Progress Award had 139 projects, with 3 special prizes, 16 first prizes, and 120 second prizes. Companies like Huawei, BYD, and iFlytek also received awards in various fields.
For specific details, see the source.
Source
I just want to complain about Alibaba, setting up the Damo Academy, thinking it was academic-driven, but it turned out to be business-driven. I wonder how many big shots are still around.
OpenAI to Take Additional Measures to Stop API Use in Unsupported Countries and Regions#
Currently, OpenAI's API is open to 161 countries and regions, excluding mainland China and Hong Kong. OpenAI publicly published an article on February 14 this year titled "Preventing Malicious Use of AI by State-Related Threat Actors," which mentioned blocking and restricting some users from countries including China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia.
Source
Stricter restrictions.
Alibaba Cloud and Zhipu Announce Alternative Solutions for OpenAI API Services#
Subsequently, several domestic large model companies announced that they would provide alternative solutions for developers to access OpenAI API services, including Zhipu, Alibaba Cloud, and Baidu Intelligent Cloud.
Source
Will it meet the demand?
Pang Donglai Releases Investigation Report on "Noodle Rolling" Incident: Complaints Awarded 100,000 Yuan, Customers 1,000 Yuan Each#
The official account of "Pang Donglai Commercial Group" released an investigation report on the "poor sanitary environment of the noodle rolling processing site" at the restaurant in Xinxiang.
For this incident, the handling result by Pang Donglai Commercial Group is:
For customers who discovered significant food safety hazards, a cash reward of 100,000 yuan will be given; all customers who purchased noodle rolling and spicy noodles at the two Pang Donglai restaurants in Xinxiang between June 9, 2024, and June 19, 2024, will receive a refund and 1,000 yuan compensation. (A total of 8,833 cases, customers can bring valid payment receipts to the restaurant for processing.)
The first supervisor (Zhou) and quality control staff (Li) at the Xinxiang restaurant were found to have serious dereliction of duty and were dismissed, while all management above the team leader level were dismissed; the year-end benefits for the Xinxiang store manager (Yuan, Wang, Zhuang**, Liu*) were canceled.
Due to the violation of the "Cooperation Contract" by the noodle rolling vendor in Xinxiang, who deliberately concealed and privately changed the processing site, operations are suspended immediately as per the contract, and the contract is terminated, with a deadline for removal of the cabinet. The company reserves the right to pursue legal responsibility.
Source
Pang Donglai really wants to build a century-old enterprise.
Igloo Inc.#
Super cool 3D website
There's also a driving website slow roads.
Baidu Big Data: Nearly 80% of College Entrance Exam Candidates Use AI for College Applications#
Recently, over 13 million candidates nationwide have entered the college application phase. According to data released by Baidu, on June 25 alone, over 10 million users used Baidu's AI application assistant to help with their applications. This means that nearly 80% of candidates used AI application services. (Source: 36 Kr)
This is also a good direction.
2024 U.S. Presidential Election First Debate: Biden Shows Age and Loses Points, Trump Focuses on Immigration Issues#
The first debate of the 2024 U.S. presidential election between the two party candidates took place at 9 PM Eastern Time on June 27 in a CNN studio in Atlanta, Georgia. Democratic candidate and current President Biden and Republican candidate and former President Trump attended the debate. The debate was hosted by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
The focus of the first debate was on the policy discussions of both parties, such as inflation, abortion legislation, and foreign policy. However, halfway through the debate, voters' attention shifted to the performance of the two candidates.
During the 90-minute debate, Biden was often unclear in his speech, suddenly froze, and had a hoarse voice, while Trump seized every opportunity to mock him. The former president launched a fierce attack on Biden with exaggerated statements and what were criticized as "obvious errors," gaining an advantage on issues like immigration, employment, and tariffs. Biden, on the other hand, did not leverage the Democratic Party's strengths, easily letting Trump off the hook on abortion legislation and Trump's felony conviction issues.
"The initial policy debate has turned into a debate about capability," commented South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.
Some Democrats felt despair over Biden's performance, while some Republicans began to celebrate victory. Trump's campaign team stated in a press release: "Tonight, President Trump delivered the greatest debate and victory to the largest audience of voters in history, and Joe Biden proved exactly why he should be fired."
Source
They are both too old.
📚 Articles#
The Last of Us Part II: How the Patrol Level Perfectly Controls Player Behavior and Expectations#
Core Content Summary#
- Level Background and Overview
- Game: The Last of Us Part II
- Level: Patrol level, located in the Jackson chapter
- Design Concept: A simple restoration of the level block mesh through Unity, exploring level design ideas.
- Level Design Details
- One Way
- Players need to jump over a log on horseback, as a performance requirement and narrative demand.
- The "STOP" sign confuses players.
- Bread Crumb Design Method
- Guide players through small points of interest (like bloodstains).
- Naughty Dog tends to guide subtly rather than directly showing.
- Buddy Lead
- The buddy system serves as an element of Player Guiding and Leading.
- Naughty Dog achieves natural guidance through shunting and pinching techniques.
- Door & Framing
- Organically use doors and frames to control player behavior and paths.
- Golden Path
- Designers guide players to choose desired routes through contrasts of narrow and intimate spaces.
- Spatial Layout and Player Behavior
- Narrow Space: Reduced visibility, difficult to identify dangers, limited defense and escape.
- Intimate Space: Relatively spacious, providing more room for activities.
- Character Position: Ellie's position influences players' inclination towards the left space.
- Conclusion
- Naughty Dog effectively controls player behavior and expectations through meticulous level design and spatial layout, providing a rich gaming experience.
There are many details, aiming to minimize negative feedback from player exploration.
This reminds me of the recent Elden Ring DLC, which has a lot of negative feedback from exploration, and there are even crafting stones and ropes in particularly hidden corners.
Information is Addictive Like Sugar#
The Industrial Revolution had a rarely mentioned consequence: humans could mass-produce sugar.
In ancient times, sugar mainly came from sugarcane and honey, making it difficult to produce in large quantities. Therefore, ancient dishes did not contain sugar and relied mainly on the natural sweetness of food. It can be imagined that most ancient foods, especially everyday foods, must not have been very tasty.
Once sugar was mass-produced, humans became crazy about it. We love sugar so much that most of today's foods must contain sugar, such as beverages, pastries, dairy products, and even the ingredients of fried chicken.
Addiction to sugar has become a common ailment. Baidu Baike has an entry on "sugar addiction," explaining that the reason for addiction is that "sweetness brings pleasure."
Scientists believe that sugar increases dopamine secretion, exciting the brain and making it feel less full. In simple terms, sugar makes eating enjoyable, leading to a desire to eat more, even when already full.
Excessive sugar intake is the fundamental reason for weight gain. Sugar itself is just a sweetener, lacking nutrition and only providing calories, which ultimately convert to body fat, making you fatter. The World Health Organization has been calling for reducing sugar intake.
However, what I want to discuss today is not sugar, but a recent article I saw, which presents an interesting viewpoint: Information is addictive like sugar.
The author lists the similarities between information and sugar.
(1) Low-cost mass production. After the information revolution, humans began to produce information in large quantities, just like sugar.
Information not only has low production costs but also has even lower dissemination costs, reaching consumers at nearly zero cost.
(2) Similar addiction mechanisms. A 2019 study from the University of California, Berkeley, found that information can also stimulate the brain to produce dopamine, similar to the mechanism of sugar.
Thus, encountering an attractive piece of information is akin to eating a dessert, providing the same sense of satisfaction. You become addicted to information, wanting to see more, which manifests as an inability to put down your phone, scrolling endlessly.
(3) Flood of junk information. Just as junk food has become popular, the consequence of humanity's addiction to information is the massive supply of junk information.
Producers have discovered that the most dopamine-stimulating information garners the most readership, allowing them to earn more money. Consequently, junk information is produced in large quantities and becomes ubiquitous.
Humanity has fallen into a situation where the easiest food to obtain is junk food, and the most accessible information is junk information.
(4) "Obesity" of thought. Just as junk food makes the body fat, junk information can also make thoughts "fat."
Junk information lowers your thinking level, filling your brain with meaningless content, distracting your attention, clogging your thoughts, and slowing down your thinking and judgment.
In summary, addiction to information is as harmful as addiction to sugar, requiring active prevention and treatment. A healthy lifestyle involves not only reducing sugar intake but also minimizing exposure to junk information.
However, just like avoiding sugar is nearly impossible, there is no way to escape junk information in life. We can only exercise self-restraint, repeatedly reminding ourselves to stay away from junk information to prevent information addiction.
Detailed Introduction to Code Examples of Real-time Collaborative Algorithm CRDT.#
Core Content Summary#
Title: An Interactive Intro to CRDTs
Introduction:
- Background: The author conducted in-depth research on CRDT (Conflict-free Replicated Data Type) during their time at the Recurse Center and found that various applications can be built with simple concepts.
- Purpose: Aimed at introducing CRDT to readers without prior knowledge and teaching how to use TypeScript to write CRDT for building collaborative pixel art editors.
Main Content:
-
Definition of CRDT:
- CRDT stands for "Conflict-free Replicated Data Type."
- It is a data structure that can be stored on different computers (peer nodes).
- Each peer node can immediately update its state without network requests.
-
Learning Path:
- Understanding CRDT: First, introduce the basic concepts of CRDT.
- Writing CRDT: Write a primitive CRDT.
- Composing CRDT: Combine CRDTs into more complex data structures.
- Building Applications: Use CRDT knowledge to build a collaborative pixel art editor.
-
Application Examples:
- Features of the collaborative pixel art editor:
- Click and drag the mouse to draw.
- Change colors.
- Real-time synchronization of changes (even resynchronizing after network disconnection).
- Delay slider to control the delay of change synchronization.
Future Work:
- In the next article, a collaborative pixel art editor will be built, with an in-depth exploration of CRDT first.
Too specialized, will save for when it's useful later.