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Is it ethical to turn rats into gamers?

It was tested on humans first

I think it might be _unethical_ to not spread the joy of playing Doom for the first time? Though, I’m not entirely sure there’s been enough research done about the effects of violent video games in rat gamer populations.

We've been putting rats in skinner boxes for a lot longer than we've been subjecting human gamers to them. I'd be more worried about the health effects of all that sugar water.

10 microliter doses though. Pretty teeny tiny. But it is a valid concern.

Giving them slightly acidic water off-rig and normal water while playing is another option - not the best either. I opted for sugar in the end, because they didn't spend much time on the setup; but this should be reconsidered if they on-rig for hours daily.

The trick is to save the treats till the end. They can learn to do a lot if they know they'll be rewarded later.

Check out Shadow The Rat on YouTube; she has a whole series on training them.



It's more like locking humans up in the matrix. Note lines like "preventing it from leaving the apparatus" in the build guide. Would an ordinary gamer be restricted from exiting such a contraption?

Gamers: no, hot-tub streamers: yes

I mean-- how do you think they made gaming mice? :)

I am personally supportive of any research that continues to define my age as having just achieved adulthood.


But see, not all the data is local, and never will be. I need to be able to send a daemon off to Google Drive, Dropbox etc.


I was referring to the username and password for these accounts being held local and not on an external server that is providing the service. I would think it would need to be open source so that we could trust it.


I've had trouble finding case studies of B2B development deals. My past experience includes lots of milestone-based development as a contracted solo dev.

Now, I'm bootstrapping (in stealth) a B2B service with 3 employees. The basic service exists. To continue funding, I can get VC investment, or I can get business customers to pay up-front development costs, to customize to their use case.

Let's say for a normal customer, the service costs $X / month. I want to write a deal with a business customer where they pay $Y up front, for us to build the service for their use case. Maybe in return, we discount their usage cost: * their cost is $ 0.5 * X per month for Y/X months, OR * their cost is $ 0.5 * X per month for (1.5 * Y/X) months (like a loan with interest), OR * their cost is $ 0.7 * X in perpetuity (permanent discount), OR * no discount at all, and we the cost to the customer as early access.


Is the long-term pricing model seat/usage based? Value based?

Consider how much you want/need to be charging customers in 3-5 years time and work backwards from there. Be open with early customers on these prices. Offer discounts (sometimes even permanent) against these target prices for early customers/design partners.


Pricing is something I struggle with too. I really need to figure out my pricing model and price point as it makes a difference to some deferred architecture decisions. I can't put the decision off much longer as I'm getting to the point where I need to make a decision.


This is an odd take that might seem privileged, but: sales or coupons. Digital or physical.

If a company is offering a discount, sale, coupon, etc., they've done the math and determined the reduction in revenue to them is offset by your increased likelihood to purchase, or share in your mind. (Algorithmic) discounts are a technology in the sense that they're part of modern data science-driven consumerism. Just like going to a casino, the house is always going to win. So, I offer no mind share to these. I've bought many games from Steam sales I don't play, for an innocuous example.

I'm not going to throw out a coupon if it's thrust into my hand (e.g. Wonderville, a gaming bar I love in Brooklyn hands out wooden drink tickets and one is in my wallet.)


Assuming it’s just regular online chess but you’re forced to share your location in real-time


Haha, it's not THAT spicy ;)


I love the intense concentration for martial arts, but I had to stop because of this.

I never had a serious injury. Instead it would be minor injuries, that would make my ring finger 20% less responsive, that would totally mess up my typing cadence.

I tried capoeira, a non-contact martial art, for a while. This wasn’t as good for me as Taekwondo.


(Disclosure: I worked on both)

Detection technology on Board is much more robust. The MS Surface FTIR approach was lovely, but so over-featured no one could imagine a scoped-down (ie. cheaper) version of it.


Aha, so there are ex-Surface developers working on this too! That's reassuring actually. Yeah, the boardgame demos of Surface were gorgeous, and I was definitively disappointed that this cool technology didn't "arrive" even as the years went by. Wishing you all good luck, and I may have to see how hard it is to get my hands on one of these...


To give proper credit: I don’t work at Board now, I just helped them explore the board game piece detection space over a year ago. The tech has done great work since then, really robustifying the detection algorithm and making experiences native to it.


If one falls into a tank like this, what steps are required to guarantee likelihood of developing powers?


I've been following this stream since I discovered it as my post-NYE activity around 4 am at the beginning of 2024. It's been a joy since then.


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