Extra fact - in the USA almost all games use long weighted reels.

I believe this is by law, but may be misinformed.

Also, if you know the rng gen you can game machines: a very very clever group in Russia bought up old machines from defunct casinos, reverse engineered the games, and then developed an app that let a user photograph x number of spins to find out what the seed was for the next spin, and from there told them to bet high or low based on the upcoming game. They made millions, and farmed it out to make more. (https://www.wired.com/2017/02/russians-engineer-brilliant-slot-machine-cheat-casinos-no-fix/)

Never really worked with them (we never made them).

I think they’re lower prize threshold cat Bs.

In the UK, slot machines fall into 4 main categories. Of particular interest are category C machines, as these can remember a fixed number of previous games. I.e. the “myth” that a machine is “about to pay out” because “someone lost a lot to it” can hold for these games.

Cat A and B machines are completely random, previous games can have no impact on probabilities of winning (though pots can climb).

Online games have different rules, not always fair ones!

Oh, and ALL games (in a physical location) must (by law) show “RTP” (return to player) somewhere. It usually gets stuck it in a block of text in the manual since no-one reads them. (If it’s below 97.3% just go play roulette as it offers better returns).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Im4YAMWK74

Relevant follow-up (videos explore Korean gender politics and hierarchical society).

Alas, I do have a plan involving retirement. It is filed under “things that happen to other people”.

The probability I’ll survive to retirement age is negligible, why worry about it?

Mathematics Lecturer (just teaching foundation mind).

It’s far more fun than people think, but with next to no real holidays (summer is actually quite busy). Also it sucked being on temporary contract, because you had no idea if you’d have work in 12 months no matter how good you were.

Boozy Bay, it has an export industry in adventuring parties due to the booming tavern industry.

When you have more tabs than a pharmacy, it’s time to worry!

You forgot to tell them that our head office is…

300 Funston Ave, San Francisco, CA 94118

…and all the play cards should be sent there!

“I didn’t realise the circus was in town!”

“Were your parents siblings, or was it just a lot of head trauma?”

“I’d tell you to read the room, but we both know reading isn’t your strong suite.”

“What other tricks can you do?”

Quick, someone pretend to be “the Linux company” and convince him to buy it!

What is life but a lottery?

A lot of the drive towards AI is people thinking to save a quick buck, but longer term that places them in a very unsteady position themselves.

All products end up being for “shareholder value”, and AI will be no different. Someone will find an enshittification vector and run with it.

Suddenly, that “quick buck” becomes a monthly subscription that costs more than the people fired. Company data is harvested and sold, customers are advertised out, the shittiness of the system becomes a company problem.

So we’re either going to see a stark change away from the current shareholder value model (about as likely as world peace), or we’re going to see a lot of CEO seppuku. Win win really.

Hah, jokes on them, my university is too poor to afford copilot.

I think we don’t give gradual acclimatisation enough credit here. Most of my students have never heard of Firefox and tools like ublock origin because they’re acclimatised to the mobile ecosystem

“How do I install something? I use the app store.”

“Oh, but I already have the internet on my phone, why would I want a 3rd party app to use the internet” (think old people who mix up AOL with the internet in reverse!)

As soon as I show them, they convert in seconds - they’ve forgotten web pages without adverts can exist.

I think the shutting down after such “incidents” is the final expression in this piece of art.

“A connected world is great, as long as that connection includes approved messages only.”

I mean, here is a thought, if an AI tool uses creative commons data, then it’s derivatives fall under creative commons. I.e. stop charging for AI tools and people will stop complaining.

I suppose it’s similar to the discussion older and more successful men have about avoiding “gold diggers”, “bear traps”, and “black widows”. Not all women are after a man’s money, but those that are will actively seek out such men, so you’ll never be safe. One wrong move and you’re suddenly working overtime the rest of your life to pay child support for a child conceived without your consent. Whereas, a bear would only run into us by chance, and would be more likely to leave us alone if we dropped our food and calmly walked away.

Edited note for clarity and posterity: Stereotypes are always hilariously offensive - I think some people just learned that.

I see the “bear shitting in the woods” index just went up again.

The +5 charisma buff was too hard to pass up.

Operation archive the archive?