Will ChatGPT Replace Me?

I didn't expect the topic of AI to be so polarizing since last year. There are fears that it will replace many of us and some literally saying that it will take over the world. A dystopian future where your automotive accident insurance claim will be evaluated by a computer rather than a human adjuster.

Personally, I didn't feel worried. When Stable Diffusion was finally available to the public, I played around with it feeding it prompts and the results didn't impress me. In fact, they freaked me out because of how uncanny the images were.

So when ChatGPT became public, I predicted that it would have that same uncanny feel and that it would generate results that just feel a bit off. I thought, to the trained writer, they might be able to detect that a piece of text was AI generated.

Soon enough, I started hearing tales from close friends that they were using ChatGPT to write their essays for a hated philosophy course. Their essays were convincing enough to land them decent grades and pass the course.

I underestimated the usefulness of this AI system.

Going back to Stable Diffusion, the uncanny valley effect that I mentioned made me realize that what it lacked was depth. Everything that came out of it was just too clean and perfect. When we humans are presented with something that lacks those subtle cues, we start feeling uncomfortable. We know it's not right.

Last night, bored before sleep, I signed up for an OpenAI account and got into ChatGPT. I started asking it basic questions and it would respond with some pretty accurate and neutral output.

However, I decided to get tough with it and see if it could answer a question that I wrote about a few years ago and was basically the only online who ever wrote about it. "What games simulate automatic transmissions correctly?", all the games it listed were the popular racing titles, none of which don't simulate automatics accurately.

Now the above is just an anecdotal example and someone more clever than me would have provided better prompts for more accurate answers. Or get it to spit out very inaccurate information, or just make up facts. What they have termed as hallucinations.

After spending some time with ChatGPT, I started noticing that it always followed the same essay-like structure. An introduction with the thesis, a series of arguments that were even numbered, and a conclusion with a disclaimer that the answers could be subjective. For a school essay, this structure is perfect.

But, just like the freaky stable diffusions images, the results from ChatGPT lacked character and nuances that make each writer unique.

It had mechanical feel and felt generic but many popular websites write in that style since many of the authors are ghostwriters and they must purposely compose something vacuous.

CNET for instance was caught using ChatGPT output as articles for their website. Because their content is already pretty generic, it didn't seem like anyone noticed. They only got in trouble when they admitted themselves that they did this.

Personally, I'm not afraid that ChatGPT will replace me. I do know it will improve over time and other competing AI products might do a better job. In some near future, I can imagine an AI system would be able to replicate my style.

Especially in the realm of non-fiction, the amount of research done for a certain topic is easy to determine based on how depthful the discussion is. Humans can fall for the same trap as AI programs doing something shallow and poorly researched.

For example, the infamous Wikipedia "Bicholim Conflict" hoax describing a war that never happened. If you find a blogger or website writing about it as fact, then you know that they didn't look beyond Wikipedia for their research. Having that featured gives a good idea on how much effort the writer puts into their work.

I asked ChatGPT to tell me about this conflict, and I was impressed that it didn't fall for it, simply stating that it couldn't find anything about it or that it was lesser well known, or even fabricated. Another explanation though would be that the article was removed when ChatGPT was fed data to learn and maybe it's not as smart as it seemed.

For me, I will embrace ChatGPT as a tool to help me research, but just like Wikipedia, it would be a starting point rather than a replacement for good research. ChatGPT is seen for me as an interactive encyclopedia. And just in case anyone has any ideas, I won't be copy-pasting from the output or paraphrasing it.

When it comes to the general public, I don't think we should make laws to limit access to applications like ChatGPT or put huge disclaimers. Just like any tool, we should be taught about the limitations and drawbacks so we can use them appropriately.

Lenovo ThinkPad P Series (P52, P53, P16 Gen 1, P16 Gen 2) - Don't Even Think About It + Funny Warranty Service Tale

Last week, I got a refund for my Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 1. On paper, it sounded like a dream machine, with insane specifications ready to tackle any computing task. It was also a good way to flex your choice of 128 GB of RAM which I actually did use.

You’d think spending thousands of dollars on a machine would grant you a premium experience, this post will make you think again about that. Consider buying a used car instead.

Now, after using it for a while, I started to notice some flaws that simply could not be fixed. Yes, there were hardware and software problems that could be tweaked or dealt with precise fiddling. However, other issues were due to the design of the machine and some of the bad decisions that Lenovo made. I constantly felt like I was wrestling with it to get it to do what I want, but even then it didn’t listen to me.

I have the impression that Lenovo never really stress tested their machines when designing them to go through the quality control process. It was a bit bewildering when I started to see oversights that even a layman would notice. I’m no hardware engineer, but even with my puny brain, I could tell some decisions were just not right.

Keep in mind that these issues are very anecdotal but I do have some technical analysis to prove that I’m not making this stuff up.

Thermals

I’ve had quite some bad luck when it comes to thermals for pretty much every laptop I’ve owned. I often pushed these machines to the limits and quickly realized that they weren’t designed for endurance.

Processors temperatures would shoot up, the laptop would become noisier than a 727 on takeoff and it would become so hot that you could cook breakfast on the keyboard.

Once the laptop started to turn orange from the heat, the CPU and GPU would give up and downclock until even solitaire ran at slideshow speeds. The P16 I’ve had was built with a really thick chassis and a gigantic heatsink, so you’d expect it to handle stress tests but it kept failing as the processors were saying good bye to their performance and dropping their TDP. Or in some cases, just shutting off the machine.

Under load, the CPU and GPU cannot maintain their maximum frequency for a very long time, having the core clocks go down dramatically on a regular basis. Specialized software reveals that the system is doing that in response to high temperatures and lack of power from the supply. Rarely can the CPU and GPU reach their maximum TDP when at load.

Here, the video card is under heavy usage. Notice how it never achieves it's maximum design frequency of 1500.0 MHz. The chart shows the GPU clock constantly fluctuating. (from a tool GPU-Z)

Here, the CPU and GPU are having their performance capped due to not having enough power from the AC supply. (from the CPU-Z and GPU-Z tools)

This creates stutters and frame rate drops, generating a very inconsistent experience with 3D applications or GPU heavy programs.

Not only do the internals get very hot, but the heat transfers to the case. Hot spots of over 60C were measured on top of the keyboard using a laser thermometer.

This is a reading from a laser thermometer after running some software intensive tasks. Although increased case temperatures are expected, this is the temperature on the keyboard surface. It is hot to the touch at 60C. The keyboard becomes very uncomfortable to use.

One solution that helped slightly was putting the laptop on a stand, but that ruined the ergonomics and usability of the system. It only delayed the heat issues by a few minutes, it did not solve them.

Temperatures for both the CPU and GPU hit 100C, which is their maximum design limits. Sometimes the temperatures exceeds those and the laptop shuts down suddenly to protect these components.

This is the temperature of the CPU (monitored using a tool HWInfo) after running some hardware intensive tasks, exceeding 100C, the safe design limit for the CPU.

Setting the "Ultra Performance Mode" in ThinkPad Vantage and ensuring that the Windows Power Management is set to "High Performance" does not solve the problem at all.

For something that is "workstation" grade, I'd expect that stress testing was done during the design process and quality control, but it doesn't seem like it.

I have not been able to find a reliable solution for these issues and simply had to endure poor performance and high temperatures. Neither via hardware fixes or software adjustments.

Power Supply Issues

The laptop cannot draw enough power to sustain the CPU and GPU at high loads. As a result, it will start draining the battery to be able to power the laptop. This is because the power adapter can only provide up to 230W of power.

It’s really embarrassing that no one did the simple math of calculating the total TDP of the CPU and GPU and designing an adapter with enough wattage to feed the machine enough power to keep the components alive.

However, even using a 300W adapter does not solve the issue. Using an external electricity usage monitor, only up to 230W is drawn despite the more powerful adapter.

As a result, after running under load for about an hour, the battery charge is fully depleted and the laptop shuts off suddenly and automatically.

Three official and certified Lenovo 230W Power Adapters were tested resulting in the same behaviour. The combined TB4 and AC port from the Lenovo ThinkPad Workstation Dock results in the same behaviour as well. Using a 300W adapter also from Lenovo causes the same issues.

A review by NotebookCheck.net for the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 G1 RTX A5500 confirmed similar behaviour under the same conditions.

Here, a reviewer notes the battery level drop after running some benchmarks while the laptop was plugged in

Here, using the BatteryMon tool, you can see the laptop battery discharging even though it is connected to A/C power.

If you think Lenovo has learned a lesson from this design, don’t worry, the upcoming Gen 2 model still has a 230W adapter.

USB Connectivity Issues

USB connectivity is unreliable especially when multiple devices are connected at once. After a USB device is plugged for a few minutes, they sometimes disconnect partially causing data corruption or completely. The devices are gone from Windows Device Manager. The problem is compounded when using USB Hubs (even powered ones) or a docking station. When the laptop is under heavy load, the time for the devices to disconnect is even less.

This happens with any USB slot whether USB-A or USB-C or Thunderbolt.

Enabling "Always On USB" and disabling "DMA Protection" does not solve the issue. Restoring BIOS settings to defaults didn't help either. Various versions of Windows were tested included 10, 11 and Insider Previews. Both the factory reset reimaging and clean format did not help.

These same devices function normally on other computers without any issues.

A full replacement of the mainboard did not fix the problem.

Here is the output of a USB Webcam after the USB connection failed. Again, this issue does not happen if the same device is plugged into another computer

Bluetooth Audio Issues

Bluetooth audio devices which combine output (such as a speaker) and input (such as a microphone) have an odd quirk. If the input is enabled, the audio through the output either cuts off completely or the quality of the audio is lowered dramatically.

Notice the output stream on the top and the input stream on the bottom. When input is enabled (such as a microphone in this case), the output cuts out.

This is because the built-in Bluetooth does not support the LC3 codec despite being officially Bluetooth 5.2.

These devices don't have issues when connected to other computers or mobile phones.

Docking Station

The Lenovo ThinkPad Thunderbolt 4 Workstation Dock has issues connecting and disconnecting reliably. Often, when connecting the laptop to the dock, not all displays get a video signal, and the only solution is to power cycle the dock by unplugging and plugging power back in.

Sometimes, the USB and Audio connectors do not function at all or disconnect at random times. Sometimes power cycling doesn't work and the computer needs to be restarted.

Updating the Docking Station Firmware did not solve or improve any issues.

Suspend and Sleep Issues

When closing the lid or pressing the "Sleep" button on the keyboard, the laptop will appear to enter a suspended state. The screen will turn off and the ThinkPad LED indicator will slowly flash. However, the laptop is clearly still on, as the fans are still running. This also results in the battery being drained. This happens in both Windows 10 and 11.

Battery Life and Throttling

Although the Lenovo website claims that the laptop can have up to about 5 hours of battery life, I've never been able to exceed 2. This is even making sure only the minimum of software is running, minimizing CPU usage and lowering brightness. This was both the case with the P53 and P16.

Even under ideal conditions, battery life can be quite poor. The battery is nearly full, but only has a little more than an hour of available run time

In addition, when the laptop is on battery power, the CPU is heavily downclocked generating an unusable experience. Software runs extremely slowly. There are some utilties that can disable this but I didn't use as it can damage the components on the mainboard.

Although it's normal for Intel SpeedStep to lower CPU clocks under light loads to save power, this is the maximum frequency recorded (by HWInfo) when under battery power

The only solution is to always keep the laptop plugged into an outlet thus tethering me to a power outlet.

Bonus Story: A Funny Tale About a Motherboard Replacement

There was an issue with the USB ports on the machine and they determined that the solution would be the replace the mainboard. I spent an inordinate amount of money to have premier warranty support. This story happened when the technician inspected the motherboard replacement. We both had quite a laugh and it made his day. I was supposed to be angry but I found it funny instead.

The original motherboard is on the left, the replacement motherboard is on the right. Pay close attention to the DIMM heat shields.

The first thing that caught my attention is that the heatshield in the replacement motherboard wouldn't fit over the DIMMs.

However, I noticed that they both look very different. The obvious difference is the missing serial number and black tape, but that can happen with replacement parts, this is normal.

Take a closer look at the two pieces, I put them side by side for comparison.

The right one is from the original motherboard, the one that shipped with the new machine. The left one is from the replacement motherboard that was delivered. Notice the size difference? The new one is too small.

However, look even closer, there are creases, it almost looks like it was taped together. Turns out, it's not a heat shield, it's actually improvised from tape.

This isn't the worst part yet, the tape is actually aluminum foil. I tested it for conductivity and it's actually conductive.

This means that this piece, that was touching the pins and the DIMMs, would cause an electrical short, which is obviously dangerous. If I didn't have an eye for this, and left this odd piece, it would have damaged the laptop permanently.

I'd like to know how can someone improvise something like this, and then have it pass QC? This isn't even a manufacturing defect, not even shoddy workmanship.

So it looks like Lenovo is so cheap that they’re ready to put aluminum foil as a replacement for a supposedly brand new part.

Conclusion

I’m not the only one to think this, but many agree that ThinkPad laptops have gone down in workmanship and quality since Lenovo bought the series from IBM (well actually it was the other way around, IBM sold it to them).

The problem with laptops, I always felt like that I was picking the least worst laptop rather than the best laptop. Laptops seem to be a story of compromise and you’ll always be losing somewhere. If I didn’t need to take my work with me and wasn’t a nomad, a desktop would have been a no-brainer. It’s half the cost and easy to modify and upgrade.

Now, I’m desperately looking everywhere for a replacement that will hopefully work well enough to help me get things done, even if there are a few bugs and papercuts. And of course, last me more than a couple of months.

Bracing myself to overdraw my account!

Song of the Day 004 - Electric Youth - Marnie

Helen Marnie is a somewhat obscure artist known for her dark and sombre music with the iconic track The Hunter among others like Hearts On Fire, Wolves and Lost Maps with a slightly macabre held melody in addition to lyrics that cause a downturn in the morale of the listener. However, this kind of music reveals a kind of depression that exposes a more realistic outlook on life rather than the fake happiness found in the majority of pop songs.

[Verse 2]
A girl and a boy, just fun
No conversation, no complications here
Dark corners were made for dirty secrets
Work your way into my psyche
And hurt me
I'm my own worst enemy

[Pre-Chorus]
Hey now, hey now, boy
I am your water now
Hey now, hey now, boy
I am your water now

[Chorus]
When the nights are calling
Animal instinct always
Young blood cursing, violent flames
When the nights are calling
Signals pulse like we're electric youth
When the nights are calling you

[Post-Chorus]
When the nights are calling
When the nights are calling
When the nights are calling you

[Verse 1]
A story of us unfolds
I stand arrested, my education strewn
A girl and a boy, a guilty pleasure
Plain to see that you're taking over me
So, hurt me
I can't even help myself

[Pre-Chorus]
Hey now, hey now, boy
I am your water now
Hey now, hey now, boy
I am your water now

[Chorus]
When the nights are calling
Animal instinct always
Young blood cursing, violent flames
When the nights are calling
Signals pulse like we're electric youth
When the nights are calling you

Electric Youth changes the tone a little to something much more upbeat giving the impression to the uncareful listener that what’s being presented is something happy. However, it’s nothing but a façade and even charade of a dark meaning hidden behind excitement. It seemed that Helen wanted to make something lively but couldn’t help herself with morbid lyrics that are unintelligible until they are actually read.

A scene starts with an abandoned building full of graffiti and quite unkempt. Teenagers enter what seems to be a disguised dance room though completely unfurnished except with the shine of a disco ball. Curiosity shows up on their faces as they look around but they quickly get used to their entourage. The camera is pointed to demonstrate the group's impressive dancing talents but what lied behind them is the band.

The song immediately begins reciting the first verse right away revealing Helen’s existential disorientation. Dark lyrics of confusion become obvious but with no recourse to stave the chaos. She begins telling her story.

But that’s not the strongest part of the song, but rather the two climaxes in the chorus. It’s more important to begin with it as it unravels the loop that the song finds itself in. Essentially, it sets the tone for what it is to come and what came before it.

When the nights are calling
Animal instinct always
Young blood cursing, violent flames
When the nights are calling
Signals pulse like we're electric youth
When the nights are calling you

Lyrics start with a response to the call of night, a darkness and predator filled one and then followed by a plea to animal instincts which would help cope with the dim night-time. However, the day doesn’t come soon enough seeking refuge in violent flames, i.e. a camp fire. The reference to young blood is a sign of naivety, unprepared for the challenges that the night brings. As a result, she harks to the past, as a pulse of energy from an ‘electric youth’ where responsibilities were non-existent, wishing for it dearly. The verse ends again with another call to the night, because the first one hasn’t been answered.

Oddly, this is the most energetic part of the song, and the intensely dynamic choreography (performed by Urbaniks Street Skool of Dance) feeds into that energy. As soon as the chorus starts, the intensity of the dance fires up, turning the desolate abandoned building into a fire-filled dance. Perhaps this is how Marnie is trying to seek protection from the night, maybe projected through nightmares. However, that darkness is never seen in the music video. The enthusiasm presented is probably a retreat from the negativity.

We can see Marnie making an effort in order to suit her song to a wider audience, in addition to enliven her song a bit more to a mainstream listener, she picked the generally similar key and tempo found in other popular music. The main key is C# and she doesn’t really deviate much from it and a tempo of about 130 which is essentially the average key and rhythm of what plays in most popular radio channels.

Looking at the score, it is easy to find how strongly influenced is the song by pop music tendencies. The notes in both the accompaniment and bass note reside within the C# key seldom escaping from it. While the melody is quite novel, the percussion sticks to the modern tendencies of pop music with a very simplistic beat.

Chorus (First Half)

Interestingly, it seems that Marnie is trying to give the song an eighties vibe, something comfortable on a record player. While the dance is modern hip-hop style, the synth supporting it all is clearly less progressive. Like many songs of that era, leaving the instrumentation alone reveals that it’s not what builds the melody. Rather, the singing is the base of the melody. This is very common in music from that era as seen here by this example from Michael Jackson’s Beat It.

Hey now, hey now, boy
I am your water now
Hey now, hey now, boy
I am your water now

The pre-chorus is really simple but the intention is actually quite complex. It shows a submissive side where the performer is allowing themselves into water. We would imagine that humans would melt into quavering jelly, but the liquid has lost so much essence that it has become something drinkable. The previous line invoking a ‘boy’ could be a reference to a love story, the secret but obvious undertone of the video.

Several scenes of the teenagers in a landfill dumpster seem to be running and playing around. This represents some kind of innocence that Marnie wants to bring back into her life but all is thrown out when a girl drops a tire down a hill. This is an attempt to cancel out the choruses which it succeeds but subconsciously showing falling action as a narrative.

There is an expression that is commonly used just before being ‘hey now, hey now’. According to some urban dictionary definitions, the expression is made when someone is approaching to make their presence known. It can be worded in such as way to signal something positive is coming. However, there’s an odd contradiction, these lyrics, being an introduction to the intense dancing also introduces the dark chorus we analyzed earlier. In other songs, this expression is often used in a positive sense only like in Hilary Duff’s What Dreams Are Made Of.

In addition, while the pre-choruses are repeated twice, there is some subtle difference between the two. In the first one, the percussive instruments are almost completely cut-off, leaving only the leading synth instrument with Helen’s voice going down a few notes. In fact, while the music preserves the original key, the notes are so far down that it gives the illusion of a key change, nearly an octave. The melody almost becomes the bass. Now, the second iteration of the pre-chorus has the same attenuation in terms of instruments, clapping is added which gives the impression of humanizing the section a little more. This brings the hope needed to get into the second chorus, which is also what the second climax brings into view again. However, the tension never truly goes away as seen by the lazier dancing done by the group.

The Pre-Chorus

The clapping is a common technique used by video game music when describing more lively levels with a so-called fun aspect or gameplay. An excellent example is Carnival Night Zone Act 1 from the November 1993 prototype of Sonic 3. In this section, you can definitely hear the clapping before this music also goes into its bells-sounding climax.

Now exploring the verses, two of them, shows a slightly more dangerous aspect to Marnie’s idea. They’re essentially a sign of hopelessness, confusion and disorientation. When they play, the dancing scenes are put away revealing mundane scenarios instead. (such as throwing rocks at an empty wine bottle)

The first one, the teenagers haven’t even entered the building yet, laying instead on the wall. At this point, this is where the first verse is reciting, immediately before the instrumentation even starts a few seconds later.

A story of us unfolds
I stand arrested, my education strewn
A girl and a boy, a guilty pleasure
Plain to see that you're taking over me
So, hurt me
I can't even help myself

As Marnie puts it’s clearly, describing a story that unfolds, essentially a narrative for her enema. Arrested with a strewn education, in other words, uncertain knowledge implied by the use of the word education. She ends with a request to be hurt, unable to even help herself. This gives the section a very depressive feel, one where is so pained, they want more.

A girl and a boy, just fun
No conversation, no complications here
Dark corners were made for dirty secrets
Work your way into my psyche
And hurt me
I'm my own worst enemy

The second verse hints at the same meaning but with a slightly clearer undertone. Lost in dark corners where she hides her secrets of depression, work their way into her psyche as she states. This time however, the pain isn’t a request, but rather a result of her secrets. The fear gets to the point where she sees herself as her own enemy, presumably from some kind of trauma or longing for the past.

Both verses reveal a secret love story that Marnie never elaborates on. In both cases referring them to ‘a girl and a boy’. The girl being her, and the boy, presumable the one she mentions in the pre-chorus. There is a sense of innocence, amplified by her line ‘a guilty pleasure’ that isn’t sung anywhere else. However, the music video does show a couple being obviously attracted to each other with the subtle smiles between them and the kiss at the end. One of them inscribes a heart with the letters EYT (probably meaning Electric Youth) on their arm.

There are several scenes of some of the dancers riding old-school bicycles with the footage slowed down. I’m not entirely sure what meaning it serves, but it seems like the slowness represents a sense of hesitation, as if the singer is not really sure what direction to take the song into. However, I’m not certain if that was intentional as the music is very consistent despite going through two climaxes.

One more interesting aspect is how Helen presents herself in the music video, though only three times. Her hair is coloured grey, a sign of age and weakness. While she is desiring to relive her more lively-filled past-self, she can’t escape all the time that passed until she found herself participating in the band.

Finally, the song ends with a post-chorus which just repeats “When the nights are calling you” several times while the song slowly fades out and as the dancing slows down with the entire group on screen. It seems that the line accumulates positivity as the dark night becomes a lively party. I’d say that Helen has managed after several failed attempts of negativity, she finally manages to bring the song out of its hole.

Disappointingly, I don’t think the title of the song, Electric Youth, has much of a deeper sense to it. It just seems that it was put there just because the expression was in the lyrics.

There’s an interesting coincidence that the song title, Electric Youth, is also the name of a Canadian duo that just happens to sing electro-pop songs too. This is very likely to be accidental, in fact, I’m almost sure of it. While the other group does have some darker music at times, there is more positivity in what they compose and produce.

This endeavour of music analysis was probably the most difficult part because I attempted to go deeper than just the general feel of a piece of art. There’s always more ways to imagine a production because it gives a glimpse into the consciousness of the artist. Though this is certainly not a comprehensive analysis as I’ve missed quite a few parts. Feel free to comment with your own views!

Healing the wounds from Sonic Origins

Sonic Origins was shaping up to become the definitive way to play our favourite classics from the Genesis era. The official trailer demoed tantalizing animated cutscenes amidst footage of the remasters running in beautiful widescreen at 60 fps. We fell for it.

We obsessive Sonic fans waited until midnight of Sonic’s 31st anniversary (the release date) to grab a downloadable copy of this new compilation. However, what was supposed to be a sleepless night of a fan’s wet dream slowly became a bad trip of a nightmare.

Most reviewers and YouTubers were left with mixed feelings unimpressed with the game’s lack of polish. Veteran Sonic players saw much more subtle flaws that brought the game further away from what was supposed to be a compilation holy grail.

I don’t need to go into details, but most of us were left with sour taste from Sonic Origins feeling like we wasted 60$. The bugs, missing details, inaccurate physics and of course the butchered prototype tracks. It made us so angry and hurt our feelings. We were left with many painful cuts and bruises.

Sonic and Amy inflicted with wounds and bleeding. From Tumbler Blogger *chinchilla*

Many have tried to patch the holes in Sonic Origins but eventually realizing that it’s not moddable enough to fix the papercuts. Sega got the sale figures they wanted so they have no motivation to correct the many bugs in the game. Stealth from Headcannon revealed that Sega sent them into development hell.

Fortunately, fan gamers have already built remasters which fill in the gap quite nicely. You can still enjoy these games in a more polished and modern format without all the oddities found in Sega’s rush job. These are the treatments to your wounds and the definitive way play to these games in widescreen, at 60 fps and with drop dash.

• Sonic 1 - Sonic 1 Forever - (Mods)

• Sonic CD - Sonic CD Restored - (Mods)

• Sonic 2 - Sonic 2 Absolute - (Mods)

• Sonic 3 & Knuckles - Sonic 3 A.I.R. - (Mods) - (Additional Mods)

If you really liked the animated cutscenes, you can still watch these fantastic animations online from beginning to end. And don’t worry, you can find much more concepts, drawings, manuals, interviews and music than the tiny sample of bonuses that Origins included over at Sonic Retro.

Of course, if you can’t get enough of these platformers than you should take a look at the matchless spiritual successor made by Christian Whitehead et al. Sonic Mania

You can’t afford to be an artist and/or author, let alone be respected.

Us denizens of the Internet have become familiar with concepts that were foreign more than a decade ago, one of the most that causes the most influence is going viral. There’s so much variety on the web with content providing the impression that anything could essentially make you rich. However, hidden behind the curtains of survivorship bias is a massive community of people that practice art and express their creativity in a way that’s absolutely thankless.

Due to the accidental underground nature of an artist’s work, it’s unlikely that they will make any dough out of their production. Seems like in order to practise their art, they need a reliable but remedial job to pay the bills. Unfortunately, the nature of that kind of work is energy depleting zapping any creative juices needed for the concentration and initiative to produce content. Let alone something of high-quality that doesn’t exude fatigue.

Turns out, for most of us, we can’t afford to be artists, authors and creatives. Having full control over your processes comes at a cost of uncertainty and instability of money supply.

I was a deluded believer at one point that what made things so popular was the quality of a project. Eventually, I realized that it’s not the best work and most original that makes it to top, but rather the mediocre. Luck plays a big part in climbing the ladder in addition to slick marketing. The creatives with eccentric personalities often fail. Why?

My walks across the web has exposed me to obscure concepts that I found serendipitously. It was exciting to find a new favourite music track only to discover that the video accompanying it to have only several hundred of views. In fact, seeking refuge in Spotify divulges no result for which to add to my library. Going back to our question, what makes things fail? I have the impression, as some others have taught me, rather than through my own intuition, that what ‘makes it’ is something that fits the most common denominator.

These include things like food where tasters spend weeks finding the bliss point, or a pop artist using the same chord progressions over and over again; with lyrics they probably didn’t even write. Or perhaps another sitcom with yet another ironic love triangle with predictable outcomes and endings so obvious that spoilers are not even warranted.

I grew respect for many of these artists and people who radiate originality. Writing another exciting book or a low-budget movie with a more esoteric story. Rather than feeding themselves, they are feeding us, unintentionally, or even unwillingly. They bestowed us with gifts that fit our niches so we can distance ourselves for yet another mediocre work.

Some of these types have divulged the differences between being unknown and popular. Many have revealed to me that if they get big enough, their fans’ expectations of a constant stream of content puts them on a production treadmill. As a result, turning their passion into yet, another job.

Many creative types, and arrogantly putting myself into that bucket, hope for some kind of impossible miracle of some type of passive income that will keep us alive with much initial effort but eventually getting big enough to put it aside but give us a positive cashflow.

I can see my projects present hints of tiredness of the obligatory 8 hours and I see it everywhere too. The inertia of the energy is no longer there anymore. What they had time for before moving out have become an insufferable chase for free time that simply cannot be filled with anything else of lifelessness.

Although I can throw the idea of donating to someone you like, it results in absolutely nothing. Even very popular, say bloggers, don’t get much money from donations. Ads and sponsorships work, but my inclinations whisper to me that it’s not kosher. Going back to my first blog post, I alluded that the nature of our jobs no longer matches its own output when it comes to money. I can’t think of a solution because abuse will be rampant. Say we introduced a pension for artists, it will be used by the same people who defraud for disability pay or early retirement.

The only thing I have right now is thankfulness and gratitude to the many obscure artists who keep me entertained and for free. I don’t want to sound cheesy and say that you’ll end up somewhere and to work even harder.

However, you have been so late and never attempted to defend yourself. Think of the world’s unions protecting workers in order to keep their job a bit more sane. Lobbyists have the power to push governments to submit to them. Too bad nothing like that can exist for my most loved makers.

There’s no judgement for the popular ones, but I implore that those who work white-collar jobs to have a bit more respect for something they take for granted. Endlessly rich CEOs, don’t look down at someone who is trying to make their voices and guitar solos heard on stage. If you don’t want to help, and I bet most of you wouldn’t even help yourselves, at least, give their content a chance. Take a break and admire, there’s much love in there. They are the true evangelists.

I believe it would be a very interesting topic to gather up ideas on potential ideas that would allow people to express themselves without having to suffer too much from the universal grind. Leave comments below.

Much discussion flourished on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32487190