from the would-you-like-your-possessions-identified? dept.
As you can see, the staff are already making changes for this annual tradition, with paulej72 and mrcoolbp being responsible for the site being in green today. I was planning my own fun feature to add to the site, but was unable to finish it fully in time. (For the curious, here is an experimental version of it.) Unfortunately, we are not yet ready to deploy the next site update.
So, I decided that perhaps today would be a good day to sit down and have a social event. Since we're going with a "retro" theme today, I thought "What would be more appropriate than to sit back, take questions from the community, and play NetHack?"! I'll be playing on nethack.alt.org (NAO) which allows you to watch games in progress over telnet. I will also be streaming live on Twitch, fielding questions from chat, and answering them live. For those averse to new media, you can simply connect to NAO via telnet, and choose to watch my game. I'll note, for completeness' sake, I'm not a complete newbie at nethack — I have, in fact, managed to ascend once with the amulet. Perhaps if luck is with us, I might manage it again on camera.
I hope to play as a 24-hour event, from 0:00 to 23:59 EST, though that might change depending on how I'm feeling. I plan to setup a Skype session so members of the staff can join in and perhaps field a question or two. If anyone wants to live update for me (watch the stream and keep notes on what I've done) or something similar, drop me a Private Message on either the SoylentNews IRC channel or on Freenode (I'll be in #nethack while I'm streaming).
If you ever wanted an opportunity to yell at me to my face, well, here's your chance. Tomorrow the site theme will be back to normal, though for those who prefer it, the vt100 theme will remain available to logged-in users should they choose to use it.
Note: If someone wants another way to host the audio and wants to setup a server for us, just let us know and we'll try to hook up the audio. Ping NCommander in IRC if possible, or just mention it in the twitch chat, or via telnet.
Related Stories
For those who were with us on April 1st, you may remember that I hosted an eBBQ playing Nethack. There's been some talk on doing something like this again, perhaps in the form of an ongoing Dungeons and Dragons campaign or similar. While those still remain up in the air, given our relative stability at the moment, doing another livestreaming event seems like it would be a fair bit of fun both for the staff and the community.
I'd like to make this a semi-regular feature, and invite members of the community to both join on the stream (via Skype), or even in the game itself as either allies or opponents. As such, I'm going to be hosting the second SoylentNews eBBQ this Friday, and then try to repeat every few weeks or so.
As for the choice of game, I've been feeling an urge to play Europa Universalis IV . For those unfamiliar with the series, Europa Univeralis is a set of simulation games set from the late 1400s to the early 1800s, covering the vast majority of the age of sail. As for time, I'd proposed Friday at about 5PM EST, and continuing at least until 9, if not later (the first SN eBBQ was a 24 hour event, though that was more due to insanity). I'd love to hear from the community if anyone would be interested in listening in, or actively joining. The time isn't set in stone, and I can move it if the community feels later in the evening, or perhaps during the weekend is a better idea.
As always, feedback will be welcome!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday April 01 2015, @03:46AM
ADOM [ancardia.com] > Nethack
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Marand on Wednesday April 01 2015, @05:06AM
ADOM > Nethack
My favourite, despite being long abandoned, is still Zangband [zangband.org]. Partly because I'm fond of the Amber-inspired setting, but mostly because I like its classes and mechanics. I'm apparently not the only one, considering someone's still keeping it going in Debian all these years later. (Thank you, whoever you are.)
(Score: 2) by Sir Finkus on Wednesday April 01 2015, @05:11AM
I like DCSS and Dwarf Fortress myself
Join our Folding@Home team! [stanford.edu]
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday April 01 2015, @03:08PM
But would 24 hours be long enough for a game of Dwarf Fortress?
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Wednesday April 01 2015, @05:25PM
Maybe Ncommander should rotate through a list of roguelikes?
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday April 01 2015, @05:57PM
If you want to drive him into absolute insanity.
Or did you mean over multiple streams.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Informative) by Techwolf on Wednesday April 01 2015, @03:47AM
Do not forget the side bars, there is an april fool hidden in there too. *giggles*
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2015, @10:04AM
Wait, you say that is a joke? I mean, it's surely a bit ambitious, but think about the possibilities it would open up!
(Score: 3, Informative) by pogostix on Wednesday April 01 2015, @04:02AM
Ethanol-Fueled has a great journal entry about this BBQ :)
(Score: 5, Funny) by TheGratefulNet on Wednesday April 01 2015, @04:12AM
what the fuck are you talking about? I'm using lynx on a VAXstation 2000 and a wyse terminal.
I can see nothing at all different on this site. its always been green.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2015, @09:14PM
Better not switch to an X session, man, they kept the curved corners in a retro look, curved corners I tell you! and no blinking stuff nor inverted color stuff! Possibly they grew up with modern abominations like the 128k McIntosh.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by physicsmajor on Wednesday April 01 2015, @04:17AM
Much easier on the eyes at night and on certain bright screens. Any chance of keeping it around as an option?
(Score: 5, Informative) by mrcoolbp on Wednesday April 01 2015, @04:19AM
the vt100 theme will remain available to logged-in users should they choose to use it.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Translation Error on Wednesday April 01 2015, @01:42PM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jdccdevel on Wednesday April 01 2015, @02:10PM
I'm not a graphic designer, but it would sure be nice to get themed comment expansion buttons too. The "-" "+-" and "." buttons in white beside each comment are quite jarring.
Other than that, I'm really enjoying this theme, thanks!
(Score: 2) by paulej72 on Thursday April 02 2015, @03:42AM
This is on the todo list. The images are base64 encoded into the javascript file. We would need to rejigger the way things work with file to make this work. This has not been the first time we have heard this issue, but we have not had enough time to fix it.
Thanks for the comment.
Team Leader for SN Development
(Score: 1) by DECbot on Friday April 03 2015, @11:21PM
Change the view to nested comments, and you won't see those buttons.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday April 01 2015, @04:19AM
After the nightmare is over, pick VT100 here: https://soylentnews.org/my/homepage [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Arik on Wednesday April 01 2015, @05:32AM
Hopefully that will be fixed by tomorrow, because this is how it should be.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Wednesday April 01 2015, @10:03AM
I'm colourblind so have no idea what I've just been assaulted with, but I guess I now know I find pink disgusting. I'm not sure it's worth changing style to avoid it, though.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Thursday April 02 2015, @12:37AM
Yes we wanted to troll even the people that had this theme selected, they instead got a theme named "pwnies" = )
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday April 01 2015, @12:19PM
I second this! I absolutely love the simplicity and high contrast. This must become a permanent addition to the themes.
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Thursday April 02 2015, @12:43AM
This theme has been available for a while now (and will continue to be), it's called "VT100". You can change it in your prefs: "Preferences" -> "Homepage" -> select from dropdown, scroll to the bottom and click "save". Hopefully we can rework the prefs soon so it's not so difficult.
(I also responded to your email)
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2015, @05:02AM
What are you going to do now when we all have non-proportional type?
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Wednesday April 01 2015, @05:09AM
ＴＨＩＳ ｏＲ
ＳＯｍｅＴＨＩＮｇ
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0, Troll) by Arik on Wednesday April 01 2015, @05:28AM
I like this theme though, I do. Very easy on the eyes.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Couuard on Wednesday April 01 2015, @05:12AM
the goggles, they do nothing!
This green on black theme makes me want to go fire up my old Apple ][e computer. It hasn't been booted in over 20yrs.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by twistedcubic on Wednesday April 01 2015, @05:19AM
From a frequent iritis sufferer who sometimes feels pain when the video screen goes all white, this is the best website theme ever! It only makes sense that my web browser looks like my terminal. We should overthrow the government and force every web designer to use this theme :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2015, @05:31AM
I put "night mode" in all my webpages now.
(Score: 1) by islisis on Wednesday April 01 2015, @12:46PM
i've posted this in discussions before, but if you really mean what you are saying you can force 'accessibility options' through your browser to use whatever colours you like, ideally binding a toggle to a shortcut key:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/toggledocumentcolors-198916/ [mozilla.org]
unfortunately this does break watermarks on some sites
(Score: 2) by dltaylor on Wednesday April 01 2015, @07:23AM
This theme should definitely be available.
Built a special character into nethack once to test a build on VMS 3.4; got almost all the way through.
After it died, we had to deal with its ghost (no we didn't clean and re-install; that would have been too easy).
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Thursday April 02 2015, @12:45AM
This theme has been available for a while now (and will continue to be), it's called "VT100". You can change it in your prefs: "Preferences" -> "Homepage" -> select from dropdown, scroll to the bottom and click "save". Hopefully we can rework the prefs soon so it's not so difficult.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2015, @08:22AM
I had to increase the font size by a large amount to make this readable (I'm not sitting in a dark basement). But then, back then the letters were just as big on the screen, so I guess I just made the site even more retro this way. ;-)
The input box now also has only slightly more than 80 characters by default, so that's also close to retro.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2015, @08:39AM
I had to increase the font size by a large amount to make this readable (I'm not sitting in a dark basement).
For those of us who are sitting in a dark basement please send help! It's cold and wet, and something's moving around down here ... and I don't know what it is!
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Wednesday April 01 2015, @02:16PM
sounds like someone bumped-a-wumpus!
(the wumpus has moved)
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by Marneus68 on Wednesday April 01 2015, @08:28AM
Is there any chance to have that new theme available in the future as a choice for the user?
It's really easy on the eyes and much better than the white and red and there are no retarded gradients thingies on the posts. (the rounded corners are still there tho).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2015, @08:59AM
There's a new theme? Wait, the original site had white and red?! What kind of supercomputer scientific display are you using that lets you see gradients in the first place? Nice joke.
EOF
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2015, @09:29AM
It has been available as a choice for quite some time already. Along with some other non-red themes. Maybe you should have a closer look at your user preferences.
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Thursday April 02 2015, @12:46AM
This theme has been available for a while now (and will continue to be), it's called "VT100". You can change it in your prefs: "Preferences" -> "Homepage" -> select from dropdown, scroll to the bottom and click "save". Hopefully we can rework the prefs soon so it's not so difficult.
Sorry for the repost, but I wanted to notify users via reply.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday April 01 2015, @10:10AM
I tried to implement a player info page for IdleRPG in gopher, and could only ever get it to work in one client at a time, as each client was sending me different requests. w3m was clearly on drugs (and has been getting more broken the more debian patch it). gopher itself seemed to be playing by the rules. can't remember what I thought about the other clients I tried it, some simply didn't work at all.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by chromas on Saturday April 04 2015, @01:32AM
So just like systemd :D
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday April 01 2015, @12:27PM
I like this move for April Fool's Day. It's equal parts humor and nostalgia, without foolishness or breaking the functionality of the site. Well done, devs!
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2015, @05:33PM
The never ending fake news stories are getting pretty old though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2015, @03:14PM
At least as far as nethack is concerned, today does not seem to be your day. [alt.org]
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Wednesday April 01 2015, @03:34PM
There's a reason I set the dept string to "would you like your possessions identified"
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday April 01 2015, @06:41PM
Speaking of nethack: Am I the only one getting partially garbled texts from nethack.alt.org?
An example from your current game:
It's strange because it's not the first time I've telnetted there, but it's the first time I see such garbling.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Wednesday April 01 2015, @06:47PM
Nethack april fools mode :(
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Wednesday April 01 2015, @03:29PM
I feel like I'm using an IBM mainframe with a monochrome monitor again.
(Score: 3, Funny) by TLA on Wednesday April 01 2015, @03:37PM
I told you, I was gonna do it.
Excuse me, I think I need to reboot my horse. - NCommander
(Score: 1) by ThG on Wednesday April 01 2015, @08:42PM
18 years and I haven't seen the amulet of Yendor even once..
What are the odds for that happening?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 02 2015, @09:11AM
Well, let me show you the Amulet of Yendor: "
Now you have seen it.