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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 20th, 2023

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  • Frankly, I feel like it’s wrong for you to say that the problem is pushed onto users when you don’t understand the code and effort the developers are writing to solve this issue specifically with counter-strike

    You are the one who continues to make assumptions about what I do and do not understand about the code that makes this work in various games.

    I don’t really feel like getting into the nitty gritty here in comments, but if your experience is what you say, I’m very surprised at some of your unqualified statements.

    I’ll bow out now.


  • I wrote a snarky response because of the final insulting comment in yours but then thought better of it, going to try to address a couple of your points legitimately even after the unnecessary personal attack.

    It’s a lot cheaper to make your server dumb. It costs you less in programmers with deep multiplayer programming experience, it costs you less in ongoing hosting because of reduced CPU usage, and it makes the problem less “yours” as a developer.

    I’m saying that’s shitty that the developers will try to save money that way rather than investing in actual effective, privacy-respecting cheat prevention.

    Your argument seems to be that a quake-style predictive algorithm is the only solution possible for online games. I doubt that is the case, but even if it were, using some raycasts on the server for some basic sanity checks on what data to send to players is an example of where lots of developers just can’t be bothered.

    If you want to dismiss machine learning as heuristics, I’m sorta ok with that, as I think they are just glorified heuristics, but even the most basic analysis isn’t done by most developers. Instead, they rely on the sales pitches of various anti-cheat software and don’t implement anything beyond it, even when there might be some low hanging fruit.

    I am not saying developers are lazy, there’s tons of stuff to work on. I am mad that this problem gets repeatedly pushed onto the users rather than the developers, though, and I think it’s reasonable for me to offer some pushback when both my CPU cycles and my privacy are being abused.


  • people really enjoy the boot of anti-cheat on their necks.

    maybe these companies could move their cheat detection to the server where they control the code. maybe don’t just send all player positions so wall-hacks become impossible. maybe use some machine learning to look at input patterns and detect when a player is sending things that don’t look human.

    the list of things companies could do to actually fix cheating in pvp games is long and all they want to do is pay for ridiculous anti-cheat that impacts normal users.

    ridiculous.



  • Not going to agree with the commenter above, but I want to point out that this happens a lot:

    A person who holds views that are detrimental to others comes to a community of those people and cries “why, when I am not quite like other people who hold these views, but agree with them on the detrimental stuff about you, do you not accept me?”

    The people in the community try repeatedly to explain why holding views that harm others is harmful and that the person asking may need to revaluate their own views.

    The person then says they’re being attacked. Everything they predicted about this community is coming true! They feel like they’re being kicked out!

    And they are! Because when they came to engage then didn’t change, let alone evaluate, any of their own views, the community rightly showed them back to the door until they are ready to actually listen and put themselves in someone else’s shoes.

    I am sure you feel like you have been badly treated at this point. What you do with that now is up to you. I’ll say this: I have no hate for you, I would like nothing more than to give you some feedback that might help change how you view some things. I hope there is enough food for thought here for everyone.




  • FWIW: these types of password rules are discouraged by NIST -

    1. Eliminate Periodic Resets

    Many companies ask their users to reset their passwords every few months, thinking that any unauthorized person who obtained a user’s password will soon be locked out. However, frequent password changes can actually make security worse.

    It’s difficult enough to remember one good password a year. And since users often have numerous passwords to remember already, they often resort to changing their passwords in predictable patterns, such as adding a single character to the end of their last password or replacing a letter with a symbol that looks like it (such as $ instead of S).

    So if an attacker already knows a user’s previous password, it won’t be difficult to crack the new one. The NIST guidelines state that periodic password-change requirements should be removed for this reason.






  • The sad truth is it will need to get much worse until conservatives will admit there is a problem and let progressives solve it.

    It has always been this way. You either live in a progressive, upwardly moving state with improving quality of life or you get stuck in a conservative, stagnant or downward trending place where people are more concerned with “others” than they are with doing anything productive as a society. As a species, we seem to slowly wobble back and forth between these extremes. It’s maddening.





  • In 10 years you haven’t made any professional connections who would want to work with you again?

    That is the single best avenue to other jobs: foot in the door through someone you have worked with who can vouch for your professionalism and ability.

    If you’re not making those connections, something is wrong. It could be the kinds of jobs you’ve taken, eg: if they’re all solo contracts and you don’t interact with anyone on anything other than deliverables. Or you are taking roles where your output is used only by a small sunset of the company or something?

    If you’re taking reasonable roles and have decent interaction with co-workers and no one is willing to refer you for a job, then you need to think about what your relationships are like at work and why they aren’t positive enough.