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M-ultra Gen2 USB-C port Cable security clasp Bigger screen Button LED rings Shadow hunting switches Function little buttons material and Hand Feel Optimization New button layout Optimized wrist area curve New Metal CNC spraying process instead of CNC anodizing（More durable, more stain-resistant） Larger anti-slip pad on the back Which...

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Haute42 | COSMOX

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15,558 views • 9 months ago •via X (Twitter)

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The New Big Thing For 2K Players. The Flydigi Controller. - This controller has adjustable tension on the joysticks, making tempo shooting way easier. Instead of adjusting what youre doing, just adjust the controller stick tension to fit how you naturally flick your stick. (Slightly Rushed = Tighten the tension / Slightly Slow = Loosen the tension.) - Clickable Buttons to make every input feel more reactive over a mushy button. - Anti stick drift - 6 Extra remappable buttons. More info and Gameplay on this in my latest YouTube Video. Amazon: Official Store: #NBA2K26
0:22

The New Big Thing For 2K Players. The Flydigi Controller. - This controller has adjustable tension on the joysticks, making tempo shooting way easier. Instead of adjusting what youre doing, just adjust the controller stick tension to fit how you naturally flick your stick. (Slightly Rushed = Tighten the tension / Slightly Slow = Loosen the tension.) - Clickable Buttons to make every input feel more reactive over a mushy button. - Anti stick drift - 6 Extra remappable buttons. More info and Gameplay on this in my latest YouTube Video. Amazon: Official Store: #NBA2K26

𝑲𝒐𝒛𝒂

242,983 views • 1 month ago

Here’s a new video showing what looks to be Tesla’s production-ready version of the Cybercab. What's different/new compared to what we saw previously: • Redesigned trunk with slightly less wide opening. Side humps are gone. More rugged lining material (no longer fabric). Powered, significantly stronger struts. Also looks like there could be venting towards the back? • New door card design with new trim and redesigned handle area • Frameless windows • Updated ambient lighting • New carpet material on the interior • Powered butterfly doors with open/close button located near bottom of b-pillar • New wheel covers with thicker tires • New seats with upgraded bottom seat cushions • New powered door mechanisms • Updated front lightbar with headlights • Dual front windshield wipers (vs one in previous) • New open slit across the dashboard (air vents?) • Redesigned roof/headliner area, including different break points • New front bumper design with extended bottom splitter • Two USB-C ports facing upwards in the center console • Slightly updated rear hatch design • Powered door struts are all new • The ~21" center screen, the largest ever in any Tesla, is now more integrated into the dash (pushed in), rather than have a suspended/hanging look More photos of this Cybercab are in the thread below. Thanks for providing me with the pics cory! This was located at Tesla's Santana Row showroom. Cybercab is on track to start in ~4 months 😎
0:52

Here’s a new video showing what looks to be Tesla’s production-ready version of the Cybercab. What's different/new compared to what we saw previously: • Redesigned trunk with slightly less wide opening. Side humps are gone. More rugged lining material (no longer fabric). Powered, significantly stronger struts. Also looks like there could be venting towards the back? • New door card design with new trim and redesigned handle area • Frameless windows • Updated ambient lighting • New carpet material on the interior • Powered butterfly doors with open/close button located near bottom of b-pillar • New wheel covers with thicker tires • New seats with upgraded bottom seat cushions • New powered door mechanisms • Updated front lightbar with headlights • Dual front windshield wipers (vs one in previous) • New open slit across the dashboard (air vents?) • Redesigned roof/headliner area, including different break points • New front bumper design with extended bottom splitter • Two USB-C ports facing upwards in the center console • Slightly updated rear hatch design • Powered door struts are all new • The ~21" center screen, the largest ever in any Tesla, is now more integrated into the dash (pushed in), rather than have a suspended/hanging look More photos of this Cybercab are in the thread below. Thanks for providing me with the pics cory! This was located at Tesla's Santana Row showroom. Cybercab is on track to start in ~4 months 😎

Sawyer Merritt

239,720 views • 6 months ago

The beauty & technology packed in the upgraded Model 3 is greatly under-appreciated, just look at all the new things that are in this car and then tell me you don’t want it. 👇 • Same prices as old Model 3, under $40K • Up to ~2.4% higher range on Long Range trim (341), same range on RWD (272) • 50% of the parts in the car are new • 4.3% more cargo capacity • Long Range is 4 lbs lighter than before, RWD is 29 lbs heavier than before • 0.1" lower ground clearance vs old 3 • 30% decrease in wind and ambient noise, 25% improvement in impact noise and 20% improvement in road noise • Redesigned interior w/ new door cards • More premium interior materials. The fabric is softer to the touch and sewn with a more refined process to present a better overall texture • Two new colors: Ultra Red ($2K) & Stealth Gray (no extra cost) • No more stalks. New steering wheel contains the turns signals, light controls, horn, new camera button, wiper controls and mic control • New dash design with textured/woven material • Multicolor ambient LED interior lighting extending from dash to rear seat doors • Updated center console w/ real metal handles, giving a more premium feel. • Acoustic glass on rear windows and back window (was only on front windows before). "360º acoustic glass" • More sound insulation for a quieter ride • Uptick in hood to let wind go over more quietly • Upgraded suspension for a more premium ride. New springs & dampers. New geometry on front suspension. New bushings. New way they mount the sub frame to the chassis • Stiffer body, better handling • More premium sounding door "thunk" • Passengers are more protected from door impacts due to new latch at the bottom of the door • Two motors close the trunk now vs one before, resulting in a quieter automatic close • Tires have more cushioning for improved ride • Center touchscreen now brighter, has smaller bezels, higher contrast & is more responsive • More comfortable rear seats • Redesigned lower rear bumper • All seats are now perforated • No fog lights anymore • Front seats are now ventilated, in addition to heated • 8" touchscreen for rear passengers in the back to control climate & enjoy entertainment. You can connect two headsets at the same time. • Better drag coefficient of 0.219 Cd • Upgraded 2.0 ventilation system. You can now separately turn off the passenger side air • Slimmer and sleeker headlight and taillight design • Single wing-shaped taillight design, meaning better reliability and low chance for leakage/part misalignment • New 17 speaker sound system (up from 14 before). It now includes 2 subwoofers and 2 amplifiers. More punchy • 65W USB-C charger in center console so you can charge a laptop • Improved bluetooth • Upgraded microphones. Now one on each passenger side. New mics make phone calls clearer and "smooth" • 5G connectivity. 50% improved cellular service. 2X greater WiFi range (dual-band) • Improved connectivity to phone so car will recognize your phone from farther away • Two new wheel designs that better optimize battery life • New Tesla lettering replaces rear Tesla logo badge • Car is 8% more efficient thanks to better aerodynamics • Car is 1" longer overall (Original vid from Andy Slye, cooked by me)
1:04

The beauty & technology packed in the upgraded Model 3 is greatly under-appreciated, just look at all the new things that are in this car and then tell me you don’t want it. 👇 • Same prices as old Model 3, under $40K • Up to ~2.4% higher range on Long Range trim (341), same range on RWD (272) • 50% of the parts in the car are new • 4.3% more cargo capacity • Long Range is 4 lbs lighter than before, RWD is 29 lbs heavier than before • 0.1" lower ground clearance vs old 3 • 30% decrease in wind and ambient noise, 25% improvement in impact noise and 20% improvement in road noise • Redesigned interior w/ new door cards • More premium interior materials. The fabric is softer to the touch and sewn with a more refined process to present a better overall texture • Two new colors: Ultra Red ($2K) & Stealth Gray (no extra cost) • No more stalks. New steering wheel contains the turns signals, light controls, horn, new camera button, wiper controls and mic control • New dash design with textured/woven material • Multicolor ambient LED interior lighting extending from dash to rear seat doors • Updated center console w/ real metal handles, giving a more premium feel. • Acoustic glass on rear windows and back window (was only on front windows before). "360º acoustic glass" • More sound insulation for a quieter ride • Uptick in hood to let wind go over more quietly • Upgraded suspension for a more premium ride. New springs & dampers. New geometry on front suspension. New bushings. New way they mount the sub frame to the chassis • Stiffer body, better handling • More premium sounding door "thunk" • Passengers are more protected from door impacts due to new latch at the bottom of the door • Two motors close the trunk now vs one before, resulting in a quieter automatic close • Tires have more cushioning for improved ride • Center touchscreen now brighter, has smaller bezels, higher contrast & is more responsive • More comfortable rear seats • Redesigned lower rear bumper • All seats are now perforated • No fog lights anymore • Front seats are now ventilated, in addition to heated • 8" touchscreen for rear passengers in the back to control climate & enjoy entertainment. You can connect two headsets at the same time. • Better drag coefficient of 0.219 Cd • Upgraded 2.0 ventilation system. You can now separately turn off the passenger side air • Slimmer and sleeker headlight and taillight design • Single wing-shaped taillight design, meaning better reliability and low chance for leakage/part misalignment • New 17 speaker sound system (up from 14 before). It now includes 2 subwoofers and 2 amplifiers. More punchy • 65W USB-C charger in center console so you can charge a laptop • Improved bluetooth • Upgraded microphones. Now one on each passenger side. New mics make phone calls clearer and "smooth" • 5G connectivity. 50% improved cellular service. 2X greater WiFi range (dual-band) • Improved connectivity to phone so car will recognize your phone from farther away • Two new wheel designs that better optimize battery life • New Tesla lettering replaces rear Tesla logo badge • Car is 8% more efficient thanks to better aerodynamics • Car is 1" longer overall (Original vid from Andy Slye, cooked by me)

Teslaconomics

73,057 views • 2 years ago

China Tank General: C&C Untitled (Generals Zero Hour Mod) Let's Play #CommandAndConquer #CNC #VideoGame #Mod #RealTimeStrategy #LetsPlay #RTS #VideoGameMod #Gaming #CommandAndConquerGenerals #GeneralsZeroHour The Tank General of the C&C Untitled mod for C&C Generals Zero Hour is also heavily edited like the other factions, with reskins and new units, a emphasis on heavily armored units gives him a different arsenal of land vehicles with even his supply truck and listening outpost replaced with heavier armored variants, the heavy supply truck can carry bigger resource loads funding your base faster. Units include: Warmaster which replaces the battle master and has a working machine gun and 2 autocannons in addition to it's tank cannon, Tiananmen SPAAG (a anti air unit that replaces the gatling cannon), Locust Tank (a light and cheap tank), Emperor Overlord (has a high caliber cannon and autocannon instead of 2 tank cannons), ECM overlord which is surprisingly cheap for it's massive size and unlike the other Chinese ECM vehicles in this mod is powerful enough to shut down buildings with it's ECM gun, and Immolator (a heavily armored flame tank that can shoot fire in multiple directions), Armored Outpost (listening outpost but tougher), Heavy Supply Truck (carries more resources and is tougher). The mod can be found on ModDB, look it up. The old C&C games as part of the Ultimate Collection can be found on the Official EA App or Steam. It is also possible to procure C&C Untitled through the GenLauncher tool for C&C Generals Zero Hour which can be found on ModDB (where it also has the 1920x1080 resolution). I also upload videos on YouTube and Facebook that look at and profile video game mods.
11:48

China Tank General: C&C Untitled (Generals Zero Hour Mod) Let's Play #CommandAndConquer #CNC #VideoGame #Mod #RealTimeStrategy #LetsPlay #RTS #VideoGameMod #Gaming #CommandAndConquerGenerals #GeneralsZeroHour The Tank General of the C&C Untitled mod for C&C Generals Zero Hour is also heavily edited like the other factions, with reskins and new units, a emphasis on heavily armored units gives him a different arsenal of land vehicles with even his supply truck and listening outpost replaced with heavier armored variants, the heavy supply truck can carry bigger resource loads funding your base faster. Units include: Warmaster which replaces the battle master and has a working machine gun and 2 autocannons in addition to it's tank cannon, Tiananmen SPAAG (a anti air unit that replaces the gatling cannon), Locust Tank (a light and cheap tank), Emperor Overlord (has a high caliber cannon and autocannon instead of 2 tank cannons), ECM overlord which is surprisingly cheap for it's massive size and unlike the other Chinese ECM vehicles in this mod is powerful enough to shut down buildings with it's ECM gun, and Immolator (a heavily armored flame tank that can shoot fire in multiple directions), Armored Outpost (listening outpost but tougher), Heavy Supply Truck (carries more resources and is tougher). The mod can be found on ModDB, look it up. The old C&C games as part of the Ultimate Collection can be found on the Official EA App or Steam. It is also possible to procure C&C Untitled through the GenLauncher tool for C&C Generals Zero Hour which can be found on ModDB (where it also has the 1920x1080 resolution). I also upload videos on YouTube and Facebook that look at and profile video game mods.

ZanyOnePip

10,355 views • 2 years ago

Sure, but the idea of simplifying the appearance of Fortnite, the locker and the shop are all going in the exact opposite direction of simplicity. Equipping cosmetics takes double, if not triple the clicks. The UI is impractical and janky, not to mention the introduction of buttons and drop-down menus that were far easier to access previously. Selecting a skin to rotate it, preview it or even spin it around now requires clicking on it, which then applies it to your loadout. Previously this needed a confirm button so you could preview and choose skins, backblings etc without loosing your currently equipped on if you want to go back. Wraps are not included as part of a character's preset despite being completely relevant to the skin worn. Changing emotes, lobby tracks, and all cosmetics now means you have to back out and change tabs, something that could have previously been done on 1 page. The sectioned tabs make sense with new types like LEGO Kits, Cars, Instruments but there's no need to separate Character from Wraps, Emotes or Lobby. Archiving or Favoriting items can no longer be done in batches or quickly. Previously all you had to do was click once per cosmetic on the button but now you have to enter a drop down and select it for every individual item. Applying wraps to all slots now requires a drop down menu rather than simply clicking the button at the bottom. Swinging a pickaxe or redeploying a glider is near impossible to do and feels like more of a chore to actually accomplish with the drop-down menu. It overlays onto other items meaning as soon as it's clicked the menu vanishes and switches to another cosmetic before the animation can even begin. Cosmetics in the locker can be searched by seasons using "S1-17" but after S18+ they no longer filter. Entering the drop-down menu or right-clicking anything in the locker accidentally immediately takes you all the way back to your currently equipped item when exiting. The filter menu requires an "apply" button to be pressed rather than simply closing and applying when selecting one of the filters, taking longer and more clicks to simply find your recent items or remove a filter. The filter menu was also better as a side panel so you don't have to move your cursor to the center of the screen and back every single time. As a side panel it also allowed for more options to be displayed, whereas the current one requires a huge scroll bar to simply filter by favorite. The presets menu scroll wheel also zooms the skins in and out as you scroll up and down the list. Because of the randomize preset button, the list compared to when saving a preset is all moved up by 1, becoming disorientating to where the preset was in relation to the rows. The shop no longer displays item descriptions or set names on cosmetics - now requiring a click on each individual item when there is adequate space to do so. The new shop and locker appearance can be accustomed to, however, it NEEDS the basic functionality and user-friendly UI elements that the previous ones had. Simple buttons at the bottom to favorite, swing, redeploy and equip. Less tabs to switch between, less clicks required to complete simple tasks and less feeling like there's a battle against the UI itself just to equip the cosmetics you paid for. We appreciate the moves the renew the locker and shop, but in terms of functionality and user interaction, there is nothing we want more than the old one back or the old one's elements merged into the new appearance. Thank you.
0:18

Sure, but the idea of simplifying the appearance of Fortnite, the locker and the shop are all going in the exact opposite direction of simplicity. Equipping cosmetics takes double, if not triple the clicks. The UI is impractical and janky, not to mention the introduction of buttons and drop-down menus that were far easier to access previously. Selecting a skin to rotate it, preview it or even spin it around now requires clicking on it, which then applies it to your loadout. Previously this needed a confirm button so you could preview and choose skins, backblings etc without loosing your currently equipped on if you want to go back. Wraps are not included as part of a character's preset despite being completely relevant to the skin worn. Changing emotes, lobby tracks, and all cosmetics now means you have to back out and change tabs, something that could have previously been done on 1 page. The sectioned tabs make sense with new types like LEGO Kits, Cars, Instruments but there's no need to separate Character from Wraps, Emotes or Lobby. Archiving or Favoriting items can no longer be done in batches or quickly. Previously all you had to do was click once per cosmetic on the button but now you have to enter a drop down and select it for every individual item. Applying wraps to all slots now requires a drop down menu rather than simply clicking the button at the bottom. Swinging a pickaxe or redeploying a glider is near impossible to do and feels like more of a chore to actually accomplish with the drop-down menu. It overlays onto other items meaning as soon as it's clicked the menu vanishes and switches to another cosmetic before the animation can even begin. Cosmetics in the locker can be searched by seasons using "S1-17" but after S18+ they no longer filter. Entering the drop-down menu or right-clicking anything in the locker accidentally immediately takes you all the way back to your currently equipped item when exiting. The filter menu requires an "apply" button to be pressed rather than simply closing and applying when selecting one of the filters, taking longer and more clicks to simply find your recent items or remove a filter. The filter menu was also better as a side panel so you don't have to move your cursor to the center of the screen and back every single time. As a side panel it also allowed for more options to be displayed, whereas the current one requires a huge scroll bar to simply filter by favorite. The presets menu scroll wheel also zooms the skins in and out as you scroll up and down the list. Because of the randomize preset button, the list compared to when saving a preset is all moved up by 1, becoming disorientating to where the preset was in relation to the rows. The shop no longer displays item descriptions or set names on cosmetics - now requiring a click on each individual item when there is adequate space to do so. The new shop and locker appearance can be accustomed to, however, it NEEDS the basic functionality and user-friendly UI elements that the previous ones had. Simple buttons at the bottom to favorite, swing, redeploy and equip. Less tabs to switch between, less clicks required to complete simple tasks and less feeling like there's a battle against the UI itself just to equip the cosmetics you paid for. We appreciate the moves the renew the locker and shop, but in terms of functionality and user interaction, there is nothing we want more than the old one back or the old one's elements merged into the new appearance. Thank you.

FNAssist

178,290 views • 2 years ago

[New Xbox Controller Review] #ad Special thanks to Qrdgame_offcial for supplying me with a review unit of their Ferrox M5 Xbox & PC Controller QRD Ferrox M5 The QRD Ferrox M5 is a Wireless Xbox One–style gamepad with a transparent design. Since it targets Xbox One natively, it works automatically on PC and Xbox Series S/X. The included 2.4Ghz USB Dongle also supports Switch and Android with the right adapter (USB C), but I was not able to test those in time for this review. A Wireless Xbox Controller The QRD FERROX M5 comes in a familiar Xbox layout with Hall Effect joysticks, RGB rings around the sticks, and a magnetic & detachable clear shell that shows the internals. The controller feels very similar to a standard Xbox pad in terms of shape and size, but it’s slightly lighter at compared to the usual Xbox controller weight. The lighter weight makes it easier to hold for longer sessions without hand fatigue. The D-Pad is surprisingly good at dialing special moves feels as solid and responsive as the official Xbox controller, and that’s impressive at a lower price point. I spent a few days trying out the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection exclusively using this controller and I did not notice any difference at all. Capabilities From what I’ve tested, the controller performs extremely well for action games, fighting games, and shooters. The Hall Effect joysticks offer smooth movement and precise control with no drift issues. The D-Pad uses micro switches, so every input is tactile and accurate. The back triggers support an adaptive “trigger stop” mode, which shortens the travel distance for faster reaction time in FPS games or quicker blocks in Fighting Games. You also get 4 back macro buttons, turbo mode, and adjustable joystick sensitivity with deadzone options. Vibration strength and RGB lighting modes are also customizable. What can it do The FERROX M5 includes an 800mAh battery that lasts around 8 hours of gameplay. It only uses the 2.4Ghz wireless connection, not Bluetooth, so it always requires the included USB Dongle. The good thing is once you sync it with your Xbox or PC, you don’t need to sync it again—it carries over between both devices automatically. The 2.4G connection is stable and low latency, and the controller has a 3.5mm headphone jack for audio and mic support. It also features a quick calibration system to keep sticks and triggers accurate over time. The overall grip and shape feel close to the official Xbox controller, comfortable for long gaming sessions, and the transparent shell gives it a distinct look. Areas of improvement I initially had trouble charging the controller while playing because connecting it to the Xbox via USB would disable all inputs, making it unusable in wired mode. But luckily QRD Support helped and provided me with an updat - I had to connect it to a PC, download the firmware tool from QRD’s website, and update the controller manually. After installing the new firmware, the controller can now charge while being used normally on Xbox, so the issue is fully resolved. The Xbox button also behaves differently on Xbox, where the single press acts like hold and the hold acts like single press; this issue doesn’t appear on PC. Syncing with the dongle took a few attempts on both Xbox and PC, but once paired, it never needed syncing again. The wireless mode is strictly 2.4G with no Bluetooth support, so it cannot connect without the dongle, though the benefit is that one pairing works across both Xbox and PC. Final Summary ✅ Hall Effect Joystick ✅ Lights in the dark ✅ Good D-Pad for input dialing ✅ Light Controller ❌ First sync can be annoying on PC ❌ No bluetooth for phone usage - Dongle is necessary ❌ Needs an update for the Xbox Wired issues which require a PC The Controller is available on Amazon for $59.99, and will be part of the Black Friday Deals on their official website for even more discount! Amazon Link Website Link
1:00

[New Xbox Controller Review] #ad Special thanks to Qrdgame_offcial for supplying me with a review unit of their Ferrox M5 Xbox & PC Controller QRD Ferrox M5 The QRD Ferrox M5 is a Wireless Xbox One–style gamepad with a transparent design. Since it targets Xbox One natively, it works automatically on PC and Xbox Series S/X. The included 2.4Ghz USB Dongle also supports Switch and Android with the right adapter (USB C), but I was not able to test those in time for this review. A Wireless Xbox Controller The QRD FERROX M5 comes in a familiar Xbox layout with Hall Effect joysticks, RGB rings around the sticks, and a magnetic & detachable clear shell that shows the internals. The controller feels very similar to a standard Xbox pad in terms of shape and size, but it’s slightly lighter at compared to the usual Xbox controller weight. The lighter weight makes it easier to hold for longer sessions without hand fatigue. The D-Pad is surprisingly good at dialing special moves feels as solid and responsive as the official Xbox controller, and that’s impressive at a lower price point. I spent a few days trying out the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection exclusively using this controller and I did not notice any difference at all. Capabilities From what I’ve tested, the controller performs extremely well for action games, fighting games, and shooters. The Hall Effect joysticks offer smooth movement and precise control with no drift issues. The D-Pad uses micro switches, so every input is tactile and accurate. The back triggers support an adaptive “trigger stop” mode, which shortens the travel distance for faster reaction time in FPS games or quicker blocks in Fighting Games. You also get 4 back macro buttons, turbo mode, and adjustable joystick sensitivity with deadzone options. Vibration strength and RGB lighting modes are also customizable. What can it do The FERROX M5 includes an 800mAh battery that lasts around 8 hours of gameplay. It only uses the 2.4Ghz wireless connection, not Bluetooth, so it always requires the included USB Dongle. The good thing is once you sync it with your Xbox or PC, you don’t need to sync it again—it carries over between both devices automatically. The 2.4G connection is stable and low latency, and the controller has a 3.5mm headphone jack for audio and mic support. It also features a quick calibration system to keep sticks and triggers accurate over time. The overall grip and shape feel close to the official Xbox controller, comfortable for long gaming sessions, and the transparent shell gives it a distinct look. Areas of improvement I initially had trouble charging the controller while playing because connecting it to the Xbox via USB would disable all inputs, making it unusable in wired mode. But luckily QRD Support helped and provided me with an updat - I had to connect it to a PC, download the firmware tool from QRD’s website, and update the controller manually. After installing the new firmware, the controller can now charge while being used normally on Xbox, so the issue is fully resolved. The Xbox button also behaves differently on Xbox, where the single press acts like hold and the hold acts like single press; this issue doesn’t appear on PC. Syncing with the dongle took a few attempts on both Xbox and PC, but once paired, it never needed syncing again. The wireless mode is strictly 2.4G with no Bluetooth support, so it cannot connect without the dongle, though the benefit is that one pairing works across both Xbox and PC. Final Summary ✅ Hall Effect Joystick ✅ Lights in the dark ✅ Good D-Pad for input dialing ✅ Light Controller ❌ First sync can be annoying on PC ❌ No bluetooth for phone usage - Dongle is necessary ❌ Needs an update for the Xbox Wired issues which require a PC The Controller is available on Amazon for $59.99, and will be part of the Black Friday Deals on their official website for even more discount! Amazon Link Website Link

thethiny 🐰🍉

16,864 views • 8 months ago

I finished the DLC for Ninja Gaiden 4: The Two Masters. Here’s a quick little analysis. I liked it quite a lot. It lasts around 3 hours (I played it on Hard). It has small references to the previous games, and that’s definitely appreciated. You can tell they refined the combat system even more and made the game harder, because the three chapters really kicked my ass is a not stop action combat. Maybe I’m just rusty, but enemies respond much better during combat now. One good thing is that when you lose, you can now skip the death dialogue. If you run out of health and press the button, it immediately restarts, which makes everything feel smoother (that was one of the things I had been asking for). However, things like being able to save the game at UMI or the HDR issues were not added or fixed, which is a shame. I liked the new stages — especially the “hell” one. It feels like a sea without water. You can tell this game was designed to be played at night, because in daytime stages the characters look kind of weird. Maybe it’s just something you have to get used to. Yakumo’s new weapon is incredible. Ryu’s new weapon, on the other hand, I didn’t fully understand. It’s simple, but it feels like it’s missing hits — I noticed it felt kind of empty. It’s more of a “connector” weapon than anything else. It’s great that they added the option to customize which weapons you want to use, or even equip them all together. The new enemies definitely add challenge (there are 4 new enemies or bosses), and I liked the final boss — I’m not sure if more than the others in the base game, but I really enjoyed it. To sum it up, I liked the DLC. However, I feel like they’re going to release a BLACK version, because it’s missing unlockable content, costumes, and characters like Ayane. That honestly makes me sad. A game with such a fun combat system really needed that extra content. If this DLC had been included in the base game, it would have been incredible. Later I’ll talk about the new 100-level mode (it has 3 accessories to unlock — they’re probably for the new weapon). But overall, it’s a good, very playable DLC, just lacking in content. Great job by PlatinumGames and Team Ninja — but please learn to listen a bit more to the fans who have been supporting you for years. Adding more costumes or another playable character is enough to make us happy. 🥷 🥰 Team NINJA PlatinumGames Inc. Super Ninja™
0:59

I finished the DLC for Ninja Gaiden 4: The Two Masters. Here’s a quick little analysis. I liked it quite a lot. It lasts around 3 hours (I played it on Hard). It has small references to the previous games, and that’s definitely appreciated. You can tell they refined the combat system even more and made the game harder, because the three chapters really kicked my ass is a not stop action combat. Maybe I’m just rusty, but enemies respond much better during combat now. One good thing is that when you lose, you can now skip the death dialogue. If you run out of health and press the button, it immediately restarts, which makes everything feel smoother (that was one of the things I had been asking for). However, things like being able to save the game at UMI or the HDR issues were not added or fixed, which is a shame. I liked the new stages — especially the “hell” one. It feels like a sea without water. You can tell this game was designed to be played at night, because in daytime stages the characters look kind of weird. Maybe it’s just something you have to get used to. Yakumo’s new weapon is incredible. Ryu’s new weapon, on the other hand, I didn’t fully understand. It’s simple, but it feels like it’s missing hits — I noticed it felt kind of empty. It’s more of a “connector” weapon than anything else. It’s great that they added the option to customize which weapons you want to use, or even equip them all together. The new enemies definitely add challenge (there are 4 new enemies or bosses), and I liked the final boss — I’m not sure if more than the others in the base game, but I really enjoyed it. To sum it up, I liked the DLC. However, I feel like they’re going to release a BLACK version, because it’s missing unlockable content, costumes, and characters like Ayane. That honestly makes me sad. A game with such a fun combat system really needed that extra content. If this DLC had been included in the base game, it would have been incredible. Later I’ll talk about the new 100-level mode (it has 3 accessories to unlock — they’re probably for the new weapon). But overall, it’s a good, very playable DLC, just lacking in content. Great job by PlatinumGames and Team Ninja — but please learn to listen a bit more to the fans who have been supporting you for years. Adding more costumes or another playable character is enough to make us happy. 🥷 🥰 Team NINJA PlatinumGames Inc. Super Ninja™

Bayonetta Stuff

21,548 views • 4 months ago

tired: Claude Code ports my personal website to a new framework wired: Claude Code generates a command center UI where I can execute the port! with live feedback, including a side-by-side preview of old / new site 😎 this is an example of what I call an "AI HUD" -- a "heads-up display" that gives me visibility into what's going on. i can see: - what terminal commands are running - what files are being created on disk - a live running preview of the old / new website (!) this HUD was actually my third attempt at doing this task, and I liked it the best. here's why I landed there: I wanted to move from middleman to astro for my personal site. These are both static site generators that output html, so I suspected an AI agent could do a good job with a port -- since it could compare old / new build output and try to match. Attempt 1: Agent I just had Claude Code do the port. It went pretty well. But it was hard for me to review what had happened! The git diff was dozens of new files and it was hard to tell how they mapped to the old site. I think the LLM also tried directly writing some files rather than doing deterministic copying, which felt dangerous. Attempt 2: Script I realized a better approach was to have Claude Code write a script that would do the port. The script would execute shell commands like "copy all the markdown files from this directory into this other directory in the new site". This worked much better because I could review the *process* rather than the *results*. Still, even with a nicely commented script, it felt like I was doing a lot of work to review. I wondered: how could I make it ridiculously easy to review this? Attempt 3: HUD Enter the command center! This is an entire web app that I had Claude build just for this one task. I can click buttons to run each step of the port, and watch the new website gradually materialize. It has a node server that runs on my local machine that executes commands on my filesystem and coordinates dev servers for the old/new site. And then a web UI that talks to that server to visualize terminal commands, file trees, and live running previews. It's a HUD because I feel like I can ambiently see everything that the port process is doing 🧐 Was this whole thing worth making for this one-time task? I'm not sure, maybe it was overkill 😅 But it did help me feel more confident that I understood what was going on, and total time was still less than it would have taken me to do the whole port by hand! One way to look at this experience is: "AI can put absurd amounts of effort into a pull request description." What do I mean by that? Well, a PR description is a way to communicate a code change to a human. Typically we do that by writing a bit of text, because that's all we have time for. But given more time and effort, we can do better! An interactive command center / HUD can help a person understand what a code change is actually doing. Historically you'd never imagine investing the effort to do that for a single PR. But now it's within the realm of possibility. So, next time you have an agent do something for you, and you wish you understood better what it was doing, consider: instead of just asking for textual descriptions, maybe ask the agent to make you a HUD!
0:23

tired: Claude Code ports my personal website to a new framework wired: Claude Code generates a command center UI where I can execute the port! with live feedback, including a side-by-side preview of old / new site 😎 this is an example of what I call an "AI HUD" -- a "heads-up display" that gives me visibility into what's going on. i can see: - what terminal commands are running - what files are being created on disk - a live running preview of the old / new website (!) this HUD was actually my third attempt at doing this task, and I liked it the best. here's why I landed there: I wanted to move from middleman to astro for my personal site. These are both static site generators that output html, so I suspected an AI agent could do a good job with a port -- since it could compare old / new build output and try to match. Attempt 1: Agent I just had Claude Code do the port. It went pretty well. But it was hard for me to review what had happened! The git diff was dozens of new files and it was hard to tell how they mapped to the old site. I think the LLM also tried directly writing some files rather than doing deterministic copying, which felt dangerous. Attempt 2: Script I realized a better approach was to have Claude Code write a script that would do the port. The script would execute shell commands like "copy all the markdown files from this directory into this other directory in the new site". This worked much better because I could review the *process* rather than the *results*. Still, even with a nicely commented script, it felt like I was doing a lot of work to review. I wondered: how could I make it ridiculously easy to review this? Attempt 3: HUD Enter the command center! This is an entire web app that I had Claude build just for this one task. I can click buttons to run each step of the port, and watch the new website gradually materialize. It has a node server that runs on my local machine that executes commands on my filesystem and coordinates dev servers for the old/new site. And then a web UI that talks to that server to visualize terminal commands, file trees, and live running previews. It's a HUD because I feel like I can ambiently see everything that the port process is doing 🧐 Was this whole thing worth making for this one-time task? I'm not sure, maybe it was overkill 😅 But it did help me feel more confident that I understood what was going on, and total time was still less than it would have taken me to do the whole port by hand! One way to look at this experience is: "AI can put absurd amounts of effort into a pull request description." What do I mean by that? Well, a PR description is a way to communicate a code change to a human. Typically we do that by writing a bit of text, because that's all we have time for. But given more time and effort, we can do better! An interactive command center / HUD can help a person understand what a code change is actually doing. Historically you'd never imagine investing the effort to do that for a single PR. But now it's within the realm of possibility. So, next time you have an agent do something for you, and you wish you understood better what it was doing, consider: instead of just asking for textual descriptions, maybe ask the agent to make you a HUD!

Geoffrey Litt

63,101 views • 10 months ago

💫 GM ASTRALS 💫 The time has come. ASTRALS ANIMA is now **LIVE** Head to: to begin your new self. Astrals Anima is the new Customizer platform that lets you mint a new NFT, that is completely customizable as an avatar. All assets are 3d assets built by @GuimoneauDamien. Purchase and combine different pieces of equipment to define and represent yourself as an Astrals Avatar. All pieces of gear are SFT (semi-fungible tokens) that although aren't currently backed by markets like Magic Eden 🪄... are entirely tradable and end up in your wallet. Your Astrals Anima is a traditional NFT that you can change, modify, and re-equip... to appear however you see fit. Represent yourself in a new way. Quick start guide: - Click the link above. - Click the "MINT" button in the bottom right corner. - Press the icon in the center of the page that pops up to exchange your "Rookie Badge" in for your new Astrals Anima. - Select "Back to Traits" to return to the "Bazaar". - Select your newly minted "Anima". - Explore the different options of gear you can purchase with $GLXY - The info box on the left will tell you the price of the item, and how many XYONS are earned for equipping that item. - Once you have purchased a piece of gear, go to the "Armory" to equip them on to your Astral. - Select a piece at a time, and once you've decided which one you like, press "Customize". This will equip the item on to your NFT. - Rinse and repeat. What are XYONS?: - XYONS are points you earn by purchasing, and then equipping certain types of gear. - Earning XYONS will bring you up the ranks. Upgrading your class at certain XYONS points. - Higher classes get access to purchase higher tier gear. - The more XYONS you have, the bigger arsenal you have access to. "BAAZAR" Go here to purchase gear. "ARMORY" Go here to equip the gear you've purchased and earn XYONS. "RANKS" Start as a "Rookie", with limited access to certain equipment. Work your way up to a "Destrcutor", capable of equipping LEGENDARY gear which will have a limitation of how many you can buy per Anima, of each. Having your Anima will have you geared up and ready to enter any world Astrals may visit. So rise those ranks. Be the best of the best. Represent who you are in the Astrals Army!
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💫 GM ASTRALS 💫 The time has come. ASTRALS ANIMA is now **LIVE** Head to: to begin your new self. Astrals Anima is the new Customizer platform that lets you mint a new NFT, that is completely customizable as an avatar. All assets are 3d assets built by @GuimoneauDamien. Purchase and combine different pieces of equipment to define and represent yourself as an Astrals Avatar. All pieces of gear are SFT (semi-fungible tokens) that although aren't currently backed by markets like Magic Eden 🪄... are entirely tradable and end up in your wallet. Your Astrals Anima is a traditional NFT that you can change, modify, and re-equip... to appear however you see fit. Represent yourself in a new way. Quick start guide: - Click the link above. - Click the "MINT" button in the bottom right corner. - Press the icon in the center of the page that pops up to exchange your "Rookie Badge" in for your new Astrals Anima. - Select "Back to Traits" to return to the "Bazaar". - Select your newly minted "Anima". - Explore the different options of gear you can purchase with $GLXY - The info box on the left will tell you the price of the item, and how many XYONS are earned for equipping that item. - Once you have purchased a piece of gear, go to the "Armory" to equip them on to your Astral. - Select a piece at a time, and once you've decided which one you like, press "Customize". This will equip the item on to your NFT. - Rinse and repeat. What are XYONS?: - XYONS are points you earn by purchasing, and then equipping certain types of gear. - Earning XYONS will bring you up the ranks. Upgrading your class at certain XYONS points. - Higher classes get access to purchase higher tier gear. - The more XYONS you have, the bigger arsenal you have access to. "BAAZAR" Go here to purchase gear. "ARMORY" Go here to equip the gear you've purchased and earn XYONS. "RANKS" Start as a "Rookie", with limited access to certain equipment. Work your way up to a "Destrcutor", capable of equipping LEGENDARY gear which will have a limitation of how many you can buy per Anima, of each. Having your Anima will have you geared up and ready to enter any world Astrals may visit. So rise those ranks. Be the best of the best. Represent who you are in the Astrals Army!

ASTRALS 💫

14,510 views • 3 years ago

ALICE in Mecha Land 🐇⌚️ You already know this story. That's the whole point. A fairy tale isn't a plot to retell — it's a bank of icons your audience memorized before they could read. Here's the SYSTEM I use to translate any public-domain tale into that kind of reimagining. Paste it into your model and it'll walk you through it ⤵️ # TALE-REIMAGINING ENGINE — Brainstorming ## Your role You are an ideation engine that turns classic tales into reimagined visual concepts. You don't retell the story: you disguise it. ## Thesis (non-negotiable) A tale is a bank of icons the viewer has already memorized. The pleasure is not in novelty, but in RECOGNITION UNDER DISGUISE. Your job is to hand those icons back: unrecognizable at first glance, recognizable at the second. ## Guiding principle PRESERVE THE IDENTITY, CHANGE THE MATERIAL AND THE FUNCTION. Restyling is NOT translating. Painting the wolf in metal is restyling. Turning the wolf into a hunter-drone is translating: it changes its function while preserving what makes it recognizable (stalking, hunger, threat). ## Inputs Ask the user for: (1) the TALE and (2) optionally a stylistic SUBSTRATE (the alien world that will clash with the tale). If they give no substrate, propose 3 that clash productively and let them choose. If the tale is missing, ask for it. One question at a time. ## Process 0. VIABILITY GATE. Does the tale have dense and UNIVERSAL visual iconography (≥5 icons almost anyone would recognize)? If it lives in its moral and not in its objects, say so and propose more iconic tales. Don't force it. 1. INVENTORY. List 6–8 icons. For each, name its RECOGNIZABLE IDENTITY: the minimal trait without which it stops being recognizable. 2. SUBSTRATE. Set or propose the stylistic world. The more it clashes with the tale, the better. 3. TRANSLATION. For each icon, assign a NEW FUNCTION + NEW MATERIAL in the substrate, preserving its identity. Apply the ANTI-RESKIN TEST: "does this change the function, or only the surface?". If it only changes the surface, reject it and redo it. 4. ENTRY MECHANISM. Define a recurring portal-shot (mirror, rabbit hole, keyhole, page, crack) that connects the sections and recurs as a transition. It's not just another icon: it has STRUCTURAL function — it stitches the piece together. 5. ARC. Order the icons as CHECKPOINTS with a dramatic arc (setup → escalation → antagonist reveal → twist/closing ritual). If there's only a parade of icons with no escalation, flag it: that's a moodboard, not a piece. 6. PROTAGONIST. Translate the hero into their functional version within the substrate. Define a croppable EMBLEM: silhouette + a number + a symbol. 7. CLOSE. Choose one icon as a LOOP-SYMBOL that closes and rewards re-watching. ## Output (in this order) A. ONE-LINE CONCEPT (quotable). B. TRANSLATION GRID — table: | Icon | Identity to preserve | New function | Material note | C. CHECKPOINT ARC timed for ~45–60 s. D. 3 ALTERNATIVE SUBSTRATES in case they want to pivot. ## Rules of conduct - Play devil's advocate: if a chosen icon is weak, say so and propose a stronger one. Don't validate for the sake of it. - IP: use ONLY public-domain tales and ONLY their generic iconography. Never reproduce designs from registered adaptations (not "the Cheshire Cat from a specific film", but "a grinning cat"). When in doubt about public-domain status, flag it rather than asserting it.
0:47

ALICE in Mecha Land 🐇⌚️ You already know this story. That's the whole point. A fairy tale isn't a plot to retell — it's a bank of icons your audience memorized before they could read. Here's the SYSTEM I use to translate any public-domain tale into that kind of reimagining. Paste it into your model and it'll walk you through it ⤵️ # TALE-REIMAGINING ENGINE — Brainstorming ## Your role You are an ideation engine that turns classic tales into reimagined visual concepts. You don't retell the story: you disguise it. ## Thesis (non-negotiable) A tale is a bank of icons the viewer has already memorized. The pleasure is not in novelty, but in RECOGNITION UNDER DISGUISE. Your job is to hand those icons back: unrecognizable at first glance, recognizable at the second. ## Guiding principle PRESERVE THE IDENTITY, CHANGE THE MATERIAL AND THE FUNCTION. Restyling is NOT translating. Painting the wolf in metal is restyling. Turning the wolf into a hunter-drone is translating: it changes its function while preserving what makes it recognizable (stalking, hunger, threat). ## Inputs Ask the user for: (1) the TALE and (2) optionally a stylistic SUBSTRATE (the alien world that will clash with the tale). If they give no substrate, propose 3 that clash productively and let them choose. If the tale is missing, ask for it. One question at a time. ## Process 0. VIABILITY GATE. Does the tale have dense and UNIVERSAL visual iconography (≥5 icons almost anyone would recognize)? If it lives in its moral and not in its objects, say so and propose more iconic tales. Don't force it. 1. INVENTORY. List 6–8 icons. For each, name its RECOGNIZABLE IDENTITY: the minimal trait without which it stops being recognizable. 2. SUBSTRATE. Set or propose the stylistic world. The more it clashes with the tale, the better. 3. TRANSLATION. For each icon, assign a NEW FUNCTION + NEW MATERIAL in the substrate, preserving its identity. Apply the ANTI-RESKIN TEST: "does this change the function, or only the surface?". If it only changes the surface, reject it and redo it. 4. ENTRY MECHANISM. Define a recurring portal-shot (mirror, rabbit hole, keyhole, page, crack) that connects the sections and recurs as a transition. It's not just another icon: it has STRUCTURAL function — it stitches the piece together. 5. ARC. Order the icons as CHECKPOINTS with a dramatic arc (setup → escalation → antagonist reveal → twist/closing ritual). If there's only a parade of icons with no escalation, flag it: that's a moodboard, not a piece. 6. PROTAGONIST. Translate the hero into their functional version within the substrate. Define a croppable EMBLEM: silhouette + a number + a symbol. 7. CLOSE. Choose one icon as a LOOP-SYMBOL that closes and rewards re-watching. ## Output (in this order) A. ONE-LINE CONCEPT (quotable). B. TRANSLATION GRID — table: | Icon | Identity to preserve | New function | Material note | C. CHECKPOINT ARC timed for ~45–60 s. D. 3 ALTERNATIVE SUBSTRATES in case they want to pivot. ## Rules of conduct - Play devil's advocate: if a chosen icon is weak, say so and propose a stronger one. Don't validate for the sake of it. - IP: use ONLY public-domain tales and ONLY their generic iconography. Never reproduce designs from registered adaptations (not "the Cheshire Cat from a specific film", but "a grinning cat"). When in doubt about public-domain status, flag it rather than asserting it.

AlexandrIA

33,322 views • 24 days ago

讲解一下 Slide Deck 这个项目构建的整个过程，完全 Vibe Coding，怎么从一条提示词生成的简单版本，到最后复杂的能编辑和导出 slide 的功能。 项目地址： 初始提示词： Screen 1 (home page): - There is a text area, the user can type/paste text - A submit icon button Screen 2 (Slide outline): - Top navbar: - a back button - title - ... - Two columns - left: LLM output in realtime - right: - Display loading if it's generating - Display the slide outline AI genreated - User can update the outline or delete a page - a button to draw slide page by nano banana base one the outline - Redirect to Screen 3 (Slide show): Display the slides generated - Top navbar: - a back button - title - Download (download all images) - left sidebar - slide thumbnails - click a thumbnail to switch - main - slide image Tech Stack: - React, TypeScript - TailwindCSS 4, Shadcn/UI - lucide-react Prompt to generate Slide outline (just FYI) You are a world-class presentation designer and storyteller. You create visually stunning and highly polished slide decks that effectively communicate complex information. Think mastery over design with a flair for storytelling. The slide decks you produce adapt to the source material and intended audience. There is always a story and you find the best way to tell it. You combine the expertise of the creativity of the best designers. The slide deck will be primarily designed for reading and sharing. The structure should be self-explanatory and easy to follow without a presenter. The narrative and all the useful data should be contained within the text and visuals on the slides. The slides should contain enough context for any visuals to be understood on their own. Feel free to add certain slides with more dense information (extracted from the sources) if it will help with the narrative. You are now writing an outline for this slide deck described below. We will supply this outline to an expert designer to make the actual final deck. The slide content should be in English. The placeholders should be left in {language, default to English}. For this particular slide deck, we want the content to focus on: {Custom Prompt, Describe the slide deck you want to create, default to: Add a high-level outline, or guide the audience, style, and focus: "Create a deck for beginners using a bold and playful style with a focus on step-by-step instructions."} We have also attached some producer notes below for this slide deck which will help guide the overall structure and narrative of the deck. Remember the following rules for outlines: - Focus on the outline of the deck and what content should be covered in each slide. - The descriptions for each slide should be comprehensive. - However, do NOT yet focus on precise layout or visual details. - The point of the outline is to highlight the narrative. - Preserve key elements from the source material. - Every specific data point... must be directly traceable to the source material. - All the details need to be mentioned because the designer will not have access to the source content later. - Always err on the side of the audience being having more expertise, interest, and smarts than you might think. - CRITICAL: Never generate more than 20 slides. - Avoid using 'Title: Subtitle' formats for headings; they appear very AI-generated. Instead, prefer narrative topic sentences that help tie the deck together. - Explicitly avoid cliché 'AI slop' patterns. Never use phrases like ' It wasn't just [X], it was [Y]'. - Use direct, confident, active human language. - There is never a need for a "Thank you / Q&A" slide. - Never include any slides with placeholders for the author to insert their name, date etc. - Never call for including photorealistic images of prominent individuals. - Never end with a generic slide like What choice will you make?'. It's much better to end on a meaningful reference or takeaway.
26:51

讲解一下 Slide Deck 这个项目构建的整个过程，完全 Vibe Coding，怎么从一条提示词生成的简单版本，到最后复杂的能编辑和导出 slide 的功能。 项目地址： 初始提示词： Screen 1 (home page): - There is a text area, the user can type/paste text - A submit icon button Screen 2 (Slide outline): - Top navbar: - a back button - title - ... - Two columns - left: LLM output in realtime - right: - Display loading if it's generating - Display the slide outline AI genreated - User can update the outline or delete a page - a button to draw slide page by nano banana base one the outline - Redirect to Screen 3 (Slide show): Display the slides generated - Top navbar: - a back button - title - Download (download all images) - left sidebar - slide thumbnails - click a thumbnail to switch - main - slide image Tech Stack: - React, TypeScript - TailwindCSS 4, Shadcn/UI - lucide-react Prompt to generate Slide outline (just FYI) You are a world-class presentation designer and storyteller. You create visually stunning and highly polished slide decks that effectively communicate complex information. Think mastery over design with a flair for storytelling. The slide decks you produce adapt to the source material and intended audience. There is always a story and you find the best way to tell it. You combine the expertise of the creativity of the best designers. The slide deck will be primarily designed for reading and sharing. The structure should be self-explanatory and easy to follow without a presenter. The narrative and all the useful data should be contained within the text and visuals on the slides. The slides should contain enough context for any visuals to be understood on their own. Feel free to add certain slides with more dense information (extracted from the sources) if it will help with the narrative. You are now writing an outline for this slide deck described below. We will supply this outline to an expert designer to make the actual final deck. The slide content should be in English. The placeholders should be left in {language, default to English}. For this particular slide deck, we want the content to focus on: {Custom Prompt, Describe the slide deck you want to create, default to: Add a high-level outline, or guide the audience, style, and focus: "Create a deck for beginners using a bold and playful style with a focus on step-by-step instructions."} We have also attached some producer notes below for this slide deck which will help guide the overall structure and narrative of the deck. Remember the following rules for outlines: - Focus on the outline of the deck and what content should be covered in each slide. - The descriptions for each slide should be comprehensive. - However, do NOT yet focus on precise layout or visual details. - The point of the outline is to highlight the narrative. - Preserve key elements from the source material. - Every specific data point... must be directly traceable to the source material. - All the details need to be mentioned because the designer will not have access to the source content later. - Always err on the side of the audience being having more expertise, interest, and smarts than you might think. - CRITICAL: Never generate more than 20 slides. - Avoid using 'Title: Subtitle' formats for headings; they appear very AI-generated. Instead, prefer narrative topic sentences that help tie the deck together. - Explicitly avoid cliché 'AI slop' patterns. Never use phrases like ' It wasn't just [X], it was [Y]'. - Use direct, confident, active human language. - There is never a need for a "Thank you / Q&A" slide. - Never include any slides with placeholders for the author to insert their name, date etc. - Never call for including photorealistic images of prominent individuals. - Never end with a generic slide like What choice will you make?'. It's much better to end on a meaningful reference or takeaway.

宝玉

97,599 views • 7 months ago

Blades of Fire | Hands-On Gameplay Impressions ▪️Recap: New action-adventure IP from MercurySteam (Metroid Dread, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow) ▪️Coming to PS5, Xbox and PC on May 22 ▪️Around 60-70 hours long to complete ▪️You play as Aran de Lira, a forger and warrior who, after suffering a personal tragedy, "finds himself in possession of a magic hammer that lets him enter the forge of the gods to create the only weapons able to defeat Queen Nerea’s forces" ▪️The world is "squarely in fantasy territory", "rich, overabundant, lavish fantasy, as well as occasionally brutal and twisted" ▪️Magic courses through a land teeming with flowers and buzzing with wildlife, and creatures like trolls and elementals romp around ▪️Soldiers sort of look a bit like the Locust from Gears of War, chunky, loitering around. The whole game feels like it has a "chunkiness" to it, a bit like Blizzard games (hands and arms are oversized, buildings/walls are double thick). Combines to make a pleasing visual picture and give a sturdy, hefty feel ▪️"Wildly customizable weapons saves it from being just another action game", "combat is refreshingly different" ▪️Combat: Rooted in directional attacks that use every face button on a controller. On a DualSense for example, Δ aims for the head, X goes for the torso, while ⏹️ and ⭕️ swipe left and right respectively ▪️An enemy holding up a blade to protect their face for instance, can be overcome by aiming low and skewering through their gut ▪️Example: A troll boss can have a second health bar that can only be chipped away after dismembering it. If you use your right hand attacks, you can cut off its club-wielding left arm or cut off its entire face, leaving it blind and aimlessly flailing until it can regrow its eyes back ▪️Your attack and dodge stamina must be manually restored by holding the block button instead of automatically regenerating ▪️You can swap between 4 different weapons on the fly, wield your weapons via different stances, either slashing with the sharp edge or thrusting with the pointed tip; assess enemies to determine which methods are the most effective ▪️Rather than finding new weapons out in the game world, every weapon's life starts in the Forge ▪️You can create up to 7 different weapon types, from twin axes to polearms ▪️You start with your choice of a basic weapon template and tweak and modify and name, for example you can adjust the length of a spear's pole and the shape of its spear head which affects its stats ▪️A longer pole increases the spear's range, while its head shape dictates if its better at slashing or piercing ▪️Different materials also affect a weapon's weight which has an effect on your stamina pool ▪️You then physically hammer out the metal in-game on the anvil through a "remarkably involved minigame", where you control the length, force and angle of every hammer strike ▪️There is a curved line onscreen that represents the ideal weapon, you arrange a series of vertical bars to try and match the shape of that curved line with each hammer strike. Overworking results in a weaker weapon. You're rewarded with a star rating, the more stars you get, the more you can repair your weapon before it permanently breaks ▪️You can instantly remake weapons you've made before to save time ▪️Some found the weapon forging system to be "frustratingly obtuse", as there didn't seem to be a clear connection between the areas struck and the resulting shape of the metal; hoping for better tutorial or improvements before launch ▪️MercurySteam wants you to feel deeply attached to the weapons you create and carry them with you for the duration of your journey ▪️If you die, you lose your weapon upon respawning, but you can go back to where you died to retrieve them ▪️After playing for 3 hours, some hands-on impressions were unsure if the game can support a variety of a 60 hour game ("within 3 hours I’d fought the same gatekeeping miniboss 3 times") ▪️Others also felt there were uneven difficulty spikes, the game chucks multiple types of enemies at you, sometimes in confined areas. Can sometimes feel like you waste precious weapons, rest at an anvil to reforge and then enemies respawn again ▪️One previewer noted that when they started slowing down and nosing through the game's menus and built-in tips to see what they were doing wrong, they learned the game's nuances and it clicked Previews IGN: Full IGN Gameplay: Mirror: Eurogamer: #BladesofFire
4:53

Blades of Fire | Hands-On Gameplay Impressions ▪️Recap: New action-adventure IP from MercurySteam (Metroid Dread, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow) ▪️Coming to PS5, Xbox and PC on May 22 ▪️Around 60-70 hours long to complete ▪️You play as Aran de Lira, a forger and warrior who, after suffering a personal tragedy, "finds himself in possession of a magic hammer that lets him enter the forge of the gods to create the only weapons able to defeat Queen Nerea’s forces" ▪️The world is "squarely in fantasy territory", "rich, overabundant, lavish fantasy, as well as occasionally brutal and twisted" ▪️Magic courses through a land teeming with flowers and buzzing with wildlife, and creatures like trolls and elementals romp around ▪️Soldiers sort of look a bit like the Locust from Gears of War, chunky, loitering around. The whole game feels like it has a "chunkiness" to it, a bit like Blizzard games (hands and arms are oversized, buildings/walls are double thick). Combines to make a pleasing visual picture and give a sturdy, hefty feel ▪️"Wildly customizable weapons saves it from being just another action game", "combat is refreshingly different" ▪️Combat: Rooted in directional attacks that use every face button on a controller. On a DualSense for example, Δ aims for the head, X goes for the torso, while ⏹️ and ⭕️ swipe left and right respectively ▪️An enemy holding up a blade to protect their face for instance, can be overcome by aiming low and skewering through their gut ▪️Example: A troll boss can have a second health bar that can only be chipped away after dismembering it. If you use your right hand attacks, you can cut off its club-wielding left arm or cut off its entire face, leaving it blind and aimlessly flailing until it can regrow its eyes back ▪️Your attack and dodge stamina must be manually restored by holding the block button instead of automatically regenerating ▪️You can swap between 4 different weapons on the fly, wield your weapons via different stances, either slashing with the sharp edge or thrusting with the pointed tip; assess enemies to determine which methods are the most effective ▪️Rather than finding new weapons out in the game world, every weapon's life starts in the Forge ▪️You can create up to 7 different weapon types, from twin axes to polearms ▪️You start with your choice of a basic weapon template and tweak and modify and name, for example you can adjust the length of a spear's pole and the shape of its spear head which affects its stats ▪️A longer pole increases the spear's range, while its head shape dictates if its better at slashing or piercing ▪️Different materials also affect a weapon's weight which has an effect on your stamina pool ▪️You then physically hammer out the metal in-game on the anvil through a "remarkably involved minigame", where you control the length, force and angle of every hammer strike ▪️There is a curved line onscreen that represents the ideal weapon, you arrange a series of vertical bars to try and match the shape of that curved line with each hammer strike. Overworking results in a weaker weapon. You're rewarded with a star rating, the more stars you get, the more you can repair your weapon before it permanently breaks ▪️You can instantly remake weapons you've made before to save time ▪️Some found the weapon forging system to be "frustratingly obtuse", as there didn't seem to be a clear connection between the areas struck and the resulting shape of the metal; hoping for better tutorial or improvements before launch ▪️MercurySteam wants you to feel deeply attached to the weapons you create and carry them with you for the duration of your journey ▪️If you die, you lose your weapon upon respawning, but you can go back to where you died to retrieve them ▪️After playing for 3 hours, some hands-on impressions were unsure if the game can support a variety of a 60 hour game ("within 3 hours I’d fought the same gatekeeping miniboss 3 times") ▪️Others also felt there were uneven difficulty spikes, the game chucks multiple types of enemies at you, sometimes in confined areas. Can sometimes feel like you waste precious weapons, rest at an anvil to reforge and then enemies respawn again ▪️One previewer noted that when they started slowing down and nosing through the game's menus and built-in tips to see what they were doing wrong, they learned the game's nuances and it clicked Previews IGN: Full IGN Gameplay: Mirror: Eurogamer: #BladesofFire

Shinobi602

113,003 views • 1 year ago

consistency ≠ uniformity: for those who haven't lived through this era – we used to have beautiful, precision interfaces. now they're replaced by a design language that originated from the Apple Watch, with icons that only fit in squircles. but that's not even the point. the point is we used to design the whole stack – the technology, the concepts, the interfaces. when designers only care about superficial consistency, platforms lose their uniqueness. apple used to design systems. skeuomorphism wasn't just about leather textures – it was about teaching people new mental models. the trash can empties because you understand what a trash can does. aqua's lickable buttons and sheets had depth because the OS had layers you could understand. the old apple designed the whole stack – from metal to pixels to concepts. teams weren't just shipping features in the same box, they were building coherent platforms each with opinions about what computing should feel like for the medium. liquid glass is fine on a phone. but on macOS it's unusable – lack of precision, visual noise everywhere. this is what happens when UI language designed for fingers bleed into macOS. we went from interfaces designed for a 27" cinema display with a precise cursor to interfaces designed for a 1.5" screen you tap with one finger. the Mac is for creation and precision work. it needs information density. it needs chrome you can grab. it needs UI that gets out of your way but gives you power when you need it. instead we got padding and whitespace and translucent blurs optimized for touch targets nobody's touching. the squircle icon mandate is a symptom. when you force every icon into the same shape, you're saying "brand consistency" matters more than "each app icon needs to communicate its function instantly." we traded clarity for uniformity. we traded precise design for cross-platform sameness. consistency means your system has coherent rules within itself. uniformity means everything looks the same regardless of context. the hardware team still gets it – that macbook pro + M-series chips, chef's kiss. but software design feels like it's chasing fat fingers instead of remembering what people do on a Mac.
0:57

consistency ≠ uniformity: for those who haven't lived through this era – we used to have beautiful, precision interfaces. now they're replaced by a design language that originated from the Apple Watch, with icons that only fit in squircles. but that's not even the point. the point is we used to design the whole stack – the technology, the concepts, the interfaces. when designers only care about superficial consistency, platforms lose their uniqueness. apple used to design systems. skeuomorphism wasn't just about leather textures – it was about teaching people new mental models. the trash can empties because you understand what a trash can does. aqua's lickable buttons and sheets had depth because the OS had layers you could understand. the old apple designed the whole stack – from metal to pixels to concepts. teams weren't just shipping features in the same box, they were building coherent platforms each with opinions about what computing should feel like for the medium. liquid glass is fine on a phone. but on macOS it's unusable – lack of precision, visual noise everywhere. this is what happens when UI language designed for fingers bleed into macOS. we went from interfaces designed for a 27" cinema display with a precise cursor to interfaces designed for a 1.5" screen you tap with one finger. the Mac is for creation and precision work. it needs information density. it needs chrome you can grab. it needs UI that gets out of your way but gives you power when you need it. instead we got padding and whitespace and translucent blurs optimized for touch targets nobody's touching. the squircle icon mandate is a symptom. when you force every icon into the same shape, you're saying "brand consistency" matters more than "each app icon needs to communicate its function instantly." we traded clarity for uniformity. we traded precise design for cross-platform sameness. consistency means your system has coherent rules within itself. uniformity means everything looks the same regardless of context. the hardware team still gets it – that macbook pro + M-series chips, chef's kiss. but software design feels like it's chasing fat fingers instead of remembering what people do on a Mac.

Ryo Lu

716,297 views • 7 months ago

New car day part three…….I have a new car. This is a long one so grab a coffee and sit down - TLDR there’s more photos in the replies 🤣 and how much I paid is at the bottom of this essay 💷 Many of you guessed correctly, saying it’ll be a W211 E-Class Estate so I apologise if this is a bit anti climatic 😬 Jsl91 🦁🏎🥊 not only guessed the car but the bloody interior colours too! For reference though: It’s a 2007 ‘57’ Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI Elegance Estate which has the later 3.0 V6 CDI and 7G Tronic automatic gearbox fitted. It has a really nice upgraded spec from base spec including soft Nappa, electrically adjustable, memory and heated leather front seats, memory steering column and mirrors, very rare sunroof option, Bi-Xenon Headlights, COMAND APS infotainment upgrade with Bluetooth calling and the 7 seat option which seems odd but fold down perfectly flat as if they are not there. It’s averaged a new owner every 4.25 years which for a 17 year old car I really don’t think is bad, has a very decent MOT History and I have the last 10 years Service History physically documented on paper with the car. Prior to that is apparently with all with main dealer so I need to get them to send me it which will make it a full service history between Main Dealer and independents. Bit of an odd buying experience though, the dealer selling it insisted on picking me up from the Station and knew when I was coming in as I kept him updated - he was 30 mins late, I gave benefit of the doubt and assumed he’d of been having the car cleaned or something. No, it’s actually dirtier than I’ve ever let my cars get and needs a very, very good valet - of which I intend to do tomorrow afternoon myself 🧽 When did it become ok to sell a filthy car? We then drove 15 minutes back to a nondescript area of Wakefield where we pulled up on the side of the road and all of a sudden changed ownership on his phone. He then gave me his bank details and I transferred the money as the car had driven faultlessly on that test drive back to ‘his premises’. The guy was nice enough but it felt like he couldn’t wait to get rid of me, money hit his bank, he gave me the new keeper slip, shook my hand and said nice doing a deal with you, got out and walked off 👀 If I hadn’t done my due diligence I’d of genuinely thought the car was stolen or something. I then taxed the car, set my phone and Bluetooth transmitter up and got on the way home. It is an absolute pleasure to drive in fairness, that 221bhp V6 Diesel is powerful but lazy which suits the car so well. As you can see from the photos it averaged 44mpg on my 126 mile journey home. I stopped at Shell in Boston to fill it up with Diesel, something I can’t imagine I’ll be doing all too often ⛽️ Only other issues I can see is the scratches on the front bumper (I knew about) and there’s a scratch on the bonnet I’m hoping will polish out. It’s also due a service. It has a full set of Davanti Tyres on its tiny 16” Elegance wheels, all of which have tonnes of tread. Headlights could do with a polish maybe too. Oh and I paid £1695.00 for it 🤯 Really looking forward to sticking my dateless 3x3 plate on it and taking on our North Norfolk Coast getaway next week 😊 More photos in the replies below if you’ve gotten this far 😅
1:15

New car day part three…….I have a new car. This is a long one so grab a coffee and sit down - TLDR there’s more photos in the replies 🤣 and how much I paid is at the bottom of this essay 💷 Many of you guessed correctly, saying it’ll be a W211 E-Class Estate so I apologise if this is a bit anti climatic 😬 Jsl91 🦁🏎🥊 not only guessed the car but the bloody interior colours too! For reference though: It’s a 2007 ‘57’ Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI Elegance Estate which has the later 3.0 V6 CDI and 7G Tronic automatic gearbox fitted. It has a really nice upgraded spec from base spec including soft Nappa, electrically adjustable, memory and heated leather front seats, memory steering column and mirrors, very rare sunroof option, Bi-Xenon Headlights, COMAND APS infotainment upgrade with Bluetooth calling and the 7 seat option which seems odd but fold down perfectly flat as if they are not there. It’s averaged a new owner every 4.25 years which for a 17 year old car I really don’t think is bad, has a very decent MOT History and I have the last 10 years Service History physically documented on paper with the car. Prior to that is apparently with all with main dealer so I need to get them to send me it which will make it a full service history between Main Dealer and independents. Bit of an odd buying experience though, the dealer selling it insisted on picking me up from the Station and knew when I was coming in as I kept him updated - he was 30 mins late, I gave benefit of the doubt and assumed he’d of been having the car cleaned or something. No, it’s actually dirtier than I’ve ever let my cars get and needs a very, very good valet - of which I intend to do tomorrow afternoon myself 🧽 When did it become ok to sell a filthy car? We then drove 15 minutes back to a nondescript area of Wakefield where we pulled up on the side of the road and all of a sudden changed ownership on his phone. He then gave me his bank details and I transferred the money as the car had driven faultlessly on that test drive back to ‘his premises’. The guy was nice enough but it felt like he couldn’t wait to get rid of me, money hit his bank, he gave me the new keeper slip, shook my hand and said nice doing a deal with you, got out and walked off 👀 If I hadn’t done my due diligence I’d of genuinely thought the car was stolen or something. I then taxed the car, set my phone and Bluetooth transmitter up and got on the way home. It is an absolute pleasure to drive in fairness, that 221bhp V6 Diesel is powerful but lazy which suits the car so well. As you can see from the photos it averaged 44mpg on my 126 mile journey home. I stopped at Shell in Boston to fill it up with Diesel, something I can’t imagine I’ll be doing all too often ⛽️ Only other issues I can see is the scratches on the front bumper (I knew about) and there’s a scratch on the bonnet I’m hoping will polish out. It’s also due a service. It has a full set of Davanti Tyres on its tiny 16” Elegance wheels, all of which have tonnes of tread. Headlights could do with a polish maybe too. Oh and I paid £1695.00 for it 🤯 Really looking forward to sticking my dateless 3x3 plate on it and taking on our North Norfolk Coast getaway next week 😊 More photos in the replies below if you’ve gotten this far 😅

Sam Hosier

30,161 views • 1 year ago

How to Build a Proper Product Page It breaks my heart every time I see someone from Brazil, making just $200 a month, spend $40 on a test ad only to get a $2 CPC. Then, they cut the ad at $35 spend with 17 clicks and 0 conversions. What’s even more frustrating is when I visit their site and see it’s a complete mess. It’s like they didn’t even try. That’s why I’m making this post. *Disclaimer: If you're building a brand, this isn’t for you. This is for testing products correctly with a website that’s good enough to convert, but if you’re serious about your brand, hire a Figma designer and a developer to get things done right. As a fun fact, I tested the following product myself (In the video below) and with just one click at a $3 CPC, I got a sale with an $80 AOV (100% CVR). I paused the ads because the CPMs hit $150. If you're interested, save this product for the future. I'll share the creatives i used to ran the product with those who comment below. "jordan, stop teaching high school kids about selling reps and getting them sued by Prada or other big brands, ruining their payment gateways, and crushing their dreams." (with 5 random people only will do it, wouldn't make sense for everyone to be ripping it). Shoutout to Adrian for this one. 🫡 Back to the important stuff: Let’s talk about creating a great product page. First off, ditch the “Buy Now” button. By using this, you miss out on the chance to increase your Average Order Value (AOV) through upsells during checkout. Instead, replace it with an “Add to Cart” button. Also, remove the quantity selector. Hardly anyone uses them on the product page, but they do in the cart. Instead, offer bundles, which you can set up using the Kaching Bundles app or your theme if it supports this feature. The cart experience is crucial, and you can optimize it using the UpCart app. Enable all its product page features so it takes over the standard Shopify cart or your theme’s cart. The built-in cart systems are outdated—they don’t allow upsells like UpCart does. Plus, UpCart directly opens the cart after a product is added, where the upsell option appears at the bottom, increasing your chances of boosting AOV. Pay attention to color schemes. Don’t use neutral colors for headers and buttons if your product features a primary color. A yellow jacket with a black header is like pizza with raspberry syrup—just doesn’t work. If your product images are gray, white, or black, match those with your headers and buttons. Otherwise, play around with colors to give your page some dynamic appeal. Bookmark this site to get color palettes that match your primary color. For exact color matches, download the "ColorZilla" extension, which gives you the exact color code of whatever is under your mouse on the screen. If your product color is #6E402A, you’ll know it and can match it perfectly with your header and buttons, creating a visually appealing contrast like Cider did here below. Right now, when some of you send me these websites, they look like government pages from the early 2000s. Next, consider the typography and button styles. For fonts, use Helvetica Regular for body text and Helvetica Bold for titles, both at a minimum size of 100%. It’s simple and effective. As for buttons, they should have a corner radius of 8px. To change these settings, go to the theme settings - typography/buttons and adjust the buttons and typography accordingly. Rounded buttons create a modern, inviting feel, while full square buttons can give off an outdated vibe. Even casinos in Vegas design their buildings with curves, ensuring that visitors always have a view angle that draws them back in—it’s all about keeping things appealing and engaging. Finally, the product page layout itself should be clean and concise. Use collapsible rows for your product descriptions. No one wants to read a novel, so keep it compact and focused. Images and videos are what sell—this is why we don’t use text-heavy images in our ads; they just bore people. Keep the description short, with enough information to inform but not overwhelm. If you need to include more features, put them in the FAQs section—that’s what they’re for. The goal is to make sure that the "Add to Cart" button is visible as soon as possible once the customer lands on the product page, without overwhelming them but providing just enough information—some key benefits, high-quality images, and buying options in the bundles. Once they hit the cart, the upsells will do their job. Remember, the three essential apps for setting this up are Loox Reviews for customer feedback (use the product widget reviews at the bottom of the page before the FAQs and the rating widget just above the title), Kaching Bundles for offering package deals, and UpCart for optimizing the cart experience. Just for the record, this is to help newcomers and guide them to something taht works, me personally i don't use free themes, but this one i created could convert easily if the product, offer and ads match well. Good luck and keep testing! 🗳🥂💸🤑
0:23

How to Build a Proper Product Page It breaks my heart every time I see someone from Brazil, making just $200 a month, spend $40 on a test ad only to get a $2 CPC. Then, they cut the ad at $35 spend with 17 clicks and 0 conversions. What’s even more frustrating is when I visit their site and see it’s a complete mess. It’s like they didn’t even try. That’s why I’m making this post. *Disclaimer: If you're building a brand, this isn’t for you. This is for testing products correctly with a website that’s good enough to convert, but if you’re serious about your brand, hire a Figma designer and a developer to get things done right. As a fun fact, I tested the following product myself (In the video below) and with just one click at a $3 CPC, I got a sale with an $80 AOV (100% CVR). I paused the ads because the CPMs hit $150. If you're interested, save this product for the future. I'll share the creatives i used to ran the product with those who comment below. "jordan, stop teaching high school kids about selling reps and getting them sued by Prada or other big brands, ruining their payment gateways, and crushing their dreams." (with 5 random people only will do it, wouldn't make sense for everyone to be ripping it). Shoutout to Adrian for this one. 🫡 Back to the important stuff: Let’s talk about creating a great product page. First off, ditch the “Buy Now” button. By using this, you miss out on the chance to increase your Average Order Value (AOV) through upsells during checkout. Instead, replace it with an “Add to Cart” button. Also, remove the quantity selector. Hardly anyone uses them on the product page, but they do in the cart. Instead, offer bundles, which you can set up using the Kaching Bundles app or your theme if it supports this feature. The cart experience is crucial, and you can optimize it using the UpCart app. Enable all its product page features so it takes over the standard Shopify cart or your theme’s cart. The built-in cart systems are outdated—they don’t allow upsells like UpCart does. Plus, UpCart directly opens the cart after a product is added, where the upsell option appears at the bottom, increasing your chances of boosting AOV. Pay attention to color schemes. Don’t use neutral colors for headers and buttons if your product features a primary color. A yellow jacket with a black header is like pizza with raspberry syrup—just doesn’t work. If your product images are gray, white, or black, match those with your headers and buttons. Otherwise, play around with colors to give your page some dynamic appeal. Bookmark this site to get color palettes that match your primary color. For exact color matches, download the "ColorZilla" extension, which gives you the exact color code of whatever is under your mouse on the screen. If your product color is #6E402A, you’ll know it and can match it perfectly with your header and buttons, creating a visually appealing contrast like Cider did here below. Right now, when some of you send me these websites, they look like government pages from the early 2000s. Next, consider the typography and button styles. For fonts, use Helvetica Regular for body text and Helvetica Bold for titles, both at a minimum size of 100%. It’s simple and effective. As for buttons, they should have a corner radius of 8px. To change these settings, go to the theme settings - typography/buttons and adjust the buttons and typography accordingly. Rounded buttons create a modern, inviting feel, while full square buttons can give off an outdated vibe. Even casinos in Vegas design their buildings with curves, ensuring that visitors always have a view angle that draws them back in—it’s all about keeping things appealing and engaging. Finally, the product page layout itself should be clean and concise. Use collapsible rows for your product descriptions. No one wants to read a novel, so keep it compact and focused. Images and videos are what sell—this is why we don’t use text-heavy images in our ads; they just bore people. Keep the description short, with enough information to inform but not overwhelm. If you need to include more features, put them in the FAQs section—that’s what they’re for. The goal is to make sure that the "Add to Cart" button is visible as soon as possible once the customer lands on the product page, without overwhelming them but providing just enough information—some key benefits, high-quality images, and buying options in the bundles. Once they hit the cart, the upsells will do their job. Remember, the three essential apps for setting this up are Loox Reviews for customer feedback (use the product widget reviews at the bottom of the page before the FAQs and the rating widget just above the title), Kaching Bundles for offering package deals, and UpCart for optimizing the cart experience. Just for the record, this is to help newcomers and guide them to something taht works, me personally i don't use free themes, but this one i created could convert easily if the product, offer and ads match well. Good luck and keep testing! 🗳🥂💸🤑

Zzzz

42,318 views • 1 year ago

Is Petoskey Becoming Traverse City 2.0? A housing development full of condos costing over $1.8 million is sure to only bring the worst sort of people to town By O.W. Root O.W. Root Petoskey — Whenever a new residential building goes up in a Northern town, the reaction from the locals is almost always the same. Squinted eyes and skepticism. The orange cones, the overturned soil, the trucks, the trees coming down, and the mini billboard out front designed to give everyone a little taste of what’s to come. It’s all viewed as a worrying harbinger of unwanted change. That sounds like fuddy-duddy-ism, I know. But it isn’t entirely. The towns on the lake Up North are quaint, beautiful, old, and almost every new build is the exact opposite. True, a new build can’t be an old house. But a new place can be designed to blend naturally with its surroundings. Curiously, they almost never are. The new buildings are almost always ugly eyesores sullying villages that remind us of more human times. New builds also mean more people are coming, and that’s not always a good thing. Yes, we need tourists in the summer, and a certain in-flow of new arrivals every so often is good and natural for a town. It means a place is attractive and desirable. But look at what’s happened to Traverse City. I hate to say it, but I hate going to Traverse City. It’s not a lake town anymore. It’s something much worse. In Petoskey, there’s a lot of construction going on, and it’s not all exactly encouraging. There are more buildings going up right now than any time in the past five years. Driving by some of these sites gives me somewhat of a sick feeling. It feels a little like an early stage Traverse City 2.0. Not all these new builds are equally worrying. The story is a little more complex. There is an actual housing shortage on Little Traverse Bay, and it’s not related to new arrivals who want to buy $750,000 homes. Reasonably priced housing is missing. A common complaint for many business owners is staff shortages. Simply put, normal working people can’t afford to live here, so there aren’t enough workers for the businesses here. That’s a real problem if you want your town to thrive. What we are seeing right now in Petoskey are two kinds of new buildings going up. The difference between them and their potential impacts are stark. Some are critical for the life of the town, and some will most likely attract the worst kind of people. Let us take a look at an example of each type of new build currently going up in Petoskey. The Block at Petoskey The Block at Petoskey is a brand new apartment complex on Standish Avenue, just west of Bear Creek River. It’s in a slow part of town, right at the edge where the houses trickle off and into the more commercial area approaching Meijer. Across the street are a tanning salon and an auto repair shop. The Block at Petoskey is set to include a gym, walking trails, a yoga studio, and a clubhouse. To be honest, The Block at Petoskey has nicer amenities than any apartment complex I’ve ever lived in. It includes just about everything you might want with a 2 bed-2 bath unit going for $1,724 per month. Aesthetically, the Block at Petoskey is okay. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible. It’s just fine. It’s not real bonafide cheap, but it’s not crazy either, and it’s certainly not luxury pricing. It’s built and priced for people who work for a living. It’s a needed development which will benefit the town. The Summit Over Bay Harbor The Summit Over Bay Harbor is an absurd development set to tower over US-31, just north of Bay Harbor. Based on the highly produced sleek simulations found on their website, the units might best be described as modern luxury. They are quite frankly, soulless expensive Lego slop. They have absolutely nothing in common with any of the traditional architecture of the area. They say Northern Michigan about as much as a cactus does. They start at—yes, start at—$1.8 million. Based on their map, they are planning almost 75 units. It’s a very nice area up here, but is it nice enough for 75 $1.8 million units? Eh, I don’t know about that. I’m not sure there is enough capital here to support 75 year-round residents who want to shell out $1.8 million for what amounts to a modern condo overlooking 31 and Bay Harbor. The traditional type of Northern resident (seasonal or year-round) who wants to spend $1.8 million will generally seek out a historical home or build something more culturally in-line with the area. Say what you want about Bay Harbor, but at least they try. There is something a little off about it there only because it’s impossible to build something new that also feels organic and old. But the spirit and direction is right. The hope is correct at Bay Harbor. At least the homes feel like they are attempting some kind of organic integration into the historical architecture and general spirit of the area. The Summit Over Bay Harbor is most likely not going to be for the traditional kinds of residents of Little Traverse Bay. I very much doubt that the majority of the units will be lived in year-round. Most will be short-term rentals. I suspect the units will function more as investments for people who don’t live here. There will be no positive cultural impact. Keeping the lake towns as the lake towns we love is an extremely delicate operation. Balancing new arrivals, housing, jobs, local culture, trying to remain vital while not destroying the reason we want to be here in the first place is like balancing on a tightrope. It needs to be done very carefully. Petoskey needs apartments like The Block at Petoskey. These more reasonably priced places will certainly help to keep working residents here and the town alive year-round. Petoskey doesn’t need the soulless investment units of The Summit over Bay Harbor unless we want to become Traverse City 2.0. And we certainly don’t.
0:51

Is Petoskey Becoming Traverse City 2.0? A housing development full of condos costing over $1.8 million is sure to only bring the worst sort of people to town By O.W. Root O.W. Root Petoskey — Whenever a new residential building goes up in a Northern town, the reaction from the locals is almost always the same. Squinted eyes and skepticism. The orange cones, the overturned soil, the trucks, the trees coming down, and the mini billboard out front designed to give everyone a little taste of what’s to come. It’s all viewed as a worrying harbinger of unwanted change. That sounds like fuddy-duddy-ism, I know. But it isn’t entirely. The towns on the lake Up North are quaint, beautiful, old, and almost every new build is the exact opposite. True, a new build can’t be an old house. But a new place can be designed to blend naturally with its surroundings. Curiously, they almost never are. The new buildings are almost always ugly eyesores sullying villages that remind us of more human times. New builds also mean more people are coming, and that’s not always a good thing. Yes, we need tourists in the summer, and a certain in-flow of new arrivals every so often is good and natural for a town. It means a place is attractive and desirable. But look at what’s happened to Traverse City. I hate to say it, but I hate going to Traverse City. It’s not a lake town anymore. It’s something much worse. In Petoskey, there’s a lot of construction going on, and it’s not all exactly encouraging. There are more buildings going up right now than any time in the past five years. Driving by some of these sites gives me somewhat of a sick feeling. It feels a little like an early stage Traverse City 2.0. Not all these new builds are equally worrying. The story is a little more complex. There is an actual housing shortage on Little Traverse Bay, and it’s not related to new arrivals who want to buy $750,000 homes. Reasonably priced housing is missing. A common complaint for many business owners is staff shortages. Simply put, normal working people can’t afford to live here, so there aren’t enough workers for the businesses here. That’s a real problem if you want your town to thrive. What we are seeing right now in Petoskey are two kinds of new buildings going up. The difference between them and their potential impacts are stark. Some are critical for the life of the town, and some will most likely attract the worst kind of people. Let us take a look at an example of each type of new build currently going up in Petoskey. The Block at Petoskey The Block at Petoskey is a brand new apartment complex on Standish Avenue, just west of Bear Creek River. It’s in a slow part of town, right at the edge where the houses trickle off and into the more commercial area approaching Meijer. Across the street are a tanning salon and an auto repair shop. The Block at Petoskey is set to include a gym, walking trails, a yoga studio, and a clubhouse. To be honest, The Block at Petoskey has nicer amenities than any apartment complex I’ve ever lived in. It includes just about everything you might want with a 2 bed-2 bath unit going for $1,724 per month. Aesthetically, the Block at Petoskey is okay. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible. It’s just fine. It’s not real bonafide cheap, but it’s not crazy either, and it’s certainly not luxury pricing. It’s built and priced for people who work for a living. It’s a needed development which will benefit the town. The Summit Over Bay Harbor The Summit Over Bay Harbor is an absurd development set to tower over US-31, just north of Bay Harbor. Based on the highly produced sleek simulations found on their website, the units might best be described as modern luxury. They are quite frankly, soulless expensive Lego slop. They have absolutely nothing in common with any of the traditional architecture of the area. They say Northern Michigan about as much as a cactus does. They start at—yes, start at—$1.8 million. Based on their map, they are planning almost 75 units. It’s a very nice area up here, but is it nice enough for 75 $1.8 million units? Eh, I don’t know about that. I’m not sure there is enough capital here to support 75 year-round residents who want to shell out $1.8 million for what amounts to a modern condo overlooking 31 and Bay Harbor. The traditional type of Northern resident (seasonal or year-round) who wants to spend $1.8 million will generally seek out a historical home or build something more culturally in-line with the area. Say what you want about Bay Harbor, but at least they try. There is something a little off about it there only because it’s impossible to build something new that also feels organic and old. But the spirit and direction is right. The hope is correct at Bay Harbor. At least the homes feel like they are attempting some kind of organic integration into the historical architecture and general spirit of the area. The Summit Over Bay Harbor is most likely not going to be for the traditional kinds of residents of Little Traverse Bay. I very much doubt that the majority of the units will be lived in year-round. Most will be short-term rentals. I suspect the units will function more as investments for people who don’t live here. There will be no positive cultural impact. Keeping the lake towns as the lake towns we love is an extremely delicate operation. Balancing new arrivals, housing, jobs, local culture, trying to remain vital while not destroying the reason we want to be here in the first place is like balancing on a tightrope. It needs to be done very carefully. Petoskey needs apartments like The Block at Petoskey. These more reasonably priced places will certainly help to keep working residents here and the town alive year-round. Petoskey doesn’t need the soulless investment units of The Summit over Bay Harbor unless we want to become Traverse City 2.0. And we certainly don’t.

Michigan Enjoyer

19,489 views • 2 months ago

♾Infinity Nikki Version 2.8 Outfit Preview: White Night's Ballet and Dawning Heartlight Klick, klick... She hears the mechanical heart beating— Golden feathers whirl, a flash of golden mane breaks through the mirror, and there, she sees the soul of a god aflame— In the fractured frame, a miracle arrives at last: the moment she meets herself once more. ♾ [White Night's Ballet] >> Main Attribute: Cool >> Outfit Ability: [Spinning Reflections] After using the [Spinning Reflections] ability, Nikki bursts through the shattered mirror and begins an elegant dance amid blooming shards of light, with her movement speed greatly increased. If approaching a wall, Nikki can slide over the wall's surface and continue moving seamlessly. Sliding continuously consumes energy. When energy is depleted, Nikki will exit the sliding state. Wall sliding consumes more energy. While sliding across a wall, Nikki can jump over obstacles. She can also enter the floating state to disengage from the wall. When using the ability during [Companion Journey], Nikki and her companion will have a special movement effect. After equipping the [Spinning Reflections] ability, Nikki can also summon the Lucent Mirror and Mirror Shadow and activate the Brightnight Mirror Realm. The Brightnight Mirror Realm can be placed on water, allowing Nikki to slide within it. Within the Brightnight Mirror Realm, select [Airy Dance] from the sidebar to switch movement posture. Approach and remain near a Mirror Shadow to light it up. Interact with the lit Mirror Shadow to change its outfit, check its styling, try on its outfit, or invite friends to try it on. ❖ The ability [Spinning Reflections] cannot be used in uncleared dungeons. The Brightnight Mirror Realm cannot be placed in certain stages or in the Mira Crown Merit Arena. >> [Ocean's Radiance Gift Box] The box includes the item [Dance of Golden Days] and the dance move [Flourishing Steps]. The item [Dance of Golden Days] can be used to dance gracefully in the open world. The dance move [Flourishing Steps] can be used in Momo's Camera. ❖ Available after reaching 160 Resonances in the limited-time Resonance [Through Songbound Night]. >> Evolution Rewards ◆ Evolving the outfit to Stage 1 unlocks the pose [Graceful Leap]. ◆ Evolving the outfit to Stage 2 unlocks the Framed Moment item [Eternal Ballet]. You can also use Finale Heartchime in [Clothing Evolution > Action: Illusory Dance] to obtain the item [Dance of Golden Days: Illusory Dance] and the dance move [Flourishing Steps: Illusory Dance]. ◆ Evolving the outfit to Stage 3 unlocks [The Final Dance: Makeup], a new idle animation, poses, enhanced special effects, and alternative details for certain pieces. ♾ [Dawning Heartlight] >> Main Attribute: Elegant >> Outfit Ability: [Gilded Dawnchaser: Mount] After using the ability, Nikki summons a golden-maned lion, which enters Follow Mode. Nikki can freely switch between four modes: Follow, Mount, Hover, and Sprint. While in Mount Mode, she can switch to Sprint Mode, greatly increasing movement speed. Use the Hover button to leap into the air and enter Hover Mode. While hovering, use the ability button to select a target and dive toward it. Use the Hover button again to end Hover Mode and land. In Ability Setup, Smart Mount Mode can be enabled. When enabled, using the ability button will switch directly between mounting and dismounting without entering Follow Mode. Mount via Interact can also be enabled, allowing the Interact button to be used for mounting and dismounting. Even after switching to another ability, the Interact button can still be used to mount or dismount. When disabled, mounting can only be controlled with the ability button. ❖ Special Effect: In the open world, after Nikki fires a charged arrow while riding the golden-maned lion, the lion will let out a roar, knocking back Esselings within a certain area ahead and briefly slowing Whimstars within a certain surrounding area. ❖ The [Gilded Dawnchaser: Mount] ability cannot be used in Realm Challenges or any boss stages. Hover Mode is unavailable in uncleared dungeons. >> Decoration: [Sacred Heartyard] Can be placed in open spaces. Follow the lingering song of the wind in your memories and climb the steps of a dream. Soul Spring murmurs softly, guiding the way to where flowers bloom in abundance. ❖ Available after reaching 160 Resonances in the limited-time Resonance [At Dreams' Dawn]. >> Evolution Rewards ◆ Evolving the outfit to Stage 1 unlocks the pose [Wings Renewed]. ◆ Evolving the outfit to Stage 2 unlocks the Framed Moment item [Feather's Wish]. You can also use a Radiance item in [Clothing Evolution > Decoration: Radiance] to obtain the decoration [Sacred Heartyard: Radiance]. ◆ Evolving the outfit to Stage 3 unlocks [Wishful Wind Ballad: Makeup], a new idle animation, poses, enhanced special effects, and alternative details for certain pieces. ♾ Follow Infinity Nikki and retweet this post, and we'll select 10 lucky stylists to win [Infinity Nikki Aeroplane Chess Set *1] each. —— ➤ Infinity Nikki Version 2.8 Golden Dust launches globally on July 16 (UTC-7)! ➤ Download Now: ➤ Join us on Facebook Group: #InfinityNikki #GoldenDust #GoldenCity
8:45

♾Infinity Nikki Version 2.8 Outfit Preview: White Night's Ballet and Dawning Heartlight Klick, klick... She hears the mechanical heart beating— Golden feathers whirl, a flash of golden mane breaks through the mirror, and there, she sees the soul of a god aflame— In the fractured frame, a miracle arrives at last: the moment she meets herself once more. ♾ [White Night's Ballet] >> Main Attribute: Cool >> Outfit Ability: [Spinning Reflections] After using the [Spinning Reflections] ability, Nikki bursts through the shattered mirror and begins an elegant dance amid blooming shards of light, with her movement speed greatly increased. If approaching a wall, Nikki can slide over the wall's surface and continue moving seamlessly. Sliding continuously consumes energy. When energy is depleted, Nikki will exit the sliding state. Wall sliding consumes more energy. While sliding across a wall, Nikki can jump over obstacles. She can also enter the floating state to disengage from the wall. When using the ability during [Companion Journey], Nikki and her companion will have a special movement effect. After equipping the [Spinning Reflections] ability, Nikki can also summon the Lucent Mirror and Mirror Shadow and activate the Brightnight Mirror Realm. The Brightnight Mirror Realm can be placed on water, allowing Nikki to slide within it. Within the Brightnight Mirror Realm, select [Airy Dance] from the sidebar to switch movement posture. Approach and remain near a Mirror Shadow to light it up. Interact with the lit Mirror Shadow to change its outfit, check its styling, try on its outfit, or invite friends to try it on. ❖ The ability [Spinning Reflections] cannot be used in uncleared dungeons. The Brightnight Mirror Realm cannot be placed in certain stages or in the Mira Crown Merit Arena. >> [Ocean's Radiance Gift Box] The box includes the item [Dance of Golden Days] and the dance move [Flourishing Steps]. The item [Dance of Golden Days] can be used to dance gracefully in the open world. The dance move [Flourishing Steps] can be used in Momo's Camera. ❖ Available after reaching 160 Resonances in the limited-time Resonance [Through Songbound Night]. >> Evolution Rewards ◆ Evolving the outfit to Stage 1 unlocks the pose [Graceful Leap]. ◆ Evolving the outfit to Stage 2 unlocks the Framed Moment item [Eternal Ballet]. You can also use Finale Heartchime in [Clothing Evolution > Action: Illusory Dance] to obtain the item [Dance of Golden Days: Illusory Dance] and the dance move [Flourishing Steps: Illusory Dance]. ◆ Evolving the outfit to Stage 3 unlocks [The Final Dance: Makeup], a new idle animation, poses, enhanced special effects, and alternative details for certain pieces. ♾ [Dawning Heartlight] >> Main Attribute: Elegant >> Outfit Ability: [Gilded Dawnchaser: Mount] After using the ability, Nikki summons a golden-maned lion, which enters Follow Mode. Nikki can freely switch between four modes: Follow, Mount, Hover, and Sprint. While in Mount Mode, she can switch to Sprint Mode, greatly increasing movement speed. Use the Hover button to leap into the air and enter Hover Mode. While hovering, use the ability button to select a target and dive toward it. Use the Hover button again to end Hover Mode and land. In Ability Setup, Smart Mount Mode can be enabled. When enabled, using the ability button will switch directly between mounting and dismounting without entering Follow Mode. Mount via Interact can also be enabled, allowing the Interact button to be used for mounting and dismounting. Even after switching to another ability, the Interact button can still be used to mount or dismount. When disabled, mounting can only be controlled with the ability button. ❖ Special Effect: In the open world, after Nikki fires a charged arrow while riding the golden-maned lion, the lion will let out a roar, knocking back Esselings within a certain area ahead and briefly slowing Whimstars within a certain surrounding area. ❖ The [Gilded Dawnchaser: Mount] ability cannot be used in Realm Challenges or any boss stages. Hover Mode is unavailable in uncleared dungeons. >> Decoration: [Sacred Heartyard] Can be placed in open spaces. Follow the lingering song of the wind in your memories and climb the steps of a dream. Soul Spring murmurs softly, guiding the way to where flowers bloom in abundance. ❖ Available after reaching 160 Resonances in the limited-time Resonance [At Dreams' Dawn]. >> Evolution Rewards ◆ Evolving the outfit to Stage 1 unlocks the pose [Wings Renewed]. ◆ Evolving the outfit to Stage 2 unlocks the Framed Moment item [Feather's Wish]. You can also use a Radiance item in [Clothing Evolution > Decoration: Radiance] to obtain the decoration [Sacred Heartyard: Radiance]. ◆ Evolving the outfit to Stage 3 unlocks [Wishful Wind Ballad: Makeup], a new idle animation, poses, enhanced special effects, and alternative details for certain pieces. ♾ Follow Infinity Nikki and retweet this post, and we'll select 10 lucky stylists to win [Infinity Nikki Aeroplane Chess Set *1] each. —— ➤ Infinity Nikki Version 2.8 Golden Dust launches globally on July 16 (UTC-7)! ➤ Download Now: ➤ Join us on Facebook Group: #InfinityNikki #GoldenDust #GoldenCity

Infinity Nikki

47,829 views • 2 days ago

Bangaly Kaba (Bangaly Kaba) was head of growth at Instagram, an early growth PM at Facebook, VP of Product at Instacart, and is currently Director of Product at YouTube overseeing a global team working on creator monetization. Bangaly is on multiple boards, has been a growth advisor to dozens of consumer companies, (including Twitter), and rarely talks publicly. In our conversation, Bangaly shares: 🔸 A framework for choosing where to work and what to work on 🔸 Why you need time for “understand work” 🔸 The “adjacent users” theory 🔸 Advice for coaching product managers 🔸 Invaluable lessons and wild stories from his time at Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: - Spotify: - Apple: Some key takeaways: 1. To advance your career, focus on creating impact: impact = skills x environment. a. Environment is everything that enables you to do great work that is outside of your direct control, including: manager, resources, team, scope, compensation, and culture. b. Skills are things that are within your direct control that enable your success: communication (the most impactful), influence/leadership, strategic thinking, and execution. 2. Understanding “adjacent users” can be a key to unlocking new stages of growth. Adjacent users are the next segment of people who can benefit from your product and are showing interest but are not quite converting and retaining how you’d hope. You can identify these users by looking for cohorts showing signals that your product is almost a fit (e.g. signing up) but not quite working (e.g. churning at high rates). For example, at one point, Instacart’s core user base may have been office admins ordering food for their staff, but the adjacent user was a mom of four ordering groceries. The mom of four has very different needs, so it would be important for Instacart to build for those in order to grow into the new segment. 3. Bangaly says to view product management as analogous to coaching a sports team. Just like in sports, not everyone needs to be a star player, but everyone plays a crucial role in achieving success. Similarly, the success of individual team members reflects back on the leader. Investing time and effort into coaching and developing team members not only benefits them but also enhances the leader’s effectiveness in their role. 4. Before executing on a product idea, do “understand work” to truly understand pain points, alternatives, and, ultimately, the best opportunities. Too often, teams have an idea, find some data to justify it, and then start executing. And too often, this leads to failed experiments. Instead, invest time up front in understanding what is happening through things like data instrumentation, data analysis, or talking to users. This translates to “going slow to go fast” because the up-front investment will turn into much higher experiment win rates, especially as lessons compound over time. 5. Use the “Managing Complex Change” framework to diagnose and solve barriers to change in a given team or area. The framework lays out five things a team needs in order to change: a. Vision b. Skills c. Incentives d. Resources e. Action plan If you are missing any one of these, you get a different style of negative outcome, instead of the change you want. For example, having everything except vision causes confusion, and having everything except the right incentives causes resistance. Since these negative outcomes can be felt and observed in the team, you can work backward from them to their cause. Once you know the precise cause, you can solve it to unlock change.
0:59

Bangaly Kaba (Bangaly Kaba) was head of growth at Instagram, an early growth PM at Facebook, VP of Product at Instacart, and is currently Director of Product at YouTube overseeing a global team working on creator monetization. Bangaly is on multiple boards, has been a growth advisor to dozens of consumer companies, (including Twitter), and rarely talks publicly. In our conversation, Bangaly shares: 🔸 A framework for choosing where to work and what to work on 🔸 Why you need time for “understand work” 🔸 The “adjacent users” theory 🔸 Advice for coaching product managers 🔸 Invaluable lessons and wild stories from his time at Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: - Spotify: - Apple: Some key takeaways: 1. To advance your career, focus on creating impact: impact = skills x environment. a. Environment is everything that enables you to do great work that is outside of your direct control, including: manager, resources, team, scope, compensation, and culture. b. Skills are things that are within your direct control that enable your success: communication (the most impactful), influence/leadership, strategic thinking, and execution. 2. Understanding “adjacent users” can be a key to unlocking new stages of growth. Adjacent users are the next segment of people who can benefit from your product and are showing interest but are not quite converting and retaining how you’d hope. You can identify these users by looking for cohorts showing signals that your product is almost a fit (e.g. signing up) but not quite working (e.g. churning at high rates). For example, at one point, Instacart’s core user base may have been office admins ordering food for their staff, but the adjacent user was a mom of four ordering groceries. The mom of four has very different needs, so it would be important for Instacart to build for those in order to grow into the new segment. 3. Bangaly says to view product management as analogous to coaching a sports team. Just like in sports, not everyone needs to be a star player, but everyone plays a crucial role in achieving success. Similarly, the success of individual team members reflects back on the leader. Investing time and effort into coaching and developing team members not only benefits them but also enhances the leader’s effectiveness in their role. 4. Before executing on a product idea, do “understand work” to truly understand pain points, alternatives, and, ultimately, the best opportunities. Too often, teams have an idea, find some data to justify it, and then start executing. And too often, this leads to failed experiments. Instead, invest time up front in understanding what is happening through things like data instrumentation, data analysis, or talking to users. This translates to “going slow to go fast” because the up-front investment will turn into much higher experiment win rates, especially as lessons compound over time. 5. Use the “Managing Complex Change” framework to diagnose and solve barriers to change in a given team or area. The framework lays out five things a team needs in order to change: a. Vision b. Skills c. Incentives d. Resources e. Action plan If you are missing any one of these, you get a different style of negative outcome, instead of the change you want. For example, having everything except vision causes confusion, and having everything except the right incentives causes resistance. Since these negative outcomes can be felt and observed in the team, you can work backward from them to their cause. Once you know the precise cause, you can solve it to unlock change.

Lenny Rachitsky

105,930 views • 2 years ago

Here is some videos of the larger craft from 12-4-2024 and some of the UFO Spheres from 12-3-2024. The Spheres have been here every night this week. They have been down low by the house like normal but we have seen many of them flying all around the area very fast. They will blink very fast or keep the plasma field on but at a lower brightness than when they are just hovering beside the house. On 12-4-2024 we were watching the Spheres flying all around then we saw the larger UFO appear after a helicopter circled the area. It stayed beside the house for over an hour only moving about 800 meters in that amount of time. It was under 1000 feet in altitude and bigger than C-17 aircraft. It looked saucer shaped but wider in the center and tapered around the edges. It was showing up very hot on the thermal camera even though no visible light at all was coming from it. The Spheres showed up cold on the thermal camera when the plasma field was not glowing when we filmed them closer up before. This larger craft had the plasma field around it just like the Spheres but it was not glowing. We could not see the craft with our naked eyes or on the starlight camera or IR cameras. Only the thermal camera would pick it up. Can see how the air around it is shimmering and can see the field around it. It looked better in person but what I filmed is important because you all will see this again on some daytime close up videos! I have watched these craft up close many times and they have this plasma field around them and even when its not glowing its there. In the daytime you can see the air shimmering around the craft very good. We have seen them use this to bend the light around the craft someway and turn the craft almost completely invisible but you could still see the air shimmering around the craft. I had some cheap starlight cameras that would pick the larger crafts up when the Spheres were beside them glowing and the larger craft was almost invisible. The glow from the Spheres plasma would outline were the larger craft was and we could see it on those starlight cameras. We had a handheld digital starlight camera when this craft was over us and it would not pick it up at all. This is the real UFOs and we have seen them here for over twenty years and after the close encounters in 2012 they started staying very close to us and showing up very often. Even when we cant see them we have seen things to let us know they are near us. The Spheres can change shape and we have them on videos doing it. The larger craft we have seen have all looked different but the Spheres are a constant even though they can change shape. During the close encounter on 11-8-2012 there were many of the Spheres and two larger U shaped craft that the Beings came out of. On 2-16-2023 there was a larger craft here that was over 300 meters long and is the biggest craft we have seen the Spheres with. Then we saw this craft that we have seen before a few times including in the daytime. The Spheres have been with each of the larger craft every time. The Spheres act like they guard and protect the larger craft each time they are around. Sometimes they stay very close to them and on 2-16-2023 some of the Spheres were going in the bottom of the giant craft or attaching to the bottom of it and there was an electrical charge or something that would go all around the larger craft when the Spheres attached or went into it. When this larger craft on the 4th was sitting there we saw several of the Spheres flying around really fast with the plasma field on a constant low glow. We have seen them doing this all around the area this whole week. The other ones were down low beside the house and that's were they normally stay close to when they show themselves. I'm not sure what the ones flying all around were doing. Its really different activity the way they were acting. Monday there were so many doing this in every direction we could not count them all. It had to be in the hundreds. We watch the radars also and watch all the aircraft around us during these events and none of the craft we were seeing shows on any public radar sites. The military radar site does not show them either. Monday there was a large increase in commercial fights and some of these aircraft had to see all the smaller craft flying around really fast. Some had the plasma glowing constant but many had it flashing really fast. Way faster than the navigation lights of regular aircraft. Many of the so called drones being seen around the world and in America the last few weeks are these craft and there are some videos going around from New Jersey that shows these craft but some are showing something that looks more man made. On the ones that look more man made there has been sound that sounds like jet engines on many I have seen. The craft here make ZERO sound most of the time! We have only heard a few very strange sounds come from them over the years. One sound sounded like a giant transformer humming during the close encounter on 11-8-2012 and on 2-16-2023 we heard what sounded like very loud trumpets come from the sky! We were not the only ones that heard that. People up the road that can not see this area and that knows nothing about what's going on here told us they heard the trumpet sounds and thought it was the end of the world and told us they started praying! They also told us they saw a light floating through the trees back toward our land. There has been some other strange sounds also and something really strange is in the summer time there are hundreds of thousand of frogs in the swamps around our land when its raining more and when the UFOs show up all the frogs will stop singing at one time. This is on some of the videos I have. When you are out there beside the swamps and there are that many frogs singing then they all stop at one time its very strange! Its not just the frogs, all the animals and insects seem like they stop. Sometimes they do it right before the plasma field turns on and sometimes right after. Two of my male dogs would go crazy also right before the UFOs show themselves. I have other dogs but those two were super sensitive to whatever was coming from the UFOs. I think they all are hearing something from the UFOs that we cant hear or they are feeling what I feel from them when they are closer to me. Either way its probably something that scientist could pick up with the right equipment. #UFO #UAP #RealUFOs #Spheres #ufox #ua
4:40

Here is some videos of the larger craft from 12-4-2024 and some of the UFO Spheres from 12-3-2024. The Spheres have been here every night this week. They have been down low by the house like normal but we have seen many of them flying all around the area very fast. They will blink very fast or keep the plasma field on but at a lower brightness than when they are just hovering beside the house. On 12-4-2024 we were watching the Spheres flying all around then we saw the larger UFO appear after a helicopter circled the area. It stayed beside the house for over an hour only moving about 800 meters in that amount of time. It was under 1000 feet in altitude and bigger than C-17 aircraft. It looked saucer shaped but wider in the center and tapered around the edges. It was showing up very hot on the thermal camera even though no visible light at all was coming from it. The Spheres showed up cold on the thermal camera when the plasma field was not glowing when we filmed them closer up before. This larger craft had the plasma field around it just like the Spheres but it was not glowing. We could not see the craft with our naked eyes or on the starlight camera or IR cameras. Only the thermal camera would pick it up. Can see how the air around it is shimmering and can see the field around it. It looked better in person but what I filmed is important because you all will see this again on some daytime close up videos! I have watched these craft up close many times and they have this plasma field around them and even when its not glowing its there. In the daytime you can see the air shimmering around the craft very good. We have seen them use this to bend the light around the craft someway and turn the craft almost completely invisible but you could still see the air shimmering around the craft. I had some cheap starlight cameras that would pick the larger crafts up when the Spheres were beside them glowing and the larger craft was almost invisible. The glow from the Spheres plasma would outline were the larger craft was and we could see it on those starlight cameras. We had a handheld digital starlight camera when this craft was over us and it would not pick it up at all. This is the real UFOs and we have seen them here for over twenty years and after the close encounters in 2012 they started staying very close to us and showing up very often. Even when we cant see them we have seen things to let us know they are near us. The Spheres can change shape and we have them on videos doing it. The larger craft we have seen have all looked different but the Spheres are a constant even though they can change shape. During the close encounter on 11-8-2012 there were many of the Spheres and two larger U shaped craft that the Beings came out of. On 2-16-2023 there was a larger craft here that was over 300 meters long and is the biggest craft we have seen the Spheres with. Then we saw this craft that we have seen before a few times including in the daytime. The Spheres have been with each of the larger craft every time. The Spheres act like they guard and protect the larger craft each time they are around. Sometimes they stay very close to them and on 2-16-2023 some of the Spheres were going in the bottom of the giant craft or attaching to the bottom of it and there was an electrical charge or something that would go all around the larger craft when the Spheres attached or went into it. When this larger craft on the 4th was sitting there we saw several of the Spheres flying around really fast with the plasma field on a constant low glow. We have seen them doing this all around the area this whole week. The other ones were down low beside the house and that's were they normally stay close to when they show themselves. I'm not sure what the ones flying all around were doing. Its really different activity the way they were acting. Monday there were so many doing this in every direction we could not count them all. It had to be in the hundreds. We watch the radars also and watch all the aircraft around us during these events and none of the craft we were seeing shows on any public radar sites. The military radar site does not show them either. Monday there was a large increase in commercial fights and some of these aircraft had to see all the smaller craft flying around really fast. Some had the plasma glowing constant but many had it flashing really fast. Way faster than the navigation lights of regular aircraft. Many of the so called drones being seen around the world and in America the last few weeks are these craft and there are some videos going around from New Jersey that shows these craft but some are showing something that looks more man made. On the ones that look more man made there has been sound that sounds like jet engines on many I have seen. The craft here make ZERO sound most of the time! We have only heard a few very strange sounds come from them over the years. One sound sounded like a giant transformer humming during the close encounter on 11-8-2012 and on 2-16-2023 we heard what sounded like very loud trumpets come from the sky! We were not the only ones that heard that. People up the road that can not see this area and that knows nothing about what's going on here told us they heard the trumpet sounds and thought it was the end of the world and told us they started praying! They also told us they saw a light floating through the trees back toward our land. There has been some other strange sounds also and something really strange is in the summer time there are hundreds of thousand of frogs in the swamps around our land when its raining more and when the UFOs show up all the frogs will stop singing at one time. This is on some of the videos I have. When you are out there beside the swamps and there are that many frogs singing then they all stop at one time its very strange! Its not just the frogs, all the animals and insects seem like they stop. Sometimes they do it right before the plasma field turns on and sometimes right after. Two of my male dogs would go crazy also right before the UFOs show themselves. I have other dogs but those two were super sensitive to whatever was coming from the UFOs. I think they all are hearing something from the UFOs that we cant hear or they are feeling what I feel from them when they are closer to me. Either way its probably something that scientist could pick up with the right equipment. #UFO #UAP #RealUFOs #Spheres #ufox #ua

Ranger H

39,585 views • 1 year ago

Michelle and Gideon Roos, a couple from the Stellenbosch/Somerset West area in South Africa, were the 9th victims in a series of armed robberies carried out by the same group of four Black men over the past two weeks. On the evening of 29 May 2026, at around quarter past seven as the sun was setting, Michelle and Gideon Roos were relaxing on their stoep (veranda), braaiing (barbecuing), and speaking on the phone with Michelle's parents when their dog Charlie began barking. Michelle sensed something was wrong and alerted her father. Within seconds, four Black men wearing balaclavas and thick rubber gloves stormed the property. The attackers threw Gideon onto the grass. One immediately grabbed the phone from Michelle's hand, ripped her pearl earrings from her ears, and pulled her wedding rings off her fingers. They forced Gideon into the house and into the bedroom, where they tied him up. Michelle and Gideon repeatedly pleaded, "Please, please don’t hurt us." While three of the men ransacked the cupboards, shouting "Money, money!", one stood holding Michelle's gold jewelry. Gideon was forced onto the bed. The attacker with the pistol focused on Michelle. She handed over her handbag and wallet with what little cash she had. The man also grabbed Gideon's wallet. When Michelle tried to negotiate to keep their ID's and licenses, he shoved her onto the bed and agreed curtly. Gideon attempted to direct them to money in his cupboard but struggled to speak clearly. One attacker, armed with a long bent Y-dropper tool resembling a crowbar, stood threateningly behind Gideon, visibly irritated and ready to strike. Fearing for her husband's life, Michelle told him to stay quiet. She then dropped to the ground, offering to help the robbers by searching through the scattered belongings herself and handing over valuables, saying things like "Do you want this? This is worth so much!" to de-escalate the situation. The man with the pistol pulled Michelle back onto the bed. When she tried to reach the panic button, he caught her, threw her down, and ordered her to sit next to her husband. Michelle feared she was about to be assaulted. The attackers continued their search. One ripped Michelle's precious gold cross necklace from her neck despite Gideon's plea that it was from God. They took Gideon's bakkie (truck) keys, with one briefly going to the vehicle before returning. After holding the couple for 15-20 minutes, the group fled. Michelle slammed the bedroom door, and together they pushed a large chest of drawers in front of it. She pressed the panic button repeatedly while desperately trying to free Gideon by biting and pulling at his ties with her teeth, chipping a tooth in the process but refusing to stop. After a short time, they secured the trellis gate and hid until security and a large number of police arrived. Michelle and Gideon sustained no physical injuries, thank the Lord, but both are suffering significant emotional and psychological trauma. This incident occurred just as they were beginning to recover from a previous farm attack on Gideon's parents the year before. The couple had to recount the full story in detail multiple times to authorities, recalling additional elements with each telling. The Roos family reports that these connected robberies in the area have not been publicized in the news or elsewhere, and they only learned of the prior incidents from police and security. Their cellphones were stolen, leaving them temporarily unable to receive calls or messages on new devices, though they welcome all prayers and support.
0:45

Michelle and Gideon Roos, a couple from the Stellenbosch/Somerset West area in South Africa, were the 9th victims in a series of armed robberies carried out by the same group of four Black men over the past two weeks. On the evening of 29 May 2026, at around quarter past seven as the sun was setting, Michelle and Gideon Roos were relaxing on their stoep (veranda), braaiing (barbecuing), and speaking on the phone with Michelle's parents when their dog Charlie began barking. Michelle sensed something was wrong and alerted her father. Within seconds, four Black men wearing balaclavas and thick rubber gloves stormed the property. The attackers threw Gideon onto the grass. One immediately grabbed the phone from Michelle's hand, ripped her pearl earrings from her ears, and pulled her wedding rings off her fingers. They forced Gideon into the house and into the bedroom, where they tied him up. Michelle and Gideon repeatedly pleaded, "Please, please don’t hurt us." While three of the men ransacked the cupboards, shouting "Money, money!", one stood holding Michelle's gold jewelry. Gideon was forced onto the bed. The attacker with the pistol focused on Michelle. She handed over her handbag and wallet with what little cash she had. The man also grabbed Gideon's wallet. When Michelle tried to negotiate to keep their ID's and licenses, he shoved her onto the bed and agreed curtly. Gideon attempted to direct them to money in his cupboard but struggled to speak clearly. One attacker, armed with a long bent Y-dropper tool resembling a crowbar, stood threateningly behind Gideon, visibly irritated and ready to strike. Fearing for her husband's life, Michelle told him to stay quiet. She then dropped to the ground, offering to help the robbers by searching through the scattered belongings herself and handing over valuables, saying things like "Do you want this? This is worth so much!" to de-escalate the situation. The man with the pistol pulled Michelle back onto the bed. When she tried to reach the panic button, he caught her, threw her down, and ordered her to sit next to her husband. Michelle feared she was about to be assaulted. The attackers continued their search. One ripped Michelle's precious gold cross necklace from her neck despite Gideon's plea that it was from God. They took Gideon's bakkie (truck) keys, with one briefly going to the vehicle before returning. After holding the couple for 15-20 minutes, the group fled. Michelle slammed the bedroom door, and together they pushed a large chest of drawers in front of it. She pressed the panic button repeatedly while desperately trying to free Gideon by biting and pulling at his ties with her teeth, chipping a tooth in the process but refusing to stop. After a short time, they secured the trellis gate and hid until security and a large number of police arrived. Michelle and Gideon sustained no physical injuries, thank the Lord, but both are suffering significant emotional and psychological trauma. This incident occurred just as they were beginning to recover from a previous farm attack on Gideon's parents the year before. The couple had to recount the full story in detail multiple times to authorities, recalling additional elements with each telling. The Roos family reports that these connected robberies in the area have not been publicized in the news or elsewhere, and they only learned of the prior incidents from police and security. Their cellphones were stolen, leaving them temporarily unable to receive calls or messages on new devices, though they welcome all prayers and support.

Alice VL

102,574 views • 1 month ago