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1
Off Topic / Re: Whatcha Got Cookin?
« Last post by BlackCurtains on Today at 02:10:42 PM »
I'm making a pizza for dinner. Like, from almost-scratch. I bought dough and all the toppings, some pre sliced/chopped to make it easier on myself. I got whole milk mozzarella to put on it so it will be nice and melty.
2
Off Topic / Re: The Trivial Complaints Thread ... #3
« Last post by BlackCurtains on Today at 02:08:39 PM »
I made a new thread for the AI discussion :)
3
Pony Corral / Re: Did G5 flop?
« Last post by Taffeta on Today at 02:00:40 PM »
The thing is that all previous generations broke away from the earlier stuff and did their own thing.

What G5 has done is more in keeping with My Little Pony Tales, which does not reference directly anything from the older G1 material, but you do have the cameos from the Glowing Magic(al) ponies, and then there's some pseudo-mediaeval stuff which I guess you could looooosely tie into the kind of world that existed in the earlier stuff. Albeit very loose.

Tales is G1. MLP & Friends is G1. One is the older version of a world modernised in the other. That's a link albeit it's not as tight a link as G5 has with G4. Yet we're meant to believe G5 is a generation of its own.

This is one of my bugbears because the defining of generations was something we did, not Hasbro, and the mainstreaming of this idea of a G4-G5 transition is their brainchild, not necessarily in keeping with how generations were defined in the past.

To begin with it was Old Ponies and New Ponies, as there were only two generations. Sometimes you got 'new generation', then LM came in with the Transformers concept of G-, around G3's arrival. Because you couldn't have old, new, and newer xD.

But...though there are some name repeats across generations, there is literally nothing canonical connecting Dream Valley (Ponyland in the UK), Friendship Gardens and Ponyville. Whereas Sunny and company live in a later version of Equestria. Just like Tales and MLP Friends.

Actually, do they call it Ponyland in Tales as well? I can't remember what they call it xD.

So basically, G5 scrapes the barrel on being a new generation. It has its own characters but not really its own concepts. And maybe the nod back to older generations is reflecting the age of the brand and the anniversary coming up - but at the same time...it's really quite lazy.

The naming sense is also awful.

But, all that said - if the toys looked less...weird, and had more variety and better QC, would that make the world/narrative/etc feel more fresh and engaging? I guess the question is, is the problem a stagnant toyline or a media concept that's tired and starved of new ideas?
4
Pony Corral / So Cherries Jubilee and the Wiki.
« Last post by Taffeta on Today at 01:49:45 PM »
Is there anyone around at the moment with the ability to edit the Wiki?
Noticed this this morning.

http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/Cherries_Jubilee#European_Cherries_Jubilee


There's still some confusion about how CJ was sold in the UK and Europe, and the above Wiki description for the European CJ is...not right. So just to clear things up a bit, here's my random geek ted talk on Cherries Jubilee, because she's awesome, and we should talk about her more.

And also I hope someone will fix the above linked information :P

So, Cherries Jubilee in Europe and the UK...

#1
"Groom and Style" Cherries Jubilee.
This pony is the same as the US release from year three.
The Groom and Style moniker comes from Hasbro's own files, probably because the set introduced curly hair over here :)
This Cherries Jubilee was sold in 1985, and packaged like this:
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This set had Bow Tie and Applejack in the collector pose. Bow Tie had curls.
In some places in Europe this set was sold with the ponies made in other places eg Italy, but on the same card. This set was also sold like this in some places in Europe, and also on US style card in places in Europe.

#2
1986 Cherries Jubilee (Second Edition, or UK Cherries Jubilee)
This pony has straight hair, normally straight like Posey or Tootsie.
She has a darker symbol.
She was sold in 1986, like this:
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This set had Posey with dark tulips, as well as Gypsy, Hopscotch, Snowflake and Honeycomb.
This Cherries Jubilee was sold in the UK and any country that also had Gypsy and Honeycomb in this set.

...Up to this point the Wiki is correct. However...

#3
European Cherries Jubilee, (circa 1986)
Has curly hair and a dark symbol. This is she:
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She was NOT sold in the UK. She was NOT a groom and style pony. She was NOT sold in the set with Bow Tie and AJ.
She WAS sold in continental Europe, in countries where they had HK versions of this set in 1986 (the Netherlands is one such place).
She was sold in a set with Hopscotch, Snowflake, WHITE TOOTSIE (Hong Kong), Posey (dark symbols) and Lickety Split (yes, a different version :D Goodie).
I don't have her backcard, but this is the set she belongs in.
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In some countries this same set was sold with ponies made in Spain or Italy.
In some places (eg Netherlands) this set were sold on the first release UK or US card from 1985, which did not picture the c correct ponies on front or back.

So, in summary.
Groom and Style CJ - sold in 1985, same as US version, in set with CP Bow Tie and AJ
UK CJ - straight hair, in Gypsy and Honeycomb's set, dark symbols.
European CJ - curly hair, dark symbols, in white Tootsie's set.

...If someone could fix the CJ page to reflect this, I would be so grateful.
Also, thank you for coming to my CJ Ted Talk.

Bonus:
The Wikipedia doesn't actually include European Lickety Split, the one listed is the regular groom and style version on the European card (which was sold in the US, in the UK, in Europe, and all over).
The text is correct as far as that goes, but this...
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is European (second edition) Lickety Split...;)

5
Off Topic / AI Discussion
« Last post by BlackCurtains on Today at 01:48:00 PM »
I feel this needs it's own thread.

I'll quote some responses from the other thread here.


as far as AI goes i'm very very skeptical. i think it's something that could be beneficial if it worked well and could do mundane tasks. the problem is so much of LLM type AI doesn't work well. that's the kind of AI that takes in a bunch of data and provides output. ChatGPT, Diffusion, etc. i'm not super familiar with the generative AI for art. it seems like it could be cool for creative artists but i do think there should be some kind of compensation/opt out for artists who's work is used to train the AI. do these companies even know who's art was used thought? i doubt it. and the idea of people selling AI generated art doesn't sit well with me.

i'm not an artist but i am a web developer and the code hosting services i use have rolled out AI coding assistants that learn off code that people store on their hosting services. there is no compensation for using people's code to train the AIs. in fact they charge you to use the AI and your code helped train. there is also no guarantee that the code training the AI is good, working code either. the results based on my personal testing are hit or miss. it's nice for repetitive stuff. but as far as anything challenging i find the results disappointing based on the hype.

i could go on and on about AI and how much i don't like it. i would never think it's bad to play around with for fun. I've done this myself with ChatGPT. my real worry is jobs lost and poor quality output. there are already a bunch of junk AI books on Amazon put out by scammers trying to make money for nothing. i also worry that companies with greedy leadership who don't care about quality and want to increase profit will try to replace employees with AI. there isn't much regulation yet and the people who run the leading AI tech companies suck and don't care about people. TBH i think they're a bit out of their minds. replacing humans with bad AI is bad for employees who lose jobs and customers who have to deal with a poor experience. there isn't a vision from these people to make the world better. to have everyone do less work and live in abundance. in it's current form AI is a hype bubble and a grift. like crypto and the metaverse was/still is. even the commercials promoting AI in software and devices don't really say much about what the AI will actually do. it's just "hey we added AI. give us more money!"

and yeah the "deepfake" videos terrify me. especially since so many people believe that if it's on video, it must be real. also i've read that a lot of it is porn so that's horrifying for people who may end up in a video without consent.

like most stuff that comes out of big tech, AI could be cool. but not in it's current form.



I am actually less scared of AI (do we need a separate thread to discuss this btw? It's interesting) as in real AI (actual artificial intelligence) than human-developed and human-taught AI, because that enables it to be influenced and manipulated in dangerous ways.

As a writer, too, I take pride in what I write being my own. I don't want someone to look at what I write and think I used something to help me write it. I don't know if that is the same as going out to artistically collaborate using the tech and acknowledging it as a tool...I think it may be different with words than with pictures. Not sure how...just how it feels to me.

I DO worry about it being used by people in universities to cheat assignments going forward. I don't want a doctor who didn't write their own assignments or do their own research to get their medical degree. :/ Plagiarism is already a big issue in universities (speaking as a former GTA, it's something we were trained to deal with). But AI is like having another person write an essay for you, only cheaper :/ I think this could be a problem in the future. Dr Google and all that :/

And I worry about how AI already represents neurodiversity - I saw someone do some research on this, and AI presents an autistic person as a gloomy, skinny, white male in his twenties. It's not helpful.

You both bring up really good points.

@Beth, you're right about it being a nifty new thing that people and companies are exploiting, like crypto, etc. Maybe that's one of my things, because I do think AI and robotics will help humans reach a utopia one day. But for right now it's mostly people using it for fun or profit. And I am kind of sick of all my programs adding AI stuff to them. Photoshop has done it and it's very pushy about using it. And YouTube, when I go to upload content, it's AI this and AI that.

@Taffeta, I sometimes forget there are people who would use it for bad things. You brought up things I've never even thought of, like the doctor thing. That IS worrisome. And yeah, more complex concepts that aren't widely understood tend to be stereotyped, that's the fault of the human coders. It's like that robot from Dubai. I forget her name. In interviews she has said things like robots will take over and humanity is doomed, etc. But again that's on the people who programmed her. ChatGPT is getting like that too. When it was first released it was much more interesting to talk to before people sent it down the meme hole. Now it's like chatting to someone on the site that shall not be named.

Hopefully, somewhere there is a dedicated group of people working on an AI that won't be polluted with awful things. That day might be a long way off still.

So, yes, I agree that it can be dangerous and maybe we aren't ready for it yet. I still find it fascinating.
6
Pony Corral / Re: Did G5 flop?
« Last post by MJNSEIFER on Today at 01:40:47 PM »
To be fair, I think G5 does stand on it's own, even with it's connection to G4, and being a sort of sequel - it still feels like it's own generation (which it is) due to it doing its thing and going by its own rules (the things that G4 established have changed for G5, so it's more like a sequel to its own take on G4, rather than G4 itself - there's already contradictions if it's literally a sequel to the G4 we saw) - so it's still its own thing, at least that's how I see it - and I feel that it honors G4 beautiful when it does follow it, so this isn't an attempt to separate it from G4, I just feel that it is its own thing, ultimately.

I can't say for sure, as I did start with G4, but G5 could probably be viewed without prior knowledge of G4, and the G4 ponies and the like they refer to could just be... "story building?" if taken out of context, like they could easily have just been created for this show, as historical/mythological/legendary characters/places/things, but they just happen to be from previous generations, which you (if you're somebody who started with G5) can later check out, when you realize this? I can only speculate, but I like they idea of a reboot opening the door for newcomers to its predecessors, while at the same time standing as its own thing (which G5 does, in my opinion.)

I can only speak for myself, but I both understand and don't understand how G4 was such a song and dance - I love G4, but a lot of what I love about it was present in the previous generations, and stayed present in future generations, yet I also get how it stood out from what was around at the time. I'm not saying that all other cartoons were bad (or that FIM was the only cartoon to do what I'm about to praise), but there seemed to be more focus on being silly/comical, which isn't a bad thing, but I was getting annoyed that there didn't seem to be any love or friendship in cartoons, unless it was included as a joke - I'm exaggerating, I'm sure, but I'm sure I remember feeling this, so when I discovered G4, I was happy to find a show that did have cute friendship moments taken seriously, and had the love that shows I grew up with had (other modern shows do this, as did/do previous/later MLP generations, but that's what made G4 standout for me above other shows - though all of MLP does for me, essentially (again, I know it's not the only franchise that is like this.)

That's just me personally, obviously other people got into G4 for their own reasons, and maybe some of it was the timing, which is awesome in a way, as I got to experience it, which I wouldn't trade for anything, but a shame on the other, as all the other generations deserve the exact same praise and following in my opinion, and I still hope that someday they can be given exactly that, but of course, I know that I and many others (bronies included) love the non-G4 generations (forgive the term, pure laziness, nothing more) and that will always be something, but I'd love for them to get the creative
 fandom treatment that G4 got (if I had more talent, I'd have done so much more for them, and hope that someday I can.)

Side Note: As much as I respect Lauren, it was actually My Little Pony that "introduced me to her", so to speak. I'd seen and liked other things she'd been involved with, but I didn't really check who was involved with them. I guess it just goes to show that the journey can always be different, even if the destination is the same.  :lovey:
7
Off Topic / Re: The Trivial Complaints Thread ... #3
« Last post by Taffeta on Today at 01:08:26 PM »
@Beldarna, I really worried and thought over how to say something to your post, because I understood you were very upset. I'm also not defending his reaction, it was definitely out of line.

That said, whether your husband is diagnoseable or not is not the issue. He may well be. But you just phrased it really awkwardly, so it came over as associating lack of empathy with a neurodivergent diagnosis. And that's obviously not okay. Speaking as someone who has experienced direct harm from that assumption, seeing it on a space like this (which I consider generally accepting and safe) is a bit of a jolt.

I know you were pretty stressed out. I just wanted to flag it up because I know you didn't mean it the way it came out, but the way it came out bothered me.

I am actually less scared of AI (do we need a separate thread to discuss this btw? It's interesting) as in real AI (actual artificial intelligence) than human-developed and human-taught AI, because that enables it to be influenced and manipulated in dangerous ways.

As a writer, too, I take pride in what I write being my own. I don't want someone to look at what I write and think I used something to help me write it. I don't know if that is the same as going out to artistically collaborate using the tech and acknowledging it as a tool...I think it may be different with words than with pictures. Not sure how...just how it feels to me.

I DO worry about it being used by people in universities to cheat assignments going forward. I don't want a doctor who didn't write their own assignments or do their own research to get their medical degree. :/ Plagiarism is already a big issue in universities (speaking as a former GTA, it's something we were trained to deal with). But AI is like having another person write an essay for you, only cheaper :/ I think this could be a problem in the future. Dr Google and all that :/

And I worry about how AI already represents neurodiversity - I saw someone do some research on this, and AI presents an autistic person as a gloomy, skinny, white male in his twenties. It's not helpful.
8
Off Topic / Re: The Trivial Complaints Thread ... #3
« Last post by Beth3346 on Today at 01:07:39 PM »
I saw the video/stuff on the news about the bridge incident, sounds like a technology fail. So sorry for the families of those affected. It must've been terrifying to be caught up in that :/

I agree that the news these days is often scary and negative. I think what scares me most is the amount of news generated by something not quite true or how stories get twisted into something else - whether by media or social media or whatever. I always read multiple sources to get a good grasp on what is going on, but some of the ways in which things are interpreted worries me...

yeah i feel like i'm in this weird place where I do still look at mainstream news but i feel uneasy. i try to avoid the opinion columns. especially with the way the NYTimes covers trans issues and the "both sides" coverage. i'm sorry if you're view is that some people don't deserve equal rights i don't care what you have to say. i have specific columnists and reporters who work in areas i care about. but when it comes to breaking news it seems like the news gets a lot wrong. especially when stuff just happened. i try to give it a few days and then read up. it makes me feel almost conspiratorial sometimes to say i don't really trust the press. i do to a point but there's really no such thing as objective coverage. nothing is completely objective. i don't blame people for disengaging when its so much work to sort out what really happened. even events back in the 90s and aughts were covered so poorly IMO. later when events are revisited we get to find out all of the shenanigans that influenced coverage.

as far as AI goes i'm very very skeptical. i think it's something that could be beneficial if it worked well and could do mundane tasks. the problem is so much of LLM type AI doesn't work well. that's the kind of AI that takes in a bunch of data and provides output. ChatGPT, Diffusion, etc. i'm not super familiar with the generative AI for art. it seems like it could be cool for creative artists but i do think there should be some kind of compensation/opt out for artists who's work is used to train the AI. do these companies even know who's art was used thought? i doubt it. and the idea of people selling AI generated art doesn't sit well with me.

i'm not an artist but i am a web developer and the code hosting services i use have rolled out AI coding assistants that learn off code that people store on their hosting services. there is no compensation for using people's code to train the AIs. in fact they charge you to use the AI and your code helped train. there is also no guarantee that the code training the AI is good, working code either. the results based on my personal testing are hit or miss. it's nice for repetitive stuff. but as far as anything challenging i find the results disappointing based on the hype.

i could go on and on about AI and how much i don't like it. i would never think it's bad to play around with for fun. I've done this myself with ChatGPT. my real worry is jobs lost and poor quality output. there are already a bunch of junk AI books on Amazon put out by scammers trying to make money for nothing. i also worry that companies with greedy leadership who don't care about quality and want to increase profit will try to replace employees with AI. there isn't much regulation yet and the people who run the leading AI tech companies suck and don't care about people. TBH i think they're a bit out of their minds. replacing humans with bad AI is bad for employees who lose jobs and customers who have to deal with a poor experience. there isn't a vision from these people to make the world better. to have everyone do less work and live in abundance. in it's current form AI is a hype bubble and a grift. like crypto and the metaverse was/still is. even the commercials promoting AI in software and devices don't really say much about what the AI will actually do. it's just "hey we added AI. give us more money!"

and yeah the "deepfake" videos terrify me. especially since so many people believe that if it's on video, it must be real. also i've read that a lot of it is porn so that's horrifying for people who may end up in a video without consent.

like most stuff that comes out of big tech, AI could be cool. but not in it's current form.
9
Pony Corral / Re: Is this pony a prototype?
« Last post by Carrehz on Today at 12:06:11 PM »
Sadly this seems to happen a lot with G4s. I once saw someone trying to sell a Sugarcup for hundreds because she was in "rare variant packaging" (she was initially released as "Cupcake" before they changed her name to "Sugarcup".. or the other way around, I forget) -___-
10
Off Topic / Re: The Trivial Complaints Thread ... #3
« Last post by BlackCurtains on Today at 11:32:59 AM »
No, no, it's okay :) Beldarna's first language is not English so I don't think she meant anything bad by "haters", at least not how you seemed to take it :) I just wanted to stop a potential argument.

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