RalphMoustaccio

A Short Hike

@efesell: I'll be honest, I truly have no idea how you can't.

@imhungry: My issue is with the tone and tenor of the original post. In and of themselves, masking and distancing while around the general public are not problematic even in countries where it is not as common (except in regards to trying to enforce these standards amongst those who refuse to follow them). I do those things out of a sense of responsibility for myself, friends and family, and for people I don't know and will never meet. The post reads in a very hopeless way, however, when it refers to doing these things "for years to come," that eating out is "bad for people around you," and generally downplaying the efficacy of vaccination without any specific evidence cited.

@alistercat: I'm not referring to "conspiracy" articles. There are all kinds of articles in publications here in the States about X number of people in state Y that tested positive after being vaccinated. They're real, and broadly factual, but they're designed as clickbait. They don't actually provide any helpful information. Instead of highlighting how rare that is, it just reinforces the idea that the vaccines are somehow less effective than they are, which serves to diminish enthusiasm for getting it.

It's disheartening to see vaccine clinics having to close up because too few people showed up. Granted, a lot of that is due to the overly restrictive distribution tier system in place in most (if not all) states, but the people not showing up when they are eligible is likely due to misinformation and mistrust. Some of that is borne from being too harsh with rhetoric about what is not safe after vaccination. Your intent is not to discourage people, but by focusing on the perception that nothing will ever return to normal can manifest in people deciding it's not worth it. The campaign for vaccine uptake should be focused instead on what can safely be done after being vaccinated. That isn't everything, obviously, but it's a hell of a lot more than it would be without being vaccinated.

If you want to be negative about anything, what should be looked at negatively is states/countries easing generalized safety expectations too early. Just look up what happened in Miami with spring break idiots this week, if you haven't seen it. That's a direct result of the state of Florida saying "eff it, it's a free-for-all now." That is the irresponsible behavior that will continue to drive the pandemic, not dining in a restaurant with a couple of close friends after being vaccinated (even if I'm not ready to do that yet).

@alistercat: Not to be too pedantic, but you said that two fully vaccinated people are "less likely to transmit" it to one another. In reality, from what minimal data we have, the risk is closer to zero for those two people. Considering how transmissible Covid is between two non-vaccinated people, "less" doesn't mean "totally fine."

It's fine to tell people to be safe, but bordering on fear-mongering is irresponsible. It's like every one of the articles you see highlighting the fact that a minuscule percentage of vaccinated individuals have tested positive following vaccination, conveniently failing to mention until the end that all of them were at worst mildly symptomatic and none had adverse outcomes. Let's all maybe focus on the reality of the situation, and since I'm guessing that none of us is a virologist or epidemiologist, I'm content to listen to those that are, who are saying that reasonable caution will be safe and more and more stuff can safely be done as the rate of vaccination increases.

@efesell: Yes, but there's a world of difference between saying that fully vaccinated people have to observe strict social distancing and mask usage "for years to come," as the OP said, and being realistic that it's safe for groups of fully vaccinated people to explicitly not have to do that, per recently released CDC guidance. I think it's reasonable to think I can hug my non-immediate family this year, and have dinners with them indoors instead of waiting for perfect weather so we could hang out comfortably outdoors. I didn't get to last year.

@efesell: I'd suggest that those people are probably the ones being the least safe anyway, so there's not a substantial difference. Highlighting all the things one shouldn't do after being vaccinated will not encourage them to get it if they're already being pretty careless.

Is anyone, in good faith, arguing that vaccination is perfect and life will immediately go back to normal? I haven't seen that. I'm fully vaccinated, and many of my friends and family members on on their way to being, so if I have no hope of being able to see them in some meaningful capacity, what's the point? Of course I'm worried about others, but I (and everyone else ) also have selfish motivations for being vaccinated. Of course I will continue to be as safe as possible when dealing with any person who I know is not fully vaccinated, but the risk to me and others is significantly lessened as a result of my vaccination, so I am going to take more calculated risks in general as a result of that.

Life cannot continue like this indefinitely, and discouraging people from having aspirations of what they might be able to safely do after being vaccinated will not help convince people to get vaccinated. It's just going to make it seem worthless and cause people to forego it, when in reality these are some of the most effective vaccinations ever developed and released. We've effectively eradicated diseases before with far less effective vaccines due to high degrees of uptake. Unfortunately, it's 2021, and half the population has seemingly lost it's ability to think rationally, relying on social media to reinforce their wild beliefs. If people were convinced that life could return to something very close to the pre-pandemic days if they would just get vaccinated, then maybe they'd be more likely to get the damn thing when it's their turn.

4k/60 HDR on console, 1440p/up to 165 on PC.

@bigsocrates: With regard to the virtual surround codecs, the fact that they are improving would necessitate less effort being put into a traditional positional sound mix, since the codec does the work to synthesize the positional nature of the sound from the stereo mix. Taking the time to hard-code a fully positional 5.1 or 7.1 mix wouldn't provide a substantial enough benefit to those relying on virtual surround to make it worth it, based on my admittedly limited understanding of how these things work. And if there aren't as many people with dedicated 5.1/7.1 setups, the time and effort to properly code those likely is something that can reduce an already tight budget of both time and money on game development.

I will disagree about the prevalence of surround sound systems in the early to mid-2000s. As I said in my original reply, those things were everywhere. You couldn't go into Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc, without almost literally tripping over them. I knew so many people who bought them because they were only slightly more expensive than a standalone DVD player, and, hey, surround sound! Never mind that they were almost universally horrible and probably did more harm than good in terms of making a surround sound setup in the home seem worthwhile. If the sound is barely better than a soundbar, why mess with all those speakers, wires, etc?

I absolutely agree with you that sound is critical component of an immersive experience, and I am a bit bummed that my expensive, acquired-piecemeal-over-several-years surround setup doesn't get more of a workout. But again, I end up playing wearing headphones 80%+ of the time, so I guess I'm content with good enough, too. Unless it starts impacting sales, I don't think we'll see much of a change.