Hi,
I would like to share the demo of a game I have been working on called FACEMINER, where the name of the game is to build and manage a data harvesting empire for a shady A.I. megacorp. Part management sim, part narrative-driven clicker thriller, it is hopefully at the very least one of the more unique games about biometric data harvesting that you will play today. This article on Rock Paper Shotgun probably explains it better than I can.
Steam - Trailer - Itch (for Linux build)
The demo is completable, and takes roughly 30-60 minutes to finish. And you even get a printable certificate at the end! We’ve recently pushed a big update in preparation for Next Fest tomorrow, so it’s a great time to play.
There's a lot left to do, but it's slowly coming together for a full release some time later this year. Any feedback on how to make this as good as it can be is more than welcome. I really hope you enjoy playing it!
Brief bio:
Build a biometric data processing empire from scratch in FACEMINER, the hardcore thriller clicker set in 1999. Classify data, upgrade mining infrastructure, and scale up your A.I. surveillance empire to obscene ends in this narrative-driven incremental management sim with a dystopian twist.

Since I was in my twenties and first suffered serious depression, I've kept notebooks where I've written down my fears and worries. There must be 10 or so of them lying around in various places. Even if it didn't seem so at the time, it was and is always good to put things down on paper in order to gain perspective, or just get them off the carousel going round in my mind. I'm writing at the moment in a journal that's 7 years old. It's got writings that span the breakup of my marriage and my moving in with a new partner, my separation from my children and subsequent conflicts with my ex over time with them, career worries and desperation. When I occasionally check a page at random as I'm leafing through to find a blank page, I read snippets from events in the past. I though I'd read them and think "pull yourself together mate!" but usually I feel sympathy for myself back then. My question is, is it worth keeping hold of these diaries? On the one hand they show that I got through situations worse than I'm in now, but on the other maybe it's not good to encourage navel gazing and perhaps revive old anxieties to lump on top of today's ones. I doubt there's a firm answer to this, but I thought it'd be worth asking. Cheers.

Warehouse number 866-222-9438 ext 7705555 Warehouse dispatch 609-267-6700 Checkout Bags (Paper) Small Medium Large Carrying Handle 503383 503532 560011 167943 Balloons (Balloon Vendor: Rainbow Balloons 800-200-8181) Helium (Call 888-825-1624) Ribbon Rolls Blue Red White Yellow 419930 419928 419912 419931 Weight Colors Pastel 419909 Primary 419910 BOPIS Sticker Labels 466302 Check Ribbon 106982 Counterfeit Detector Pens (please note that these do not detect all counterfeit bills) 953553 Coupon Center Paper 438059 Employee Purchase Stickers 311516 Money Cards 145319 Next Register Sign 458547 Rainchecks 451435 Receipt Paper Rolls 106983 Shopper Assistant Card 295126 Cleaning/Breakroom Cleaners All-Purpose 314104 Glass 314013 Combination Lock 282574 Cutlery Set (250 packs) 718205 Garbage Bags Large Outside Small 443549 114561 108381 Gloves Medium 624149 Large 633020 Hand Sanitizer (1gal w/pump) 363525 Paper Towels 313940 Soap Refill Dispenser FlooWall Protector 464102 488010 467691 Toilet 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Signs 269031 Large 234446 Stapler 423012 Staples 454736 Three Hole Punch 536094 Two Hole Punch 421412 Other Black Wrap Tape 457721 Box Cutters (Safety) 587532 Label Scrapers 422204 Magnetic Key 172888 Packaging Tape 091496 Recycling Boxes 920394 Stapler 423012 Staples 454736 Telephone Cord 848454 Sales Floor Dividers Sticky T-Dividers Vitamin 920744 277483 146687 Endcap Sign Holder 793007 Flag Sign Holder 564179 Hang Tabs 358853 Inventory Control Clips 966515 J-Hooks 855411 Pegs 4 inch 4 inch cosmetics 6 inch 8 inch 422543 973842 422550 422675 12 inch DL/DPC order 2-piece 317211 Push Pins 653253 Runners/Overlays 4 inch 6 inch 6 inch cosmetics 8 inch 12 inch 184762 183731 973826 184283 972539 Stoploks 688729 Wire Basket Label Holders 972505 Wire Basket Sign Clip 298937 Photo Bamboo Ornament 365010 Banner Boxes 275483 Board Prints 11x14 425014 16x20 570511 Books 4x6 329889 8x10 439957 8.5x11 802203 Premium Faux Leather 265611 Custom Cover Layback 124727 Calendars 5x7 Bamboo 515956 8x10 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Repositional Adhesive Poster 275058 Puzzles 790237 Toner Duplex Printer (CX3240) Black Cyan Magenta Yellow 401395 401422 401448 401471 Poster Printer (Epson P6000) Cyan 312260 Light Cyan 393826 Light Black 502394 Light Light Black 382310 Matte Black 400104 Photo Black 407634 Vivid Light Magenta 771758 Vivid Magenta 587501 Yellow 254884 Wall Tile 8x8 304458 Yard/Lawn Sign Assembly Kit 726295 Grommets 617726 VinylMax Banner Media Roll 324024 Yellow Bags 655484 Pharmacy Bags Blue 695071 Green 458256 Prescription 982827 USPS 417098 Bandages 326957 Bottles 2 oz 4oz 6oz 8oz 16oz 340620 340646 340653 340661 340687 Boxes Records 437863 Returns 915373 USPS 418989 Caps Child-Resistant 20 108940 40-60 108942 Non Child-Resistant 20 145622 40-60 145624 Checkout Bags (Paper) Small Medium Large 503383 503532 560011 Gloves Medium 624149 Large 633020 Labels Barcode 182959 Prescription 399469 Narcotic Key Envelope 695783 Prescription Pad 1 Line 182779 2 Line 163112 Printer Paper 088369 Sharps Container 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Hi everyone, we had some velcro stuck on the wall for a block out curtain and upon taking it off it ripped the paint off with it.
Naturally I grabbed some filler and some paint however it really isn’t looking great.
I’ve got a feeling I’ve got the wrong type of paint?
It seems the original paint just isn’t really sticking on properly in the first place. Seems like it’s a paint that it’s supposed to reduce marks etc.
Can anyone point me in the right direction here?
To add: I’m used to gyprock walls, it’s almost as if this builder has used the wrong side of the gyprock and it’s the paper side?

Hi everyone, we had some velcro stuck on the wall for a block out curtain and upon taking it off it ripped the paint off with it.
Naturally I grabbed some filler and some paint however it really isn’t looking great.
I’ve got a feeling I’ve got the wrong type of paint?
It seems the original paint just isn’t really sticking on properly in the first place. Seems like it’s a paint that it’s supposed to reduce marks etc.
Can anyone point me in the right direction here?
To add: I’m used to gyprock walls, it’s almost as if this builder has used the wrong side of the gyprock and it’s the paper side?

Hello all! I’m hoping to get your input on which type/brand of sketchbook I should purchase next. I was inspired to post here after getting some excellent pencil recommendations on a recent post where someone asked what art supplies we buy despite the high cost (something like that, sorry to that OP if I’m butchering it!). Here’s my dilemma:
I prefer using multi-media paper books for sketching. I like how the paper is thicker than standard sketch paper, and I can always throw in a watercolor piece or use my acrylic paint markers in the notebook if the mood strikes me. The downside to using multi-media paper sketchbooks is pencil markings are frequently left on blank sheets of paper after closing the notebook. Maybe I need to get one book for painting and another for sketching, and I’m open to advice like that. I would still prefer the sketchbook to have thicker paper, though, if possible. Any thoughts?
Side note, my preference would be a spiral bound sketchbook, but it doesn’t have to be if it’s a strong recommendation otherwise. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this! All responses would be appreciated! Be well! 💜

It seems I can only have graph/grid paper or numbered pages but not both, in a spiral bound notebook, size A5. Can that really not exist?

TLDR below.
My partner and I purchased a “fixer” home in a suburb a few years ago. We had just had a baby but the house desperately needed remodeling, so we decided to remodel it before moving in.
After interviewing 3-4 general contractors, we hired one that we thought seemed promising as we were looking for a GC that would handhold since we both worked full time and had an infant. This GC said they have designers on their payroll so that was a huge reason we hired them. It was an extensive job requiring the removal of a load-bearing wall; we remodeled the kitchen, primary bath, powder room, redid the flooring in the entire house, fireplace, stairs, and more.
The contractor had estimated it would take 3-4 months once the city approved the plans… boy were we naive.
We ended up having SO many setbacks and problems: •The engineer (recommended by our GC, mind you) made several mistakes and took ages to submit plans and revisions to the city •The city took forever to approve the plans •The GC’s “designers” didn’t help much at all with the design, so I had to research everything myself to ensure our fixtures and their locations would be up to code. This delayed us approving the designs. •The GC’s company grew fast during this time, faster than they could keep up, so we’d sometimes have to wait weeks for them to begin working on our house again after a passed inspection. •The GC made more mistakes than I can count and had to redo a lot of their work. •We had some leaks from heavy rain and several problems were uncovered due to the age of the house that we had to repair.
All in all, our “3-4 month” remodel took 2.5 years and nearly broke my partner and me.. it’s been tough.
So two days before our final inspection, an anonymous neighbor posted a note on our door during a block party on our street. It was an 8.5”x11” lined paper ripped out of a notebook and written in marker:
We are going to city to complain about this Construction site 3 years too long
I don’t think it’s either of our next-door neighbors since we are friendly with both, but we don’t really know anyone else on the street yet since we have yet to live there.
So now I feel nervous and guarded about finally moving in, which we are doing this week. I worry our neighbors probably hate us before they’ve even met us. I was looking forward to finally having some peace after living in limbo for the last 2.5 years, but now I feel like we’re probably going to be watched, scrutinized and judged, and our neighbors will be prejudiced against us.
Can anyone offer some advice? I’m already a socially anxious introvert, so this just makes me not want to be friendly to my new neighbors other than our next-door neighbors that we’ve already met and like.
TLDR; bought a fixer home that we remodeled before we moved in, but the remodel unexpectedly took 2.5 years due to many setbacks. Anonymous neighbor posted a passive aggressive note on our front door last week. Feeling guarded, unsure what to do as we are moving in this week.

Age of Legends
Prologue(Death and birth of a dragon)

Rand was happy, there wasn’t much else he could say about how he felt right there at that specific moment. Lying there in bed wearing nothing but his small cloths and a silk shirt half buttoned. Beside him sleeping so peacefully was one of his beautiful wives, Elmindreada, though she hated that name and preferred Min. Thinking back on many long years of peace and growth, yes he was fated to break the world, and he had. Though the prophecies never mentioned the creation and growth he would also leave behind. The creation of the black tower and the worldwide acceptance of male Aes Sedai, his crown and epitome of success the cleansing of saiadin. That and the discovery of ancient knowledge to confirm anyone should be able to learn to touch at least a small part of the true source, at least most people could. Those two things alone would have vast and far-reaching consequences for the good. The covers beside him shifted as his wife turned over in her sleep showing him her short curly hair. Thoughts drifting again to convincing the Aeil and Tu’athan(the tinkers he thought fondly still) to make peace, them taking it a step further and settling in the two rivers. The tinkers, the wondering people and followers of the way of the leaf, coming to terms with the Aiel spear wielders and settling in one place, that one place being his boyhood homeland. Perrin was there, as well as all the Emond fielders, what’s more they set him up like some king and started calling the place Manetheren.
Mat even came back and settled down to retire with the remainder of his family after his wife the empress died. Rand frowned because that wasn’t a happy memory, her battle with some kind of internal growth that even the best healers couldn’t fix, it was slow and painful. She was tough and knew enough to put things in order so there wouldn’t be any war for succession, but after her death and with no children not adopted, Mat just had no pull to stay. He came back and Perrin gave him an estate where he spent the rest of his days carousing in taverns even if no one would play dice with him again. The rest of his days were not much however, less than two years after his wife Mattrim died of a heart attack. The same strange fox head medallion he wore around his neck that had saved him so many times from enemy power wielders, due to its powers of absorbing any of the one power used against the wearer, was strangely the main cause of his death as there had been an Aes Sedai capable of healing close by. Rand wondered what ever became of that medallion. Trying to shift his thoughts back to happier things he thought of Elayne another of his wives and queen of the region this new “kingdom” was growing. Or at least she was. Having not one but two kingdoms to run was taxing her, especially when one played that awful game of houses so much, as if it were breathing. She actually willingly gave that area to Perrin, that and more besides. “Having friends at your back, especially friends who know they owe you can only help.”, he remembered her saying when he asked her.
He laughed remembering how her cute golden-haired little face grew so stern while she rounded on him for not caring about his friends and shouldn’t they also get something for all the help they provided at the last battle. Of course, it also had nothing to do with being such close friends with Perrin’s wife Fail. Manetheren though, when asked Perrin just shrugged his huge shoulders saying one name is as good as any, and it was the one that everyone agreed on.
Min groaned softly beside him still wrapped in the silken bedding spread. His laugh seemed to have disturbed her, he quickly stifled it and glared at the lavish bedroom they slept in as if that were the fault for his mirth. Lying on top of the silken covers because he never quite got used to sleeping on feather mattresses. It really was a lavish bedroom, filled with rugs and wall coverings, paintings, not one but two large dressers with mirrors, a matching and equally large wardrobe, currently opened showing two other mirrors on the inside of the doors, smaller than the dresser mirrors, and a neat array of blouses and trousers with floral embroidery(Min’s things). Otherwise, there was also a washstand with another small mirror, a desk and one chair slightly askew and away from the desk. On the desk are several stacks of books, and an open notebook with a nearby quill and ink pot. There was a lone unlit lamp also on the desk gilded in gold, as well as several gold gilded wall lamps also unlit around the room.
Sighing softly as Min settled back to comfortable sleep, he stared back up at the bland whitewashed ceiling above him and thought about the schools he had patroned. So many new ideas and inventions were springing up and with traveling prevalent they all spread to the world almost as fast as the ideas can be thought up. This would hopefully lead to a golden age for the world, and his schools were even branching off on their own into new learning institutes. These alone seemed to keep the peace between all the nations. Rand couldn’t tell if he was trying to be modest or humble. Yes he patroned and started the first few schools, but it was not all him coming up with any of the ideas and inventions, many of which had become marvels in and of themselves. Transportation, communication, education These would be left behind and he would be known for that as well as the other.
Breaking the world to make it whole, and his victory with that world’s armies at the last battle. He fought the dark one while the armies of all the nations fought the shadowspawn and darkfriends and dreadlords. Despite everything against him, including it seemed sometimes even the creator, he not only won the battle, but he survived it, he survived it and had a nice long life. The world was at peace, headed to a golden age which he would get credit for, and so Rand was happy. His eyes closed and his thoughts grew that sort of muffled feeling they get just as they start turning into dreams.
PAIN! Rand knew pain, he was no stranger to hurts, especially from a half healed old wound in his side, but that was not the same thing right now. For some reason panic started rising up in him, this was something new, this was something worse. A sharp pain again, in his chest, his body wildly spasmed up kicking his sleeping wife awake.
“Ow you bloody tall buffoon, if you think you can kick me out of bed you have another thing …” Min trailed off as another spasm of pain racked through Rand. Her face contorting with fear as she watched him clutching his chest nearly double over with the pain spasm. He tried to tell her he would be alright, but all that came out was a groaning grunt. He tried lifting his hand to show her it would be alright, but he couldn’t get it to move. Suddenly a hand hit him in his face, it was his hand. He couldn’t feel his hand or his arm. Fear started creeping in as another spasm of pain caused him to let out another groan and clutch at his chest with this hand he couldn’t feel.
“Creator shine his light on me, of course you would choose to die when you’re with me.” Min started shouting hysterically. “For the love of light you bloody wool head, you hang on until I can get Aviendha to come heal you, she’s not far, just hold on damn you.”
Rand vaguely had an impression of Min running towards and out the door. Another spasm of pain, except somehow this was less. He knew it should hurt just as much, but it didn’t. He must have found the void so it wouldn’t hurt as much, that was it. Rand thought about his third and final wife Aviendha, how she would likely come in to find him as healthy as a bull and upset his stomachache disturbed her wise one’s practice. Stomachache? Wasn’t it his chest that was hurting him? Another very small spasm, yes its his chest, but he was also feeling decidedly nauseous too, and that was the greatest issue right? Sleep was all he needed, he would sleep, and everything would be fine in the morning, tomorrow he had to get up early to sheer the sheep.
The void completely surrounds and envelops Rand. As he fades away he hears a sinister voice in his head, “YOU WON THIS ROUND DRAGON REBORN BUT WE WILL COME FACE TO FACE AGAIN” The dark one, what, again? No, the dark one is dead, am I dead, wake up you light blinded fool. There was nothing but the void, not even the light of saiadin could be seen. Rand listened as hard as he could, he thought he heard something, something almost familiar. There it was again, soft but rhythmic, sounding not exactly far, but muffled as if listening through water. Thump Thump and it hit him, that’s the sound of a heartbeat, but who’s heartbeat his? Sleep, that’s what he needed, a really good nights sleep and he would feel better in the morning. Rand drifted off into a dreamless sleep listening to the heartbeat, Thump Thump.
Thus did the dragon reborn die after seeing the end of one age turned into the beginning of another. The people of the land wept at his passing, they swore they would remember him forever and always. Time however is not a kind mistress, when an age is gone it starts to fade from existence, times deeds even people change in the telling’s of the years and centuries. Eventually when the wheel goes round and gives birth to the age again all details have been forgotten, muffled, or contorted.

Mariann Jo’sheen Sedai was old. She had a proper last name once if she could just remember. It had been so long ago since she had last thought of it, a life in the white tower could do that, and Sedai was as good a last name as could be for formality. Just saying Mariann was old was an understatement though, being a woman with a stronger channeling ability, and having sworn on all 8 Life Oath Rods, a prerequisite to becoming Amyrlin of the tower, that she even has any grey hair showing means she must be well past 800 years old, and to show the amount of age she did it must be closer to past 900 years. She was still sharp in mind mostly, at least anything from the last 100 years or so she could recall as sharp as if it happened yesterday. Had it really been longer than a hundred years since she last though of her family name, having long lasted past the last of her lineage, her family long gone or married into others.
She thought even harder surly she had been at her last relative’s funeral, when was it, it was a great aunt she remembered, and the surname was …, she thought really hard. She was in the Amyrlin’s bedchamber reserved for the current leader of the white tower. That said like most of the past Amyrlins before her she kept the bedroom nice and simple. The single window held a cooling fan with right below it a heater coil. The other wall held a closed door which led into her bathroom, the next wall holding another door leading out of the bedchamber into the office of her role. The last wall held the only other furniture besides the plain brown four poster bed she was laying on. A white nightstand with built in mirror and matching white clothed chair. The bathroom was large and would hold her wardrobe of clothes along with the indoor plumbing necessities.
Mariann thought back to each of the eight oaths she took on the life rods, trying to remember which one she had last taken when she attended her aunt’s funeral. Small cylindrical devices no longer than her arm, when you take an oath on one your life actually increases by a standard lifetime or roughly 100 years depending on the person, those stronger in the one power given slightly more. Really giving any oath at all would do for the increasing your life, the only requirement being you channel Saiadar while making your oath and someone else that can also channel does so to activate it. However each specific Ajah required you to take a specific oath, and the eighth oath rod was solely for those like her who have taken the Amyrlin seat after having have pledged on the other seven, again a specific oath.
“I will say no word that is untrue”. Eight oath rods, and eight times this is spoken to ensure you do not offer a false oath, as if anyone would think of lying so many truth seekers everywhere.
“I will faithfully serve as Amyrlin to all of my children for the rest of my days”. The Amyrlin seat was a lifelong position and would not open again until her death. Serve all her children, it was said that the ancient honorific Amyrlin meant something like mother to all, it means that she was a servant to everyone in the world, matter it not she was the leader of the white tower. That first part about serving faithfully as Amyrlin could leave some wiggle room depending on how one viewed the title of Amyrlin, the last however left no wiggle room for anything.
“I will treat everyone with fairness and justice as is prescribed by the dai’shan aiel of the grey tower and the Aes Sedai code of ethics”. Those were binding stronger than time itself. The grey tower first because only the dai’shan aiel more than anyone can decide what is fair and right, they were and are the original truth seekers among so much more. You would also have as much power to reach the moon as you would to get the Aes Sedai code of ethics changed. First it would take a proposal from either of the leaders from the white or black tower. Either the Amyrlin of the white tower or the Pope of the black tower has to make a suggested change, which then needs to go through each Ajah/Faction and receive 90% approval, then it gets sent to the other tower to make its way up through the chains until it finally ends with the other towers leader. If it passes all of that it gets sent to the grey tower for approval again 90% before finally appearing before the first servant leader of the grey tower for final approval, and at any stage it can be stopped if it doesn’t pass.
That wasn’t it though, no she was not Amyrlin at her aunt’s funeral. Before then was the Blue ajah, which was closer. But still too recent, what level was she? The sleeping shift she wore was one of the new fads called a one piece. It was literally one garment that covered both legs and torso. It had several convenient buttons for keeping it on or taking it off. It was grey cotton all one solid color, and it was bunching up at the knees. Mariann distractedly Jerked it back into position. Her thoughts drifted too far back to when she had her very first foretelling which was that she would one day become Amyrlin seat. She was a young girl of only 16 years, and she knew without a doubt. It came in bursts though and it was not something she could control.
This vision came on stronger than any she had ever encountered before. So strong it jerked her body stiff as a board and slammed her down thankfully into the bed she was already laying on. An Evil shadow of a man, a giant taller than mountains, and blacker than the darkest shadows on a moonless night, peering down at the world smiling, that smile turning your blood to jelly and freezing you in place with its ill intent. A great serpentine beast came flying from the other side of the world, Long and scales glimmering like diamonds with talons made of pure gold but sharper than the sharpest knife, fire trailing from its partially open moth off its gleaming sharp teeth. It was equally large as the malevolent shadow man and flew on giant tornado causing wings straight at the other. They fought a great battle against each other, but in doing so caused so many deaths as swaths of their destruction ravaged the world. A flash of light and Mariann was staring at the grey tower as if just a few hundred yards away. She started walking towards it only to watch in horror and bewilderment as the tower before her cracked and collapsed as if a mirror or glass shattered. Another flash of light and she saw a baby boy, but he aged so fast right before her eyes until he died as an old man. She couldn’t remember much, but she knew deep down that he was in some way related to the other visions and this man, for it was definitely a man, was likely the cause of them.
Opening her eyes to stare at the brown four poster cloth above her and remembering every detail about her vision she distractedly spoke to herself . “Goshin is my sur name and I last heard it at Aunt Maragel Goshin’s funeral while I was at the green level”. She shook her head, that wasn’t important anymore if it ever really was. She quickly sat up in her woolen one piece swinging her feet over the side of the bed and hurried to her nightstand. Sitting in the chair she reached in one drawer to get paper and another to get an ink pointer. Channeling a single small strand of fire into a swinging glass bulb above her bed brought light into the room. She hastily started scribbling down every detail from her vision, she was grateful she always kept ink and paper nearby to do so.

Mr. Telamon was a nervous wreck while sitting in the hospital waiting room. He somehow knew, sensed something was wrong with his wife’s delivery. Dai’shan aiel were everywhere; as were nurses, patients or close kin waiting, Every once in a while a doctor’s assistant would come out and call a name ushering someone to see a doctor. Really bad cases would be taken in through a separate entrance known only to the healers. It didn’t matter, and he got confirmation as those doors opened up and not the assistant, but the doctor who had taken his wife looked around the room first at the dai’shan, then at him. A group of three of the white clad figures started moving towards him even before the doctor did. They felt his grief or rather the grief he was going to feel, even before he himself felt it. That and they knew it would take three of them to calm him down. Tears were streaming from his eyes before the doctor even started speaking.
“There was a complication during the pregnancy, your son is ok, your wife however did not make it, I’m so sorry. She did manage to tell us a name before she passed. Lews, Lews Therin after her father. Is that what you would like on the birth certificate?”
Baby Lews’s father numbly nodded, and the doctor walked away as uncontrollable sobs started emanating from the man. The three dai’shan aiel circled around him arm in arm and started singing a song of comfort and peace and mourning.
***
Rand Al’thor was asleep soundly when something woke him up, but he couldn’t tell what or where, or even anything for that matter. It was like the void, nothingness, but a sound, not a feeling, a heartbeat. The heartbeat was much faster than it was and suddenly something pushed him hard in the head. Go away he thought I’m trying to sleep. However the push came back stronger than before, this time managing to flip him upside down, upside down?, he could tell direction in this floating nothingness. Really awake now Rand tried to remember, remember?, remember what? Again the push and he was being squeezed to death and suddenly he remembered something about the dark one. A voice, a word, a sentence, the dark one wanted him dead. Was this the dark one trying to kill him, again push, again very tight squeeze, this time a light as if from a tunnel. It wasn’t the only light though, Rand went to the real void, and he saw it, Saiadin. He reached out with all his might to grab it and it came like a flood. He couldn’t control it, he had no strength, and his memory was foggy, he just expelled it to get out the other light and away from the pushing and death squeeze.
As Saiadin left him so did more and more memories, he tried to shout that he killed the dark one, sealed the bore so it could never be open. All that came out of his mouth was a scream. No blood and fire no I did this already, I won, I’m done. And with that last thought Rand Al’thor fell deep deep asleep into the furthest recesses of the brain. Lews took a deep breath and let out another scream wanting his mother or anyone to come pick him up and sooth his little soul.

The dragon is born!

Chapter 1
16 years later
The wheel of time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the fifth age by some and the first by others. An age yet to come, an age long past, a dark icy wind arose from about as far north as you can get. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the wheel of time. But it was a beginning.
A steam vent in an icy mountain let out a puff of sulfur like particles riding the wind. High and fast the dark tainted wind rode across the Nym fields, high enough to escape the notice of the Nym, ever vigilant in their desire to protect the world. Over the borderlands of mankind, given graciously by the Nym when mankind needs more space to grow. Still high in the sky the dark wind blew through wild wilderness where only the Nym, the Ogier, the dai’shan aiel, and the Aes Sedai were allowed to travel if at some risk. The wind started descending as it traveled into the warmer southern air. Up ahead in the distance was a magnificently large tower made of stone black like obsidian, but much stronger. Along the northern wall of this Black tower were several windows, most open hoping to catch some of the cool breeze which it did nicely.
It was into one of these windows the dark wind blew, a classroom, though filled only with boys. The tainted breeze flew around several students, all dressed in black school uniforms and sitting at wooden desks on little rickety stool like chairs with just the barest of backrest. The flow of air flew so close to the face of one student he gave a start, finally going up the next nearby student’s nose just as he took in a deep breath.
Lews gave such a start at the intrusion, and he stood up sneezing loudly, the rancid smell still strong in his nose. Taller than most of his peers he certainly stood over everyone’s head while they were all sitting down.
“What are you doing, you look like a dork, hurry and sit down before anyone notices.” His best friend [Ishamael]() tried to warn him. However, it was already too late for that, most of the class was now looking at him which made him self conscious even if the women all said he looked like a dream. Worse, the teacher at the front of the class in a very similar black colored uniform was looking at him expectedly.
“Yes Lews, do you think you know the answer?” To Lews’s horror he realized he had been spending most of the class in a daydream about being the most powerful weaver ever. It was important that distinction, woman channel men weave. Saiadar and Saiadin, two halves of the same whole, both apart of the one power the true source. Everyone could learn to use it, or at least almost everyone. The dai’shan don’t channel or weave for all the power of their songs, not one of them it’s a law to join among other things. Other people might be so weak in the power it should be they don’t have it at all, there are objects which can amplify or temporarily give someone use of the one power, those with so little power that resort to using these transcognative devices were often socially outcast. Transmogs they were called when someone was being nice.
That didn’t help him now, he was in history class, and definitely not studying Transmogs. Lews desperately wracked his brain trying to remember what they were discussing. The teacher’s slight smile was starting to droop to a slight frown. Nym’s that was what they were discussing, what about Nym’s? Desperately looking around for some hope, he finally remembered. It was a question about the first Nym, what was his name?
“Goak him jim knee?” Lews answered with a rightfully apologetic look on his face. Sighing the teacher said “close, Oakhimgimee. At least he was close!” The teacher got progressively louder while giving the rest of the class an evil eye. The laughter that had started quickly quieted. Just at that particular moment a loud bell decided to ring calling an end to that class period.
As the other students started standing up, talking, and starting to head for the door, the teacher weaved a small weave that produced a louder voice reminding the class they had the test coming up at the end of the week.
Lews slowly grabbed his bag and followed the steady stream of students leaving the class.

Age of Legends
Prologue(Death and birth of a dragon)

Rand was happy, there wasn’t much else he could say about how he felt right there at that specific moment. Lying there in bed wearing nothing but his small cloths and a silk shirt half buttoned. Beside him sleeping so peacefully was one of his beautiful wives, Elmindreada, though she hated that name and preferred Min. Thinking back on many long years of peace and growth, yes he was fated to break the world, and he had. Though the prophecies never mentioned the creation and growth he would also leave behind. The creation of the black tower and the worldwide acceptance of male Aes Sedai, his crown and epitome of success the cleansing of saiadin. That and the discovery of ancient knowledge to confirm anyone should be able to learn to touch at least a small part of the true source, at least most people could. Those two things alone would have vast and far-reaching consequences for the good. The covers beside him shifted as his wife turned over in her sleep showing him her short curly hair. Thoughts drifting again to convincing the Aeil and Tu’athan(the tinkers he thought fondly still) to make peace, them taking it a step further and settling in the two rivers. The tinkers, the wondering people and followers of the way of the leaf, coming to terms with the Aiel spear wielders and settling in one place, that one place being his boyhood homeland. Perrin was there, as well as all the Emond fielders, what’s more they set him up like some king and started calling the place Manetheren.
Mat even came back and settled down to retire with the remainder of his family after his wife the empress died. Rand frowned because that wasn’t a happy memory, her battle with some kind of internal growth that even the best healers couldn’t fix, it was slow and painful. She was tough and knew enough to put things in order so there wouldn’t be any war for succession, but after her death and with no children not adopted, Mat just had no pull to stay. He came back and Perrin gave him an estate where he spent the rest of his days carousing in taverns even if no one would play dice with him again. The rest of his days were not much however, less than two years after his wife Mattrim died of a heart attack. The same strange fox head medallion he wore around his neck that had saved him so many times from enemy power wielders, due to its powers of absorbing any of the one power used against the wearer, was strangely the main cause of his death as there had been an Aes Sedai capable of healing close by. Rand wondered what ever became of that medallion. Trying to shift his thoughts back to happier things he thought of Elayne another of his wives and queen of the region this new “kingdom” was growing. Or at least she was. Having not one but two kingdoms to run was taxing her, especially when one played that awful game of houses so much, as if it were breathing. She actually willingly gave that area to Perrin, that and more besides. “Having friends at your back, especially friends who know they owe you can only help.”, he remembered her saying when he asked her.
He laughed remembering how her cute golden-haired little face grew so stern while she rounded on him for not caring about his friends and shouldn’t they also get something for all the help they provided at the last battle. Of course, it also had nothing to do with being such close friends with Perrin’s wife Fail. Manetheren though, when asked Perrin just shrugged his huge shoulders saying one name is as good as any, and it was the one that everyone agreed on.
Min groaned softly beside him still wrapped in the silken bedding spread. His laugh seemed to have disturbed her, he quickly stifled it and glared at the lavish bedroom they slept in as if that were the fault for his mirth. Lying on top of the silken covers because he never quite got used to sleeping on feather mattresses. It really was a lavish bedroom, filled with rugs and wall coverings, paintings, not one but two large dressers with mirrors, a matching and equally large wardrobe, currently opened showing two other mirrors on the inside of the doors, smaller than the dresser mirrors, and a neat array of blouses and trousers with floral embroidery(Min’s things). Otherwise, there was also a washstand with another small mirror, a desk and one chair slightly askew and away from the desk. On the desk are several stacks of books, and an open notebook with a nearby quill and ink pot. There was a lone unlit lamp also on the desk gilded in gold, as well as several gold gilded wall lamps also unlit around the room.
Sighing softly as Min settled back to comfortable sleep, he stared back up at the bland whitewashed ceiling above him and thought about the schools he had patroned. So many new ideas and inventions were springing up and with traveling prevalent they all spread to the world almost as fast as the ideas can be thought up. This would hopefully lead to a golden age for the world, and his schools were even branching off on their own into new learning institutes. These alone seemed to keep the peace between all the nations. Rand couldn’t tell if he was trying to be modest or humble. Yes he patroned and started the first few schools, but it was not all him coming up with any of the ideas and inventions, many of which had become marvels in and of themselves. Transportation, communication, education These would be left behind and he would be known for that as well as the other.
Breaking the world to make it whole, and his victory with that world’s armies at the last battle. He fought the dark one while the armies of all the nations fought the shadowspawn and darkfriends and dreadlords. Despite everything against him, including it seemed sometimes even the creator, he not only won the battle, but he survived it, he survived it and had a nice long life. The world was at peace, headed to a golden age which he would get credit for, and so Rand was happy. His eyes closed and his thoughts grew that sort of muffled feeling they get just as they start turning into dreams.
PAIN! Rand knew pain, he was no stranger to hurts, especially from a half healed old wound in his side, but that was not the same thing right now. For some reason panic started rising up in him, this was something new, this was something worse. A sharp pain again, in his chest, his body wildly spasmed up kicking his sleeping wife awake.
“Ow you bloody tall buffoon, if you think you can kick me out of bed you have another thing …” Min trailed off as another spasm of pain racked through Rand. Her face contorting with fear as she watched him clutching his chest nearly double over with the pain spasm. He tried to tell her he would be alright, but all that came out was a groaning grunt. He tried lifting his hand to show her it would be alright, but he couldn’t get it to move. Suddenly a hand hit him in his face, it was his hand. He couldn’t feel his hand or his arm. Fear started creeping in as another spasm of pain caused him to let out another groan and clutch at his chest with this hand he couldn’t feel.
“Creator shine his light on me, of course you would choose to die when you’re with me.” Min started shouting hysterically. “For the love of light you bloody wool head, you hang on until I can get Aviendha to come heal you, she’s not far, just hold on damn you.”
Rand vaguely had an impression of Min running towards and out the door. Another spasm of pain, except somehow this was less. He knew it should hurt just as much, but it didn’t. He must have found the void so it wouldn’t hurt as much, that was it. Rand thought about his third and final wife Aviendha, how she would likely come in to find him as healthy as a bull and upset his stomachache disturbed her wise one’s practice. Stomachache? Wasn’t it his chest that was hurting him? Another very small spasm, yes its his chest, but he was also feeling decidedly nauseous too, and that was the greatest issue right? Sleep was all he needed, he would sleep, and everything would be fine in the morning, tomorrow he had to get up early to sheer the sheep.
The void completely surrounds and envelops Rand. As he fades away he hears a sinister voice in his head, “YOU WON THIS ROUND DRAGON REBORN BUT WE WILL COME FACE TO FACE AGAIN” The dark one, what, again? No, the dark one is dead, am I dead, wake up you light blinded fool. There was nothing but the void, not even the light of saiadin could be seen. Rand listened as hard as he could, he thought he heard something, something almost familiar. There it was again, soft but rhythmic, sounding not exactly far, but muffled as if listening through water. Thump Thump and it hit him, that’s the sound of a heartbeat, but who’s heartbeat his? Sleep, that’s what he needed, a really good nights sleep and he would feel better in the morning. Rand drifted off into a dreamless sleep listening to the heartbeat, Thump Thump.
Thus did the dragon reborn die after seeing the end of one age turned into the beginning of another. The people of the land wept at his passing, they swore they would remember him forever and always. Time however is not a kind mistress, when an age is gone it starts to fade from existence, times deeds even people change in the telling’s of the years and centuries. Eventually when the wheel goes round and gives birth to the age again all details have been forgotten, muffled, or contorted.

Mariann Jo’sheen Sedai was old. She had a proper last name once if she could just remember. It had been so long ago since she had last thought of it, a life in the white tower could do that, and Sedai was as good a last name as could be for formality. Just saying Mariann was old was an understatement though, being a woman with a stronger channeling ability, and having sworn on all 8 Life Oath Rods, a prerequisite to becoming Amyrlin of the tower, that she even has any grey hair showing means she must be well past 800 years old, and to show the amount of age she did it must be closer to past 900 years. She was still sharp in mind mostly, at least anything from the last 100 years or so she could recall as sharp as if it happened yesterday. Had it really been longer than a hundred years since she last though of her family name, having long lasted past the last of her lineage, her family long gone or married into others.
She thought even harder surly she had been at her last relative’s funeral, when was it, it was a great aunt she remembered, and the surname was …, she thought really hard. She was in the Amyrlin’s bedchamber reserved for the current leader of the white tower. That said like most of the past Amyrlins before her she kept the bedroom nice and simple. The single window held a cooling fan with right below it a heater coil. The other wall held a closed door which led into her bathroom, the next wall holding another door leading out of the bedchamber into the office of her role. The last wall held the only other furniture besides the plain brown four poster bed she was laying on. A white nightstand with built in mirror and matching white clothed chair. The bathroom was large and would hold her wardrobe of clothes along with the indoor plumbing necessities.
Mariann thought back to each of the eight oaths she took on the life rods, trying to remember which one she had last taken when she attended her aunt’s funeral. Small cylindrical devices no longer than her arm, when you take an oath on one your life actually increases by a standard lifetime or roughly 100 years depending on the person, those stronger in the one power given slightly more. Really giving any oath at all would do for the increasing your life, the only requirement being you channel Saiadar while making your oath and someone else that can also channel does so to activate it. However each specific Ajah required you to take a specific oath, and the eighth oath rod was solely for those like her who have taken the Amyrlin seat after having have pledged on the other seven, again a specific oath.
“I will say no word that is untrue”. Eight oath rods, and eight times this is spoken to ensure you do not offer a false oath, as if anyone would think of lying so many truth seekers everywhere.
“I will faithfully serve as Amyrlin to all of my children for the rest of my days”. The Amyrlin seat was a lifelong position and would not open again until her death. Serve all her children, it was said that the ancient honorific Amyrlin meant something like mother to all, it means that she was a servant to everyone in the world, matter it not she was the leader of the white tower. That first part about serving faithfully as Amyrlin could leave some wiggle room depending on how one viewed the title of Amyrlin, the last however left no wiggle room for anything.
“I will treat everyone with fairness and justice as is prescribed by the dai’shan aiel of the grey tower and the Aes Sedai code of ethics”. Those were binding stronger than time itself. The grey tower first because only the dai’shan aiel more than anyone can decide what is fair and right, they were and are the original truth seekers among so much more. You would also have as much power to reach the moon as you would to get the Aes Sedai code of ethics changed. First it would take a proposal from either of the leaders from the white or black tower. Either the Amyrlin of the white tower or the Pope of the black tower has to make a suggested change, which then needs to go through each Ajah/Faction and receive 90% approval, then it gets sent to the other tower to make its way up through the chains until it finally ends with the other towers leader. If it passes all of that it gets sent to the grey tower for approval again 90% before finally appearing before the first servant leader of the grey tower for final approval, and at any stage it can be stopped if it doesn’t pass.
That wasn’t it though, no she was not Amyrlin at her aunt’s funeral. Before then was the Blue ajah, which was closer. But still too recent, what level was she? The sleeping shift she wore was one of the new fads called a one piece. It was literally one garment that covered both legs and torso. It had several convenient buttons for keeping it on or taking it off. It was grey cotton all one solid color, and it was bunching up at the knees. Mariann distractedly Jerked it back into position. Her thoughts drifted too far back to when she had her very first foretelling which was that she would one day become Amyrlin seat. She was a young girl of only 16 years, and she knew without a doubt. It came in bursts though and it was not something she could control.
This vision came on stronger than any she had ever encountered before. So strong it jerked her body stiff as a board and slammed her down thankfully into the bed she was already laying on. An Evil shadow of a man, a giant taller than mountains, and blacker than the darkest shadows on a moonless night, peering down at the world smiling, that smile turning your blood to jelly and freezing you in place with its ill intent. A great serpentine beast came flying from the other side of the world, Long and scales glimmering like diamonds with talons made of pure gold but sharper than the sharpest knife, fire trailing from its partially open moth off its gleaming sharp teeth. It was equally large as the malevolent shadow man and flew on giant tornado causing wings straight at the other. They fought a great battle against each other, but in doing so caused so many deaths as swaths of their destruction ravaged the world. A flash of light and Mariann was staring at the grey tower as if just a few hundred yards away. She started walking towards it only to watch in horror and bewilderment as the tower before her cracked and collapsed as if a mirror or glass shattered. Another flash of light and she saw a baby boy, but he aged so fast right before her eyes until he died as an old man. She couldn’t remember much, but she knew deep down that he was in some way related to the other visions and this man, for it was definitely a man, was likely the cause of them.
Opening her eyes to stare at the brown four poster cloth above her and remembering every detail about her vision she distractedly spoke to herself . “Goshin is my sur name and I last heard it at Aunt Maragel Goshin’s funeral while I was at the green level”. She shook her head, that wasn’t important anymore if it ever really was. She quickly sat up in her woolen one piece swinging her feet over the side of the bed and hurried to her nightstand. Sitting in the chair she reached in one drawer to get paper and another to get an ink pointer. Channeling a single small strand of fire into a swinging glass bulb above her bed brought light into the room. She hastily started scribbling down every detail from her vision, she was grateful she always kept ink and paper nearby to do so.

Mr. Telamon was a nervous wreck while sitting in the hospital waiting room. He somehow knew, sensed something was wrong with his wife’s delivery. Dai’shan aiel were everywhere; as were nurses, patients or close kin waiting, Every once in a while a doctor’s assistant would come out and call a name ushering someone to see a doctor. Really bad cases would be taken in through a separate entrance known only to the healers. It didn’t matter, and he got confirmation as those doors opened up and not the assistant, but the doctor who had taken his wife looked around the room first at the dai’shan, then at him. A group of three of the white clad figures started moving towards him even before the doctor did. They felt his grief or rather the grief he was going to feel, even before he himself felt it. That and they knew it would take three of them to calm him down. Tears were streaming from his eyes before the doctor even started speaking.
“There was a complication during the pregnancy, your son is ok, your wife however did not make it, I’m so sorry. She did manage to tell us a name before she passed. Lews, Lews Therin after her father. Is that what you would like on the birth certificate?”
Baby Lews’s father numbly nodded, and the doctor walked away as uncontrollable sobs started emanating from the man. The three dai’shan aiel circled around him arm in arm and started singing a song of comfort and peace and mourning.
***
Rand Al’thor was asleep soundly when something woke him up, but he couldn’t tell what or where, or even anything for that matter. It was like the void, nothingness, but a sound, not a feeling, a heartbeat. The heartbeat was much faster than it was and suddenly something pushed him hard in the head. Go away he thought I’m trying to sleep. However the push came back stronger than before, this time managing to flip him upside down, upside down?, he could tell direction in this floating nothingness. Really awake now Rand tried to remember, remember?, remember what? Again the push and he was being squeezed to death and suddenly he remembered something about the dark one. A voice, a word, a sentence, the dark one wanted him dead. Was this the dark one trying to kill him, again push, again very tight squeeze, this time a light as if from a tunnel. It wasn’t the only light though, Rand went to the real void, and he saw it, Saiadin. He reached out with all his might to grab it and it came like a flood. He couldn’t control it, he had no strength, and his memory was foggy, he just expelled it to get out the other light and away from the pushing and death squeeze.
As Saiadin left him so did more and more memories, he tried to shout that he killed the dark one, sealed the bore so it could never be open. All that came out of his mouth was a scream. No blood and fire no I did this already, I won, I’m done. And with that last thought Rand Al’thor fell deep deep asleep into the furthest recesses of the brain. Lews took a deep breath and let out another scream wanting his mother or anyone to come pick him up and sooth his little soul.

The dragon is born!

Chapter 1
16 years later
The wheel of time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the fifth age by some and the first by others. An age yet to come, an age long past, a dark icy wind arose from about as far north as you can get. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the wheel of time. But it was a beginning.
A steam vent in an icy mountain let out a puff of sulfur like particles riding the wind. High and fast the dark tainted wind rode across the Nym fields, high enough to escape the notice of the Nym, ever vigilant in their desire to protect the world. Over the borderlands of mankind, given graciously by the Nym when mankind needs more space to grow. Still high in the sky the dark wind blew through wild wilderness where only the Nym, the Ogier, the dai’shan aiel, and the Aes Sedai were allowed to travel if at some risk. The wind started descending as it traveled into the warmer southern air. Up ahead in the distance was a magnificently large tower made of stone black like obsidian, but much stronger. Along the northern wall of this Black tower were several windows, most open hoping to catch some of the cool breeze which it did nicely.
It was into one of these windows the dark wind blew, a classroom, though filled only with boys. The tainted breeze flew around several students, all dressed in black school uniforms and sitting at wooden desks on little rickety stool like chairs with just the barest of backrest. The flow of air flew so close to the face of one student he gave a start, finally going up the next nearby student’s nose just as he took in a deep breath.
Lews gave such a start at the intrusion, and he stood up sneezing loudly, the rancid smell still strong in his nose. Taller than most of his peers he certainly stood over everyone’s head while they were all sitting down.
“What are you doing, you look like a dork, hurry and sit down before anyone notices.” His best friend [Ishamael]() tried to warn him. However, it was already too late for that, most of the class was now looking at him which made him self conscious even if the women all said he looked like a dream. Worse, the teacher at the front of the class in a very similar black colored uniform was looking at him expectedly.
“Yes Lews, do you think you know the answer?” To Lews’s horror he realized he had been spending most of the class in a daydream about being the most powerful weaver ever. It was important that distinction, woman channel men weave. Saiadar and Saiadin, two halves of the same whole, both apart of the one power the true source. Everyone could learn to use it, or at least almost everyone. The dai’shan don’t channel or weave for all the power of their songs, not one of them it’s a law to join among other things. Other people might be so weak in the power it should be they don’t have it at all, there are objects which can amplify or temporarily give someone use of the one power, those with so little power that resort to using these transcognative devices were often socially outcast. Transmogs they were called when someone was being nice.
That didn’t help him now, he was in history class, and definitely not studying Transmogs. Lews desperately wracked his brain trying to remember what they were discussing. The teacher’s slight smile was starting to droop to a slight frown. Nym’s that was what they were discussing, what about Nym’s? Desperately looking around for some hope, he finally remembered. It was a question about the first Nym, what was his name?
“Goak him jim knee?” Lews answered with a rightfully apologetic look on his face. Sighing the teacher said “close, Oakhimgimee. At least he was close!” The teacher got progressively louder while giving the rest of the class an evil eye. The laughter that had started quickly quieted. Just at that particular moment a loud bell decided to ring calling an end to that class period.
As the other students started standing up, talking, and starting to head for the door, the teacher weaved a small weave that produced a louder voice reminding the class they had the test coming up at the end of the week.
Lews slowly grabbed his bag and followed the steady stream of students leaving the class.

I’m looking for a similar notebook to this but with lighter dots, any ideas
FLYING EAGLE Blank Paper Spiral notebook Journal 8.5 x 11 Blank Large Spiral Notebook 210 Pages Hardcover Spiral Notebook Sketchbook Sketch Book for drawing for Men Women
FYI this was found in amazon.

Hello! :)
I am very interested in Malifaux and after scouting biggerhat for the last days I would really like to give it a try! Unfortunately my group is pretty 40k obsessed, and thus won't want to spend money on Malifaux minis.
Therefore my question is: Is there any reasonably easy way to get 2d proxies, printable on paper or cardboard or something so I could get a practise game done? We have terrain, though it is mostly warhammer-ish stuff, so L-shaped ruins. As far as I understand you don't technically need the models, as there is no true line of sight and ever model AND terran piece is defined to have a height for the purposes of cover (very elegant ruling imho!).
Also there is one follow-up question: Do you guys play any other miniature games that are as tactical as malifaux? Just reading the unit cards gets my brain juices flowing, unlike warhammer datasheets which seem lacklustre and tactically unsatisfying. Do you know of any other games preferably skirmish-like that are as complex or even moreso in this regard as Malifaux?
Thank you all in adance :)

leaders #tool #update #opensource #dataset #startups #api #release #major_players #science #hardware #event #paper #vc #feature #bigtech #scheduled

A bug with gradient norm clipping has been fixed on the master, which was previously incorrectly synchronized across GPUs when using ZeRO-1. This has re-established full and exact equality to PyTorch training, providing more confidence in correctness. However, there are concerns about shuffle in FineWeb "sample" datasets due to potential issues with very long documents causing instability. It is suggested to verify if documents are shuffled, check max document length, and consider breaking up and shuffling long documents inside the Fineweb Python preprocessing script [1].
Andrej Karpathy is seeking examples of annealing schedules that have been found to work well [2].
Stability AI has introduced Stable Audio Open, an open-source model designed for generating short audio samples, sound effects, and production elements using text prompts. This model, trained on audio data from FreeSound and the Free Music Archive, aims to empower sound designers, musicians, and creative communities by providing up to 47 seconds of audio generation capabilities [3].
OpenAI has shared a snapshot of their security architecture designed to protect their research infrastructure and model training. They aim to benefit other AI research labs and security professionals and are also hiring [4].
NVIDIA AI emphasizes the importance of innovation for enterprises to stay competitive. Snowflake Universal Search utilizes NVIDIA NeMo Retriever for accurate results, reducing training time for generative AI applications. NVIDIA AI is also offering a session on navigating complex decisions in structuring inference solutions for deploying innovative Large Language Models (LLMs) in enterprises [5][8].
The NVIDIA Inception startup Gipi AI utilizes a long-term memory system and advanced text-to-speech capabilities to create a personalized and engaging learning environment. The integration of NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM has significantly improved the speed and efficiency of Gipi AI's operations [6].
Yann LeCun announced the publication of the No Language Left Behind paper in Nature. The paper discusses achieving high-quality translation between 200 languages in any direction, even with sparse training data and for low-resource languages [9].
Cohere has released a library of cookbooks to assist in building AI applications, including agents, RAG, and semantic search, using Cohere's frontier models for enterprise-grade workloads. Cohere has also launched a startup program aimed at empowering early-stage AI innovation to address real-world business challenges. The program offers discounted access to Cohere's AI models, marketing exposure, access to technical experts, and more benefits for startups with Series B funding or below [11][13][14].
Google AI researchers have developed a framework that uses generative AI and expert review to understand medical imaging models and interpret visual cues associated with model predictions. The study explores the potential of generative models in enhancing the explainability of ML models in medical imaging, aiming to uncover new knowledge, improve diagnostics, and address biases in healthcare [15].
AI and cybersecurity are undergoing significant shifts, with AI having a massive impact on market dynamics. Founders are advised to align their ventures with these trends and determine if AI is a core part of their strategy. Effective automation is crucial in the cybersecurity landscape, with Gen AI potentially aiding in addressing evolving cyber threats [18].
Groq Inc is hosting a session to showcase how their technology can scale to meet the increasing demand for fast AI inference. The event will delve into the scaling capabilities of Groq's architecture. Groq Inc also announced in June 2024 that their technology can process 1253 tokens per second [19][20].
Sundar Pichai highlights the role of AI in addressing infrastructure challenges and announces the launch of Google for Startups AI Academy: American Infrastructure to support entrepreneurs using AI to enhance U.S. infrastructure. The program offers training, tools, and resources to startups focusing on various sectors like agriculture, education, healthcare, transportation, and more [23].
NotebookLM, an AI-powered research and writing assistant, has been upgraded to include Gemini 1.5 Pro and is now available in over 200 countries and territories worldwide. The new version introduces features such as support for Google Slides and web URLs as sources, inline citations for fact-checking, and a Notebook guide for better understanding of sources [24][25].
AssemblyAI offers industry-leading speech-to-text accuracy with features such as the industry's lowest Word Error Rate, Automatic Language Detection, Speaker Diarization, Streaming Speech-to-Text, and User-Friendly Integration. Users can try it for free with their API [26][27][28].
Anthropic has published details about their processes to test and mitigate elections-related risks. They use in-depth expert testing and large-scale automated evaluations to identify potential risks and guide responses. The Policy Vulnerability Testing (PVT) involves collaborating with external experts to test models for accuracy and bias [29].
1. Andrej Karpathy @karpathy https://twitter.com/karpathy/status/1798391910870200409
2. Andrej Karpathy @karpathy https://twitter.com/karpathy/status/1798406103614869808
3. Stability AI @stabilityai https://twitter.com/stabilityai/status/1798399596848381981
4. OpenAI @openai https://twitter.com/openai/status/1798399736992682119
5. NVIDIA AI @NVIDIAAI https://twitter.com/NVIDIAAI/status/1798384288078958671
6. NVIDIA AI @NVIDIAAI https://twitter.com/NVIDIAAI/status/1798403402482762067
7. NVIDIA AI @NVIDIAAI https://twitter.com/NVIDIAAI/status/1798414768589386188
8. NVIDIA AI @NVIDIAAI https://twitter.com/NVIDIAAI/status/1798738643839787338
9. Yann LeCun @ylecun https://twitter.com/ylecun/status/1798446014723973333
10. cohere @cohere https://twitter.com/cohere/status/1798430077366964410
11. cohere @cohere https://twitter.com/cohere/status/1798453445076385968
12. cohere @cohere https://twitter.com/cohere/status/1798453451917279514
13. cohere @cohere https://twitter.com/cohere/status/1798688627007873124
14. cohere @cohere https://twitter.com/cohere/status/1798688628240965930
15. Google AI @googleai https://twitter.com/googleai/status/1798468664326537375
16. a16z @a16z https://twitter.com/a16z/status/1798384061443883407
17. a16z @a16z https://twitter.com/a16z/status/1798491137440682182
18. a16z @a16z https://twitter.com/a16z/status/1798511028935819733
19. Groq Inc @GroqInc https://twitter.com/GroqInc/status/1798406954777272356
20. Groq Inc @GroqInc https://twitter.com/GroqInc/status/1798495535139283175
21. Groq Inc @GroqInc https://twitter.com/GroqInc/status/1798500351009521765
22. Groq Inc @GroqInc https://twitter.com/GroqInc/status/1798705399484260699
23. Sundar Pichai @sundarpichai https://twitter.com/sundarpichai/status/1798386657944834544
24. Sundar Pichai @sundarpichai https://twitter.com/sundarpichai/status/1798740696373030985
25. Google @google https://twitter.com/google/status/1798724817761497119
26. AssemblyAI @AssemblyAI https://twitter.com/AssemblyAI/status/1798690048386437422
27. AssemblyAI @AssemblyAI https://twitter.com/AssemblyAI/status/1798730816849162623
28. AssemblyAI @AssemblyAI https://twitter.com/AssemblyAI/status/1798731068746629229
29. Anthropic @anthropicai https://twitter.com/anthropicai/status/1798732041925914903

I was close to purchasing a Remarkable 2, but then I realized paying $420 for a digital notebook is absurd when I can get a used iPad, Apple Pencil combo for half the price cheaper.
Part of the allure the remarkable had was I demo-ed it with the marker pen, and although it wasn't an exact 100% paper-like feel, it felt very close, just more "slippery" per se than traditional paper. I do see there's various paper-like screen protectors on Amazon ranging from $7 - 15 dollars. I was wondering if anyone had experiences with those and coupled with a Apple Pencil, if it decently emulates a paper feel experience? I know it'll never be 100% accurate, but decent enough.
As for notebook apps, I know there's a lot of notes, typing note-taking, drawing apps. Mostly need a notebook related app where I can write notes on grid, line based pages and organize them on a digital notebook. Essentially Remarkable-like functionality. Won't use the iPad for much more, just looking to replace paper and pencil so any advice would be helpful!

There's lots of details on how to train SDXL loras, but details on how the big SDXL finetunes were trained is scarce to say the least. I recently released a big SDXL finetune. 1.5M images, 30M training samples, 5 days on an 8xH100. So, I'm sharing all the training details here to help the community.

Finetuning SDXL

bigASP was trained on about 1,440,000 photos, all with resolutions larger than their respective aspect ratio bucket. Each image is about 1MB on disk, making the dataset about 1TB per million images.
Every image goes through: a quality model to rate it from 0 to 9; JoyTag to tag it; OWLv2 with the prompt "a watermark" to detect watermarks in the images. I found OWLv2 to perform better than even a finetuned vision model, and it has the added benefit of providing bounding boxes for the watermarks. Accuracy is about 92%. While it wasn't done for this version, it's possible in the future that the bounding boxes could be used to do "loss masking" during training, which basically hides the watermarks from SD. For now, if a watermark is detect, a "watermark" tag is included in the training prompt.
Images with a score of 0 are dropped entirely. I did a lot of work specifically training the scoring model to put certain images down in this score bracket. You'd be surprised at how much junk comes through in datasets, and even a hint of them can really throw off training. Thumbnails, video preview images, ads, etc.
bigASP uses the same aspect ratios buckets that SDXL's paper defines. All images are bucketed into the bucket they best fit in while not being smaller than any dimension of that bucket when scaled down. So after scaling, images get randomly cropped. The original resolution and crop data is recorded alongside the VAE encoded image on disk for conditioning SDXL, and finally the latent is gzipped. I found gzip to provide a nice 30% space savings. This reduces the training dataset down to about 100GB per million images.
Training was done using a custom training script based off the diffusers library. I used a custom training script so that I could fully understand all the inner mechanics and implement any tweaks I wanted. Plus I had my training scripts from SD1.5 training, so it wasn't a huge leap. The downside is that a lot of time had to be spent debugging subtle issues that cropped up after several bugged runs. Those are all expensive mistakes. But, for me, mistakes are the cost of learning.
I think the training prompts are really important to the performance of the final model in actual usage. The custom Dataset class is responsible for doing a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to generating the training prompts. People prompt with everything from short prompts to long prompts, to prompts with all kinds of commas, underscores, typos, etc.
I pulled a large sample of AI images that included prompts to analyze the statistics of typical user prompts. The distribution of prompt length followed a mostly normal distribution, with a mean of 32 tags and a std of 19.8. So my Dataset class reflects this. For every training sample, it picks a random integer in this distribution to determine how many tags it should use for this training sample. It shuffles the tags on the image and then truncates them to that number.
This means that during training the model sees everything from just "1girl" to a huge 224 token prompt. And thus, hopefully, learns to fill in the details for the user.
Certain tags, like watermark, are given priority and always included if present, so the model learns those tags strongly. This also has the side effect of conditioning the model to not generate watermarks unless asked during inference.
The tag alias list from danbooru is used to randomly mutate tags to synonyms so that bigASP understands all the different ways people might refer to a concept. Hopefully.
And, of course, the score tags. Just like Pony XL, bigASP encodes the score of a training sample as a range of tags of the form "score_X" and "score_X_up". However, to avoid the issues Pony XL ran into (shoulders of giants), only a random number of score tags are included in the training prompt. It includes between 1 and 3 randomly selected score tags that are applicable to the image. That way the model doesn't require "score_8, score_7, score_6, score_5..." in the prompt to work correctly. It's already used to just a single, or a couple score tags being present.
10% of the time the prompt is dropped completely, being set to an empty string. UCG, you know the deal. N.B.!!! I noticed in Stability's training scripts, and even HuggingFace's scripts, that instead of setting the prompt to an empty string, they set it to "zero" in the embedded space. This is different from how SD1.5 was trained. And it's different from how most of the SD front-ends do inference on SD. My theory is that it can actually be a big problem if SDXL is trained with "zero" dropping instead of empty prompt dropping. That means that during inference, if you use an empty prompt, you're telling the model to move away not from the "average image", but away from only images that happened to have no caption during training. That doesn't sound right. So for bigASP I opt to train with empty prompt dropping.
Additionally, Stability's training scripts include dropping of SDXL's other conditionings: original_size, crop, and target_size. I didn't see this behavior present in kohyaa's scripts, so I didn't use it. I'm not entirely sure what benefit it would provide.
I made sure that during training, the model gets a variety of batched prompt lengths. What I mean is, the prompts themselves for each training sample are certainly different lengths, but they all have to be padded to the longest example in a batch. So it's important to ensure that the model still sees a variety of lengths even after batching, otherwise it might overfit to a specific range of prompt lengths. A quick Python Notebook to scan the training batches helped to verify a good distribution: 25% of batches were 225 tokens, 66% were 150, and 9% were 75 tokens. Though in future runs I might try to balance this more.
The rest of the training process is fairly standard. I found min-snr loss to work best in my experiments. Pure fp16 training did not work for me, so I had to resort to mixed precision with the model in fp32. Since the latents are already encoded, the VAE doesn't need to be loaded, saving precious memory. For generating sample images during training, I use a separate machine which grabs the saved checkpoints and generates the sample images. Again, that saves memory and compute on the training machine.
The final run uses an effective batch size of 2048, no EMA, no offset noise, PyTorch's AMP with just float16 (not bfloat16), 1e-4 learning rate, AdamW, min-snr loss, 0.1 weight decay, cosine annealing with linear warmup for 100,000 training samples, 10% UCG rate, text encoder 1 training is enabled, text encoded 2 is kept frozen, min_snr_gamma=5, PyTorch GradScaler with an initial scaling of 65k, 0.9 beta1, 0.999 beta2, 1e-8 eps. Everything is initialized from SDXL 1.0.
A validation dataset of 2048 images is used. Validation is performed every 50,000 samples to ensure that the model is not overfitting and to help guide hyperparameter selection. To help compare runs with different loss functions, validation is always performed with the basic loss function, even if training is using e.g. min-snr. And a checkpoint is saved every 500,000 samples. I find that it's really only helpful to look at sample images every million steps, so that process is run on every other checkpoint.
A stable training loss is also logged (I use Wandb to monitor my runs). Stable training loss is calculated at the same time as validation loss (one after the other). It's basically like a validation pass, except instead of using the validation dataset, it uses the first 2048 images from the training dataset, and uses a fixed seed. This provides a, well, stable training loss. SD's training loss is incredibly noisy, so this metric provides a much better gauge of how training loss is progressing.
The batch size I use is quite large compared to the few values I've seen online for finetuning runs. But it's informed by my experience with training other models. Large batch size wins in the long run, but is worse in the short run, so its efficacy can be challenging to measure on small scale benchmarks. Hopefully it was a win here. Full runs on SDXL are far too expensive for much experimentation here. But one immediate benefit of a large batch size is that iteration speed is faster, since optimization and gradient sync happens less frequently.
Training was done on an 8xH100 sxm5 machine rented in the cloud. On this machine, iteration speed is about 70 images/s. That means the whole run took about 5 solid days of computing. A staggering number for a hobbyist like me. Please send hugs. I hurt.
Training being done in the cloud was a big motivator for the use of precomputed latents. Takes me about an hour to get the data over to the machine to begin training. Theoretically the code could be set up to start training immediately, as the training data is streamed in for the first pass. It takes even the 8xH100 four hours to work through a million images, so data can be streamed faster than it's training. That way the machine isn't sitting idle burning money.
One disadvantage of precomputed latents is, of course, the lack of regularization from varying the latents between epochs. The model still sees a very large variety of prompts between epochs, but it won't see different crops of images or variations in VAE sampling. In future runs what I might do is have my local GPUs re-encoding the latents constantly and streaming those updated latents to the cloud machine. That way the latents change every few epochs. I didn't detect any overfitting on this run, so it might not be a big deal either way.
Finally, the loss curve. I noticed a rather large variance in the validation loss between different datasets, so it'll be hard for others to compare, but for what it's worth:
https://i.imgur.com/74VQYLS.png

Learnings and the Future

I had a lot of failed runs before this release, as mentioned earlier. Mostly bugs in the training script, like having the height and width swapped for the original_size, etc conditionings. Little details like that are not well documented, unfortunately. And a few runs to calibrate hyperparameters: trying different loss functions, optimizers, etc. Animagine's hyperparameters were the most well documented that I could find, so they were my starting point. Shout out to that team!
I didn't find any overfitting on this run, despite it being over 20 epochs of the data. That said, 30M training samples, as large as it is to me, pales in comparison to Pony XL which, as far as I understand, did roughly the same number of epochs just with 6M! images. So at least 6x the amount of training I poured into bigASP. Based on my testing of bigASP so far, it has nailed down prompt following and understands most of the tags I've thrown at it. But the undertraining is apparent in its inconsistency with overall image structure and having difficulty with more niche tags that occur less than 10k times in the training data. I would definitely expect those things to improve with more training.
Initially for encoding the latents I did "mixed-VAE" encoding. Basically, I load in several different VAEs: SDXL at fp32, SDXL at fp16, SDXL at bf16, and the fp16-fix VAE. Then each image is encoded with a random VAE from this list. The idea is to help make the UNet robust to any VAE version the end user might be using.
During training I noticed the model generating a lot of weird, high resolution patterns. It's hard to say the root cause. Could be moire patterns in the training data, since the dataset's resolution is so high. But I did use Lanczos interpolation so that should have been minimized. It could be inaccuracies in the latents, so I swapped over to just SDXL fp32 part way through training. Hard to say if that helped at all, or if any of that mattered. At this point I suspect that SDXL's VAE just isn't good enough for this task, where the majority of training images contain extreme amounts of detail. bigASP is very good at generating detailed, up close skin texture, but high frequency patterns like sheer nylon cause, I assume, the VAE to go crazy. More investigation is needed here. Or, god forbid, more training...
Of course, descriptive captions would be a nice addition in the future. That's likely to be one of my next big upgrades for future versions. JoyTag does a great job at tagging the images, so my goal is to do a lot of manual captioning to train a new LLaVa style model where the image embeddings come from both CLIP and JoyTag. The combo should help provide the LLM with both the broad generic understanding of CLIP and the detailed, uncensored tag based knowledge of JoyTag. Fingers crossed.
Finally, I want to mention the quality/aesthetic scoring model I used. I trained my own from scratch by manually rating images in a head-to-head fashion. Then I trained a model that takes as input the CLIP-B embeddings of two images and predicts the winner, based on this manual rating data. From that I could run ELO on a larger dataset to build a ranked dataset, and finally train a model that takes a single CLIP-B embedding and outputs a logit prediction across the 10 ranks.
This worked surprisingly well, given that I only rated a little over two thousand images. Definitely better for my task than the older aesthetic model that Stability uses. Blurry/etc images tended toward lower ranks, and higher quality photoshoot type photos tended towards the top.
That said, I think a lot more work could be done here. One big issue I want to avoid is having the quality model bias the Unet towards generating a specific "style" of image, like many of the big image gen models currently do. We all know that DALL-E look. So the goal of a good quality model is to ensure that it doesn't rank images based on a particular look/feel/style, but on a less biased metric of just "quality". Certainly a difficult and nebulous concept. To that end, I think my quality model could benefit from more rating data where images with very different content and styles are compared.

Conclusion

I hope all of these details help others who might go down this painful path.

Myself, an old friend and their friend moved in together last Aug. We were all in dire straits and figured it was a win for everyone. Only I could sign the lease because both roommates didn’t have in-state IDs. When we moved in we agreed to shop for food together and introduce our pets (I have two cats and she has one dog). The shopping went ok at first but they share a car and I don’t drive so they just randomly started going without me to Walmart while I’m using the bus and lugging food home. They would get food I don’t like and just expect me to eat it. I cut that quick. I shop and cook for myself now. I told the landlord about my cats and paid a pet fee for like 3 months until he told me he trusted me and I didn’t have to keep paying the fee. She had’nt told the landlord about the dog bc she said she had ES papers for the dog she just had to get them faxed over. She still has not told the landlord anything and the lease is almost up. (I’m not dumb, she just didn’t want to pay the fee. But for my own rental integrity I eventually informed the landlord the dog was there.) I have a huge problem with this bc every time I asked her could we introduce our animals bc I don’t want to keep my cats cooped up, she would say “not yet, I’m training her” Her dog still isn’t trained, she made no effort to do so even tho I tried suggesting many things to her. She doesn’t walk the dog consistently and leaves the dog alone in the room for long periods of time. There are days when I wake up and pass her room to go the bathroom and the smell of piss and poop just fill my nose. It’s disgusting. One day I was home with my door shut and they came home after being gone awhile and I guess the dog had relieved herself or chewed something bc I heard the other roommate hitting the dog. They didn’t know I was there that’s why they did it. I called them out on it and they literally were silent and they act like it didn’t happen to this day. I really wanted to call Animal control but I didn’t want to put a target on my back or risk them leaving and me having to find new roommates in a hurry. That day I told myself I wasn’t going to allow them to stay past Aug. I hate that they put me in that position and I would just rather have them gone. The other roommate was supposed to mow the lawn and never did. He also mismanaged the energy bill. They both leave dirt smudges everywhere, don’t clean on their assigned days that we all agreed on, leave the kitchen dirty after cooking and they smoke inside the house when I told them more than once before we moved in I had asthma. They just totally walk all over me and I’m sick of it. Oh! I didn’t mention the other roommate said the N word in front of me several times and he’s Mexican (I’m black). When I told him watch his mouth he says it’s how he talks and he can’t help it. I walked thru his room (the attic) one time at the beginning of this year to get something out of my storage room that’s also in the attic and I saw a notebook with apartment addresses, prices and contact info on his table. So I figured before they try to get over on me I’ll find new roommates and have them on standby. So that’s what I did. It’s now less than 60 days until the lease is up and I have informed my roommate I have new tenants moving in Aug 1 and she’s claiming her and the other dude haven’t even talked about moving, which I know to be a lie. She says since I’m asking her to leave and not the landlord that she wants her deposit and for one I don’t think they deserve it back. And two, the deposit cannot be payed back until the leaser moves out and thats me, I ain’t going anywhere. What should I tell her? Should I just take the deposit from the new tenants and give it to them so they’re satisfied and just leave? The landlord understand why I want them gone but doesn’t want to get involved because he rented to all of us and cant make any decisions until the leaser moves out. He’s leaving it up to my discretion. Any advice is appreciated, thanks.