JPEG XL yote_zip • Now • 100%

JPEG XL and the Pareto Front

cloudinary.com

Incredible improvements for a codec that was already far ahead. In the same way that JPEG has been given new life by mozjpeg and jpegli, I wonder how far the JPEG-XL codec is going to be stretched by better encoders in the near and far future.

I just read through this giant book twice in a row, and my TL;DR is that it's a must-read for anyone that loves fantasy, furry or not. That's not to say it's an all-time masterpiece, but it's surprisingly strong in almost every aspect, and I think almost anyone will have a great time with its unique blend. I picked up an EPUB copy from [Etsy](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1039731380/imperium-lupi-epub), and the ~$7 price tag is a steal for its quality and length. It's a single book that's roughly the length of a trilogy (400k words), but I finished my first read in ~5 days because I couldn't put it down. The first 1/3 of the story is relatively straightforward and gets you comfortable with the world and characters, but as the story continues it slowly starts rolling faster and faster until it crashes through the finish line. There are very few, if any, dull moments in this book. The world-building is great, and the author describes every single object, character, and action in an appropriate amount of detail, which makes it easy to visualize every scene. They also never rush through a scene just to keep the story moving, which you may love or hate depending on how invested you are in the characters and world. This is clearly the passion project of someone who really valued their world and loved fleshing it out no matter how many pages it would take. A few things to note off the bat: - The concept art for this book has heavily-bara depictions of all the characters, but this doesn't come across in the story **at all**. I didn't see the concept art until after my first read and was shocked at how different my mental image was. Characters are usually initially described as muscled/athletic, but not in an extreme or even unusual way. Most characters are as strong as you would expect a guard/soldier to be, with hyenas in particular being shaped more like traditional gnolls. One character's large size is intentionally brought up repeatedly as a plot point (very early on). After a character is introduced they seldom reference their musculature again, but if a new character is meeting an old character for the first time you'll often get a re-description of the entire character from their perspective. Point being, the story is not going to force you to imagine the characters as bara or not bara, and I assume that either way will be supported by the text. - The characters in the story are anthropomorphic wolves, hyenas, pigs, rabbits, etc, but there's not really a strong plot reason aside from being a more palatable metaphor for racism and classism. They're mostly anthro for style and aesthetic, and the author does an excellent job with their descriptions so you can easily imagine every character's unique visuals. I don't think you need to be a furry to identify with these characters - they're just complex people who happen to have tails. - There are same-sex relationships in the story, but they're only ever vaguely-mentioned, and any sort of tangible same-sex interactions between characters are almost completely non-existent. Moreover, half of the references to same-sex relationships are negative, as in this world same-sex relationships usually equate to being someone's "beta" (don't worry) and most characters think that's degrading. Some of the characters momentarily find themselves nearing "beta" relationships and usually react negatively or with regret. Conversely, many characters in the story seem to be gay/bi/pan, but same-sex relationships are never shown as having the same weight in society as a "normal" hetero relationship (of which there are several prominent ones that we follow). The "homophobia" present in the book's universe is portrayed as old-fashioned and negative, but by mostly showing our own characters being vaguely homophobic and never showing any detailed positive same-sex relationships I feel the book missed a large opportunity to make an actual point. Even the subtext behind most of the "positive" same-sex relationships is a little troubling. I hope this is explored better in the next book, because the author was clearly trying to include these elements into the story in a constructive way, but never committed hard enough to make an impact. - There are no sex scenes or anything of an explicit nature, though there's one fade-to-black. A mature teenager could handle this book, though the writing and plotlines may be a little too complex if they're not a strong reader. Imperium Lupi is set in a fantasy/steampunk city where the main source of power and manufacturing causes atrocious pollution, "rotting" the citizens and causing them to live much shorter lifespans full of pain and suffering. It's not a happy world, and it's not a happy book. Thankfully, the characters in the story are almost always charming and upbeat, having long since resigned to their fate in this world, but the subtext of the overall universe and plot has a crushingly-negative trajectory. I often found myself longing for characters to catch a break or apologize for the negativity they inflict on each other. This book frequently grabbed my heart and sometimes brought tears to my eyes for a variety of reasons - plot twists, injuries/deaths, unexpected kindness, and oftentimes the cruelty of their world. Even on my second read I was unable to get through the fable of the "dayfly" without breaking down all over again. The world-building is one of the highlights of the book for me, and learning all the mundane details about this society was one of my favorite parts. It clearly feels like the author created a robust world and history first, then set the story in just a small portion of it, occasionally showing glimpses of the world beyond. I would read any number of spin-off books set in this universe, as it seems there's still so much left to explore. There's a soft and semi-scientific "magic system" that isn't terribly complex but does have dangerous and long-lasting consequences whenever it's used, which keeps combat mildly fresh while contributing to long-term character growth. There are a few dozen characters that the story is told through, and almost everyone that gets a name is detailed, realistic, and sympathetic. Aside from a few obvious protagonists, we're often not sure if most characters are truly "good" or "bad". This world isn't that simple, and characters perform misdeeds based on their own complex morality and on what you even define as a misdeed. Despite often being in conflict with each other, all characters think of themselves as "the good guys", which leaves the reader to decide which characters to cheer for - sometimes changing on a scene-by-scene basis. The PoV swaps seamlessly between characters within a scene, which takes a little bit of getting used to, and there are usually 2-6 sub-plots/scenes occurring simultaneously that the narrative interleaves into and out of whenever it feels like. Thankfully, it rarely leaves scenes on cliffhangers, so it usually doesn't feel frustrating to swap somewhere else. I think the main reason I couldn't put this book down is because there was always something fresh and interesting happening with this method. I would say the main themes of the story are political scheming and mystery - every character in the book has their own unique motivations, and many of them are trying to achieve their own goals. As the story starts rolling, there's an endless onslaught of schemes, traps, and double-crosses that have long setups and payoffs. I was able to keep up with about 85% of the schemes on my first read, but still often forgot about pieces hinted at 800 pages earlier. I read most of this book in a few days, but if you're stretching this out over longer time spans I imagine it will be more difficult to keep track of everyone's plans. On my second read I had a much easier time following everyone's actions with the foresight of their goals, and I especially found the first half of the book rewarding to re-read as there were many small hints and character actions that couldn't possibly hold any value without the later story's context - e.g. a twitch of a character's nose at the mention of a certain topic. Unfortunately, the second half of the book was mostly void of any additional details that I would have missed on my first read. By the final act of the book there are so many sub-plots occurring that it's hard to imagine everything will come together properly, but the story does mostly stick the landing and I'll give it an 8/10 in that regard. I enjoyed the journey and finale, but I felt like the post-finale was very rushed compared to the rich detail of the rest of the book. This is potentially justifiable by the fact that there's another book coming, so we aren't saying goodbye to these characters forever. If you haven't guessed by now, this story is an easy 5/5 for me and is being archived as one of my favorite books. I absolutely cannot wait for the second book. One neutral criticism: This is a self-pub book and there are a lot of typos that were really distracting on my first read. I won't hold it against the book because these things happen as self-pub. The typos were never indicative of poor writing quality, just simple mistakes. On my second and third reads I documented every error I saw and the author is currently working to get them all fixed, hopefully sometime in the beginning of 2024. If you've got an earlier copy and it's bothering you, check back after a while. ::: spoiler One minor criticism of the book, but it's a huge spoiler: Characters are hard to kill, yet others still make earnest attempts on their life. After the first few times that someone takes a grievous injury and heals back to full, we lose the tension of someone getting shot, run through, or mangled. I understand that Howlers in general are more difficult to kill due to their unnatural healing power, but some of their attackers should start doing double taps to compensate. Currently, some of our characters survive severe injuries and then do nothing of consequence for the rest of the book. If this book was a standalone, some of the character "deaths" could have been final for great emotional impact. I suspect that these characters are being kept alive for a role in a future book, but in isolation it feels like a missed opportunity to give some extra weight to the story. :::

Trackers: ꜱʜᴀʀɪɴɢ ɪꜱ ᴄᴀʀɪɴɢ yote_zip • Now • 100%

RED's seventh birthday

>Break out your drumsticks, it's our 7th Birthday! During the year, we passed over 1.5 million unique releases on Redacted. This wouldn't be possible without you, our amazing users. As such we'd like to do something special to round out this year. To kick off our Birthday Celebration, torrents with 3 or fewer seeds have been marked freeload. After meticulous analysis and careful consideration, Staff has also selected an additional set of torrents we know you're going to love. To clear up confusion, the seed count of the latter category was irrelevant to the selection. All these torrents will be freeload through the end of the year (Ending January 6th 23:59 UTC). As a reminder, all freeload torrents can be found here, and users who were seeding such torrents within the last week will still receive credit for their upload during the event. ### Freeload Tweaks: >Earlier this month, in preparation for this event, we deployed a tracker change to prioritize freeload seeders. Now, when you start downloading a freeload torrent, we serve a modified peerlist that only includes the seeders who were present before this announcement. This custom peerlist is only served in response to your client's initial announce. Once you have snatched the torrent or 10 minutes have elapsed, your client will receive the full peerlist. If the freeloaded seeders aren't connectable and time is of the essence, force re-announcing the torrent will cause the tracker to immediately serve you the complete peerlist. No changes to your client are required to enable this functionality; it is managed entirely by the tracker. ### Freeload definition: >Freeload behaves like Freeleech for those who were already seeding before the event, and Neutralleech for anyone who downloads it during the event. It reverts to normal for everyone when the event ends.

Based on [this picture](https://pawb.social/pictrs/image/4c98dece-4574-4dd4-8779-0729ff1e30cb.jpeg). Source: @doggorevo / Raposilda - https://twitter.com/doggorevo/status/1617959755104018435

196 yote_zip • Now • 100%

any last rules

(you cannot kill them in a way that matters)

196 yote_zip • Now • 100%

unsilent protagonist rule

Fun fact: Toby Fox was forced to disable Frisk's dialogue boxes to prevent Undertale from needing an "M" rating. Probably. Source: Zarla S - https://zarla-s.tumblr.com/post/130781633433/after-i-did-the-murder-run-i-couldnt-help-but

196 yote_zip • Now • 100%

rainbow washing rule

Source: @TY_PESH - https://twitter.com/TY_PESH/status/1408471046731141121

Fox pics yote_zip • Now • 96%

Fox abductions

More proof at the source! Source: @Rabosa_al_Forn - https://twitter.com/Rabosa_al_Forn/status/1585294952929566726

196 yote_zip • Now • 99%

new alignment chart rule

(Post your high score. There are no downvotes on this instance which means you cannot be kinkshamed. Our time is now, monsterfuckers)

The review below my short paragraphs is originally by [@gon@lemmy.world](https://lemmy.world/u/gon), but their thoughts reflect a lot of mine and their post is the original reason I put this book in my backlog. This isn't necessarily a furry-themed book but it does have a ton of cute fuzzy creatures in it that play a bulk of the characters, and you'd be forgiven for calling it a furry-adjacent novel. Unfortunately the book is not fully finished but I'm on chapter 98 of 167 at the moment, with a new chapter coming out every few days. I find it difficult to estimate just how long this book is because of its digital chapter format, but it's taken a while to get to where I am in the story. The beginning of the story quickly opens with an interesting plot, but then it keeps getting better and better and better. After chapter ~40 I was fully hooked and am having trouble putting it down. It keeps surprising me with twists and turns and I feel like I never know what's going to happen next. I also really enjoy how many main characters there are - there's at least a dozen characters we're paying attention to at any given moment, and you really get a feel for everyone's motives and thoughts. The writing quality is also excellent for being a work in progress. It must be extremely hard to write a story from start to finish without needing to edit story structure or pacing. The only real nitpick I've noticed is that we're introduced to many new characters throughout the story, and every time we get a new one we have to go through their thoughts while they learn and contemplate the previous events of the story. It can feel a little repetitive but it's usually framed from a slightly different perspective and bias each time so it doesn't end up feeling like the exact same thing over and over. Overall, I have to agree with the 5/5 rating so far and I hope the story never ends. As far as I'm aware, there are fanfictions and spinoffs for the universe that I'll probably have to look into once I reach the "end". (Also, I had to frequently search through the [NoP wiki](https://nop.fandom.com/wiki/The_Nature_of_Predators_Wiki) (beware of spoilers) and e621 to get a feel for every alien's appearance. There's so many different alien types and I had trouble remembering what they look like) cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/719657 > I don't like reviewing unfinished works, as I feel a poor landing can destroy a whole story, just as a perfect finale can justify anything. There are 127 chapters out, as of me writing this. > > However, **I feel that every second that I stay silent about this web-series is a second wasted**, an utter affront to fiction, and a betrayal of everything I stand for. > > # If even one person reading this did not know of "The Nature of Predators", I command you to look into it. > > This is *pure brilliancy*. An epic story filled with action, drama, tension beyond belief. Mystery, betrayal, political collusion, and romance spanning the whole universe... **There is nothing missing!** > > I have racked my brain for any weakness in the story... Maybe the pace, or the prose, maybe the characters aren't developed enough, maybe the plot isn't compelling enough... But no. *Everything is impeccable*, **a true work of art**. And to think it's not even completed yet. > > "The Nature of Predators" follows *several characters*, with different beliefs, motivations, and interests. Some characters only appear later in the story, some appear early but fizzle out, some we've had the pleasure of accompanying from the very start and to this day. > > There are characters you are made to love unconditionally, and characters you are made to hate. *Some that want ultimate good, but can't help their nature, and those that went against their nature for their own survival*. Terror inflicted upon the innocent, BY the innocent. **A world upside down**. > > *I simply cannot describe the emotional weight of the characters*. I'm not ashamed to say I've bawled while reading this. Straight up tears and snot. > > And in all this chaos, *different personalities and stories clashing all over the universe*, **somehow everything clicks**. Every plot point is addressed, in due time, and never are you left high and dry wondering helplessly about the true nature of things. *It feels like no stone is left unturned...* > > **But the stones never end!** There is always the next step, the next adventure, the next mystery, the next quarrel... **It's a relentless journey into the cosmos**, and it's expanse is unending beauty. > > **A perfect balance between closure and novelty, tension and release.** > > My words CANNOT do this work justice. **I urge you to read it**, or listen to it. Do whatever you can to inject this story into your mind, for you will not regret it. > > That being said, it is HFY. I know that bothers some people. > *** > Rating: 5/5 > > [Read on Royal Road](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/62073/the-nature-of-predators)! > **Alternatively, listen on Youtube:** > - [Adastra](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avqpkodJ_tU&list=PLm8OjwhOz-FZG_M_A1u9dvNwW4VdUUHM9) has the best narration, but is currently almost 100 chapters behind. > - [Agro Squirrel Narrates](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wWCmoivarE&list=PLcfzFNUhrNS0NFLZg4bQv40qcZHvAzGvB) is only about 10 chapters behind, but the narration isn't as good (IMHO).

196 yote_zip • Now • 100%

hedgehog the hedgehog rule

(gun sold separately) Source: riesgo_19XX - https://twitter.com/riesgo_19XX/status/1571504804647649282

Matrix yote_zip • Now • 100%

Matrix Live S09E08 — Synapse, Dendrite, the Foundation and Element [54:23]

www.youtube.com

Licensing talk with the director of the Matrix Foundation (a separate entity from Element, who forked the projects away). The Matrix Foundation's official stance: [The Foundation's stance is that we'd prefer these projects to remain under our auspices and unencumbered by a CLA.](https://mastodon.matrix.org/@matrix/111365689359855596)

196 yote_zip • Now • 100%

trains rule

(what is with those streetlights tho)

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Death rules

Source: Piemations - https://twitter.com/Piemations/status/1612331771311575040