Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 1d

I think it’s a reference to another company that created a new NDA this year - which caused a bit of drama.

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 1d

Happy to sign this NDA.

The Army Painter NDA (No Drama Agreement) signed by Uncle Atom

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 2d

It’s Monday and I’m back from Dragon Fall - time to paint more splizards. Come and join me in 10 minutes or so at www.twitch.tv/tabletopminions and we’ll get this week started.

a cartoon of a lizard with green eyes looking at the camera

ALT: a cartoon of a lizard with green eyes looking at the camera

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Tabletop Minions

snarlingbadgers.bsky.social @snarlingbadgers.bsky.social · 2d

Today’s episode: we talk about whether your indie project should be digital, indie, or both?

Digital or Print or Both for Your Game? - The SNARLcast Episode 018

YouTube video by Snarling Badger Studios

youtu.be

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 4d

Player’s choice, I suppose.

Reposted by Tabletop Minions

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 5d

OpenAI has only made $4.3 billion in the first half of 2025, meaning that it will likely miss its $13bn revenue projection. Worse still, its burnrate is abominable, with $6.7bn on R&D compute, $2.5bn on inference, and *$2bn* on sales and marketing.
www.wheresyoured.at/sora2-openai...

OpenAI Is On Track To Miss Its Revenue Projections - And Its Burnrate Is Worse Than Ever
So, The Information recently put out one of the most weirdly-worded pieces in history, starting with the title: OpenAI's First Half Results: $4.3 Billion in Sales, $2.5 Billion in Cash Burn.

Reading this title, you might be forgiven for thinking that OpenAI was profitable, when it actually appear to be finding new, innovative ways to lose money at a never-before-seen scale. In fact, when you read the piece, you get a sense of how bad things actually are.

Also, keep in mind that these are numbers for the six months beginning January 1 2025 through the end of July 2025.

$4.3 Billion In Revenue Should Be Cause For Concern - And Suggests User Churn (While Also Feeling A Little Suspicious)
When I put out my piece about how much OpenAI and Anthropic actually make, some believed me alarmist when I said that I believed it brought in $5.26 billion in revenue by the end of the first half of 2025, a number I estimated using its leaked revenue numbers from January and May and guessing at compound growth rates.

I believe that this means that OpenAI has had some weird months of revenue. OpenAI hit $5.5 billion annualized (which translates to a single month times 12 — so $458 million) revenue in December 2024 (which I estimate was similar to January 2025), $10 billion in May 2025 ($833 million), and then, according to CFO Sarah Friar, "[its] first $1 billion month" in July 2025, though I'll add she signed off on projections that involve OpenAI making more than NVIDIA in 2029.

Let's Talk About OpenAI's Leaked Costs
$2.5 Billion "Cash Burn" - AKA The Cost of Goods Sold
OpenAI deliberately — I assume it leaked these numbers included the phrase "$2.5 billion cash burn" as a means of suggesting that it was actually making money, but having read the piece, I believe this refers to the "cost of revenue," so the literal cost of providing the services to both their ChatGPT users and API customers.

This bit needs a bit of clarity. According to The Information, the “cost of revenue” includes the cash that OpenAI has paid out for compute for inference — and not, it seems, anything significant beyond that, like employee salaries, sales and marketing (which is an entirely different subcategory within the piece), and so on.

Now, AI boosters will likely say “wow, $2.5 billion burn on $4.3 billion in revenue, that’s profitability!”

Yeah man, if a company didn’t have expenses, OpenAI would be super profitable.

Sadly, OpenAI has lots of expenses.

$6.7 Billion in Research & Development Burn
OpenAI is playing extremely silly buggers with these numbers, but this was $6.7 billion out the door, accounting for 155.81% of its revenue.

And, as a reminder, $6.7bn is also nearly 40% of its cash-on-hand at the end of the period. We’ll talk about this more shortly.

I am guessing here, but I believe this number is entirely compute for both training models and post-training, the process where you try and "teach" a model what outputs are good (and bad) once it's been fully trained.

A peer of mine suggested this number might also include salaries. I don't think that's the case, as OpenAI has previously broken out salaries separately in leaks, but it also used to break out the revenue from API and ChatGPT subscriptions.

Nevertheless, number go down.

Operating Loss: $7.8 Billion - Net Loss $13.5 Billion
This is a weird one, made weirder by The Information's choice of wording.

An operating loss in this case is OpenAI's revenue minus their operating expenses, but not including things like stock-based compensation and legal fees.

Its (much higher) net loss includes more unspecified losses, and OpenAI said that more than half of these losses were "due to remeasurement of convertible interest rights."

OpenAI Spent More Than $2.60 To Make $1 In The First Half Of 2025
The specific weasel wording (in OpenAI's case) of these (alleged) cash flow statements reported by The Information suggests that things are pretty bad.

In 2024, OpenAI made about $3.7 billion, and it burned $5 billion in the process, working out to it spending $2.35 to make $1.

Depending on how you slice OpenAI's current numbers, things are worse on a sliding scale. Between the $2.5 billion COGS, $2 billion on sales and marketing, and $6.7 billion on R&D, OpenAI is currently spending $2.60 to make $1.

If you take its "net loss" number — which I add involves a number of non-cash expenses — OpenAI is currently spending $4.14 to make $1.

This company SUCKS!

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 5d

Going to be a shorter-than-usual stream today: I have some game company business to attend to *and* I still have to pack before I leave for Dragon Fall this afternoon. But I’ll still be painting some splizards in about 10 minutes at www.twitch.tv/tabletopminions so you could come by and hang out.

homer simpson from the simpsons is standing in the grass and saying sorry my badddd .

ALT: homer simpson from the simpsons is standing in the grass and saying sorry my badddd .

media.tenor.com

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 5d

New video out now: Can't Get Your Minis Painted? FIX YOUR HEAD
youtu.be/4RFozUvX3PU

Can't Get Your Minis Painted? FIX YOUR HEAD

YouTube video by Tabletop Minions

youtu.be

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 6d

Well, @glacialgeek.bsky.social and @samlenzartwork.bsky.social are at the Las Vegas Open now. NGL, I kinda wish I was there with my @thearmypainter.bsky.social Factory Team brethren. But I’m going to Dragon Fall tomorrow, and that’ll be a great time and I won’t have to get on an airplane.

The Glacial Geek and Sam Lenz at Las Vegas Open.

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Reposted by Tabletop Minions

Vae Victis Miniatures @vaevictisminis.bsky.social · 6d

This is why I love doing modular kits.

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 6d

I’m a monster and I don’t care.

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 6d

No reason for awe, I’m just old.

I do also have a beard, tho.

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 7d

I bought my first Space Marine model in 1988 on a high school trip to Madison, WI. It was metal. I love female space marines. I haven’t built any in awhile - not since Kill Team 2018 - I should again soon.

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 7d

I just watched AvP2 last week since I’d never seen it before. About a third of the way through, I finally realized that I *had* seen it before, but it was totally forgettable and I had forgotten it. I think I kept watching but fell asleep. I didn’t hate the first AvP movie though.

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Reposted by Tabletop Minions

snarlingbadgers.bsky.social @snarlingbadgers.bsky.social · 7d

Don’t forget, folks - we DO make it possible for your FLGS to carry our games. Let them know to go to www.snarlingbadger.com/retail and they can get order codes to get our games direct for retailer prices. Share with your local game stores!

A bunch of Snarling Badger Studios games on a shelf at a local game store

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 8d

They might be balanced, but they’re REALLY boring. Games should be fun, and the new boxes aren’t, in my opinion. I agree with Pani. One the AoS side, the Spearhead sets aren’t so boring, and people seem to think they’re pretty balanced. Seems like maybe a problem for the 40K design team to fix.

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 9d

It’s Monday and I’ll be painting some big lizards tonight! With rocket launchers, as big lizards are wont to use. If you’d like to see that, then show up in about 10 minutes at www.twitch.tv/tabletopminions and hang out.

a lizard is standing next to another lizard with the words `` zesty ahh lizard '' written on the bottom .

ALT: a lizard is standing next to another lizard with the words `` zesty ahh lizard '' written on the bottom .

media.tenor.com

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 9d

I agree. That’s basically what Spearhead is for Age of Sigmar.

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 9d

Another Warhammer 40,000 Combat Patrol that’s just “Oops, all dudes!” Like, maybe a vehicle or a dreadnought or SOMETHING else? Pretty dull, in my opinion.

March for Macragge with new Ultramarines upgrades and a versatile Combat Patrol - Warhammer Community

Look your best for the Indomitus Crusade.

www.warhammer-community.com

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 12d

It’s Friday, folks! So that means more painting splizards on Twitch. I’ll start in about 10 minutes at www.twitch.tv/tabletopminions so come on by if you want to have fun! Or even if you just wanna hang out.

a close up of a cat 's face with the words `` happy friday '' on it .

ALT: a close up of a cat 's face with the words `` happy friday '' on it .

media.tenor.com

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 12d

New video: Which Warhammer Combat Patrols MAKE Grimdark Future Armies?
youtu.be/G139k_AGNzE

Which Warhammer Combat Patrols MAKE Grimdark Future Armies?

YouTube video by Tabletop Minions

youtu.be

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Reposted by Tabletop Minions

Sonic Spookhammer 👻🎃 @sonicsledgehammer.bsky.social · 15d

What I often find difficult to remember is that once this is cured and varnished, it evens out even more of that finish. Plus decals, weathering, plasma glow... oh yeah, this is gonna look the business.

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Reposted by Tabletop Minions

Trench Crusade @trenchcrusade.bsky.social · 15d

The Trench Crusade website has been given a polish, & is now fit for duty! This updated version has some fun new content, & will be easier to navigate for new recruits. We'll be adding to it all the time, so be sure to keep an eye on what's coming up…
www.trenchcrusade.com #trenchcrusade #wargame

Home - Trench Crusade

www.trenchcrusade.com

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Reposted by Tabletop Minions

Whorefrozt @whorefrozt.bsky.social · 16d

A 28mm scale storage container for wargaming, there is a blood stain on the top and the word FLARG is written in graffiti on the side.

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Tabletop Minions @tabletopminions.bsky.social · 16d

It’s Monday. I’m sore from moving furniture and stuff all weekend. However - still painting. Come by in 10 minutes at www.twitch.tv/tabletopminions and I’ll be painting space lizards and waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in.

a cartoon of spongebob standing in the sand with the word momento written below him

ALT: a cartoon of spongebob standing in the sand with the word momento written below him

media.tenor.com

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