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The Chatterbox => Random Chat => Topic started by: Spectere on February 20, 2021, 05:48:42 PM

Title: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on February 20, 2021, 05:48:42 PM
I forgot to make a replacement for the "you couldn't ask for a lamer topic" thread, so here y'all go!

I really wish there was a 1-to-1 replacement for LINQPad on macOS/Linux. I've messed around with RoslynPad, but I always end up running into something that pushes me to fire up a Windows VM and use LINQPad instead. That's going to be a bit of an annoyance if I stick with MacBooks moving forward given the switch to ARM, though a lot can happen in a few years.

I might also see about contributing to RoslynPad after I push through a few of my personal projects.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on March 02, 2021, 12:27:58 PM
Started playing IIDX AC again and found out that they fucking added Hot Limit to Rootage.

So, naturally, this immediately sprung to mind:



...followed by the revelation that the OG swf was released 19 goddamn years ago. aaaaaggghhhhhh
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: vladgd on March 08, 2021, 02:08:29 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/EKZlNiQ.jpg)

Not miffed enough for extreme rage, but got new cycling pants, glasses and all that jazz, it's 50f today, finally get to the trail...and can't pass through that shit. 60f tomorrow, but this stuff takes some time to melt, so maybe a few weeks and I'll be back on the cycling train.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on March 09, 2021, 02:17:18 AM
We've been pretty lucky in my area. I was in the Cleveland area the other day and it's kind of amazing how much snow there still is up there despite it only being about 1-1.5 hours away.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on March 16, 2021, 02:52:03 PM
It's kind of amazing how quickly one can retrain their muscle memory. I've been working to correct some of my typing quirks (most notably using my left index finger to hit 'Y') in an effort to get some proper use out of my mostly-neglected ortholinear keyboard, and it's been surprisingly easy to adapt. The first day was a bit tricky, but I'm more or less back up to my usual speeds despite recently breaking a multiple decade long bad habit.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: vladgd on March 16, 2021, 09:28:35 PM
If you put your mind to something, you can get used to just about anything methinks.

Totally different example, and I can't understand russian, but I was interested enough in cyrillic script to easily read something like владгд as my username here. "hey the letters look interesting, what do they mean" and with time I can at least phonetically read pretty much anything the ruskies are typing, and sometimes get the gist of what they mean without google translate.

Now if only reading Japanese was so easy...it's not.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Bobbias on March 17, 2021, 04:09:20 AM
Yeah I can "read" cryllic like that too, along with Korean and Japanese. The only one I actually know some words in is Japanese though.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on March 17, 2021, 10:43:49 AM
When it comes to Japanese I've mostly gotten by with pattern recognition, and most of that comes from playing untranslated versions of IIDX/Pop'n/SDVX. Basically, just being able to make decisions like "no, I don't need to go through the tutorial," "oh look, there's 7th Dan," or "yes, please transfer my data from copula to SINOBUZ." That said, it would be nice to have a better grasp on what's actually being said.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: vladgd on March 22, 2021, 09:22:40 PM
It's a huge time investment to learn a language, but learning how to read the script is a lot more manageable. Still, russian cyrillic has like what, 33 characters? Korean is like 30-40 depending if you count combined vowels or not, still pretty easy and logical. Basic Japanese is like over 140 kana, which I only know like...less than half that right now, then you take that and add learning chinese (kanji) on top of that, and you have a nightmare.

Where is the "i just wanna learn japanese so I can play old untranslated videogames" course in college? I wanna play front mission 2, and...front mission 5...on real hardware without needing a hacked emulated translation.

It's one of those things I occasionally read up on in small "doesn't feel like im putting any effort into learning anything" bites.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on April 07, 2021, 07:04:10 PM
This seems like such a minor thing, but I love when devs take the time to ensure that the close button appears on the left side on macOS ports.

I'd also like to offer a huge disapproving finger wag to Mozilla and Google for not giving enough of a shit to put the close buttons on the left side of tabs in the Mac ports of Firefox and Chrome despite it being a widely requested feature. Basic UI consistency should never be considered optional.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on April 16, 2021, 10:55:20 PM
Got my first COVID shot earlier today.

My arm hurts.

Other than that, no issues so far. Then again, most of the "fun" happens with the second shot. That's gonna be happening on May 14th.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: vladgd on April 17, 2021, 08:31:41 PM
They take long to set up after calling? Thinking about calling up an appointment monday, try and get er done before the end of may to "hopefully?" avoid needing covid tests to fly to and fro Seattle.

*edit*

Different subject, but pretty much only relevant in this topic so im gonna double dip.

Got off work early enough to get a ride in, went my normal 11 mile out 11 mile back route, back home, shower, chill out, texting the new bae...im still breathing really hard...i have BEEN done with my ride for at least 15 minutes and I am STILL breathing hard...and my hands are going numb...and my legs...

the fuck, I think I have experienced hyperventilation for the first time? bae (silly name, but too early for girlfriend status imo) told me to calm down my breathing and whatnot...while i pounded a few scoops of almond butter because my calories have been low...low, sub 600 low, so could be either one of those, idk.

Scarey shit, iunno what the hell caused it, but, nope.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on April 18, 2021, 05:39:04 PM
YMMV, but in my case I just scheduled it online with Rite-Aid. I scheduled my appointment for the 16th on the 10th, so there was about a six day window. With the two shot vaccines, there's about a month between the two shots and another two weeks before it becomes fully effective, so bear that in mind as well.

Re: hyperventilation, I'm not a doctor, but I know that low calorie diets can cause your body to do a lot of wonky stuff, especially when combined with intense exercise. Might want to check with a doctor or dietitian to get an expert opinion on that, since given the combination of hyperventilation and numbness in the extremities kinda gives me the impression that you might have had low blood oxygen or something along those lines.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: vladgd on April 21, 2021, 10:45:42 PM
Razorblades, alcohol, and depression is a cocktail I do not recommend mixing. Besides some embarrassing "would not rather explain to people who happen to see them" scars, it's nothing to write home about. Still no feeling in part of my arm, but it's a small enough spot not to care.

I can also relate to the bruised hands thing, I may have fucked up my right hand in some unknown capacity doing some rage smashing...drunken...rage smashing.

Also don't drink when you're not feeling well, it's counterproductive.

Being depraved from being social even as an introvert is brutal. Doing a little better now due to my new ladyfriend, played lazy with her all day while fucking around on random switch games yesterday. "BABA IS YOU" is a fantastic social game I swear everyone I show it to loves it.

...and she's into pocket knives...I think I lucked out on this one.

Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on April 21, 2021, 11:27:05 PM
I feel kind of lucky. Whenever I'm pissed or depressed I completely lose my taste for alcohol. My diet kinda goes to shit, but I'd say that's pretty normal.

And yeah this pandemic's been rough. Even introverts need some level of social interaction. There's a growing list of things that I want to do as the restrictions start being lifted. Visiting my friends in Texas, going to Round 1, taking a long-ass road trip to anywhere without having to worry about being shoved into mandatory quarantine...that sort of stuff. Sure, I could drive almost anywhere, but what's the point if a place is going to be closed?

Just looked up Baba Is You, and the look of it almost reminds me of VVVVVV, or something created with MegaZeux. Definitely going to have to wishlist that one!

If you're looking for something a bit more action-y and rhythm-y (with co-op support!), check out Just Shapes & Beats (https://store.steampowered.com/app/531510/Just_Shapes__Beats/) (also available on Switch and PS4). I played through that a while ago with my best bud and it was a ton of fun.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on April 22, 2021, 10:15:55 PM
Just took out the trash. Haven't had to do that in, like, over a decade. IT MADE ME FEEL YOUNG AGAIN!

As far as nerdy stuff goes, I've been putting my shiny development mini-PC through its paces (prolly gonna throw together some sort of review in the Computing forum after I put some more hours into it) and decided to start hacking at Doom's source code again. I toyed around with limits removal and such (https://github.com/Spectere/sDoomPort) a few years ago, but even while I was working on that I picked up enough C knowledge to know that I wasn't doing things in an optimal or sustainable way.

So, I rebooted the project. I don't have it on GitHub yet (just a dinky repo on my home server for now), but I ended up getting Doom to boot, albeit without sound (not that my other one had sound support...), and was able to play through the entirety of Doom 1 on it without a problem. I forgot how easy it is to get Doom running on modern PCs, and when you rip out all of the Linux-specific crap out of the released sources and replace it with SDL you don't have much further to go before it's cross-platform as well.

Fun stuff.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: vladgd on April 22, 2021, 10:38:37 PM
Damn shame, but acting like that? Seen it coming. Im cool with playing devils advocate, but not when people want to act like children.

Mini pc as in custom mini pc or prebuilt? Because I've always been interested in building a small form factor pc, but never really had a reason to...even less so now that I got this thing (https://www.adafruit.com/raspberrypi400)...still haven't taken it out of the box, and don't know what the hell to do with it. Retropie maybe?

And on baba is you, it's not really a party game, but more of a good backseat driver game. Don't really need to control the game to have input. Very simple rules...very hard puzzles. Switch being so small and portable, even with the dock...very nice to throw in a small bag to stay the night over places. She has a switch, but it's a switch lite, which is totally fine, but when two people wanna look at the same screen, tv support is nice.

Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on April 23, 2021, 12:54:22 PM
Yeah, he either needs to grow up or seriously consider anger management. 35 year olds really shouldn't be acting like that.

That mini-desktop is a mostly-prebuilt kit system that I'm using for all of my Linux exploits. It's an Intel NUC 9, which is a little barebones system that still hasn't quite gotten over its edgy high school phase:

(https://i.imgur.com/cTx3O8sm.png)

Basically, just throw in a couple sticks of laptop RAM, an M.2 SSD or three (SATA and NVMe both work), and (optionally) a video card in the PCI-e slot and you've got yourself a reasonably grunty system. The main selling points of it were the form factor, low power consumption and heat (it uses a hex-core mobile Core i7 with a good cooler), and the fact that it supports Thunderbolt docks. Instead of having to dual-boot my gaming rig whenever I want to use Linux, I just plug that thing into my dock and...that's it! If I need to use macOS, I just unplug that and plug in my MacBook. When I need to work, I just unplug it and plug in my work laptop. Kinda makes for a nice modular workspace.

Raspberry Pis have gotten surprisingly capable over the years. The Pi4/400 make pretty good Retropie boxes as long as you don't try to use anything excessive like bsnes. They blow away the specs of the (S)NES and PlayStation classic boxes, and you don't have to jump through any hoops to get your own stuff loaded on them. The Pi400 actually reminds me a lot of the old 8-bit microcomputers back in the day, so it makes me feel nostalgic for my old Commodore VIC-20. :P

From what I've seen of Baba Is You, it seems like a game that I would enjoy far more on the Switch than any other platform. Puzzle games just work really well on that system (and phones, I suppose).

The "simple rules, hard puzzles" dynamic kinda reminds me of the Talos Principle. If you like puzzle games and haven't played that one yet, I highly recommend it.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Alice on April 24, 2021, 01:17:35 AM
i look away from this place for like a year and wtf. please get help

I haven't done anything with Raspberry Pis yet, but I probably need to get around to picking one up eventually. I'm kind of hoping at some point the same idea catches on for RISC-V. That seems like it'd be more fun to mess around with than yet another ARM device (seriously, I have two phones, a tablet, NDS, 3DS...).
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on April 24, 2021, 03:18:50 AM
"I see that things have deteriorated in my absence..."  -You, possibly.

I really hope that RISC-V remains fairly unencumbered. It would be nice to have an ISA that isn't locked behind some sort of proprietary bullshit.

The dev boards that have been coming out look pretty promising, and apparently their performance per watt is still unmatched. Kinda debating whether or not to pick one up. I'd like to see what they can do at some point.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Alice on April 24, 2021, 06:36:02 PM
The RISC-V boards that exist currently sound quite good but also... $680 (https://www.crowdsupply.com/sifive/hifive-unmatched) :o

This one (https://www.crowdsupply.com/sifive/hifive1-rev-b) seems closer to reasonably priced but not exactly what I'd want. Guess I'll have to live with qemu-system-riscv for now.

edit: this (https://beagleboard.org/beaglev) apparently will land later this year for ~$150.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on April 24, 2021, 07:15:42 PM
Wow, uh...

Honestly, if that HiFive Unleashed at least performs well, I'd consider using something like that as a daily driver. Distro support would be limited, I'm sure (I'm fairly sure I'd have to switch away from Arch, at least), but if it can stack up to a decent mobile i7 it'll be at least as good as what I'm using now.

And yep, the BeagleV is the one that I was eyeing up. I've spotted a few around the $70-80 range, but they were from no-name companies and nobody seemed to know anything about them, so... (shrug)
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: vladgd on April 24, 2021, 09:35:33 PM
Commodore VIC-20. :P
I unfortunately have no experience with those, but kinda wish that style of computer didn't just die. Those old machines seemed like fantastic gateways into programming, a lot simpler than me trying to learn on windows now. Since I have no experience with those machines, I have almost purchased a ZX spectrum...multiple times...I've been tempted. But the pi400 as an emulation box would be fun, and I got no idea how retropie works, but if I could also have access to using it for basic programming education purposes that would be fantastic.

That mini-desktop is a mostly-prebuilt kit system that I'm using for all of my Linux exploits. It's an Intel NUC 9, which is a little barebones system that still hasn't quite gotten over its edgy high school phase:
Raspberry Pis have gotten surprisingly capable over the years. The Pi4/400 make pretty good Retropie boxes as long as you don't try to use anything excessive like bsnes. They blow away the specs of the (S)NES and PlayStation classic boxes, and you don't have to jump through any hoops to get your own stuff loaded on them. The Pi400 actually reminds me a lot of the old 8-bit microcomputers back in the day, so it makes me feel nostalgic for my old Commodore VIC-20. :P
Cute little machine. Crazy how much you can get from a tiny package now a days. Might make for a fun future project to get my feet wet with linux, I assume they're pretty cheap to build?

And on baba, totally get it on switch. Switch is so good to take over to peoples houses and show them cool quirky stuff. WINDJAMMERS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErMGaJB3jS8) anyone?
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on April 25, 2021, 02:36:05 AM
I unfortunately have no experience with those, but kinda wish that style of computer didn't just die. Those old machines seemed like fantastic gateways into programming, a lot simpler than me trying to learn on windows now.

I would say that the Pi400 is a better gateway, honestly. While the early 8-bit micros offered easy access to BASIC, trying to actually unlock the power of them was anything but simple. The options you had were either a fairly limited BASIC implementation or going right into assembly. With a Pi, you at least have a lot of steps between the two. The addition of GPIO ports allow you to interface with other hardware as well, which is a pretty nice bonus.

Since I have no experience with those machines, I have almost purchased a ZX spectrum...multiple times...I've been tempted. But the pi400 as an emulation box would be fun, and I got no idea how retropie works, but if I could also have access to using it for basic programming education purposes that would be fantastic.

I haven't played around with it myself, but RetroPie is basically a preconfigured Raspbian install that offers a nice menu around a variety of emulators and simulators (stuff like Doom, ScummVM, etc). I believe they take efforts to ensure that stuff that won't emulate well on a Pi (like the Switch) won't appear as part of the standard distribution and also attempt to streamline the addition of additional data and ROMs. It'd say the best way to describe it would be as a games-focused XBMC (a free media center suite), if you've ever messed with that.

Cute little machine. Crazy how much you can get from a tiny package now a days. Might make for a fun future project to get my feet wet with linux, I assume they're pretty cheap to build?

I picked my kit up from B&H (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1542366-REG/intel_bxnuc9i7qnx_ghost_i7_nuc_board.html) for around $719, which I thought was pretty decent given the build quality and processor. I had the RAM and SSD lying around (snagged them from my old laptop), so that ended up being the total cost.

There are models that are smaller and have lower-end CPUs (like i3s and i5s) and lack PCI-e slots that are closer to the $400, like this little $430 i5 (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1542361-REG/intel_bxnuc10i5fnh1_frost_canyon_i5_tall.html) (not including RAM and a drive). At work we ended up getting a few Celeron ones to power information displays and such, and I believe those came in at around $250, fully equipped. There's a pretty decent variety of them for a variety of use cases.

WINDJAMMERS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErMGaJB3jS8) anyone?

Okay, that looks awesome. I need to pick that up, too. :o
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Alice on April 26, 2021, 02:52:51 AM
And yep, the BeagleV is the one that I was eyeing up. I've spotted a few around the $70-80 range, but they were from no-name companies and nobody seemed to know anything about them, so... (shrug)

I looked a little bit more at the BeagleV and it doesn't have a GPU—the production model (https://www.imaginationtech.com/news/press-release/imaginations-gpu-selected-by-starfive-to-create-high-performance-small-and-low-cost-beaglev-risc-v-ai-single-board-computer/) apparently will get one though. It's not obvious how available the current $150 model will be anyway, since it sounds like more of a limited beta release. Depending on the cost and availability of the GPU version I think I might actually try to get one :o
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on April 26, 2021, 09:15:27 AM
TBH, that's something I didn't even think to check for, since I'm kinda used to everything having a GPU at this point. I guess that's the beauty of witnessing the birth of an architecture!

When you manage to get your hands on a suitable system, I'd love to know your thoughts on it. (https://spectere.net/emoji/eyes.png)
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: vladgd on April 26, 2021, 12:20:56 PM
I think (https://www.knifecenter.com/item/CIVC2102A/civivi-knives-c2102a-brazen-flipper-knife-sandvik-14c28n-drop-point-blade-purple-g10-handles) I need (https://www.bladehq.com/item--Benchmade-Bugout-AXIS-Lock-Knife--118556) more self control. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MZWWYPC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

I like knives...its part of my daily attire when I leave the house. Wallet, phone, keys, mask, knife.

Then I got this knife (https://www.bladehq.com/item--Kershaw-Knives-Needs-Work--1469) with an elevated second hand price due to being discontinued. Birthday gift, don't tell her, shh.

Now to learn the fine art of telling myself "no, I don't need that".

*edit*

Just received the Kershaw from ebay, being used...it has a rattle when deployed, requires disassembly. Blade has light wear, but looks well used, might take it to get professionally sharpened. Can't give this baby away without a little TLC. Considering this a project, shouldn't be too hard.

*edit*

Alright this was a huge pain in the ass. Screws for the clip and body were t6, came off fine...pivot felt like t8, but coulda been t9? Took like 45 minutes to get the sucker off, and may have ruined a small flat head screwdriver in the process. When I got it "loose" the back part was free spinning, so somehow my frustration going back and forth on the thing got it to come loose. KPL on the washer for improved action, light cleaning inside, whole lotta lithium grease on the spring to alleviate the rattling problem, re assemble, tighten pivot screw the correct amount, works flawless. Even fixed the blade play somehow, got no idea what I am doing and took well over an hour but pretty happy with it now.

Now to find a local place that'll work on the blade itself. I do not trust myself to sharpen, and the tip needs a little bit of work. It's not horrible, but it looks it's been well used. Cant bring it to factory new, but I could see the edge looking better.

*edit*

Ohh god she's an enabler. May have got a few more...coming in the mail...like...3...

She snagged one of these, so now we can both be rocking benchmades.

(https://i.imgur.com/kBUrp9I.jpg)

I guess it's better than the animu figures I used to buy, can actually use these things to like...open packages which contain more knives. Yknow when you end up working 80 hours and get no days off, plans to do fun stuff cancelled, no time to even do laundry, sometimes, it's ok to treat yourself once twice three six times.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Bobbias on May 10, 2021, 09:55:49 PM
Have a pi400. Still haven't done anything with it :/ I really need to figure out what I want to do with it. I'd also love a commanderx16, but right now I'm kinda working on homebrew for the 3ds.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: vladgd on May 14, 2021, 10:07:06 PM
Too busy working to fuck with mine still...also bought...6-7 more knives since that post...stfu...

Did however just schedule vaccination, get this bitch over with this coming monday and june 14 for the second one.

Also heard something about masks going away in my state July first for people who are AND aren't vaccinated? I'd like to be excited, but I kinda see it as a thing they do, shit gets bad, and they bring em back for 6 more months. Not to mention my job will most likely keep mandating it for a while. It's something to look forward to but I don't want to get my hopes up.

*edit*

First one done, had a co worker say he couldn't lift his arm after...but it was almost painless. Easier than getting blood drawn. Now to wait a month.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on May 18, 2021, 10:01:56 AM
First one done, had a co worker say he couldn't lift his arm after...but it was almost painless. Easier than getting blood drawn. Now to wait a month.

The first one made my arm hurt worse/longer than the second.

I didn't get any major side-effects from the second one, aside from short bouts of very minor queasiness and extreme wakefulness (read: on a day where I only got around 4 hours of sleep, I was up for 22 hours before I even started to feel tired). Kinda glad I took this week off, since that gives me some time to adjust my sleep schedule back to something sane.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: vladgd on June 17, 2021, 08:30:45 PM
Well uhh, been away mostly not at my home. Thinking about quitting ye ole job, taking a month off work, and yoloing another job maybe even part time temporarily. "If you don't take a leap, you'll be stuck doing the same thing forever" not sure if that's the right quote from wherever I seen it from, but, yknow, accurate. In a position where MOMENTARY unemployment won't kill me, not looking to bank off government money either, just need to force myself out of this dead end job of "cough" 13 years "cough". Hardest part is taking the plunge. Not sure "when" maybe august, maybe September, but I want to do it before October (because October at my job tends to suck).

So that's been on my mind, kinda don't wanna do anything stupid, but at the same time, maybe it's staying that is the stupid thing to do.

That aside, I got the second dose of government microchips this past monday at around 11:30am. Around 11pm that day started feeling off, tried sleeping, headaches woke me up 3-4 times till around 9am, then at around 10-11, passed out till 2pm tuesday. Pretty much minor nausea, no appetite, no energy, and nonstop headaches till Wednesday at 5pm. That and half of my arm is inflamed from the shot, it currently stretches from my shoulder to half way down my bicep.

Besides that, this is Thursday as of this post, I am more or less fine. Government chips seem to have completed their installation and my body just needs to defrag away the swelling. State is opening up EVERYTHING? July first, so the two week's after second dose thing should line up perfect.

Curious to see how this whole "vaccinated vs un vaccinated citizens" thing goes. Besides a card thing that is filled out, is there a database of people who have it incase said card is lost and one requires proof?
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on June 18, 2021, 01:57:31 PM
I ended up doing that twice. Once to leave a job that had me barely over the poverty line and working in inner city Baltimore (now that was a life experience) and once to leave a 60-80 hour a week job. Sometimes you've just gotta make a big change like that. If you're not going anywhere at your current place, you can definitely do better elsewhere. Just make sure you have enough of a safety net to fall back on if things don't work out. The economy is a bit rough right now.

As far as the microchips go, I've gotta say, the 5G reception around my area really sucks, and I'm not magnetic at all. This is bullshit.

I had pretty minor reactions to both of my shots. The first shot hurt a bit longer and made me lethargic. The second one gave me very mild queasiness (went away within 12 hours) and left me wired, to the point where I didn't even feel remotely tired until around 8AM.

Kinda seems like the vaxx vs. no-vaxx thing is largely done on the honor system. Ohio's current mandate seems to be that masks are not required for vaccinated folk, but I don't see anyone checking for vaccination cards or anything. Of course, doing that would be stupidly unwieldy. I think they're treating it as a "go at your own risk" sort of scenario, and if anything our numbers have been holding fairly steady. With about half of the state vaccinated and plenty of people carrying around antibodies from the actual viral payload, I think it's starting to run out of viable hosts.

Gotta say, it's really great to be able to go out and actually have a human reaction with someone. It's amazing how much you miss simple things like that when you've been shut in for way too long. Not looking forward to potentially catching the cold and/or flu again, but I'd say it's worth it at this point.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: vladgd on June 22, 2021, 05:28:28 PM
Yeah it's a tough call. I need to leave, and I need at least a month or so to enjoy not working. Maybe figure out a daily fitness routine that I'll stick to while trying to incorporate small periods of time to learn stuff I want to learn, like programming, new language, building stuff, whatever. The idea is to not just sit on my ass watching youtube for 2 months, then look for a job I hate more than the current one. Month or two of RnR while being productive mentally/physically, then a less stressful job to pay some bills if I can find it...to hopefully something a bit more permanent.

It's a big leap, but not quite ready to put in the ~4 weeks I think I should to put in since I've been there so long. If I want out by October...I should try and figure everything out by September, and if I want out earlier, I need to get off my ass and start planning.

On the microchips. I think my state is in a similar state to yours. It "almost" looks pre pandemic in public right now. The local grocery employees are mostly WITHOUT masks, I think the few that do are just electing to. Though deli is still with masks when I was there earlier today. I went to an IHOP yesterday...without a mask...seemed 50/50 there, but "more or less" normal. As of today I was told my work will have masks as OPTIONAL, so that's a thing im not going to complain about. I think I got my vaccine just in time because everything looks to be coming down whether you got it or not. Most of the people I work with, friends, gf, family all have it, so I think I'm more or less fine to do normal stuff IE, eat at a restaurant once a week....SO RECKLESS, MUCH REBELLION.

Last thing I don't wanna put into the game thread because I keep buying/playing shit I can't beat/already beat before, not worth adding to that thread. I got Guilty Gear Strive on ps4, impulse bought it...historically not a fan of anime fighters...no idea why I bought it, but uhh...this is the single best "anime fightan" I have ever played.  I actually haven't had this much fun playing a fighting game since ultra street fighter 4, like I am actually playing people online and enjoying the experience. Playing this kenyan vampire cyber samurai? He lacks mobility like Potemkin, no front/air dash, no run. He can't spam special moves because they QUICKLY fill a blood gauge that when full...you lose half of your health...but his special moves are god tier stupid, his range is amazing, he excretes damage, and it's a slower playstyle I can get around. This game feels more street fighter than street fighter 5....and I mean that in a good way towards strive and as a shot at 5. Great game for new players, very easy to get into and hop online. Ive probably played more matches with real people in this game than every other fighting game I have played since after street fighter 5 came out, combined.

RECOMMENDED

(https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/029/073/276/large/max-quimov-nagoriyuki2.jpg?1596384648)
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Alice on June 24, 2021, 08:05:06 PM
[...] right now I'm kinda working on homebrew for the 3ds.
The 3DS seems like a really solid homebrew machine—it definitely helps that Rosalina supports remote debugging with devkitARM-gdb over WiFi, which neither of the other consoles I've had to run homebrew on (NDS, Wii) seem to be able to do.

Quote
commanderx16
between the paperclip/fuse/dremel incident, "Morgan Freeman", Shannon Watts comments, and iirc whining about ThE MiLLeNiALs with Matthias Wandel, i think i'd be ok with never thinking about david murray ever again 8)

A modern Amiga 1200-compatible (or similar) devboard/computer would rule, though.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on June 25, 2021, 12:19:19 AM
It's a big leap, but not quite ready to put in the ~4 weeks I think I should to put in since I've been there so long. If I want out by October...I should try and figure everything out by September, and if I want out earlier, I need to get off my ass and start planning.

The length of time is a tough hurdle to jump. I've been at my current place for almost eight years, and I imagine that quitting would give me some pause even if I already had something lined up. There's a certain comfort in stability.

As of today I was told my work will have masks as OPTIONAL, so that's a thing im not going to complain about.

My workplace still has a mandatory mask policy, but I get the vibe that they might be lifting that soon. They're starting to put in transitional plans to get the programming team back into the office on a rotational basis. The current plan seems to be bringing us in one week and having us at home for three, which I'm pretty okay with. We have to support industrial systems to some degree (one of the programs I wrote interfaces with a conveyor belt system, for instance) so it's impossible to have us completely at home.

The 3DS seems like a really solid homebrew machine—it definitely helps that Rosalina supports remote debugging with devkitARM-gdb over WiFi, which neither of the other consoles I've had to run homebrew on (NDS, Wii) seem to be able to do.

The Vita would be so much more pleasant to develop for if it had remote debugging support. My technique for getting MZX working was to write to a log file and hope that the OS was able to flush it to Flash before the application crashed. :-[

I looked into ways to read the core dumps on my development box, but it seems like the usefulness of said dump was pure RNG.

A modern Amiga 1200-compatible (or similar) devboard/computer would rule, though.

Fuck yes.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Bobbias on June 27, 2021, 05:36:32 AM
Yeah the remote debugging struck me as an excellent feature. Haven't really been putting time into that specific project, but that's because it's intended to be something my girlfriend and I work on together. I've got a million things on the go tbh and not enough time, energy, or motivation to stick with anything for very long -.- Oh the joys of ADHD.

So I'm currently messing about with haskell. Been doing a lot of reading about category theory, type theory, how different type systems work, and other stuff. Playing around with writing an interpreter using GADTs and some other features to leverage haskell's type system to do type checking for me. Also looking at incorporating some code from the haskell LLVM tutorial, which would let me create a JIT compiler for my embedded DSL. If I get that set up and working it wouldn't be much trouble to add my own lexer/parser to allow me to create my own syntax that doesn't need to conform to haskell's syntax (especially since the LLVM tutorial addresses that side of things, and there are other tutorials for parsing and lexing in haskell out there as well).

I'm actually also in the process of quitting my job and going back to college for programming too....

As for things that are actually lame as shit, my sleep has been absolutely fucked lately. There are days where I might lie in bed for 6 hours before finally falling asleep. That does not exactly help with the whole time or energy to do shit side of things either.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on October 15, 2021, 01:19:03 AM
So I switched to Android a couple months ago and planned to write a point-by-point comparison of that and iOS (specifically, a Galaxy S21 Ultra vs. an iPhone 12 Pro Max, and a Tab S7 vs. an iPad), but the more I thought about it the less I had to really say on the matter.

The phones are the things I used the most, and after switching I kinda started to wonder why the fuck people get so bent out of shape over platforms. I mean, Apple's been opening up iOS just as Google's been closing Android (mostly for security. Android's security used to be as awful as iPhoneOS's inflexibility). There are some things that iOS definitely can't do, like run a chrooted Linux install, but that tends to be so finicky (mostly dealing with the new permission sets with Android 10+) that even I don't feel like dealing with it aside from fairly mundane stuff like ssh.

So I dunno, I guess we're doing a rapid-fire comparison. iPhone 12 Pro Whatever has a faster CPU despite being a year older (The S21 Ultra's Snapdragon 888 is roughly on par with the two-year-old iPhone 11), but it doesn't really make the phone feel faster. Screen's roughly the same size. Battery life is about the same despite it having a lower capacity battery (3687 mAh vs the S21 Ultra's 5000 mAh).

The S21 Ultra has 12GB of RAM compared to the 12 Pro Something's 6GB, but that doesn't really allow it to do more. Camera performance is pretty close on average, but the front camera on the S21U smashes the iPhone one, and the 10x telephoto is pretty convenient. Low-light performance seems to be better as well, but I haven't tested that too thoroughly. The ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is super convenient and awesome. The folio case and its viewing window works well, and I use the S Pen a lot more than I thought I would. The 120 hz screen was a very nice upgrade, though the iPhone 13 uses one now as well. Counter-intuitively, I actually find the pinhole camera more distracting than the notch, probably because it's breaking up an otherwise full-screen experience, rather than reading like a shrunken bezel.

The only real phone feature I really have to complain about is the car integration. Android Auto's UI works better on my car, since my car has a fairly small center console screen. CarPlay's split view tends to make it so that both the map and music UIs are too small to be usable (this isn't a problem for larger screen units, like the one on my parents' Kia Forte), but since Android Auto has a persistent media bar/notification bar on the bottom, it's very easy for passengers to flip through tracks without having to disrupt navigation.

That said, it does have some outwardly user hostile "features." It forces you into navigation every time you plug your phone in, and gives you no option to turn that "feature" off. Most of the driving I do is local, so I'd much rather have my music app front and center (CarPlay just displays the last content you had running. What a concept).

Tablets? Whew. Samsung tries like hell to make it work, but Google clearly doesn't give a fuck about them. You can always tell when you jump from Google land to Samsung land, because Samsung's software refers to the Tab S7 as a tablet while most of Android refers to it as a phone. The bluetooth S Pen works very well, easily on par with the Apple Pencil, and it has integration with Galaxy phones, much like the way Apple's devices integrate with one another. Good stuff, and very convenient. Battery life is easily on par with my 3rd gen iPad Pro. Nice as it is, however, I tend to find myself reaching for the iPad. Android left tablets behind years ago, and it really shows. While having an iPad display your app as an enlarged phone app is a mark of shame, I've found it to be surprisingly common on the 'droid side of things.

Finally, smartwatches. I went from an Apple Watch 6 to a Galaxy Watch4 Classic. Gotta say, I really like the rotating front of the Watch4 Classic over the digital crown (which I would always accidentally bump on stuff), and the ability to set awake hours for standing notifications on Samsung Fit is nice, but...man, WearOS has a lot of catching up to do. In terms of responsiveness, the Watch4 Classic is more in line with my old Apple Watch 3 than the buttery smooth 6, with hitching sprinkled throughout, and the software itself is rough. It's really hard for me to consider it release-worthy when some of the core system software treats the Watch4's round screen as a square screen. How the hell did nobody notice that? One definite positive is that the Watch4's battery life kills any Apple Watch I've owned. I could comfortably get 1.5-2 days out of my Apple Watch 3 and 6, but I can comfortably get 3-4 days out of the Watch4. It also does offer up many of the same features (one-wire ECG, heart rate sensors, etc), it's just the software that lets it down. I think WearOS needed another year or two of polish before Samsung switched away from Tizen. Hopefully it gets better over time, because in several ways it feels soooo close to hitting that sweet spot.

In conclusion: iOS is fine. Android is fine. Windows Phone was fine. Fanboys fucking suck.



Edit: One point I almost forgot to mention: the S Pen vs Apple Pencil thing largely comes down to which feeling you prefer. The S Pen uses a felt tip nib, while the Pencil uses hard plastic. I prefer writing with the S Pen because it feels more like a pen on paper, but I suspect that the Apple Pencil will last much longer due to the material it uses. Both options are still far better than the shitty wobbly nibs that the Surface pens seem to have. Trying to jot down notes with my old, thankfully sold, Surface Pro 3 was just awful.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on February 02, 2022, 12:43:25 PM
Sometimes I wonder if people who still claim that iPhones are super expensive have actually compared prices between the two.

Obviously Apple isn't interested in the budget sector, but you can still buy a brand new iPhone for $400, and its SoC still gives the high-end Snapdragon 888 a run for its money.

Meanwhile, on the high end, Samsung's top of the line phones are way more expensive than the iPhone Pro Max while subsequently lacking features (the Galaxy Fold 3 is pretty much worse in almost every way compared to their own S21 Ultra, but it's way more expensive due to its foldable screen).

It's almost like flagship phones are expensive or something. Weird concept.


Edit: Addendum to the post above: the Watch 4 Classic has proven to be so good and bug-free that I don't even wear it anymore. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on March 04, 2022, 04:58:14 PM
Dunno if I'd go so far as to call this rage-worthy, but my PC's water pump seems to have crapped out. You wouldn't believe how fast Windows runs when your CPU is running at a constant 100°C.

Barring a stupid, simple, easy-to-fix issue (don't really know…I didn't have much time to diagnose it last night), it like I'm going to be using macOS/Linux quite a bit within the next week or so.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: vladgd on March 08, 2022, 06:15:22 PM
Water cooling + problems = SCAREY

Something I understand why people do, but when I think about it...I ain't a tenth the enthusiast that would be into even a tiny risk of a leak.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on March 13, 2022, 01:38:19 PM
Eh, it's not too bad, really. As long as you don't do anything really stupid (kinking the tubing, etc) there isn't much to worry about with AIO coolers. If you have a pump failure you're basically dealing with the same failure mode as a dead air cooler (albeit a bit more dramatic, since you don't have as much of a heatsink).

You do have to be really careful if you build an open loop water cooling system. I don't think I'd want to put in the effort to maintain something like that, but I've been running AIO cooler for six years and this is the first issue I had, and it didn't cause any damage.

I should also add that Falcon Northwest overnighted me the part and I was able to get it installed relatively easily. Kinda cool that they trust their customers to do stuff like that.
Title: Re: The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived
Post by: Spectere on April 08, 2022, 06:15:45 PM
Pretty sure that watercooler issue I had also fried one of my NVMe drives (partial failure: a handful of cells died, but it was still generally usable). The one closest to the CPU ended up getting so hot that the glue on the Samsung sticker started melting out all over the place. Yikes. Fortunately I didn't lose any data (the OS partition somehow was completely unaffected, and the data partition literally just has Steam games on it, which I could just verify/redownload).

As with before, Falcon Northwest overnighted me a new drive, I dumped my old image onto it, and I've been keeping an eye on the temperatures just in case (they're higher than the other drive, given that this one is right between a 5900X and a 3090, but even with a full system load it still doesn't exceed 60C, which is fine).

Gotta say, it's nice having a single company deal with all of the RMA bullshit for me rather than having to hassle two different companies. I've had less downtime with this arrangement than I would have had with a single outage with parts that I sourced myself.

I also noticed that I neglected to mention anything about the support experience itself. I've never had a company as pleasant to work with as Falcon. They give you plenty of options for replacement, from them sending the parts to you to you sending the rig back to them (on their dime), will happily talk you through replacement if you need assistance, and everything is so unbelievably fast. Like, in both cases I expected to be down for a solid week, but that was far from the case.

Oh, they also use UPS instead of FedEx. Can't help but throw that jab in there. :P