The Lamest Topic Ever Conceived

[Spectere]

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 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.

[vladgd]

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...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.

[Spectere]

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:



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.

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.

[Alice]

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...).

[Spectere]

"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.

[Alice]

The RISC-V boards that exist currently sound quite good but also... $680

This one 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 apparently will land later this year for ~$150.

[Spectere]

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)

[vladgd]

Commodore VIC-20.

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.

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 anyone?

[Spectere]

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 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 (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 anyone?

Okay, that looks awesome. I need to pick that up, too.

[Alice]

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 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

[Spectere]

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.

[vladgd]

I think I need more self control.

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

Then I got this knife 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.



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.

[Bobbias]

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.

[vladgd]

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.

[Spectere]

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.