d3Xt3r @ d3Xt3r @beehaw.org

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15

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146

Joined

2 yr. ago

"Coax," "Force," and "Lie."

I'm pretty sure the original was "Accuse" instead of "Lie", and the dialogs also made more sense thinking the response was "Accuse".

Still I'm not convinced of Steam OS compared to Windows 11, since I would like to play also Epic games and maybe some emulators

How much time, relatively speaking, do you spend playing multiplayer Epic games? If it's more than 50%, then yeah, SteamOS may not be for you. But if it's less than that, then SteamOS would be a better experience, simply because it was built ground-up for gaming. No Windows Defender slowing down your system unexpectedly, no Windows Updates to hijack your system at the most unexpected times, no other bloatware or nonsense services like Bing/copilot crap or ads in Explorer - just pure gaming. These Windows handhelds you speak of are barely optimized for gaming, the most they do is add a launcher and call it a "gaming console" - you still have to put up with various Windows annoyances, which defeats the point of a dedicated gaming console - you want to be able to just pick it up, turn it on and game - no nonsense. One of the cool things about SteamOS is how reliable the sleep/resume is when you're gaming, which allows you to just pause and game whenever you like. This whole streamlined experience is why people love the Deck.

BTW, SteamOS has no issues running emulators. I can't think of any popular emulator that runs only on Windows, or runs significantly better on Windows.

the screen of the Steam Deck, apparently of lower res

The lower res is actually better because it's a small screen. A higher res on a small screen makes things harder to see, plus with a lower res you get more FPS and a better batter life.

very big hazels (to me looks like the first Nintendo Switch).

It may not look good, but it actually makes it more ergonomic and easier to hold. Check any review of the Deck and you'll see they all praise it's ergonomics, like this one: https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/pc-gaming/steam-deck-review#section-steam-deck-form-factor-ergonomics-and-gamepad

"Despite its undeniable girth, the Steam Deck's attention to ergonomics makes it an incredibly comfortable device to hold, even during extended gaming sessions"

In fact, read the rest of the article - or any other in-depth review. You'll find that the Steam Deck is a much more polished experience overall compared to the others, and this is thanks to both it's hardware and software.

There's no need to wait for a sentient AI for that. I mean, the current publicized method for blocking these bots is via robots.txt, which is only a very polite way of asking bots to duck off - they really have no reason to respect it, if they wanted to. OpenAI (or anyone else) could also use multiple public proxy servers for scraping, so websites won't be able to point fingers at them. Even if the bot makers avoid using proxies, they could still get the content indirectly by scraping other sites which repost the content, such as archive.org or even just normal sites which repost stuff. Heck, they could scrape off say, Lemmy indirectly, for instance we've got the AutoTLDR bot here, combine that with comments and quotes from several people, and any competent LLM could easily learn the content of the original article without even having to directly touch it.

So unless the site has posted a 100% unique piece of information, which hasn't been published anywhere else, AND they've also implemented a strict "no reproduction in any form" rule that also extends to prohibiting any discussion of the source material, it would be near-impossible to stop or blame the bot creators of bypassing ToS. And we all know what happens when you go to great lengths to try and silence a subject matter on the internet...

In my opinion, Web Environment Integrity (WEI) is a bad idea. It has the potential to harm the open web and restrict user freedom.

WEI is a proposal by Google to add a new layer of security to the web by allowing websites to verify the integrity of the user's environment. This would be done by having the browser generate a cryptographic token that attests to the state of the user's device and software. Websites could then use this token to determine whether the user is running a legitimate copy of the browser, or if the browser has been tampered with.

There are a number of potential problems with WEI. First, it could be used to restrict user freedom. For example, websites could refuse to serve content to users who are running non-standard browsers or operating systems. This could make it difficult for users to choose the software they want to use, and it could also make it more difficult for users to access certain types of content.

Second, WEI could be used to stifle innovation. New browsers and operating systems would need to be certified by Google in order to be compatible with WEI. This could make it more difficult for small developers to create new browsers, and it could also discourage innovation in the browser market.

Third, WEI could be used to collect user data. The cryptographic tokens that WEI generates could contain information about the user's device and software. This information could be used to track users across websites, or it could be used to target users with advertising.

Overall, I believe that WEI is a bad idea. It has the potential to harm the open web and restrict user freedom. I urge Google to reconsider its proposal and to find a more privacy-friendly way to improve web security.

Here are some additional examples of how WEI could be used to harm the open web:

• WEI could be used to block users from accessing websites that are critical of Google or its partners.
• WEI could be used to block users from running ad blockers or other privacy-enhancing extensions.
• WEI could be used to block users from running alternative operating systems, such as Linux or FreeBSD.

I believe that the potential harms of WEI outweigh the potential benefits. I urge Google to abandon this proposal and to find a more privacy-friendly way to improve web security.

I know. I just thought it was a bit ironic seeing such a strongly worded response from it.

Oh no! Better watch out for the lemon stealing whores!

I can still play these games today, but just don't have the time:

• Dangerous Dave, John Romero's first "popular" game, predating Keen/Wolf/Doom. Three decades later, and I still haven't managed to beat this game (without using cheats or save states that is).

• Bio Menace, An action platformer by Apogee, made using the same engine as Keen. You are Snake Logan, a CIA operative who needs to save Metro City, which has been invaded by mutants. A very fun game with good controls and smooth movements.

• The Skunny series, A bunch of platformers featuring Skunny the squirrel, made by Copysoft. Save our Pizzas in particular was pretty memorable, where Skunny travels back in time to ancient Rome because an evil chef wants to destroy the invention of pizza so that he can make his own imitation. Very whacky and cartoony, kid me loved this game.

• SkyRoads, A fun space runner. Think Temple Run, except you're in a spaceship that's... not flying and is on a road, in space, and it can also hop! In hindsight, it sounds weird, but trust me, it's fun.

I have the RG351MP, it's pretty nice. Solid aluminum too, so it doesn't feel cheap, but not really ergonomic for long hours of play. That's fine though, because this is the kind of device you carry around in your pocket for a short session during your commute, breaks etc. There's quite a few choices of opensource firmware that you can load onto here, and most of them have this cool app called "portmaster", which consists of native games ported over from other platforms - such as Prince of Persia (DOS), 3D Space Cadet Pinball (XP) etc, and they run really well.

My main issue with the 351MP is that although it claims to be able to emulate the Dreamcast and N64, it actually struggles with most games from those two consoles. Most notably, I wanted to play Rogue Squadron II (Dreamcast) on it and it was unplayable, the specs were too weak for it unfortunately. Which broke my heart, and I quickly lost interest in the device. I wanted a device that could comfortably emulate all consoles upto the Dreamcast, and the 351MP can only realistically handle upto the PS1.

I started looking for alternatives, and found similar drawbacks with most of these devices, none of them were capable enough to comfortably emulate the Dreamcast - unless I bought a pricey high-end device like the Aya Neo or the Steam Deck or something.

And then I realized, I could just get myself a cheap Android device from eBay (like with a bad ESN or some other non-impairing fault), pair it with a telescopic controller, and it'd be way cheaper + have better specs. So I did just that, got myself a cheap OnePlus 9 with a bad ESN for only $150 (SD 888, 8GB RAM), paired it with a Gamesir X2, loaded Dolphin emulator on it - and I was finally able to play Rogue Squadron II in all its glory - even managed to get an HD texture pack for it and it was glorious.

Eventually, I got myself a Galaxy Fold 4 as my main phone, so I didn't need the OP9 any more - my Fold 4 had better specs, plus the large 4:3-ish screen made it perfect for playing those old games.

As for my old RG351MP, it's still lying around, but I think I might sell it. The only advantage it has against my current setup is portability, but since I carry my Fold 4 everywhere, it's not really that big of an issue. Sure, I can't carry my controller everywhere either, but I'm not that desperate to want to be able to game everywhere and all the time (with physical controls).

TL;DR: Before buying a handheld, consider whether you really need that portability + physical controls, if you don't need it everywhere, then your phone (+ controller) could do a better job than most of these.

Yes, but it's a bit more than that. All models are produced using a process known as neural network quantization, which optimizes them to be able to run on a CPU. This, plus appropriate backend code written in C, means GPT4All is quite efficient and needs only 4-8GB of RAM (depending on the model) and a CPU with AVX/AVX2 support.

GPT4all, it's open source and you can run it on your own machine.

Is thee anyone here who hates turn-based RPGs, tried this game and actually liked it?

Dang, for a second there I thought it was gonna be Q3A. :(

Similar experience to @msprout here.

I had a 49" ultrawide, which was great for one of my previous jobs, as I needed basically three screens visible all the time, and I was able to fit all my content side by side on one screem. However, I didn't find my monitor as useful in my current job, where I didn't need a triple-screen space (and I preferred more of a vertical setup for coding and spreadsheets). I also bought my UWD originally for playing racing/flight sim games as it was a dream for kid me - turns out, I'm actually not really into them as I used be as a kid, and these days I prefer playing mostly A/RPGs, RTSes, and some old school games - all of which looked better more on a squarish aspect ratio. So I sold off my UWD as it was just wasting space, and got a 16:10 QHD monitor instead - it's big and high-res enough for me to fit 4 windows on one screen, plus, for the games I played, I found it looked better with this aspect ratio.

For work, in addition to my main monitor, I use a second smaller screen, usually a laptop that's propped up near my keyboard, which I use for minor things that I don't need or focus on (like chat, or monitoring stuff).

So overall, I'm much more happier with this setup compared to my UWD, and my neck and wrists are thankful for it as well.

Exciting. I miss going to Linux User Group meetings and meeting other OSS enthusiasts and seeing all the cool projects they were working on. Sadly, all our LUGs died out and are no longer a thing in my country, and I suspect it's the case in many parts of the world.

I haven't used Mint in ages, but I believe it now comes with the Timeshift backup application - do you recall setting up any backup routines in it? If not, still worth checking out IMO, in case there a previous snapshot you could roll back to.

Yep, it comes with a skinned version of Chrome. It's just standard Android without Google Play Services, and a custom launcher. So you're free to install any browser or a third party app/store. I use F-Droid and Aurora Store to install my apps. They do have their own app store as well, but it has a very limited selection of apps.

I actually haven't tried the Boox reader app at all! Tachiyomi is more of a downloader+reader, you can add multiple source plugins and it can search for and download (scrape) books from various sources.

It does have a few handy features for smaller screens though, such as the ability to crop borders, so you may not need to zoom into the content, plus there are various fit/zoom/crop options which you can play around with. So, at least for the comics I read (and my screen size/eyes) + Tachiyomi I don't need to zoom around at all, so the form factor is very convenient.

Not sure about DC/Marvel apps sorry, I don't use them (I usually avoid apps which have a dependency on the Play Store). I use Comixology and Tachiyomi for my comics instead, and don't have any issues with either of them. That said, generally speaking apps that aren't optimized for e-readers can in fact behave a bit odd, but this is why Boox included a per-app optimization tool, thru which you can customize the DPI, background color, fonts, refresh type etc for each app. For instance, Comixology has a dark background by default which doesn't look nice on e-ink, so you can tweak it via Boox's tool to display a bright background instead (the comics themselves display properly).

FWIW, my (non tech-savvy) mum and dad have been running Zorin for years (and Xubuntu prior to that), without any issues. The only times I've had to intervene is for doing an OS upgrade, which was a manual process, but Zorin now includes a GUI upgrader which should make things even more easier.

Folks who claim Linux is too unstable or complicated for home users, and think you need to use the commandline for every small thing, should check out Zorin (or talk to my mum and dad!).

I used to do all that too. I'm old too, and forget renaming files, I gave up on the whole media-hording business, because I ain't got the time/patience to manage all that any more. Gone are the days of using seedboxes, private servers, SABnzbd and the like. Gone are the days of using Kodi/OpenElec/Plex/Jellyfin etc. Gone are the days of running my own NAS with an ever increasing RAID array and maintaining them and benchmarking the latest ZFS and thinking of ways to speed up the cache and upgrading all the bits and bobs regularly. I got rid of it all.

These days, I just subscribe to a streaming site on an adhoc basis (if there's something I want to watch on that site) and if the site doesn't have it in my region, I won't jump thru VPN hoops and will just pirate it, watch it, and immediately delete it. I ain't hording shit no more, and will follow the path of least resistance.

Honestly, this has simplified my life quite a bit, I don't need to worry about backups or losing data - because I have no data to lose now (besides some documents/personal projects/dot files, which is already synced to the cloud).

The only media I actually still bother to carry around is rewatchable and rare stuff that isn't easy to get. Like the AI upscaled version of DS9, Harmy's Despecialized Star Wars, or my own AI upscaled copies of Allo Allo, which isn't found anywhere else. But all of these fit on a single USB stick, so I'm happy retaining them. It's so freeing to not be a data hoarder any more and simplify my digital life.