yukichigai @ yukichigai @kbin.social

Modder, programmer, and all around tinkerer. Yes, I’m that New Vegas and De

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2 yr. ago

Another one that gets me: buying things but not actually owning them. You buy a game but you don't actually own the game, you own a license to play a game on a service that might shut down sometime in the future or change their mind about the license they sold you. You buy an e-book but the storefront you bought it from might change or remove it, and then forcibly update or remove any copies you have on e-readers. Most people don't even buy movies or TV shows, they just subscribe to some streaming service, and if they do "buy" an electronic copy it's the same issue as e-books.

At least physical copies of movies and tv shows and books are still a thing, but even then we're heading towards a future where physical media may require phoning in before it'll play.

It's not just that they're smart, it's that the "smart" features actively interfere with normal operation, though it's bad enough that you can't find "dumb" versions. TVs for example: a few years ago I tried to replace my dying "dumb" TV and discovered that they basically don't sell TVs that aren't smart. I figured "eh, worst case I can just use it as a normal TV" only to discover that on some models no, I could not. I've come to despise Roku-integrated TVs: standalone Roku devices are great, but their TVs lock down basically every single adjustment you'd find on a normal TV other than brightness and volume, so too bad if you have to deal with glare I guess?

Finally wound up going with an AndroidTV, which at least lets me change inputs and adjust the picture as needed... but also the home screen is loaded with ads that you can't disable. At least it still lets me have it boot straight to a specific input instead of showing the home screen.

The Sega Dreamcast. Live CD distributions of Linux were really taking off around then, so some enterprising sorts decided to see if they could get Linux running on the Dreamcast. They partially succeeded, though accessing some of the hardware was... dicey. That said, the Dreamcast had a native keyboard adapter and they managed to get support for that going pretty quickly.

Unfortunately the project kind of stagnated, but you can read up on more of it on the sourceforge project page.

You still can. Not only that, you can install emulators and Retroarch, the thing is capable of running consoles up through PS1 games, though the button mapping for most games is a bit awkward.

Also !sbcgaming if you're into that sort of thing.

We always just hung plants from them.

That or a Sky Chair, though ironically they kinda look like sex swings on their own.

Just throw someone else's phone into the ocean. Then you get to experience the thrill without the consequences. I mean unless you get caught.

Aided by the stain-fighting power of OXY CLEAN! (snorts massive line of coke)

Gosh I love scrolling through 7 pages just to read two paragraphs!

Opus consistently impresses me with how good audio sounds at ridiculous compression levels, both music and speech. 4 minutes of music not even breaking 900k and it sounds just as good as the ol' 128kbps mp3s, and that's stereo. Can't even imagine how much you could squeeze down mono audiobooks.

I bought a first gen Sansa Clip ages ago on Black Friday sale and fell in love with the damn thing. Small but not too small, good controls, good sound, intuitive UI, uses universal drivers (not a sure thing at the time), even has an FM radio built in. I've picked up so many more advanced devices over the years but I keep coming back to it. It's just a solid piece of hardware.

Also you can install Rockbox on it and play DOOM, if you're into that sort of thing.

MP3s compress down a lot, as low as 1 meg a minute for acceptable quality depending on the content. Newer codecs like Opus and AAC can easily do that with much better quality, and your Pixel will definitely be able to play them.

Counterpoint: Riker.

Look, I know the Federation doesn't have money, but they probably brought it back just to charge Riker for all the extra cleanup required every time he visited the holodeck.

Communists? Nah, not a problem. I mean I'm a Star Trek fan, and while it's not played up that much the Federation is a post-scarcity socialist-adjacent society. I'm all for everyone having their basic needs met without condition or obligation, and money being obsolete.

Tankies though can fuck right off. North Korea is not a bastion of democracy. China is not more free than the US. This is not difficult to see.

The XP buff being better than normal Well Rested is still an improvement, but honestly Bethesda games should've been doing that since New Vegas.

Personally I've had some issues with ads getting through 5 on a few devices. Version 4 always works in those cases, even though it's a bit less efficient (apparently).

Separate of that it also works with VPN Tunnel, which is great for getting around cell providers that block tethering.

From what I understand, that's difficult to do, and even if done it prevents the inline loading of images from those other instances at all.

Hopefully it'll be academic before long anyway. The CSAM attack lit a fire under the devs and changing this is now one of their highest priorities.

The fact that you even can is kinda boss, NGL.

Aren't they pronounced the same?

Disclaimer: I am American.

My dude, just today we had Neo-Nazis berating people outside Disney World about the supremacy of the white race and the need to eliminate all LGBTQ people. "Literal Nazi" isn't some coded terminology that takes a PhD in Cryptography to decipher. There are no hidden meanings here.