rudyharrelson
@rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio
- Comment on Dragon Quest VIII is so charming 2 days ago:
DQ8 is the only Dragon Quest game I’ve played and I enjoyed it a lot. The art direction, the music, everything about it just has this whimsical, pleasant quality that few games achieve. I’ve heard Dragon Quest XI is a good spiritual successor, but haven’t tried it myself.
- Comment on Why are people disconnecting or destroying their Ring cameras? 2 days ago:
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
- Comment on GitHub - spacebarchat/spacebarchat: 📬 Spacebar is a free open source selfhostable discord compatible communication platform 4 days ago:
Perhaps more relevantly, the Docker image itself has not been updated in over 2 years: hub.docker.com/r/spacebarchat/server
- Comment on Emotional processing 4 days ago:
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse: while Kratom isn’t an opioid, it can cause “opioid-like” and “stimulant-like” effects in the brain by activating “mu-opioid receptors”
- Comment on Chatbots Make Terrible Doctors, New Study Finds 5 days ago:
I figured you were just being funny, but I’m feeling talkative today, lol
- Comment on Chatbots Make Terrible Doctors, New Study Finds 5 days ago:
People always say this on stories about “obvious” findings, but it’s important to have verifiable studies to cite in arguments for policy, law, etc. It’s kinda sad that it’s needed, but formal investigations are a big step up from just saying, “I’m pretty sure this technology is bullshit.”
- Comment on If I took antidepressants for my Weltschmerz (world-weariness)... would I become a worse artist? 1 week ago:
Here’s a thought experiment you might find helpful:
Assume, for this experiment, that becoming more mentally healthy definitely leads to being less artistic. You still make art, but it isn’t as good or profound as before.
Given that premise, would you forgo happiness for the sake of your art? Would you recommend others do the same? If you could offer Van Gogh advice, would you tell him to avoid help and embrace suffering so that he could produce nice paintings?
- Comment on After Years of Waiting Jellyfin Finally Lands on Samsung Tizen TVs 1 week ago:
Not every Jellyfin user is the server administrator. If someone sets up a server and shares that server with 5 people, most of those users aren’t concerned with the privacy implications of how they connect to the server; they just want to consume content.
- Comment on Tuvix Tricorder - An RSS Button For The Web 3 weeks ago:
Ahh, silly me. I didn’t even notice that gear icon was there. Thanks for looking into this feature though!
- Comment on Tuvix Tricorder - An RSS Button For The Web 3 weeks ago:
Seems pretty handy. So far the extension works pretty well.
In testing out the Firefox version of the extension, I found that it would be nice if there were a “copy to clipboard” button near the “Subscribe” button for users who just want the RSS URL. I host a FreshRSS instance so the “Subscribe” button doesn’t do anything for me. Triple-clicking the URL works to highlight it all, but a single-click copy button would be a nice QoL improvement.
- Comment on Whats the best use for 75 dollars? 1 month ago:
If you (or your parents) like to cook, you could get some choice steaks (or other high-end ingredients) and make a nice meal that the whole family can enjoy.
Could also get a nice game controller if you’re into video games. Most first-party controllers seem to cost about $70 these days.
I dunno what the “smart” thing to do with $75 would be; $75 isn’t a whole lot of money in the grand scheme of things so investing it wouldn’t exactly pay dividends any time soon. Maybe buy 1GB of DDR5 RAM and in a year it might be worth $75,000 if the market continues its current trend.
- Comment on What are some unique Games to host server's of? 1 month ago:
Could try hosting a Multi-User Dungeon (MUD). I tried to host an Evennia server last year but could never get it to work properly. Wasn’t a big deal though cause it’s not like I had any friends who wanted to play, lol.
- Comment on I'm gonna need a walk-in shower soon enough 1 month ago:
Could build a wheelchair ramp on the side of the tub so you can just roll on in
- Comment on Battle Bun 1 month ago:
Hit 'em with the Liu Kang Bicycle Kick
- Comment on Thank Goodness You're Here - most absurd & hilarious game what did I just play? 1 month ago:
I watched Game Grumps play this game a while back and found it very funny. Certainly a labor of love
- Comment on How to deploy a satellite and what are the costs? 2 months ago:
A license obtained in the USA (issued by the FCC) only permits transmission on regulated frequencies within the USA. Other nations will have different regulatory bodies you’ll need to comply with instead. You can probably just do a web search for “<your country here> amateur radio license” and go from there.
- Comment on How to deploy a satellite and what are the costs? 2 months ago:
Space RF communication protocols and best-use technologies - I need to read about it more
You can get a decent primer on this topic here and here. If you aren’t already a licensed ham, you can look into getting your Technician license (a lofty goal, given the exam comprises thirty whole multiple-choice questions) and get familiar with transmitting/receiving across long distances.
One fun experiment you can tackle early on before even getting licensed to transmit is to just receive signals from satellites that are already in orbit and can be reliably tracked. For example: you can easily track the International Space Station and know when it will be passing over your location and set up a receiver to listen on the right frequency. It’s not uncommon for them to be broadcasting some kind of signal on a regular basis. Sometimes they even broadcast SSTV signals that you can receive and decode. Once you’ve done this a couple of times, you oughta be pretty comfortable with at least receiving signals from satellites in orbit. Good preliminary proof of concept.
A couple of handy web apps I’ve used to track satellites before:
You used to be able to track the ISS through a NASA web app, but they recently retired it in favor of their first-party app 🙄. Admittedly, it’s a pretty great app in my experience. But I wish the old web app were still online. That said, the apps I linked above should also be able to track the ISS as well.
- Comment on Solutions for remote access? 2 months ago:
You could use PiVPN (you don’t need to install it specifically on a Raspberry Pi – this is just a handy all-in-one software solution). It supports both OpenVPN and Wireguard standards. Forward the relevant port in your router configuration, set up a single user for yourself and then connect via whichever client you prefer (OpenVPN if you use OVPN, or Wireguard if you use Wireguard).
I’ve used it before to access locally-hosted services from outside my home network and it gets the job done with fairly minimal setup.
- Comment on Microsoft AI CEO pushes back against critics after recent Windows AI backlash — "the fact that people are unimpressed ... is mindblowing to me" 2 months ago:
It’s impressive, just not particularly useful,
I will have to disagree with this. I have found LLMs to be remarkably useful in a variety of circumstances because they are pretty good at regugitating API documentation in a relatively small context.
- Comment on Microsoft AI CEO pushes back against critics after recent Windows AI backlash — "the fact that people are unimpressed ... is mindblowing to me" 2 months ago:
I dunno if I’d say I’m “unimpressed” with AI. I certainly find the technology itself fascinating. I worked with machine learning for years before consumer generative AI became mainstream and it’s profoundly impressive what decades of research and development have yielded. I genuinely do admire the painstaking work that underappreciated computer scientists have put in to make such things possible.
That said, “AI” is the new “blockchain” insofar as virtually every company on the S&P 500 has decided this is the new be-all-end-all feature that must be integrated into every aspect of every project. I don’t need AI to be part of my OS. I will open a new tab in my web browser if I decide I have a task for it. Granted, I am not a representative sample of a typical computer user (I use GNU/Linux btw).
To say nothing of the unethical manner in which these models are trained, using works produced by actual writers, artists, programmers, etc. Obviously profiting from their works while offering zero compensation (and actively taking work away from them by offering AI as an alternative to their craft).
- Comment on We like to party 2 months ago:
This picture has been floating around the internet for ages. I dunno if it’s entirely accurate, but it suggests Nutella is primarily palm oil and sugar. With hazelnuts and cocoa making guest appearances
Don’t get me wrong, though. The stuff’s addictive.
- Comment on Goodnight sweet prince 2 months ago:
At least you’ll have an excuse to finally shoot the printer.
- Comment on What do you call the beleif that gods are just higher beings on other planes of existence? 3 months ago:
Can you define “god” in this context? Does “god” imply a creator of human existence, or merely a being with abilities not understood or quantified by humans (think Q from Star Trek).
The latter isn’t necessarily a belief system in and of itself. It’s just the acknowledgement that “higher”, ascendent beings can exist because humans are not, necesssarily, the be-all-end-all sapient beings of the universe.
- Comment on There was no need to ever improve upon THIS 3 months ago:
If the brownouts don’t last long, you could maybe solve this issue with a moderately priced UPS to keep the AC unit from powering off during the brief moments when power goes out.
- Comment on Not promoting hate speech but what happened to all the slights/slurs/vulgarity from like the 20s and 40s. There were so many. Now it seems well I can only think of three? 3 months ago:
- Comment on German state replaces Microsoft Exchange and Outlook with open-source email 3 months ago:
Kudos to Germany for pulling it off. Was also happy to see them mention
Last year […] the government began rolling out LibreOffice as the default office suite to replace Microsoft Office.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 months ago:
Assuming this isn’t just a shitpost:
Yes, calling someone a useless piece of shit when they are trying hard, but failing, at doing something very difficult makes you an asshole. It is the opposite of constructive feedback; it’s just an insult. In case it hadn’t dawned on you, the guy wasn’t just having to solo parent, he was having to solo parent while presumably worried sick about his hospitalized spouse.
Do I blame you for being frustrated and snapping? No, but it doesn’t mean you weren’t a huge asshole in the moment. Own your mistake and apologize if you have the introspective wherewithal and didn’t just make this post seeking validation.
- Comment on A broken clock is right twice a day, but a wrong clock is just wrong. 4 months ago:
Or maybe if the clock is exactly an hour off, it’ll eventually be right when daylight saving time rolls around.
- Comment on Does it feel like the PS5's library is *severely* lacking compared to the PS4's around the same time in its lifecycle? 4 months ago:
Yeah, I think I’ve only bought one or two PS5 exclusives since I got mine around October 2020. Demon Souls remake and Horizon Forbidden West (though the latter is now available on Steam).
That said, I still think I’ve gotten a good amount of value out of the console by reaping the Patient Gamer™ rewards by picking up many of the major PS3/PS4 titles during good sales. I didn’t play many video games during the PS3/PS4 era, so I missed out on quite a few major releases. I’ve accumulated a pretty great digital library with some fantastic games for a relatively small amount of money (which, like my Steam library, I’ve only actually played a fraction of).
As an aside, probably my favorite PS5 exclusive has just been the free Astro Bot game. The haptics in the DualSense controller are frankly cool as hell, and I hope more games utilize them going forward.
- Comment on If you had to buy a new TV, what brand would you get? 4 months ago:
I know you asked for TV recommendations, but, if your friend is open to other ideas, they could also look into home theater projectors. I got a super cheap projector on sale a few years ago and being able to watch TV and movies on a 150 inch screen is absolutely bitchin’. I later upgraded to a higher quality projector cause the cheap one crapped out after about a year (and replacement bulbs were impossible to find due to the supply chain issues during early covid). Spent about the same amount on the high quality projector that I would have spent on a much smaller TV.
Though there’s obviously drawbacks to projectors:
- They generate a lot of heat. In the hottest months of the year, I don’t like turning it on
- You will initially blind yourself a lot by accidentally looking at it when it’s turned on. After blinding yourself a dozen or so times you’ll develop the muscle memory to avoid it.
- You gotta replace the bulbs periodically, but they last for thousands of hours. My current bulb has about 5000 hours on it and still doesn’t need to be replaced.
- Contrast is really weak compared to a TV. Need to close the curtains and not let sunlight into the room if you want to be able to see the picture clearly
- Need a big surface to project the picture onto, ideally a screen, but a blank wall works just fine.
When we moved into our house a few years ago, I saw there was an elevated alcove in the living room with a big, blank wall on the opposite side of the room. I knew right then that it would be perfect for a projector.
Movie night kicks ass. Every re-watch of Lord of the Rings is like watching it in the theater again. And Superbowl Sundays are epic on the big screen.
I have an Epson 2250 and it’s worked nicely these past few years.
