0x29A's recent activity

  1. Comment on Millennials: How do you feel about nostalgia pandering? in ~talk

    0x29A
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    I think that's different, and your awareness of the reason for the nostalgia and the specific way in which you feel it keeps it benign. Maybe "unexamined nostalgia" is where the danger really...

    I think that's different, and your awareness of the reason for the nostalgia and the specific way in which you feel it keeps it benign.

    Maybe "unexamined nostalgia" is where the danger really lies. Because I do think there is a subset of people, particularly those that grew up during the particular time involved- that end up feeling like for example "things were better in the 80s and 90s", but that feeling for many is because they were privileged kids/teens during that time that didn't have to deal with (or feel affected by) the politics and reality of that era so to them it's this "less political" / simple time they look back on fondly and I think that feeling is preyed on once you're an adult (by media, politicians, etc)

    It also feels like it's so easy for a given industry/marketing/etc to hook into peoples' nostalgia that they'll pay money to chase that feeling and even knowing it works on me sometimes, it still feels gross from time to time

    Then again, maybe a lot of nostalgia is just fine and not that deep and is simply just for fun (retro computing groups, playing really old games, watching old media) and I get that too, but I think it's worth dissecting things we often take for granted as fine

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Millennials: How do you feel about nostalgia pandering? in ~talk

    0x29A
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    It works on me sometimes, for good or bad. I realize I am susceptible to it, both in positive and negative ways. I think at times it can be okay if consumed/approached carefully. Occasionally it...

    It works on me sometimes, for good or bad. I realize I am susceptible to it, both in positive and negative ways.

    • I think at times it can be okay if consumed/approached carefully. Occasionally it can be used to make creative and good things. We can appreciate art/works/etc from the past and new works that reference those or are based on them. We can fondly look back at some good days we had in our youth, or whatnot, as long as all of this is done with restraint and not let it poison our approach to the future, but rather inform it. If we get to the point where we're solely running on the fumes of nostalgia and not able to appreciate anything current, I think that's dangerous

    • I do think there's a subversive nature to some nostalgia that is used to lure us into a sense of feeling like there's a "good 'ole days" to which we should return, which can be a very dangerous sentiment. It can sometimes lean towards a rose-tinted-glasses view of the past that actually romanticizes consumerism too (like vaporwave aesthetic's fondness of Pepsi or other brands). I don't necessarily want to veer this commentary far down the road of talking about fascism/politics/etc- but there are some parallels to "longing for the past" and I do think nostalgia is intertwined with some dangerous thinking

    • I also think that it can often be weaponized as a cash-grab by exploiting peoples' love of particular things without providing them something solid in return. It can also then water down existing properties with its infiltration.

    • I think there is a middle, and careful, way to approach all of it, in ways that can appreciate experiences, products, and artworks of the past while remaining self-aware of the bigger picture.

    Ultimately, I find nostalgia not necessarily inherently bad, but exploited, complicated and not without its dangers.

    2 votes

  3. Comment on Drinking coffee from a cup made of coffee in ~food

    0x29A
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    Loved this and found the channel via a NightHawkinLight video about DIY bioplastics

    Loved this and found the channel via a NightHawkinLight video about DIY bioplastics

    2 votes

  4. Comment on What is happening to Japan? in ~tech

    0x29A
    Link Parent
    "We used to program the algorithms, now they're programming us"

    "We used to program the algorithms, now they're programming us"

    17 votes

  5. Comment on Controllers that work well with CachyOS? in ~tech

    0x29A
    Link Parent
    The Linux landscape is so broad that my specific anecdotal experience with particular controllers and connection methods might not reflect the broader overall feel towards controllers on Linux....

    The Linux landscape is so broad that my specific anecdotal experience with particular controllers and connection methods might not reflect the broader overall feel towards controllers on Linux. Whether it's a different combo of drivers, kernels and other system tweaks or something else.

    I had problems with both a wireless 8bitdo Pro 2 and a wireless Machinike G5 Pro, and gave up after that, but I am on an older OS/kernel, not on an Arch base, and from the replies of others here I am convinced my particular experience might have just been a rather unlucky one.

  6. Comment on Controllers that work well with CachyOS? in ~tech

    0x29A
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    Link Parent
    My 8bitdo wired's rumble works well. All first-party controllers I have used rumble just fine. I had a Machenike G5 Pro that got no rumble out of the box. To get rumble working on it required...

    My 8bitdo wired's rumble works well. All first-party controllers I have used rumble just fine.

    I had a Machenike G5 Pro that got no rumble out of the box. To get rumble working on it required special udev rules, editing a quirks file to fix how the controller reports itself, etc. After all of this I still don't think it was perfect. I think ultimately the manufacturer botched the controller firmware and the quirk was a bandaid on that. One of the controller's vendors was willing to take some info I collected and do a write-up of the fix though, so I was glad to have a hand in that happening.

    Interesting to know the first-party dongle works great for you, at least that might be one option for some.

    I can't go back to first-party controllers myself because I need one of the drift-resistant technologies which have finally solved drift issues for me that I have had now with 2-3 first-party replacements

    1 vote

  7. Comment on Controllers that work well with CachyOS? in ~tech

    0x29A
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    I use an 8bitdo Ultimate (wired, though, specifically) on Kubuntu 22.04, but I did have to wrestle with it a bit to get it to work, IIRC. It's currently using the xone driver and works perfectly...

    I use an 8bitdo Ultimate (wired, though, specifically) on Kubuntu 22.04, but I did have to wrestle with it a bit to get it to work, IIRC. It's currently using the xone driver and works perfectly for me using that.

    I've so far, never had a solid experience on Linux using wireless controllers, which is specifically why I use this wired model actually. Previous controllers I've had were more consistent in wired mode too.

    Maybe there are wireless ones that work consistently, but I don't mind wires so I decided to abandon the convenience. Generally with wireless I've had pairing problems, problems keeping it paired, and latency / choppiness / freezing problems even once paired successfully.

    3 votes

  8. Comment on Not sure if coincidence or I should give up (on USB flash drives) in ~tech

    0x29A
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    +1 to the other comments here- so sorry for sounding like I'm just repeating what they're saying- but I fully agree- While I have had some USB flash drives last years and years, it seems to be...

    +1 to the other comments here- so sorry for sounding like I'm just repeating what they're saying- but I fully agree- While I have had some USB flash drives last years and years, it seems to be sheer luck and due to intermittent usage, so I'm not stressing them. There's a ton of garbage in the market, and even what seem to be the better of the flash drives still aren't resilient devices I would trust for any long-term storage. Only temporary use (installations, small transfers, other cases where they are left in-place and read occasionally for a particular reason like my Unraid server, etc) and even then I often find I prefer external SSDs for these situations too- SSDs are much much faster than even decent flash drives, which also reduces frustration.

    For external storage, I strongly prefer external SSDs (either made for purpose, or enclosures I put my own drives in), while not immune to failure, decent SSDs have a pretty good track record overall. SSDs can still fail, and fail HARD, and often unrecoverably (at least for a reasonable price), but it's far less of a gamble

    Flash drives ultimately are made with the cheapest of materials and components and there isn't really a focus on longevity at all. It's possible some older drives were built better (wouldn't surprise me as every company these days, and for a long time, often have been racing to the bottom), but I think in general, USB flash lifespans are just a form of gambling. I've had expensive ones fail, I've had cheap ones survive, I've had multiple middle-of-the-road ones encounter both of those fates- there seems to be no rhyme or reason.

    You do still have to be careful when buying pre-built external SSDs (or really, ANY SSD)- I would typically avoid extremely no-name brands, as a previous help desk / desktop support tech, I've encountered all sorts of wild stuff- including some too-good-to-be-true priced external SSD that we opened up because it was failing and looked inside- and it was literally a USB2 flash drive taped inside of an enclosure, with a USB3 conversion board connected to it- to make the outside of the "SSD" appear to be USB3, etc.

    11 votes

  9. Comment on What's your favorite hobby? in ~hobbies

    0x29A
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    Anything in the "creative" sphere, really. Though, I suppose it's hard for me to truly think about "favorite" depending on how that's defined- What I get the most joy out of is creating things,...

    Anything in the "creative" sphere, really. Though, I suppose it's hard for me to truly think about "favorite" depending on how that's defined-

    What I get the most joy out of is creating things, whether songwriting/recording/playing instruments, or 3D printing, or trying to learn how to draw, or taking photos of all sorts of things (including other hobbies/interests like tea and coffee), or writing poetry/lyrics, or finding new music and writing on my blog about it, or trying to learn pixel art, or... (you see how this goes, lol).

    Truth is, sometimes the things I get the most joy out of aren't things I do as often as others, simply because of my energy levels or something else. So sometimes, video games, on a given day, are my favorite hobby. Other days it's tinkering with tech stuff.

    But ultimately, anything in the creative sphere is definitely what I derive the most joy from, bar none.

    If I had to choose- probably anything specific to music (playing/practicing instruments, songwriting, recording, lyrics, etc). There is nothing more euphoric for me

    2 votes

  10. Comment on Tips/guides to turn my home into a smart home? in ~tech

    0x29A
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    I keep my smart stuff extremely simple on purpose, because I have lately felt a lot less enticed by "smart" products. However I do use some smart bulbs, and am considering if there's any other...

    I keep my smart stuff extremely simple on purpose, because I have lately felt a lot less enticed by "smart" products. However I do use some smart bulbs, and am considering if there's any other smart stuff I'd be okay with incorporating. Maybe some sensors or other things.

    I have recently swapped to using HomeAssistant on my Unraid server so I can self-host and get away from using any cloud services and no connected microphones like Alexa or Google. I personally only use web/app control and no voice so my setup is very simple. I also don't need access outside of my home network. So keep in mind that my use case and setup is very tailored to my needs.

    What I love is that when it's local it's super fast to respond, and it's been way more reliable in actually performing the actions/scenes I request. Live editing of scenes / live preview is awesome too. My small smarthome setup has never been as good as it is now, and for this specific setup I would never go back to any big corporate services, especially since they were both (Alexa and GoogleHome) WAY more unreliable for me

    2 votes

  11. Comment on This site is fast in ~tildes

    0x29A
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    Link Parent
    I am vehemently anti-generative-AI, more than most people, but I wholeheartedly disagree, and I also echo the other sentiments here in that I don't think calling it out is always necessary or...

    I am vehemently anti-generative-AI, more than most people, but I wholeheartedly disagree, and I also echo the other sentiments here in that I don't think calling it out is always necessary or conducive to a good faith environment, especially when it's not massively or unignorably obvious, and when it's an environment like Tildes trying to curate a particular environment of discussion. I do think there are times and places for calling it out, but I don't think someone's post, which I easily read as sincere, is the place. It's not spam, it's not some boilerplate, it's not making things up, etc. Even if it were to have an LLM involved, what would OP have to gain here from it, for a compliment/appreciation for the platform we're on, and what do we gain by calling it out? They're not operating in any way that would reflect bad faith. Even if I felt like an LLM was involved in the original post (which I don't), I still don't see the benefit of calling it out in this circumstance. What upside is there?

    Also, some of the patterns LLM text has are patterns humans have used prior to LLMs. It's like people calling others out for em-dashes because they think that's a tell-tale sign- people are getting way too overzealous and confident in thinking they know what is and isn't AI output and it's causing "witch hunts" (talking about other more extreme situations, not saying you're doing this) and false accusations all over the place.

    I've seen numerous real artists, including people I know, that put many hours of work into things they draw by hand, and that hate AI themselves, have their work called out as AI-generated, and that is why this kind of thing gets me worked up. I never want my extreme distaste for AI to just turn into bad faith assumptions everywhere that unnecessarily get people tangled up in it.

    Do I discuss album covers with other music lovers that I think are generated? Sure. Do we have our own discussions about lyrics or images or memes, or other things we think are generated? Sure. Is there place for calling someone out (outside of Tildes) when it's obvious they're trying to lie and acting clearly in bad faith? Sure. This is just not one of those times.

    14 votes

  12. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

    0x29A
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    Been listening to my favorite finds from week of July 4, 2025 as I'm catching up on music rec blog posts (if you want explanations of these recommendations, go to my blog post here- hopefully...

    Been listening to my favorite finds from week of July 4, 2025 as I'm catching up on music rec blog posts (if you want explanations of these recommendations, go to my blog post here- hopefully mentioning these links from time to time is okay vs. posting a big wall of text here):

    Poignard - Creuser Sa Tombe - metal-punk (think Motorhead)
    Kaspyx - Kadaver - death/doom
    Mortual - Altar of Brutality - old school death
    Akouphenom - Connections to the Erebus - black/death/disso
    Burden of Ymir - The Long Winter - blackened folk metal
    Divine Sentence - Killing is a Cycle - hardcore/90s-metalcore/mathcore

    Also been listening to:

    Solicitor - Enemy in Mirrors - heavy metal
    Potochkine - Sang d'Encre - darkwave/ebm
    Hanzaisha - Liberated Chaos Machines - bestial black/death/war
    URANIUM - Corrosion of Existence - black/death/industrial/noise
    Incinerated - The Epitome of Transgression - disso bm
    Haeresis - Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum - occult/atmospheric bm
    Doldrey - Celestial Deconstruction - black/death/crust/d-beat
    Harmer - Descent - powerviolence
    Filth - Agenda - hardcore/d-beat/metalcore

  13. Comment on What code editor / IDE do you use (2025)? in ~comp

    0x29A
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    Link Parent
    Yeah I like Sublime Text being native (so sick of Electron-based things) and have liked its speed / perceived speed and simplicity so much that a number of years back I decided to buy it (after...

    Yeah I like Sublime Text being native (so sick of Electron-based things) and have liked its speed / perceived speed and simplicity so much that a number of years back I decided to buy it (after years of using it for free with the nag screen), even though I mostly use it for very simple stuff. I've never found anything else I like using more.

    It has a lot of features I enjoy (that I'm sure are available in many other tools) that really streamline things I'm working on (find/replace in all open files, multi-line cursors, etc)

    I have used VSCode in some situations where I could not have access to Sublime and it was okay. Although I will say they have done a decent amount of work to make it performant for an electron app it still feels noticeably bloated compared to something like Sublime. I have looked at others, but refuse to use any that build in AI access

    (No need for anyone to suggest alternatives, I've tried a billion of them and am happy with my paid product. While I love open-source stuff, I don't mind supporting non-open-source things if they're well-made)

    1 vote

  14. Comment on Uaar – Galgeås (2025) in ~music

    0x29A
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    Oooo nice. Kind of a blackened d-beat/hardcore, crust-leaning sound.

    Oooo nice. Kind of a blackened d-beat/hardcore, crust-leaning sound.

    2 votes

  15. Comment on Forgot Chrome's unusable, any recommendations? in ~tech

    0x29A
    Link Parent
    This is what I do when I need multiple browsers. Waterfox + Firefox side by side. I will only use something chromium-based in very specific circumstances.

    This is what I do when I need multiple browsers. Waterfox + Firefox side by side.
    I will only use something chromium-based in very specific circumstances.

  16. Comment on Forgot Chrome's unusable, any recommendations? in ~tech

    0x29A
    Link Parent
    I suppose what they mean here is that they're streaming video of Firefox to others and want to avoid streaming any other tabs/windows in Firefox where others could see it. That said, streaming...

    I suppose what they mean here is that they're streaming video of Firefox to others and want to avoid streaming any other tabs/windows in Firefox where others could see it. That said, streaming stuff might allow you to choose a specific window anyway, not sure.

    10 votes

  17. Comment on Forgot Chrome's unusable, any recommendations? in ~tech

    0x29A
    Link Parent
    Same here, Firefox 143 on Linux working without a problem, on multiple PCs.

    Same here, Firefox 143 on Linux working without a problem, on multiple PCs.

    9 votes

  18. Comment on I am angry at Google and wanted to share (rant) in ~tech

    0x29A
    Link Parent
    I switched to FastMail away from Gmail for my primary email and have been fully satisfied. +1 from me too. I have checked, or have tertiary emails on some of, a number of other services, maybe one...

    I switched to FastMail away from Gmail for my primary email and have been fully satisfied. +1 from me too.

    I have checked, or have tertiary emails on some of, a number of other services, maybe one of these could fit OP's needs: Tuta, Mailfence, Mailbox.org

    2 votes

  19. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    0x29A
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    These probably sit somewhere in-between creative and technical, but: Continuing down the 3D printing rabbit hole. Designed and printed some brackets to hold some USB PC fans up above my router,...

    These probably sit somewhere in-between creative and technical, but:

    • Continuing down the 3D printing rabbit hole. Designed and printed some brackets to hold some USB PC fans up above my router, pointing air down at it and the hardware on its sides (modem + miniPC server). The brackets clip to the top of the router and cradle the fans.

    • Planning on printing some brackets to clip onto the drain tray that goes around my A-frame inside coil of my HVAC system so that the filters that lay on each side of the coil don't dip down into the drainage tray, causing them to wick up moisture and grow mold. The brackets will provide a nice little platform / catch for the bottom edge of the filters to rest on, while keeping them elevated enough not to touch the moisture

    • Re-did my online presence on the web. Moved my music blog to its own domain, kept it on bearblog. Moved my personal site to a static host and just using HTML/CSS there. I wanted to keep the frictionless writing of using a blog platform for the music posts since they're the most often/common, but break outside of a platform and use HTML/CSS so I have more control for my personal site for creating types of pages bearblog wasn't really designed for (and for things where markdown just isn't adequate or desired)

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Why cassette tapes are coming back in ~music

    0x29A
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    Cassettes for me are a nice relatively small physical "trinket" / memorandum / merch piece (like a shirt or otherwise) if I want to have a physical copy of an album that isn't as expensive as...

    Cassettes for me are a nice relatively small physical "trinket" / memorandum / merch piece (like a shirt or otherwise) if I want to have a physical copy of an album that isn't as expensive as vinyl. So for certain records I'll sometimes get the cassette (which very often comes with a digital copy anyway- since most of my purchases are from bandcamp or similar).

    I doubt I will ever play my cassettes but I leave the option open. I've thought about getting a decent used cassette deck for the purpose, but for older-style physical media that I'd actually play, I'll probably stick to vinyl for the occasional physical experience. Most of my music listening is digital regardless, but I do like physical (and analog) media, but I definitely prefer vinyl for that. Tapes just aren't in general a great experience in a number of ways, but I could see myself "enjoying it for what it is" with a cassette deck. Sometimes the jankiness is part of the joy.

    I do these days (while having YT Premium and rarely using streaming that comes with it with YTM) almost always play mp3 files when I want to listen to music. On PC or any device in the house it is local mp3s streamed from a in-home music server or on the device directly. In my car, it's a USB SSD full of mp3s. On the go, I often save a subset of my library to my phone/device and use that directly. I definitely like the experience more sans streaming, but occasionally it can come in handy, especially if I don't feel like sailing the high seas for a quick listen or something, if it's not something I've yet decided to purchase.

    I always buy music or merch as my way of supporting the (especially smaller) artists I want to support, knowing a single album purchase is worth thousands of song streams in terms of revenue. Feels much better to throw them a few bucks they'd never remotely see if I'm streaming it

    6 votes