0x29A's recent activity
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Comment on German retailer Thomann is suing Fender over recent cease and desists in ~music
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Comment on What's an itch you were finally able to scratch? in ~talk
0x29A Link ParentAwesome, glad this opened up the coffee experience more for you. I took the leap like two years ago. I use a v60 and also a manual grinder (Kingrinder K6) with a gooseneck kettle and some very...Awesome, glad this opened up the coffee experience more for you. I took the leap like two years ago.
I use a v60 and also a manual grinder (Kingrinder K6) with a gooseneck kettle and some very cheap timer+scale and have been very satisfied with my results. I've dipped in a bit deeper doing "soup" on the OXO Rapid Brewer, but v60 is my go-to. Cups or coffees that were very muted before now have now opened up to a world of flavor and it's my favorite part of every new day. You're right that you can make a much better decaf cup this way too.
I've discovered that honey process coffees and Ethopian light roasts (naturals especially) are my absolute favorite but I've been branching out and trying all sorts of things.
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Comment on What's an itch you were finally able to scratch? in ~talk
0x29A (edited )LinkI love it when I try some small tip/trick I found and it actually works. Lately: Placed rubber snakes on my car's dashboard and back window and ever since the day I did this (a couple of weeks...I love it when I try some small tip/trick I found and it actually works. Lately:
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Placed rubber snakes on my car's dashboard and back window and ever since the day I did this (a couple of weeks ago), the birds that were constantly crapping on my car no longer visit it. They stay in the trees/yard/elsewhere. I move the snakes occasionally so they don't get used to them, and it seems to continue working. It was a daily problem (I could clean my car off and it would be messy in 24 hours again) for weeks and I haven't had to clean my car of droppings ever since that day.
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Pressing condiment bottles to squeeze out a bit of air before putting them away has stopped them from bubbling over when opened and squirting contents out unnecessarily due to the temperature of the air inside causing it to expand and push contents out. This trick has saved me this small frustration enough times now that it's SO satisfying
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Comment on German retailer Thomann is suing Fender over recent cease and desists in ~music
0x29A Link ParentYeah, for sure! A lot of the ideas are the same across all major DAWs- most of the fundamentals will be very similar. The timeline, the tracks, certain interface type things, all of the necessary...Yeah, for sure! A lot of the ideas are the same across all major DAWs- most of the fundamentals will be very similar. The timeline, the tracks, certain interface type things, all of the necessary stuff. The biggest things DAWs offer usually are just their particular set of enhancements or "nice ways of handling" those basics, or their specific additional features, or first-party stuff like plugins, but for the price (and potential/power) it's hard to beat Reaper (used as shareware or for it's inexpensive full price). I think it has a bit of a tougher learning curve overall, but I've heard from all sorts of people it's great once you're used to it.
With Studio One at this point, since I own the Pro version (and a perpetual license, so I may run out of updates, but can use my current version forever, no subscription), I get all sorts of useful Presonus/Studio One plugins and begrudgingly now some nice Fender stuff (guitar effects). Presonus' has all sorts of built-in plugins like drums, synths, bass, cinematic sounds, reverb, compressor, limiter, vocal tuning, all sorts of stuff- and they build those quite well. So it's nice that "out of the box" I get a lot of stuff even if I have added hundreds of my own additional plugins lol
For me now, yeah it's mostly just using both what I've invested in and what's familiar enough that my workflow has less "friction" because things are so second-nature / muscle memory. It may now come with an unfortunate branding change, but the underlying product is quite good
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Comment on Slate Truck preorder starts at $24,950 in ~transport
0x29A Link ParentEven better actually. I haven't looked at it in detail or the upgrades but would hope there's a stereo at least but am definitely glad there's no massive software system and hopefully no massive...Even better actually. I haven't looked at it in detail or the upgrades but would hope there's a stereo at least but am definitely glad there's no massive software system and hopefully no massive touchscreen either. The less "smart" (aside from battery stuff that requires it) the better.
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Comment on Slate Truck preorder starts at $24,950 in ~transport
0x29A LinkI hadn't heard of this before. I really like the idea and the modularity and really hope something like this can succeed in the long term. An affordable EV with this versatility is very attractive...I hadn't heard of this before. I really like the idea and the modularity and really hope something like this can succeed in the long term. An affordable EV with this versatility is very attractive to me
I hope they can nail quality (especially software) and customer/warranty support and all of the spots where other EVs have had problems
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Comment on German retailer Thomann is suing Fender over recent cease and desists in ~music
0x29A Link ParentAt this point, inertia/familiarity more than anything. It does have its own benefits in that it has a lot of great first-party instruments and plugins and so on, so that too. Having the Pro...At this point, inertia/familiarity more than anything. It does have its own benefits in that it has a lot of great first-party instruments and plugins and so on, so that too. Having the Pro version means I get a lot of neat stuff
But comfort is a big part of it. I am used to the shortcuts, the UI and workflow, also some sunk cost fallacy sneaks in there- I have paid for multiple upgrades so the money I have invested in it means I have this pro-level DAW with tons of built-in stuff that works well.
So, as much as I could find another DAW to enjoy (like Reaper or whatnot), and I do "try" them out from time to time- I just always prefer what I already use more and feel like I am deep enough into the ecosystem that it's not worth it to migrate
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Comment on German retailer Thomann is suing Fender over recent cease and desists in ~music
0x29A Link ParentYeah Fender killed their reputation for me personally too. Their CEO is absolutely out of his mind. I almost want to jump DAWs now that they own Presonus Studio One but will probably begrudgingly...Yeah Fender killed their reputation for me personally too. Their CEO is absolutely out of his mind.
I almost want to jump DAWs now that they own Presonus Studio One but will probably begrudgingly stay for now.
I am so glad to see a big name that has the weight to do so bringing clarification and pushback to Fender's behavior. It's still so sad this ever had to happen in the first place.
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Comment on bubbles.town: Tildes but exclusively for blogs in ~tech
0x29A LinkI've been enjoying visiting Bubbles occasionally to read some blog posts. I like it as an aggregator of "the small web" in a way since a lot of posts that bubble up are from that world. As a daily...I've been enjoying visiting Bubbles occasionally to read some blog posts. I like it as an aggregator of "the small web" in a way since a lot of posts that bubble up are from that world.
As a daily mastodon user the fediverse aspect I don't mind at all, it's easy to ignore anyway, though I don't think it's necessary (I don't even really think them having comments at all is necessary).
I just use the site as a way to see some personal blog posts about interesting topics, I don't really bother with the social aspect.
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
0x29A Link ParentI think it's because tons of devices are still USB-A on one end and USB-C on the other. It depends, but like, even when I had my Mac mini which was all USB-C/TB ports, nearly everything I had that...I think it's because tons of devices are still USB-A on one end and USB-C on the other. It depends, but like, even when I had my Mac mini which was all USB-C/TB ports, nearly everything I had that I needed to plug into it was USB-A so I needed adapters/hubs
If you get a full-size desktop PC these days, or even a "mini" PC that isn't a mac, they'll have a mix of USB-C and USB-A, and full-size desktops will have tons of USB-A ports. Mice and keyboards are still USB-A. A lot of wired controllers are still USB-A. A lot of dongles are still USB-A. Plenty of storage is C now, but there's still a lot of USB-A storage (it might be C on the drive side, but a lot of the times it can be A on the other side of the cable)
I don't think the world has really shifted that much yet on the "host" end, though it has on the device end. It has begun to, but I think overall the mix of devices out there isn't overwhelmingly USB-C (except on the device's end of the cable) yet. Apple has tried to push it with some of their laptops and desktops, but they pushed ahead of the curve a bit, and it's actually a selling point for some people that laptops come with some USB-A ports. Also have to take into consideration the devices people already own. Sure brand new devices may have shifted a bit more, but so many people already own so many devices, and most of already-owned devices are probably majority USB-A
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
0x29A Link ParentYeah and as much as I don't like the RAM being non-upgradable, even before the RAMpocalypse, Apple's RAM upgrade prices when initially buying the system were gouging-level high- like nonsensically...Yeah and as much as I don't like the RAM being non-upgradable, even before the RAMpocalypse, Apple's RAM upgrade prices when initially buying the system were gouging-level high- like nonsensically high. High enough that I refused to buy anything higher than the base model because I refused ethically to pay the margins they were asking
If Apple had always made it more cost-effective / reasonable to upgrade over the base model, I'd probably have felt far less restricted by the limitations or inability to upgrade it myself. I still think I might have eventually bailed over macOS though but they would have made it a tougher choice to leave.
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
0x29A (edited )Link ParentEasy RAM / internal storage / GPU upgrades like you get with regular PCs (even tiny/mini PCs the size of the Mini are for the most part easy to upgrade RAM/storage-wise) Yeah some internal...Easy RAM / internal storage / GPU upgrades like you get with regular PCs (even tiny/mini PCs the size of the Mini are for the most part easy to upgrade RAM/storage-wise)
Yeah some internal upgrades are "possible" but not intended, so you have to really involve yourself if you want to go that deep. That's not "upgradable" in the normal sense where I can just add something. I'm not looking to buy a mac to try and do a bunch of hardware mods in an upgrade to a system that i bought knowingly with its limitations in the first place.
I already had added a fast external SSD, but the OS drive being limited in size itself eventually got a bit frustrating. Given some particular applications / types of installs that strongly prefer having certain things stored on the primary/OS drive, it was still dwindling in space over time in an uncomfortable way. Majority of why I left is really being sick of macOS, but the hardware was a big part of it. I originally thought it wouldn't be a big deal to me but eventually I decided it was mistake to buy the system. Just always bouncing into limitations or things I didn't like about how they are handled that I just decided to leave. I don't love Win10 either, but it does get out of my way and I can heavily customize it/restrict it to my exact desires, and having a full-size PC for ease of hardware swaps is nice
All to say, in other words, I get that there are some ways around some of my frustrations but they're not enough for me, and not in the ways I prefer to have them. Just realized I was working with a system that felt philosophically opposite of how I want my computers to operate and decided to change to have systems that align better with how I approach computers and hardware
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
0x29A Link Parentyeah the only things that offset this even a small amount is the compactness, it being silent while being that compact, and it sipping power. but the trade-offs they made in making it so small,...yeah the only things that offset this even a small amount is the compactness, it being silent while being that compact, and it sipping power. but the trade-offs they made in making it so small, quiet, and power-limited, means they really hampered its performance. i almost feel like they had headroom to not limit things so hard. ~30W on the CPU, 8GB VRAM and ~110W on the GPU.
i do think it's not abysmal for what you get, if you're in the market for an extremely compact PC that can do some decent gaming, and just like the other factors and are already deep in the Steam world, but it's certainly not a good value, all things considered, including industry supply and pricing being what it is
one of the best things about building it yourself or getting a pre-built will mean that you won't have as much constraints to fit into size and power-wise so a comparable pre-built, even if DIY parts aren't much cheaper, won't have anywhere near the power limits, so even building something with comparable hardware at a similar price point will still perform quite a bit better just because things won't be so limited, plus it will be far more upgradable
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
0x29A Link ParentYeah when it comes to operating systems it always kinda comes down to "they all have their benefits and drawbacks" and how those will balance out strongly depends on peoples' needs and wants I...Yeah when it comes to operating systems it always kinda comes down to "they all have their benefits and drawbacks" and how those will balance out strongly depends on peoples' needs and wants
I totally get when people just don't want to think about digging into anything too deeply and just want things to work. It's the same reason that even though Linux is SO much better these days, I still don't automatically recommend it as a solution for anyone having trouble with other operating systems. A lot of people just need their stuff to work- and the easiest road for many of them will be to stay on the bigger corporate operating systems, it just depends.
Honestly that's why I'm still on iOS and iPadOS. I have a bajillion grumbles with iOS and iPadOS and Apple's direction as of late, but in general, they still simply just work, and get out of my way most of the time, and they perform well- which is what I want out of mobile/tablet devices
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
0x29A Link ParentYeah I'm in a nearly-all-linux household now and would not go back to anything else. Though I did go back to Win10 for the music prod machine. Overall as an OS, I do think macOS still is better...Yeah I'm in a nearly-all-linux household now and would not go back to anything else. Though I did go back to Win10 for the music prod machine. Overall as an OS, I do think macOS still is better than Windows, but I dislike both of them a LOT for their own individual reasons and typically always prefer Linux (my daily driver / gaming PC is 7800X3D + RTX 4070 and running just fine).
macOS just got way too Fisher-Price UI-wise, kept annoying me about updating, and i got tired of the way Apple does a bunch of things. I think Finder still sucks horribly as a file explorer, and I don't like how much Apple likes to control how the OS operates underneath in ways that aren't easy to look into or even modify in some cases. I think they do hardware well but I find the software pretty miserable (even if better than Windows)
I begrudgingly use a non-linux machine for music and some other stuff because despite linux having come far for music production and all of that, it's still a frustrating road to go down if one is already invested in tons of plugins/etc that don't easily work on Linux, and some of them may not at all. So it's much easier for me to stay in Win/Mac because I know I can install and activate everything I need to easily. So it's my one exception to the rule for the forseeable future. Some day I may overhaul the amount of plugins/tools I need for music stuff though and jump to Linux, we'll see. I'd love to be a household 100% free of macOS and Windows
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
0x29A Link ParentNote: after watching/reading reviews the performance is pretty lackluster though, so it's going to be a niche/enthusiast product no matter what. I don't know that they were even trying to compete...Note: after watching/reading reviews the performance is pretty lackluster though, so it's going to be a niche/enthusiast product no matter what. I don't know that they were even trying to compete with consoles. While I don't like consoles, so I'm more of a market for this than some other people I'm sure, there's no denying that this isn't really competitive performance-wise.
Also, yes you can probably build something more powerful for the same price if you do it yourself- but there are benefits to it being all-in-one:
- Simplified warranty instead of individual part warranties
- VERY compact, which I think makes it slightly more competitive on its own
- They did very well on making the system quiet while being so compact, which is not super easy to do
Compared to a console, it's a full PC which is also a large benefit- but very much depending on your needs/wants. But, I sure was hoping to see better performance out of it but the trade-offs they made for quiet/compact/etc hindered that
I do wonder if other current pre-built systems make this a non-starter though. That said, after bad experiences with some pre-builts, I trust Valve more than some of those companies, but still
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
0x29A Link ParentI'm consistently surprised that microSD loading is fast enough since it pales in comparison to SSDs. Maybe certain games (massive textures/etc) could be affected, but for most games, maybe access...I'm consistently surprised that microSD loading is fast enough since it pales in comparison to SSDs. Maybe certain games (massive textures/etc) could be affected, but for most games, maybe access time / storage latency is more important than throughput, which microSD still does well
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
0x29A Link ParentI temporarily went with an M4 Mac Mini for music production (along with some video/graphic editing, etc), and I can vouch for it being fast, and compact, and practically silent, and the prices...I temporarily went with an M4 Mac Mini for music production (along with some video/graphic editing, etc), and I can vouch for it being fast, and compact, and practically silent, and the prices aren't horrible for the base model. The inability to do any upgrades later and the gouging-level upgrade prices when initially buying the machine are just awful. I also hated macOS 26 so I exited the ecosystem nearly as quickly as I got into it. At least the machines keep their resale value. Both times I've gone to macOS for a while I've eventually bailed on it, I'm not making that mistake again. It might be fine for others though but I can't stand it anymore, or just feeling trapped hardware-wise and so on.
For a nice compact, quiet system that you're only using for light gaming in particular situations for specific games that you know work, I could see it, it's just not for me anymore.
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
0x29A (edited )LinkAround the prices I was expecting given the state of the industry where RAM has skyrocketed and storage itself has ballooned in price along with it. I think it's relatively competitive (at least...Around the prices I was expecting given the state of the industry where RAM has skyrocketed and storage itself has ballooned in price along with it. I think it's relatively competitive (at least price wise) and not too wild. Prior to the RAMpocalypse I was thinking $800 so this falls in line with that given hardware prices now. All of this in a very compact system too.
I can't see any need I'd ever have for something like this but I like that it's an option. There are occasionally days where I dream of downsizing my daily driver PC which I also use as my gaming PC to something more all-in-one and compact like this. Especially since I game much less intensely now.
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
0x29A Link ParentGreat selection of stuff. Love Mortiferum. Painkiller is my favorite Priest. Malignant Altar (RIP) is one of the best death/doom bands to ever exist. Thankfully the members continue on in other...Great selection of stuff. Love Mortiferum. Painkiller is my favorite Priest.
Malignant Altar (RIP) is one of the best death/doom bands to ever exist. Thankfully the members continue on in other bands, but nothing like Malignant Altar was. Will forever cherish my longsleeve tee. At least there are plenty of other top tier bands in the same vein (Fossilization)
Yeah, I will definitely not be going to any future updates because I see the enshittification happening that you're talking about (AI bullshit too...) and I refuse to support that or give Fender any money ever again. So I will be sticking with my current version frozen in time until I either feel like taking the leap to another DAW inexpensively (especially to something like Reaper) OR get an influx of money that I can earmark for moving to Ableton or something else. I've watched a lot of videos of Ableton in use (Andrew Huang, others) and it seems to have plenty of neat first-party things to offer too