0x29A's recent activity

  1. Comment on Samsung confirms its $1,800+ fridges will start showing you ads in ~tech

    0x29A
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    Going to attempt to never own a fridge, for one, that costs that much, but secondly, never one with a screen on it for as long as I live, and certainly not any Samsung products in general....

    Going to attempt to never own a fridge, for one, that costs that much, but secondly, never one with a screen on it for as long as I live, and certainly not any Samsung products in general. Hopefully the same with any/all appliances. Most smart stuff can stay the f far away from me, or honestly, anything with screens or touchscreens at all that don't need them (dishwashers, dryers, washers, fridges, microwaves, toasters, cars, etc...)

    In the early-mid days of SSDs they had some solid efforts, but outside of that, no interest in the brand at all

    9 votes

  2. Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech

    0x29A
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    Yeah I am referring to that same problem- nausea, etc. I would consider that iced tea, yeah, a form of it at least.

    Yeah I am referring to that same problem- nausea, etc.

    I would consider that iced tea, yeah, a form of it at least.

  3. Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech

    0x29A
    Link Parent
    Nice! I do the reverse typically. I do coffee in the mornings and then often a tea in the afternoon. I find the coffee sits easier on my stomach than the tea for early morning hours (depends on...

    Nice! I do the reverse typically. I do coffee in the mornings and then often a tea in the afternoon. I find the coffee sits easier on my stomach than the tea for early morning hours (depends on the tea, though, of course), and I want my biggest punch of caffeine in the morning and a smaller one in the afternoon.

    Loose leaf is what I drink- all kinds of teas, including plenty of green teas.

    1 vote

  4. Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech

  5. Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech

    0x29A
    Link Parent
    Oh, I was just adding my +1 to datavoid's post mentioning they've used silent mode for a very long time, because I have also. I wasn't (and don't necessarily think they were) questioning your own...

    Oh, I was just adding my +1 to datavoid's post mentioning they've used silent mode for a very long time, because I have also. I wasn't (and don't necessarily think they were) questioning your own preferences or situation, just expressing our own individual approaches, which will understandably differ based on our experiences/life situations. Whatever works best for you is great!

    3 votes

  6. Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech

    0x29A
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    Link Parent
    Certainly a personal preference thing for sure, and no shame to anyone that does put stuff in their coffee. I keep my options open, but I tend to prefer black coffee 99% of the time because of...

    Certainly a personal preference thing for sure, and no shame to anyone that does put stuff in their coffee. I keep my options open, but I tend to prefer black coffee 99% of the time because of multiple reasons- feels cleaner/healthier to not ingest any dairy/dairy-alikes or sugar, as I watch things like sugar intake closely, and I actually nearly always prefer the taste without it. Especially since I only buy decent quality coffee now and I want to get the most out of the experience of tasting the coffee itself (milk/sugar/anything additive ruin that experience for me personally by obscuring the flavor, which i refuse to do when I'm paying good money for good coffee).

    However, occasionally, especially when I buy a coffee and find out I don't like it as much, or for things on the much darker roasted end, or when I happen to have some inexpensive / cheap coffee, an occasional low-sugar dairy-alternative oatmilk + coffee drink is nice.

    I do think some of us coffee/tea nerds can be a bit harsh on people for enjoying what we see as a "messed with" or "low quality" cup of whatever (and I'm not saying you're doing this, of course). The best way to drink coffee/tea is however one enjoys it most, at the end of the day.

    But I would gently recommend, without judgement, that people simply consider being open to higher quality coffees and teas, and potentially trying some of them without anything added, and you may surprise yourself at the world that opens up to you- of course, that's fully up to the reader how much they want to experiment or deep dive any of these things, it can get really deep really quickly, and some people just want to have their drink and go about their day without thinking about it- more power to you! :) The reason I recommend it is not to change what someone likes or judge it, but to simply give people the opportunity to experience the same thing I have experienced in upgrading my coffee/tea. I used to buy pre-ground commodity inexpensive grocery store coffee and inexpensive tea bag tea and upgrading both of those experiences was worth it for me, I get 10x the enjoyment now

    (Also dang, I realize none of my comments can ever be properly concise... sry for the novel-length responses to everything)

  7. Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech

    0x29A
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    Link Parent
    I think this just depends on the person. I have encountered multiple "acceleration" situations where it feels more accurate, especially with small precise movements, with it turned off, and easier...

    I think this just depends on the person. I have encountered multiple "acceleration" situations where it feels more accurate, especially with small precise movements, with it turned off, and easier for my muscle memory to know exactly what movement is needed to achieve the precision needed. When it's not accelerated / on a curve but instead is a flat mapping of movement to positioning/speed, it definitely feels more natural to me. It's anecdotal sure, but I know how it feels to me and how it was impeding me and that's enough for me.

    For a long, long time, this was the case on MacOS, where attempting to do precision work (photo, video, audio editing in particular) was very difficult for me because of how the acceleration would make it difficult to get precise movements in some ways. So much so that I had to download a third-party app to fully disable it. I think they've now improved on it quite a bit, but it used to be so noticeable and frustrating that I could not accomplish certain things I needed to do. IIRC, I also had to do some configuration in Linux to get acceleration/movement/etc with my mouse to be exactly what works with my brain too.

    I never found Windows' version of this to be as annoying or inaccurate. But it can still be weird, like you said.

    1 vote

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

    0x29A
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    It's not massively technical I suppose, but I did install (a long time ago, unused) and recently updated and enabled Home Assistant on my Unraid server and am now using that for my smart lights...

    It's not massively technical I suppose, but I did install (a long time ago, unused) and recently updated and enabled Home Assistant on my Unraid server and am now using that for my smart lights instead of Google Home. I've been wanting to go local with my control, but for a long time my bulbs (Tuya) had a buggy/broken integration in HA. Well that finally got completely fixed!

    There's still one achilles heel which is that I think I have to occasionally re-authorize HA with the Tuya app for it to keep functioning, which is the one step away from having full control that I find annoying. It at least does mean I have the Tuya app as a backup if anything local goes awry, but I also don't like Tuya having any power over me in that regard.

    At some point I might switch to Nanoleaf bulbs (a friend recommended) or whatever I can find that I can hook up directly with HA without needing some kind of cloud tether/authorization/etc that at some point could be wielded against consumers.

    I've been trying to de-Google, as well as get rid of any cloud-connected smart speaker/microphones, especially any opened by big corps that have tons of annoyances. Got rid of Alexa a long time ago, got rid of Google Home speaker a while back, and just used the app for light control.

    Now, finally, I just have Home Assistant interface on PC and HA apps on my mobile devices to control my lights. Things I've noticed: the control is MUCH faster, the controls/UI themselves are more accurate/less prone to fumbling, the control is WAY less buggy (when I select a scene it works immediately instead of having to be triggered multiple times) and it's so nice and simple with HA's interface. No extra clutter and unnecessary "actions" like in the Google Home app. With HA all the cruft is gone, just a few controls for my lights, and it all works flawlessly now.

    I'm thinking about building with 3D printing + an rPi/HAT + some physical "arcade style" buttons a physical control panel interface, not because it's practical, but just for fun, so I can have some kind of little old sci-fi style "control panel" for my lighting. It's 2025 and we're re-inventing the light switch! lol

    2 votes

  9. Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech

    0x29A
    Link Parent
    I use silent mode 24/7, very few notifications, and have "emergency pass through" for a couple of important phone numbers that would only call me in important situations and that's it. I want full...

    I use silent mode 24/7, very few notifications, and have "emergency pass through" for a couple of important phone numbers that would only call me in important situations and that's it.

    I want full control of my attention and time rather than giving that power to other people, apps, or companies.

    Same reason I block ads, among many others, really. Attention theft.

    3 votes

  10. Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech

    0x29A
    Link Parent
    i will also be applying the "reduce transparency" option, and already do pre-iOS-26, to try and get rid of as much as possible

    i will also be applying the "reduce transparency" option, and already do pre-iOS-26, to try and get rid of as much as possible

    4 votes

  11. Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech

    0x29A
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    Link Parent
    That's fair. We certainly live in a society where it's all mined to death for clicks and such at this point and it's sad that ends up having its own effect on dampening or undermining sincere...

    That's fair. We certainly live in a society where it's all mined to death for clicks and such at this point and it's sad that ends up having its own effect on dampening or undermining sincere discussion too. Everything is a mess. Add on top of that the pressure to find ways to make money / work / etc and it's probably easy for someone to get roped into that sphere too. Sigh.

    I wish we could somehow get into Apple's head that we need another "Snow Leopard" but for all of their OS's- a focus on optimization / performance / fixes. They've done it before but they may be long past ever caring again

    I feel like sometimes an overwhelming level of sentiment bending a certain way can have an effect on how a company approaches their next releases, but I don't know if it will ever work on Apple anymore. I suppose most people complaining aren't thinking their complaints will change anything either, to be fair, but it sure would be nice to be listened to as a user again someday.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on elle's homepage in ~tech

    0x29A
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    While not all sites will be exactly similar or as "homemade" and personal as this, I have a megalist of webrings I can offer that have a lot of these kinds of sites- different rings have different...

    While not all sites will be exactly similar or as "homemade" and personal as this, I have a megalist of webrings I can offer that have a lot of these kinds of sites- different rings have different purposes/requirements/etc and big disclaimer that my posting of these does NOT necessarily constitute an endorsement of the of content/views/etc of any of the ring members' sites or the rings themselves. Just want to say this because the content can vary widely. (Very much do support baccyflap's no ai webring though). Want to get lost on the "small web" for hours? This is a great way.

    First two other lists of webrings:
    ringspace | baccyflap.com - a delicate blend of bakelite and fear
    brisray - webrings

    Then my list of webrings:
    Directory | BUKMARK.CLUB
    no ai webring | baccyflap.com - a delicate blend of bakelite and fear
    LOW TECH WEBRING DIRECTORY
    Hotline Webring
    Hall of glory | The no-JS.club
    XXIIVV Webring - webring of Marveilles / 100Rabbits
    512KB Club | A showcase of lightweight websites.
    null webring

    6 votes

  13. Comment on At The Gates vocalist Tomas Lindberg dies aged 52 following cancer battle in ~music

    0x29A
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    He was a member of a number of great bands (Disfear, Skitsystem, etc), AtG being the most popular/influential one (back when melodeath was good, though there's a bit of a resurgence of the good...

    He was a member of a number of great bands (Disfear, Skitsystem, etc), AtG being the most popular/influential one (back when melodeath was good, though there's a bit of a resurgence of the good kind now), and also apparently involved in the design of the Darkthrone logo.

    RIP, died way too young. F cancer.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech

    0x29A
    Link Parent
    It's possible to complain/comment on fairly unimportant things and also important things, one does not have to take away from the other, they're not mutually exclusive. Certainly the importance is...

    It's possible to complain/comment on fairly unimportant things and also important things, one does not have to take away from the other, they're not mutually exclusive. Certainly the importance is arguable too, given it's something many people interact with daily. But regardless, it's quite okay for people to be critical of "small/negligible" things and I don't understand the call to avoid it.

    I get people can get annoyed with the "the whole internet is yelling at company for changing X or Y" but I also think plenty of valid criticism gets unnecessarily tossed under that umbrella

    I think it's fine if people want to have an opinion on a new design language introduced in a mobile operating system.

    4 votes

  15. Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech

    0x29A
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    Hopefully they refined the aesthetics a bit, because some of their own marketing material / demonstrations made it look mega ugly IMO. This "blur whats underneath" garbage always ends up looking...
    • Exemplary

    Hopefully they refined the aesthetics a bit, because some of their own marketing material / demonstrations made it look mega ugly IMO. This "blur whats underneath" garbage always ends up looking awful

    More importantly, aesthetics aside, hopefully they fixed all the glaring readability problems with Liquid Glass since they first announced it. Mostly dealing with awful contrast (white text on a very bright background, blur/optical effects on UI elements that reflect what's underneath them in a way that makes text on those elements hard to read, etc). I haven't installed it yet. And yes, these concerns were a real issue and no I don't find that point debatable. One of Apple's own marketing images showed notifications on the lock screen that were nigh-unreadable (and even worse for those with bad vision, it was hard for me to read with good eyes)

    Also this new design language better be efficient on the system. If they're using additional gpu cycles to render this liquid ass they can f off. Like, if they're spending dev hours building entire graphical systems to make light reflect in a certain way or whatever, please just stop, what a waste of time for a phone UI, go send those devs to build a game or something where that might be important

    Lastly, what really gets me, is there's nothing functional in the new update that matters to me at all. Maybe updates being boring is a good thing these days? I don't know. That said, knowing Apple's software quality, I'm sure it's buggy as hell, and I'm absolutely NOT installing the macOS version for quite a while (especially since new OS updates seem to be notorious for impacting audio production stuff).

    EDIT: regarding macOS, this screenshot is ugly as all hell too. seems like fisher-price toy nonsense to me (though to be snarky, as an Apple user, this properly represents the OS and makes sense given Apple's overprotective/overopinionated nature). Also, readability issues abound. Massively embarrassing for a company that boasts about its accessibility

    28 votes

  16. Comment on It’s the little things that make me not fully jump to linux in ~comp

    0x29A
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    Yeah very true, I have a single Mac alongside all my Linux machines and while there are a million other problems I have with Apple, display configurations have not been one of them. They do some...

    Yeah very true, I have a single Mac alongside all my Linux machines and while there are a million other problems I have with Apple, display configurations have not been one of them. They do some things incredibly well.

  17. Comment on It’s the little things that make me not fully jump to linux in ~comp

    0x29A
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    I don't have the refresh rate hard limitation issue on nvidia on Cinnamon, however i do find the system feels a bit laggy or buggy if the rates do not match so yeah it's still an issue regardless...

    • I don't have the refresh rate hard limitation issue on nvidia on Cinnamon, however i do find the system feels a bit laggy or buggy if the rates do not match so yeah it's still an issue regardless and a "soft" limitation for me

    • I have had all sorts of display issues back when I used Windows (10/11) and have been in support jobs having to deal with display issues on them daily. I feel like both OS's have their own share of issues, they just impact things differently.

    • In Windows in particular I have had issues where, due to how DisplayPort works, it thinks a DP monitor is turned on when it is off, resulting in the same problem you describe on Linux (no idea if you use DP tho or if that's the problem). I think both OS's can encounter this. I have never had it on HDMI though (but I prefer DP)

    • Curious about KDE being blurry- I have used it on my living room PC, hooked to TV, on my laptop, and on other desktops and never encountered that before and i have used it at different fractional scaling settings, all crisp and sharp as long as it's set to the native resolution of the display in question. Using a resolution other than native can be blurry but that is simply due to display technology limitations not a linux problem. Maybe specifically an issue when the two displays have different resolutions? That's not been a situation I have been in so maybe that's relevant

    That said I abandoned KDE for other picky reasons. Each DE definitely has its own set of quirks. Part of the situation is that Linux has WAY more options (distros, DEs, WMs, etc) so when you have that instead of one big monolithic Windows version, that customization means the complexity goes way up and makes peoples' experiences vary even that much more widely. Some of Linux's strengths are also its weaknesses and that's the tradeoff we make to get the rest of the benefits.

    Display stuff definitely can be annoying though, in Linux for sure and in Windows too.

    Overall, given how many different circumstances and system and hardware configurations exist out there, our experiences will widely vary of course, so not discounting your complaints. But I don't find Windows to be any better in my personal experience, and when I have had issues with Linux, I have had an easier time fixing them if they're fixable

    (But again my use case is different, running two monitors at 144hz is not a dealbreaker for me whereas having to run your TV at half of it's capability I am sure is massively annoying)

    Ultimately I permanently jumped to Linux myself on all of my machines including my daily driver gaming PC and I will never look back (I love it way more than Windows), but I understand not everyone's situation or experience is the same, so don't take this as me trying to evangelize you back to Linux (I know that part of the Linux community can get annoying), I get that for some people Windows just reduces friction in the right places for them.

    2 votes

  18. Comment on What are some “sore thumb” lyrics for you? in ~music

    0x29A
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    Yeah I am aware of their reasoning but I don't find that it helps that much. Maybe slightly, but it's an unnecessarily cringey perspective to immortalize in song that I kinda just didn't realize...

    Yeah I am aware of their reasoning but I don't find that it helps that much. Maybe slightly, but it's an unnecessarily cringey perspective to immortalize in song that I kinda just didn't realize for a LONG time and just kinda passively accepted- but once it's pointed out it sticks out so much lol. Even the entire missionary angle itself is cringeworthy on its own.

    Like even if that reasoning is honest, I find the choice to write that way a weakness in the craft of the song.

    And I am certainly not just trying to jump on it as an easy target for criticism (it has been criticized already ad nauseam), but I felt this fact about it makes it match very well with the topic here- in that it legitimately worsens the song for me (the music video does too) which I otherwise have really enjoyed historically (as a fan of some Toto releases).

    It's just one of those things where from time to time it really "pulls me out" of experience of listening to the song, through a kind of second-hand embarrassment

    Maybe one other thing does help me a bit- and that's that the band members even in recent years are self-critical about the goofiness of the lyrics. I don't think they had any ill will, to be clear- I am just talking about it from a song quality angle. I wish such catchy and enjoyable songs could have a better story to tell

    And I am no stranger to cringeworthy lyrics either (as someone with nostalgia for nu-metal, for instance)

    2 votes

  19. Comment on What are some “sore thumb” lyrics for you? in ~music

    0x29A
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    To pick at something massively popular, I find Toto's Africa to be, from a songwriting/musical angle, a well-crafted song, I think it has some great melodies and songwriting, but the lyrics...

    To pick at something massively popular, I find Toto's Africa to be, from a songwriting/musical angle, a well-crafted song, I think it has some great melodies and songwriting, but the lyrics definitely are a massive flaw of the track.

    They're overall a problem but particular lines like the clueless one about Kilimanjaro really stand out

    It's as "clueless American white man writing about Africa" as one would expect. Its video didn't help things either. Also even some of the instrument/synth choices could be seen as really on-the-nose/overwrought but I think without considering the lyrics it's a decent track.

    I am having a hard time thinking of songs with good lyrics where a single line really stands out. It's an interesting thing to consider though. I am positive I have encountered some and just can't think of them. Most of the ones I can think of, when I reflect on them, I just realize all the lines are bad, not just one.

    4 votes

  20. Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative

    0x29A
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    More 3D printing! It's been fun. Created a cover for something in the house, printed some stands for foam board, printed a new version of the handle/holder for an Aeropress cap I made to use as a...

    More 3D printing! It's been fun. Created a cover for something in the house, printed some stands for foam board, printed a new version of the handle/holder for an Aeropress cap I made to use as a DIY "melodrip" water distribution tool for pourover coffee. Looking around and considering other parts that would be useful for me. Considering doing a mount for a couple of USB-ended PC fans to use for cooling my modem/router area, etc.

    Trying to look at every problem that needs solved or any quality of life improvements I can make anywhere in my life where a 3D print could come in handy.

    While simple "trinkets" and things are occasionally fun, I don't want to print a lot of those kinds of things unless they're for a particular purpose.