0x29A's recent activity
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Comment on Non-queer men of Tildes: PLEASE consider before commenting on ~life.women and ~lgbt without careful consideration. We are losing members over this issue. in ~tildes
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Comment on New EU-created Search Index in ~tech
0x29A Link ParentYandex is one small facet, yes. Mainly I refuse to have my subscription money subsidize their AI products in general and not to mention things like their decision to include Grok as a provider...Yandex is one small facet, yes. Mainly I refuse to have my subscription money subsidize their AI products in general and not to mention things like their decision to include Grok as a provider option in their assistant, but providing AI products at all that my subscription subsidizes is a dealbreaker for me.
Kagi's partnership with Brave is also something I oppose (I refuse to use Brave for a number of ethical reasons, including Eich's views and Brave's cryptocurrency nonsense). I do not care if Kagi/Vlad take what they think is a "principled apolitical" stance regarding who they do business with- they are free to think that's what they're doing and I'm free to walk away. He is so high on his enlightened apoliticism or "hands-off approach" that he refuses to have a helpline/etc appear at the top of search results for suicide-related terms and phrases, for example
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Comment on New EU-created Search Index in ~tech
0x29A (edited )Link ParentFor some reason Waterfox Search buries the info about their indexes in their terms/privacy policy (and to trial/paying accounts which have the preference exposed). I know for a fact it has not...For some reason Waterfox Search buries the info about their indexes in their terms/privacy policy (and to trial/paying accounts which have the preference exposed). I know for a fact it has not been long since they were Serper/Google only and EUSP is a recent addition. No idea why they don't advertise it. The service is also annoyingly slow for a minimal search engine. Results really lag a lot before displaying and this is the only engine with which I've had such an experience. I will not be paying once my trial has ended.
Regardless, I now have experience to back up there somehow being a difference. EUSP was my #1 index on Uruky for a long time up until I discontinued the service. When I first started the service some other smaller index was priority #1 and that made my search results 100% irrelevant to my query. Once I swapped to EUSP the results seemed to be mostly reasonable, however, that fell off over time with no preference / reordering change on my end. Simply, over time, with EUSP set as #1 in the order, my results slowly degraded to the point where free alternatives simply and inarguably provided better and more relevant results and I did not have any luck with testing other indexes through Uruky either. Sometimes half of my results on the page would have absolutely nothing to do with my query. No idea why. It was maddening.
I now am using the free trial of Waterfox Private Search and choosing Staan/EUSP as the index (Serper/Google is the other choice) and so far the results are better than they were under Uruky with EUSP set as my #1. I cannot truly explain why outside of a potential bug within Uruky or other provider issue leading to EUSP not functioning or being the first in order despite that being my explicit choice in preferences, or some other difference in how these search engines are using EUSP.
Regardless, the point is mostly moot because I don't find Waterfox search nor Uruky good enough to pay for, and the one paid engine I think is good enough to pay for (Kagi) I refuse to support, so it will be NoAI DuckDuckGo for me for the foreseeable future and it's good enough to be serviceable. If I need a different result set I'll temporarily use another place like Startpage, but that should be a rarity. I've decided at this point if I'm going to ever pay for a search engine again, the results and experience have to be significantly better than the experiences I can get for free and outside of Kagi such an engine does not exist
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Comment on New EU-created Search Index in ~tech
0x29A (edited )LinkHeard about EUSP a while back and was hoping it would provide another solid search index for the web. I'm not entirely sure about it yet. One place I've seen EUSP used as one of the available...Heard about EUSP a while back and was hoping it would provide another solid search index for the web. I'm not entirely sure about it yet.
One place I've seen EUSP used as one of the available providers is Uruky. However I discontinued that service after a while because my results got really bad and just not useful at all, even after doing a lot of reconfiguring of the "order" of the provider backends that Uruky connects to, including things like having EUSP at the top and so on, which for a time yielded decent results.
Waterfox Private Search allows you to choose Serper (Google API) or Staan (EUSP), but I have not yet tried it out. It does have a few-day trial at least.
Both of these engines avoid AI search features altogether, which I love (and require)- I think all the ones that do have them have questionable morals so China isn't of specific concern to me re:Ecosia. I currently use noAI version of DuckDuckGo, though I might give Waterfox Private a go
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Comment on RAM – Abattoir (2026) in ~music
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Comment on Repo for syncing ipods devices on Linux in ~tech
0x29A (edited )Link ParentGiven that the repo has an AGENTS.md present, and filled with information to direct agents how to act, I would say yes disclaimer I freely use vibe-coded or slop pejoratively as umbrella terms...Given that the repo has an AGENTS.md present, and filled with information to direct agents how to act, I would say yes
disclaimer
I freely use vibe-coded or slop pejoratively as umbrella terms (edit: it's 100% unnecessary to semantically distinguish between genAI use that pretends to be "responsible" vs. that which is obvious junk- both types of use should be opposed in every case as all genAI use is irresponsible ethically and indefensible politically) to refer to any commercial, personal, or open-source project, output, or situation where LLMs/agents/genAI is involved at any stage, for any reason, period, and no I will not stop. its use in any situation for any reason is a *political choice* that undebatably crosses a line for me for a hundred reasons (the only exception being those forced to use it for their labor)- that doesn't mean I can 100% avoid everything that uses it, but I do my best -
Comment on Recommend me music similar to that of Tool? in ~music
0x29A (edited )LinkWhile I enjoy Tool/APC (especially APC) they're a slight divergence from my usual likes and our tastes definitely diverge a lot, but given your description and other bands enjoyed, maybe you'd...While I enjoy Tool/APC (especially APC) they're a slight divergence from my usual likes and our tastes definitely diverge a lot, but given your description and other bands enjoyed, maybe you'd like Devin Townsend Project, Soen and/or Porcupine Tree? These I find interesting, have a nice full sound, lots of interesting parts, and mostly keep away from the things you dislike (at least, in my perception)
I think plenty of Tool fans crossover with a lot of the things you don't like which is why that happens. The sphere of bands Tool often is found in contains a lot of those. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I get that it makes it more difficult when everything "similar" recommended just falls outside the bounds of what you're into
Also +1 to Rush
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Comment on What was a small but bright moment of your day? in ~life
0x29A LinkMy cup of coffee really hit today. Sometimes when the brew is just right it's a beautiful moment. Something I 3D printed (third-party design I downloaded) worked the first time and fit the purpose...My cup of coffee really hit today. Sometimes when the brew is just right it's a beautiful moment.
Something I 3D printed (third-party design I downloaded) worked the first time and fit the purpose I needed perfectly.
Walked by a stinging insect today that was flying around my porch. Over the past months I've slowly been able to overcome a big fear of them, and being able to quietly and non-reactively still deal with them without an overwhelming fear reaction, makes every one of these moments a success and proof the fear has been overcome, because I used to be frozen by my fear every time
Small, but powerful joys
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Comment on Koi.rest: watch some fish and regain your balance in ~creative
0x29A (edited )Link ParentInteresting. Running smoothly here on Waterfox (based on Firefox) on Linux with 7800X3D + Nvidia RTX 4070 and using relatively minimal resources doing so (seems to be all CPU, and using two of my...Interesting. Running smoothly here on Waterfox (based on Firefox) on Linux with 7800X3D + Nvidia RTX 4070 and using relatively minimal resources doing so (seems to be all CPU, and using two of my threads at roughly 20-40%).
Also fine in everything I've tried it in on iOS 27 on iPhone 14 Pro (Quiche browser, Safari- every browser on iOS is forced to be WebKit so should be similar in most I would think)
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Comment on Koi.rest: watch some fish and regain your balance in ~creative
0x29A Link ParentEverything for me flows really smoothly and slowly, maybe some rendering issue? I didn't notice anything I would call stiltedEverything for me flows really smoothly and slowly, maybe some rendering issue? I didn't notice anything I would call stilted
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Comment on Help with setting up a PiHole - I would like to become worthless to tech companies! in ~tech
0x29A (edited )LinkI used pi-hole for a while then I moved over to NextDNS. (Side note: their website is intermittently having trouble atm, the DNS is working fine though). I use the website plenty, this just seems...I used pi-hole for a while then I moved over to NextDNS. (Side note: their website is intermittently having trouble atm, the DNS is working fine though). I use the website plenty, this just seems to be today Oct 4 2026). Of course, with NextDNS you're trusting them as your DNS provider, but I trust them more than my ISP or a big tech company. So the combo of an alternative DNS provider + ad-blocking was perfect for me.
They seem to have a decent privacy policy also. It's a small fee ($20) annually (free up to a certain # of requests with all features available) and gives me plenty of control. So you can try it out free as a test if you want. The free plan includes 300,000 queries/month (keep in mind tons of devices can query DNS many times a day, so this sounds like a lot but depending on your network can be gone through quicker than you think)
My router is set to NextDNS's DNS servers and network-wide I get ad-blocking. They also have many other settings and toggles you can enable/disable. You can disable logging, you can whitelist/blacklist, they have a lot of other "tricks" they can do to help block common telemetry/tracking stuff.
My favorite thing is you can add ad-block lists to NextDNS just like you can in things like uBlock Origin. You can add as few or as many adblocking lists as you like and tailor it exactly how you want it.
Then, if I need to disable NextDNS temporarily for my browser to test anything or whatnot, I just set my browser's DNS differently temporarily to override what my PC is setting from the router, and refresh, etc, and then switch back when I'm done. I specifically set NextDNS in my browsers too as a DNS-over-HTTPS endpoint, which might be overkill but I want to ensure the more private/secure protocol is happening.
I don't mind pi-hole as an option, I just wanted something even easier and to free my RPis up for other projects
Separately, an "easier" way I can recommend for pi-hole setups is to use a distro like DietPi (though I can't remember if this automatically goes to a GUI desktop or not), which is a lightweight linux OS made for Raspberry Pi devices (they also make it for x86/regular PCs so you can use a miniPC or whatever else) and DietPi's setup wizard actually includes a number of features / common use cases you can just check a box for in the installer and have it do a lot of the setup for you. I have set up Pi-hole and print servers this way. Boot DietPi, select a few things in the startup/install wizard and off to the races. I think it even walked me through the whole pi-hole setup- asking which network interface to use, etc. --- there's still some stuff to think about from a techie angle- like making sure your router has a reservation for the pi-hole so it's IP doesn't change- that way you don't lose your DNS when it reboots because of your router DHCP giving it a different address, etc.
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Comment on The new Firefox is so snappy, even with uBlock Origin enabled! in ~comp
0x29A (edited )LinkFirefox hasn't been slow for me for years. Things load near-instantly and have for many years now, and it's been long enough that I can't even remember that far back to when it felt slow for me....Firefox hasn't been slow for me for years. Things load near-instantly and have for many years now, and it's been long enough that I can't even remember that far back to when it felt slow for me. And I have used it on Windows, Mac, and Linux, including "slow/older" (raspberry pi chips, 3rd gen intel core CPU chips for instance) Linux boxes without a problem.
That said I prefer to put some distance between me and Mozilla (due to plenty of missteps on their part, a wrongly AI-leaning focus, among many other reasons I do not trust them to directly be the steward of my browsing experience) and I use a fork (Waterfox) now instead, but up until maybe a year ago, I used Firefox for decades. There was a point maybe 5-10 years ago when it felt like it had gotten slightly more sluggish than its competitors, but Mozilla solved that problem quite early on IMHO.
Now, I'm not discounting your experience with Firefox having been really slow and a new version somehow fixing whatever was wrong- but I will say that I don't even think that's a common experience with Firefox in recent years so maybe something deeper was wrong.
I'm glad that whatever they've done has further optimized the speed, however.
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
0x29A Link ParentNice! That's a great track for sure. I was at this weird point in my life where I had some big life stress things going on (won't go into it, but some negative stuff) and one of the streamers I...Nice! That's a great track for sure. I was at this weird point in my life where I had some big life stress things going on (won't go into it, but some negative stuff) and one of the streamers I watched was starting the game and doing a whole playthrough. I had never heard of the game before and it's not the typical fare I would be into.
It's an extremely chill / inclusive / laid-back stream- and I got an unexpectedly significant amount of comfort out of watching someone play it, along with the soundtrack that everyone was enjoying together as a community. It really soothed the soul for quite a while during that time, so I have a huge fondness for it
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
0x29A Linkcan't get enough of this OST VA-11 HALL-A - Second Round | Garoad and some new releases, especially these, some of which might be AOTY material: I Fucking Love You | Sydney Valette Sound of the...can't get enough of this OST
VA-11 HALL-A - Second Round | Garoadand some new releases, especially these, some of which might be AOTY material:
I Fucking Love You | Sydney Valette
Sound of the Void | Kontravoid
Artifice Dissolves | Dissimulator | 20 Buck Spin
Cathedral Speech | Spirit Possessionbut also these:
The Inexorable Transcendence of Death | DECONSEKRATED | Nuclear Winter Records
Psychosis Neurosis | IZM | Under The Gun Records
Second Shape | SRPNTS
Песни Междумирья | Eoront
Doom Metastasis | MORBID STENCH | Nuclear Winter Records
S/T | Havana Syndrome | Swimming Faith Records
From Wreckage | Thrash Course -
Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
0x29A Link ParentListening to the Session #01 and yeah I love this. Great set with all the CRTs too. Love the synth/sampling live performances.Listening to the Session #01 and yeah I love this. Great set with all the CRTs too. Love the synth/sampling live performances.
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Comment on Do you think you're special? in ~talk
0x29A (edited )Link ParentYeah and I don't intend my statement about the question to be a criticism of you asking it that way- and to be fair, the fact that people are answering it many different ways might give us more...Yeah and I don't intend my statement about the question to be a criticism of you asking it that way- and to be fair, the fact that people are answering it many different ways might give us more insight than if you had asked something narrower.
But yes, I feel like no matter which way I interpret special the word just carries a different baggage with it in each case, that just doesn't ever really get at what it's trying to describe. I think I get, in some interpretations, what it's trying to go for but it just never feels like the right way to describe it
But ultimately yeah, hold onto and be grateful for what you can, and even if you feel rather unfortunate, find the joys available, don't compare yourself to others, realize that a thousand different factors combined to bring you to whatever place in life you currently are- and just work with that the best you can. It's like- the ability to celebrate one's individuality reasonably without taking all the credit or all the blame for it, and without letting it go to the head, or sacrificing community and connections with others and realizations of what we have in common. Nothing wrong with being confident or appreciating ones own talents and skills and so on. Delicate balance and it's difficult for me to articulate well.
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Comment on Do you think you're special? in ~talk
0x29A LinkSpecial? Overall I don't like the entire idea around framing talking about oneself or others this way. I get that it's used in positive and negative ways both but I think it's a clunky and...Special? Overall I don't like the entire idea around framing talking about oneself or others this way. I get that it's used in positive and negative ways both but I think it's a clunky and nebulous term that lends itself to ego or bumper stickers or other trite nonsense ways of talking about humanity.
Everyone will perceive this word in different ways too- ask each person what they mean by "special" and you'll get 1000 different answers and those answers will in part be informed by the actual reality of the uniqueness of every human's experience. So let's cut beneath the layer of terms like "special" and get down to the reality. Because asking the question without being explicit about the definition makes the question itself rather meaningless.
We need to use better terms, we need to talk about humanity, and each other, in down-to-earth ways, etc. We need to cut the trite bullshit, and I think the use of "special" to describe oneself or others almost always falls in this category.
We all have our uniqueness, we all have our ways in which we're similar to one another. We all have our own life experiences, upbringings, influences, and thousands of factors that have shaped us. I am fortunate to have had, even with all of it's flaws, good material conditions, upbringing, life experiences, and plenty of circumstances completely out of my control that shaped me into who I am today. There are plenty of unfortunate parts to that same story too, but many people have had far more struggles than I have had.
None of this necessitates throwing around the word special like a trite motivational poster or an ego-fueled feeling of superiority. If you have a great talent or are extremely knowledgeable about certain things or you fit "traditional" ideas of what's considered high intelligence or whatever- fine, that makes you unique in your particular way, and maybe that trait is rare- or whatever. Be grateful for whatever benefits life has bestowed upon you- but realize at the end of the day you are simply another human being- no matter how rare and good you feel about your position in life- use it to bring others up instead of feeling superior
That superiority will turn you into an isolating and destructive person and we have enough of those ruining the world at the moment and they are an anathema to what we really need
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Comment on The next chapter for Bungie in ~games
0x29A Link ParentYeah, I tried it once and disliked it so much I never played again. Hated the bullet-sponge idea in an FPS and that proved it to me. It was so tedious and boring Guess it makes sense because I...Yeah, I tried it once and disliked it so much I never played again. Hated the bullet-sponge idea in an FPS and that proved it to me. It was so tedious and boring
Guess it makes sense because I abhor MMOs in general too
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Comment on What are your current pain points with Linux? in ~tech
0x29A Link ParentI have CachyOS on a test machine and have yet to run into this, but I may just not be hitting the same exact particulars that are causing it to happen. Very curious what might be going on there....I have CachyOS on a test machine and have yet to run into this, but I may just not be hitting the same exact particulars that are causing it to happen. Very curious what might be going on there. The vast array of differences between every machine probably makes this hard to nail down. There might be ways to really dig into what's happening but they would be frustrating and i get that this is something that simply should just work
While this is simply a workaround and not a "fix" for Firefox- rather than jumping to Chromium-based options maybe it would be worth giving a Firefox fork a try? I use Waterfox on most of my machines these days. At least this might keep you in Firefox-based territory if that's what you want. Curious if it avoids the crashes. I have used both on CachyOS so far quite a bit with no crashes but I am sure our situations and hardware are very different so i don't mean this reply as a "works on my machine" dismissal of your experience
The only FF crashing I have had problems with is back when I used snap versions on Ubuntu-based systems but that shouldn't be relevant to Cachy anyway
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Comment on What are your current pain points with Linux? in ~tech
0x29A Link Parent+1, as long as you play the Windows version via Proton it should work fine. The native Linux one is abandoned. I play it via Steam and not Epic but I would think it works fine through Heroic too....+1, as long as you play the Windows version via Proton it should work fine. The native Linux one is abandoned. I play it via Steam and not Epic but I would think it works fine through Heroic too.
I am on Kubuntu and i play RL online every week. No problems with anti-cheat.
Honestly, I am unsurprised, but also sad, that this is continuing to happen, and seeing at least some uncharitable comments in this thread just reinforce that. Had a longer post typed up but I just don't care to even go into it anymore (just a waste of time now)- I've been mulling over a number of reasons, including stuff like this, that are making me consider leaving, for quite some time now, that I will not go into here (so no one bother even asking or trying to convince me to stay).
The vibe of this entire place has shifted over the years and it's one I tend to see from a particular kind of crowd that often moves into online spaces this way, and often subtly, and this place just feels way less compatible with me than it used to feel. People were being dismissive and abusive (abusing tags/etc) directly to people in the exact thread where they were bringing up legitimate concerns last time this stuff came up. That sparked the beginning of my consideration for leaving and that feeling has never left, just my ability to commit to a decision. People got defensive under the guise of "having discussions" and then quietly were marking legitimate comments as "noise" and so on. Without question some toxicity brews under the surface here and occasionally bubbles up under tag abuse, fake good faith, sealioning, etc. among many other things. I also think "preserving discussion/site ethos" has become a bad faith weaponized defense of behavior at this point too. I just don't buy that BS half the time anymore.
It's also clear the toxicity is able to tow the line well enough to avoid moderation, so nothing's getting better nor do I see it getting any better (and that's not the fault of moderators, to be clear, it's a tough job choosing where to draw those lines and how to enforce them- moderation is extremely difficult and I think most online spaces eventually crumble under the weight). I use the hide/block userscript. I unsubscribe from or filter types of things to help myself not get involved in discussions that I don't need to be in. It's just not proving to be enough to salvage joy. Outside of an occasional thread or discussion about something specific, I've lost most of my will to contribute here anymore. So maybe it's my time to go too.