1338's recent activity
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
1338 LinkI most recently finished Vampires Anonymous. It follows a pair of vampires, one of whom decides to swear off blood and drags the other to Vampires Anonymous (as in AA for blood). They're also...I most recently finished Vampires Anonymous. It follows a pair of vampires, one of whom decides to swear off blood and drags the other to Vampires Anonymous (as in AA for blood). They're also being hunted by a mental patient and an incompetent cop. In this world, 95% of the population is male and they're all gay. The female 5% are child abusing, conversion camp supporting, night-bitches. It's about the furthest you can get from the Bechdel test. The first woman doesn't appear until midway through the book, and then there's never another woman in the same scene for her to even talk with. The plot is rather nonsense, the bad guys never get any clear motive for what they're doing. The characters are flat and homogeneous. And it's not even particularly erotic or anything, like PG-13 style innuendo and early cuts to black. I don't say that to suggest it would somehow justify the flaws, but it would at least help make them make sense. It was written in the 90s so the metaphor of Vampirism to HIV of course applies, and there's a clear metaphor between VA and forced-closeting and conversion therapy. So I'm sure there is an audience, or at the very least was an audience, that would appreciate the book a lot more than me.
I'm now going back to Star Wars, working through the lot of mostly early EU books I got off ebay, with The Truce at Bakura.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
1338 Link ParentI listened to the Thrawn books through audiobook and have a copy of the trilogy on my bookshelf waiting to read through someday. It's interesting to me how much of an impact Thrawn has on the EU,...I listened to the Thrawn books through audiobook and have a copy of the trilogy on my bookshelf waiting to read through someday.
It's interesting to me how much of an impact Thrawn has on the EU, like he has more of a rep/impact than the freaking emperor. I get it from the real-world side (an early big hit, the first pure-EU big bad, and the trilogy showed what the EU could be), but in-canon it just feels silly it at times.
I'm more in the "Thrawn is overrated" camp, the whole "I perfectly predict what is going to happen by appreciating art" is very... well, Mary Sue is one term for it.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
1338 Link ParentIt's a webapp. I have an android app version I've been playing with, but it's not offline.It's a webapp. I have an android app version I've been playing with, but it's not offline.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
1338 LinkI've been working on my book tracker app, largely polishing the sharing features for turning your charts into images that are easily posted on social media. And starting to plug away at the giant...I've been working on my book tracker app, largely polishing the sharing features for turning your charts into images that are easily posted on social media. And starting to plug away at the giant backlog of bugs.
I'm also currently working on a feature to help you come up with a rating for a book after you finish it. It basically uses the eye-doctor approach of "better A or B" where you rate the book relative to other books you've read.
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Comment on Atari makes Universal movie deal for ten iconic game properties in ~movies
1338 Link ParentA meteor is hurtling towards Earth and the only way to stop it from ending all life on Earth is to send a rubber paddle into space to deflect the meteor. NASA/SpaceX/whoever-sponsors-it barely...A meteor is hurtling towards Earth and the only way to stop it from ending all life on Earth is to send a rubber paddle into space to deflect the meteor. NASA/SpaceX/whoever-sponsors-it barely manages to pull it off, and it seems all is saved, but then it's revealed aliens sent the meteor at Earth... and they have their own paddle!
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Comment on What do you think the top three most used apps on your phone for the past week are? in ~tech
1338 Link ParentOn mine there's Settings - Apps - Screen TimeOn mine there's Settings - Apps - Screen Time
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Comment on Epic Games announces Lore open-source version control system in ~tech
1338 Link ParentWell sure, I've got the handle of a million bad things because I'm forced to for one reason or another. But that's not a virtue. That's why it's good for there to be alternatives instead of...Well sure, I've got the handle of a million bad things because I'm forced to for one reason or another. But that's not a virtue. That's why it's good for there to be alternatives instead of monopolies.
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Comment on Epic Games announces Lore open-source version control system in ~tech
1338 Link ParentNeeding your users to have an unintuitive mental model and telling them that things they need to do are impossible because it violates some mathematical ideal is like the platonic ideal of bad UX.Needing your users to have an unintuitive mental model and telling them that things they need to do are impossible because it violates some mathematical ideal is like the platonic ideal of bad UX.
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Comment on Epic Games announces Lore open-source version control system in ~tech
1338 Link ParentThe UX is just bad. By that I mean the UX of the CLI primarily, if you throw enough tooling around it then sure it becomes usable. It was designed by Torvalds for his needs and it shows. Doing...The UX is just bad. By that I mean the UX of the CLI primarily, if you throw enough tooling around it then sure it becomes usable. It was designed by Torvalds for his needs and it shows. Doing simple things is way too hard and pretty much unusable without Stack Overflow to show you the arcane commands you then repeat through bash history. Even basic things like branch tracking just weren't originally thought through holistically, let alone things that are more complex but necessary like "rewriting." And now there's the backwards compatibility issue ("don't break my workflow") so new enhancements that do things in better ways end up having to be jumbled up on top, turning it into an even more bloated and hard to use monstrosity.
I preferred hg, which wasn't perfect but a much better DVCS.
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Comment on Epic Games announces Lore open-source version control system in ~tech
1338 Link ParentThat looks really very cool! I like that they're pulling heavily from hg, and having a full log looks insanely useful. I've been grudgingly using git even for my personal projects ever since...That looks really very cool! I like that they're pulling heavily from hg, and having a full log looks insanely useful.
I've been grudgingly using git even for my personal projects ever since bitbucket dropped hg support, as I do like to have the bells and whistles of a proper forge. This would solve that issue very well!
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
1338 Link ParentYep, I have that implemented! It'll also crop and cleanup the cover for you so the image matches your edition. I also have bookshelf scanning the same way.A wrapper for chatGPT or whatever would probably be the easiest -- snap a pic, it pulls the info, cleans it, then you send it off to a form or whatever...
Yep, I have that implemented! It'll also crop and cleanup the cover for you so the image matches your edition. I also have bookshelf scanning the same way.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
1338 Link ParentI have Google Books and OpenLibrary integrated. Not really happy with either of them. I looked at some other options but quickly hit juice vs squeeze issues. A core thing I'm trying to do...I have Google Books and OpenLibrary integrated. Not really happy with either of them. I looked at some other options but quickly hit juice vs squeeze issues.
A core thing I'm trying to do differently is to let any user customize anything about their library, so I am hoping to make it accessible to like scan a book directly vs needing a given edition of a book already available. I'm mostly been focused on physical books, ways to scan data from audiobooks/ebooks or integrate with libby or audible or such is something I haven't even begun to think about.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
1338 LinkMy book tracker is turning into something I'm feeling proud of and enjoying using myself. I've been mostly focusing on polish and improving the dashboard function recently. There's now a much...My book tracker is turning into something I'm feeling proud of and enjoying using myself. I've been mostly focusing on polish and improving the dashboard function recently. There's now a much better widget editor UI and the default dashboard is to the point where it's usable and not horribly ugly and buggy. But there seems to be no end of things small bugs that need fixing.
Some screenshots:
https://ibb.co/7JzHNQBb
https://ibb.co/JjrndnCj
https://ibb.co/mVpWbTyy
https://ibb.co/1YtKd2gW -
Comment on Epic Games announces Lore open-source version control system in ~tech
1338 LinkThe more alternatives to the horrid git, the better,The more alternatives to the horrid git, the better,
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Comment on What is your eleventh favorite video game? in ~games
1338 LinkUsing that Steam Playtime technique, my 11th is 7 Days to Die. I don't really feel like I ever played it that much. It might be one of those games I left running in the background days at a time,...Using that Steam Playtime technique, my 11th is 7 Days to Die. I don't really feel like I ever played it that much. It might be one of those games I left running in the background days at a time, back when I was living a place where utilities were included in rent. I don't know that I ever played that game in multiplayer. My time was spent wandering around, exploring, building things, and occasionally shooting zombies.
A little lower on my list gets into games like GTAV, and various Borderlands. Those games in general don't feel like a bad answer in spirit, popular single player or coop shooter games from 10-15 years ago. Certainly not my all time favorites or what I tend to prefer now, but games I enjoyed and appreciated.
Really though, some of my all-time favorites aren't ones I played on Steam, so my real answer is probably a bit higher on the list. I think the one that feels the most accurate is Audiosurf. It's the only music game I ever really liked. I played it all the time back like 20 years ago up through about a decade ago. I especially enjoyed the Mono modes. Having something engaging but not distracting, in a meditative way, really helped me enjoy the music. My fall off when I stopped playing it corresponds with when I stopped really enjoying music much either, despite intermittent attempts to try listening to it more again. It's been 8 years since I last played it.
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Comment on The "go fix a minor annoyance" togetherness topic in ~life
1338 LinkThis is not quite what you're describing, because it is something I simply keep forgetting about, but thanks to this thread I finally ordered a different type of dog poop bag. Hopefully these ones...This is not quite what you're describing, because it is something I simply keep forgetting about, but thanks to this thread I finally ordered a different type of dog poop bag. Hopefully these ones won't keep driving me batty as I stand by the side of the road for two minutes trying to get the damn thing open.
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Comment on How to try out over eighty-five Linux distros, no installation required - with DistroSea in ~comp
1338 LinkIt has a number of non-linux OSes too. But no TempleOS :(It has a number of non-linux OSes too. But no TempleOS :(
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Comment on Looking for headphone recommendations in ~music
1338 Link ParentI have also been using Soundcore for a few years, quality for price point is certainly good and I was pleasantly surprised when one of my earphones died early and they replaced the whole thing...I have also been using Soundcore for a few years, quality for price point is certainly good and I was pleasantly surprised when one of my earphones died early and they replaced the whole thing with minimal questions. But I'm becoming increasingly disgruntled the more and more ads and junk they put into their app. But I only need the app to check battery/charging status of the other earphone when wearing just one (and occasionally to check whether ANC turned on accidentally or I'm just crazy), so maybe OP can entirely avoid the app.
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Comment on Custom LED light frames in ~creative
1338 Link ParentYou might want to resize your pictures. They're taking forever to load for me and I think 4080x3072 is a bit larger than necessary.You might want to resize your pictures. They're taking forever to load for me and I think 4080x3072 is a bit larger than necessary.
I've circled back on my older project recently, the map tile proxy/cache/gateway service. I hadn't worked much on it the past year, sort of let it in a weird pre-1.0 purgatory. But decided to take a break from Brack to circle back on it. I've primarily been doing hardening/testing/productionizing things like upgrading dependencies, adding a helm chart, an e2e test harness (that runs against the binary itself), and making sure it shuts down gracefully. Also been adding in some functionality I hadn't gotten around to like some usage analytics (so you can have a Clickhouse table that shows Bob used 500 map tiles last month) and JWKS. Been nice to pick things up again, it's shocking how much Go context slipped out of my brain since 2024.
I've also been iterating on my Book Tracker app. Hit some weird hiccup with the initial cold-start time (since it stores personal DBs on Object Storage and has to retrieve them when there's activity) causing some time outs. I decided to put in a proper loading screen and an async API vs having requests hang, but it doesn't seem to want to work right in prod (works perfect locally of course). Been mostly hitting my head on that, then the weird slowness disappeared so I'm still not totally sure what's going up. I added in instrumentation of the backend with NewRelic's free tier but haven't found a smoking gun yet. A bit frustrating. Only feature I've worked on the past couple weeks is adding the ability to generate an automatic description/alt-text for shareable chart images (so I can share my month's recap without needing to do a bunch of typing).