Carrow's recent activity
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Comment on KOReader: custom reader software for eink devices in ~books
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Comment on I'm addicted to Slay the Spire and am looking for a new game in ~games
Carrow Link ParentIt plays a lot better on mobile than StS. Ad removal is $7 -- though optional in game, viewing them gives loot. $6 to unlock all content but I'd put dozens hours in easy without having seen all...It plays a lot better on mobile than StS. Ad removal is $7 -- though optional in game, viewing them gives loot. $6 to unlock all content but I'd put dozens hours in easy without having seen all the free content.
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Comment on I'm addicted to Slay the Spire and am looking for a new game in ~games
Carrow LinkAstraea is like if StS used dice instead of cards https://store.steampowered.com/app/1755830/Astrea_SixSided_Oracles/ Dungeon Clawler is like if StS replaced the deck with a claw machine...Astraea is like if StS used dice instead of cards
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1755830/Astrea_SixSided_Oracles/
Dungeon Clawler is like if StS replaced the deck with a claw machine
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2356780/Dungeon_Clawler/
If you enjoyed Hades, I recommend Supergiant's library, they don't miss, though you aren't likely to get 600hrs out of their titles. Transistor has more turn based combat. Pyre is fairly unique. Hades 2 really is Hades++.
ETA: my StS addicted friend enjoyed Banners of Ruin before finding StS, it's StS if you had a party of animals instead of one character per run.
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Comment on Avatar: Seven Havens | Official trailer in ~tv
Carrow Link ParentI don't think I have any explicit Bryan/Mike bad guys stories to tell, someone else might, though Nickelodeon does deserve that rap. I hear folks talk about their favorite episodes, the ones that...I don't think I have any explicit Bryan/Mike bad guys stories to tell, someone else might, though Nickelodeon does deserve that rap.
I hear folks talk about their favorite episodes, the ones that make it special, and they're usually written and directed by not-them. ATLA had a bigger writing team and Korra didn't get a woman writer until S03. I don't know if there was a falling out with Aaron Ehasz or what, but he wasn't on Korra and his contributions to ATLA seem sidelined relative to Bryan/Mike since he wasn't a creator, "just" EP and writer.
So yeah more like I credit the success of the Avatar series to the folks they've worked with more than the creators themselves.
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Comment on Avatar: Seven Havens | Official trailer in ~tv
Carrow Link ParentThe more behind the scenes I learn about ATLA and Korra, the less I trust Bryan/Mike. We'll see what writers they've got, that'll be a deciding factor for me. I do quite like some of the stylistic...The more behind the scenes I learn about ATLA and Korra, the less I trust Bryan/Mike. We'll see what writers they've got, that'll be a deciding factor for me. I do quite like some of the stylistic visuals they're going for, though worry it will be a kid's show first and foremost.
I'm hoping that the whole Avatar hate thing is going to be like how folks thought the Avatar abandoned the world when Aang was frozen for 100 yrs, and that it'll be something like the only reason there is any world left is because of her efforts and the populace misconstrued it. But we really wanted Korra to just have her happily ever after with Asami so this sucks no matter which way we slice it.
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Comment on Graphene speed issues and general wonderings in ~tech
Carrow LinkVanced is discontinued, ReVanced took its place -- try that manager if you're having problems. I just updated my YT and YT music with it recently. https://revanced.app/Vanced is discontinued, ReVanced took its place -- try that manager if you're having problems. I just updated my YT and YT music with it recently.
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Comment on Overview of the proofs behind the Navier-Stokes $1 million millennium prize problem in ~science
Carrow LinkI recall once in grad school, a prospective professor was showing their work (it was even fluid related too). Part of it involved fitting data to a line. They used a polynomial with like 8 terms,...I recall once in grad school, a prospective professor was showing their work (it was even fluid related too). Part of it involved fitting data to a line. They used a polynomial with like 8 terms, none of the coefficients had any connection to real world properties, not derived from first principles at all. But it drew the line well, and they were proud of it.
One professor there in the same subfield had derived an equation from first principles that fairly accurately represented those graph types based on actual physical properties reduced to only one fitting parameter. It wouldn't draw the line quite as well though.
Nonetheless, the field seemed to favor these ugly polynomials when it came to what was used in papers. Computer simulations with more silicon, more digits, not looking at the real world.
So what I've been keen on finding out is, are these AI solutions more like the prospective prof's, where they just threw more numbers on the board until everything fit expectations regardless of the underlying physics, or our prof, where they actually model the behavior based on principles? Is there a novel model, or are they over fitting the data to get a solution? The "smooth" aspect seems analogous at the least.
(Fun aside: my profs also complained of how scientists didn't get how to mathematically model vortexes accurately, so of course they show up in the solution.)
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Comment on Carrie | Official trailer in ~tv
Carrow LinkOur dog Batman would sometimes watch TV with us. He liked anime guys with big swords. But one night he watched Carrie with us. As in, sat down on the couch at the start and stayed watching......Our dog Batman would sometimes watch TV with us. He liked anime guys with big swords. But one night he watched Carrie with us. As in, sat down on the couch at the start and stayed watching... until she was crowned prom queen. Then he got up and left the room. I guess for him, the movie was over -- and I've always said he got a nicer cut! If a tad less climactic.
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Comment on How do you find new anime to watch? in ~anime
Carrow Link ParentThing with any site that has some popularity measure is that the popularity can just as well be an indicator of what sorts of folks use the site. Older stuff with high seeds can be promising. My...Thing with any site that has some popularity measure is that the popularity can just as well be an indicator of what sorts of folks use the site. Older stuff with high seeds can be promising.
My wikipedia rabbit holes go all over the place, particularly history. Anime wise, that's usually how I'm finding what inspired certain works or directors, find out they're paying homage to something I never heard of, tracing out interconnections between studios and their animators, that sort of thing.
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Comment on Summer US box office hits all-time $4.76B record: how audiences surrendered to moviegoing in ~movies
Carrow LinkThis non-frequent movie-goer went multiple times this summer since there were multiple Anne Hathaway movies, simple as that in this house.This non-frequent movie-goer went multiple times this summer since there were multiple Anne Hathaway movies, simple as that in this house.
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Comment on Xbox announces digital entitlements for disc based games in ~games
Carrow Link ParentFor anyone woefully confused by their naming scheme, you can put newer Xbox games in the older console and still claim the license. You can also use games for the better console with the slower one.For anyone woefully confused by their naming scheme, you can put newer Xbox games in the older console and still claim the license. You can also use games for the better console with the slower one.
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Comment on How do you find new anime to watch? in ~anime
Carrow Link-My friends keep up with the new releases and share mini reviews -YouTube, either creators or trailers. -Our "what anime are you watching?" weekly topic -Other work from a studio that made...-My friends keep up with the new releases and share mini reviews
-YouTube, either creators or trailers.
-Our "what anime are you watching?" weekly topic
-Other work from a studio that made something I liked
-inspirations for something I liked
-MAL lists
-popular stuff on <redacted torrent site>
-pull from a wikipedia rabbit hole -
Comment on What made that wedding that you attended particularly memorable? in ~life
Carrow LinkIt was my best friend's wedding. They had rented a summer camp spot in the mountains (with facilities) for the weekend. Folks flew in from all over, more able to swing a weekend with lodging...It was my best friend's wedding. They had rented a summer camp spot in the mountains (with facilities) for the weekend. Folks flew in from all over, more able to swing a weekend with lodging covered than a one night event. The food on the way out was supposed to be safe, but it fucked me up by the time we got on site -- I was worried I wouldn't be able to stand for the ceremony.
After excruciating pain and only 15min to spare, I was able to make it. The weather was excellent. The ceremony was beautiful with the backdrop of the forest as the childhood friend of the goom wed them (nb+nb wedding, they went by shroom and goom). Their vows absolutely whipped, they're both wicked writers. They looked so good. I was sobbing.
We did silly pictures. The reception hall had a canoe filled with (iced) booze. Big ol karaoke setup. Not just a vegan option for dinner, but vegan choices, plus dope vegan desserts. I gave a speech, I'd tried to write it beforehand but blanked so made it up on the spot (and said as much in a good opening joke), and it killed. The goom's (rather pretty) sister came up to me, grabbed my face, and told me how great it was, giving me feelings that weren't just pride. I shared around my nasal spray filled with an aqueous solution of coke with the cool folks, that night and the rest the weekend (would recommend, far better than dry insufflation, and stealth). Many of us took MDMA later that night, with lots of heart to hearts and hair petting, haven't done it with that many folks before or since.
I guess nobody got the message that last person leaving the reception needed to close the doors to the hall, I'll assume last ones out were too drunk to realize. A raccoon came in and swiped a fair portion of the wedding cake. Huzzah for all! We all had a good laugh, shroom and goom agreed it was a great wedding memory, worth losing the cake over.
The next day folks ran assorted activities in camp counselor fashion such as tie dye and boffer fighting. The weather continued to be beautiful. It was fun seeing folks from different walks engaging in activities they may not have otherwise. I did an extra tie dye tee for a cute friend that was still conked out from the MDMA the night before (my SSRI has made me pretty immune to the MDMA brain fry hangover). Went a bit too hard boffer fighting a bit too soon after the last sniff of coke.
The last day of cleaning was memorable due to... poor weather. We made it back home safe and sound.
Extra bit of fun: I hadn't come out to myself and identified as nb, so me and my nb-transmasc buddy attended both "bachelor" and "bachelorette" parties. Living our best nb lives, partying like hell.
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Comment on What's your line? in ~life
Carrow LinkI passed up a job offer because I didn't want to assist with the damming of floodplains, damaging local ecosystems and pushing flooding downstream to poorer communities to the benefit of property...I passed up a job offer because I didn't want to assist with the damming of floodplains, damaging local ecosystems and pushing flooding downstream to poorer communities to the benefit of property developers.
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Comment on 1Password wades into a right-wing mess after funding a Linux project in ~tech
Carrow Link ParentThat article is from 01/2025, they had also recently sponsored a far right French YouTuber, which admittedly seems minor compared to the evidence in your link....That article is from 01/2025, they had also recently sponsored a far right French YouTuber, which admittedly seems minor compared to the evidence in your link.
SurfShark VPN seems cool, they don't offer port forwarding, but IIRC what proton calls port forwarding is P2P support rather than actual port forwarding.
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Comment on RomM: an open source, self-hosted emulation platform in ~games
Carrow (edited )LinkOK I've been running this a couple weeks now, plus Argosy Launcher. There's some things I like, some I don't, but I'm keeping it. Syncing works, not much to say here since that's a base...OK I've been running this a couple weeks now, plus Argosy Launcher. There's some things I like, some I don't, but I'm keeping it.
Syncing works, not much to say here since that's a base requirement. The built in emulator seems fine, serviceable, nothing special -- EmulatorJS is a LibRetro implementation, Argosy used them too. If RetroArch inundates you with options you don't care for, these are trimmed back.
The thing I think I like the most: IT RELIABLY GRABS MANUALS!!! Only ScreenScraper.fr has those (I assume some legal license loophole like VLC), it's barely mentioned in the docs. But holey moley is it nice to pull up a manual right from the game page, especially for old games. I sat down and just went through a bunch for nostalgia's sake. I like that I can write notes and store txt walkthroughs with the ROM too.
The UI is slick, but extremely opinionated. You can't reorder the homepage, only add/remove elements. You can override some metadata values by manually editing, but if you want to remove a value, you've got to edit the json for the provider (listed next to the metadata details, showing only 5 lines at a time). I can't find how to delete screenshots it pulled when they are wrong. Manual collections don't have custom ordering, either manually assigned or specifically "year, ascending" without it being the sort across all views. It can autogenerate virtual collections based on tags, but you can't rename them, it's the name of the tag. You can direct it to maintain smart collections based on tags, but it only does AND filtering, no OR. So no NES or SNES for a 'retro Nintendo', only like title Zelda and franchise legend of Zelda in case your metadata decides smash bros is a Zelda game (IGDB will do that). The more I use it, the more little nuisances like that I find.
It has a patching tool, you can store the patches in the game folder and it recognizes them, but I'm somewhat disappointed with the implementation. You can either download the patched file or have it save to the library. The web emulator (and Argosy) let you select the patch file as a version to play, but don't support softpatching, crashing the emulator. If I make Argosy launch into RetroArch, match the rom and patch filenames, and don't stick the patch file in the suggested patch subfolder, then it works... But at that point I may as well hard patch to give it its own entry and stay able to use built-in emulators. I guess you could keep a list of patches, apply one and download the copy if you intend to plug it into an 'offline' emulator and not use any other RomM features?
Metadata for ROM hacks sucks -- I don't blame RomM or any provider for this though. However, TGDB seems to have some, I see TGDB in the settings, but it is undocumented so I haven't checked if I need credentials. I don't think it was effectively pulling from there by default, but the defaults are a mess.
The default is to enable every provider, regardless of API credentials. Maybe I goofed the start wizard by trying to start with minimal credentials? So the defaults create inconsistent metadata, like games in a series may not have the same franchise value (or collection -- metadata value different from the collection feature). Somehow, I'm getting fragments of IGDB metadata without credentials (though their screenshot collections are best I've found so far and I can give it a screenshot override priority). It seeks RetroAchievement matches even when I have it turned off.
Scanning is treacherously slow compared to every other media server I've got. I assumed hashing was part of this, but even tiny files are slow. I think part of the issue is it seeking matches with more providers than I enabled (I went in and disabled all but a couple, no improvement). Also unlike every other media server I've run, it cannot detect when the filesystem has changed and run an update scan then. If you queue up an item to scan while it is scanning, it either silently aborts the previous scan or silently doesn't do the requested one.
As I alluded, some features and docs feel half baked. Not in the "this is an early open source project" way, but in a "AI implemented/wrote this and a human didn't really use it/seriously review it" kind of way. I don't recall if it was Argosy or RomM, but one claimed features in the docs that it just didn't have. (I only just checked, GitHub reveals Claude as the second largest contributor, beggars can't be choosers.)
I wanted to give my partner a simple way to play ROMs and ROM hacks, and this will do that well. I can do all the dirty work and say "it's on the server" rather than manually configuring everything on a specific device, I'm ultimately happy with it despite the gripes.
Thanks for sharing :)
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
Carrow Link ParentSure, no problem, updated. I checked before posting and followed suit with how he referred to the campaign in an interview.Sure, no problem, updated. I checked before posting and followed suit with how he referred to the campaign in an interview.
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
Carrow (edited )LinkNormally, I probably would not watch a video about GamerGate or any 6hr video. However, this is NeverKnowsBest -- his videos do range from like 2-6hrs usually since they're detailed retrospectives...Normally, I probably would not watch a video about GamerGate or any 6hr video. However, this is NeverKnowsBest -- his videos do range from like 2-6hrs usually since they're detailed retrospectives or histories (though he can bring it to 1hr for a single game). I've watched his 3.5hr romance video twice. I appreciated his 2.5hr retro on Dragon Age as a fan since Origins and it got me to play Veilguard (he wasn't glazing it I just got the DA brain worm). I first engaged with his history of RPGs and history of JRPGs. So he's one of the few whose long form videos I do like and feel they've got more to them than overly long summaries (though some could easily be broken up into a playlist series).
So I'm strapped in for 3hrs at 2x, getting into the Anita section now. The "but actually" isn't a claim that "GamerGate wasn't about X" but that it's actually a detailed dive and covers history to a degree that few to none have done despite the books written on the topic, though I'm sure the title is intended to get clicks. As he says, understanding GamerGate without looking earlier is like interpreting a war after the first battle without context leading up to it. It's weird not to bring up DoritoGate in discussing it, yet many sources don't seem to mention it, reviewing coverage of the earlier Damien Slaughter and Jennifer Hepler harassment campaigns is revealing context as well.
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Comment on What are your current pain points with Linux? in ~tech
Carrow Link ParentImmutable systems are great for both these issues -- Bazzite for instance tests kernel + GPU drivers + DE version before shipping, the system is locked from modifying libraries beyond the base...Nvidia graphics driver weirdness. Only ever had one really bad update where I had to use a TTY to recover my machine. However, sometimes the driver may not initialize properly or a bad update will have the system fallback to a basic driver and I'm stuck at 800x600 for a bit as I diagnose and fix.
You'll be a few layers deep in debugging when you realized that A broke B which C relied on to get X to work but X doesn't work with Y but you need Y to use Z. This hasn't happened to me super often but its happened more on Linux than on other platforms.
Immutable systems are great for both these issues -- Bazzite for instance tests kernel + GPU drivers + DE version before shipping, the system is locked from modifying libraries beyond the base image. So you don't update a GPU driver on its own, you get it by updating the system image. Further, the system packages are also set, you can't easily create an interdependency hell like you described. If an image update breaks something, you can rollback to the previous. And then you can also do distrobox if you do need to run something reliant on system libraries not matching the ones in your image.
Swapping off Ubuntu was a pain, but well worth it. I forgot I had sleep issues until you mentioned it.
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Comment on Twenty-year-old Xbox 360 game Blue Dragon now has a fantastic unofficial PC port that unlocks the FPS, goes 4K, and even adds mod support in ~games
Carrow Link ParentSo they are broadly similar in that your goal is to break the girl's curse, but Pandora's Tower differs in that you're frequently going back to your partner to feed her monster flesh. If you take...So they are broadly similar in that your goal is to break the girl's curse, but Pandora's Tower differs in that you're frequently going back to your partner to feed her monster flesh. If you take too long, you watch her suffer for it. Interacting and talking with her is an active part of the game, also including systems like giving her gifts she'll wear or put in the house and repairing things she broke if she turns too far. You've got to decide on spending resources between getting strong or your relationship. And ultimately, your relationship with her determines the ending. I'm blanking on examples where the partner, their curse, and their perseverance is as central to the experience, though I'm sure they're out there. This 50min video put it on my radar, spoilers though.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=N1Kz6KguvLM
This video is a great source, NeverKnowsBest covers the history of romance games in 3.5hrs. The meat of the lesson is in the first hour, with the rest being in depth reviews of some of the most prolific titles over time.
Our interest is piqued by KOReader again because of CBZ manga -- calibre can convert that to KEPUB... But not needing to do that would also be cool. We're happy with the manga experience on the color model, scales and runs pleasantly for us, eink is a big draw vs tablets.