Carrow's recent activity

  1. Comment on May 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 2 Discussion in ~games

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    I decided to shelve the bingo aspect and see how much I can fill at the end of the month since I wasn't having trouble picking games. This past week I've played Umurangi Generation and Hellblade:...

    I decided to shelve the bingo aspect and see how much I can fill at the end of the month since I wasn't having trouble picking games. This past week I've played Umurangi Generation and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. Both these I picked up on sale recently for a couple bucks.

    Umurangi Generation is an indie photography game where you go through levels capturing shots from a given list. It had absolutely sick vibes, from the aesthetics to the soundtrack. I liked how it used the environment to build out its world without using exposition. As cool as the photography aspect was, the gameplay basically amounted to a point and click. Sometimes this got annoying when I would still be struggling to find a pic after exploring the level quite a bit. I did end up looking up one shot for a level after searching for far too long only to find out the game didn't actually load the objects in! It still let me snap where they were supposed to be for credit. All in all spent a bit under 4hrs with it and I do still recommend it to folks, but for the vibes over the gameplay.

    Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice is a project from Ninja Theory that follows Senua's journey to Hel to recover the soul of her sacrificed partner. A major theme of the game deals with psychosis, which the developers approached with sensitivity as they enlisted the help of psychiatrists, neuroscientists, and members of the community. Senua hears voices, which you hear as the player too, but there are also other elements they work in as well that ultimately weaves one of the best portrayals of psychosis I've seen in media yet (and that's from someone that has struggled with it too). They used binaural recording tech that makes the voices sound really close to your ear and other sounds at varying distances, it's creepy! I'm not finding the gameplay very engaging after about 4hrs. There's some action combat, but it is fairly barebones. The rest of the game mostly consists of walking. There have been a few environmental puzzles, though calling them puzzles is a stretch. They also enlisted historians to help ensure their Norse mythology is accurate, which is neat, but also means the lore stones scattered throughout retelling Norse myths aren't terribly interesting to me since I'm familiar with the material. I haven't finished it, but I'm unsure if I'd recommend this one. I think, as a game, I don't recommend it, but I do recommend it as an excellent immersive, interactive art experience if that differentiation makes sense or has any meaning.

    I picked up the Yakuza collection on sale, I may start those after Hellblade, which may just put an end to this backlog journey so I'll poke around my libraries a bit more first. Yakuza 0 sucked me in, I loved it, I'm excited to get some more in.

    5 votes

  2. Comment on Classical composer reaction/analysis to Final Fantasy 7: One Winged Angel in ~games

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    I had the pleasure of seeing a Distant Worlds concert recently. They did a One Winged Angel sing-along at the end. I was worried this late in the game that the setlist would be scraping the bottom...

    I had the pleasure of seeing a Distant Worlds concert recently. They did a One Winged Angel sing-along at the end. I was worried this late in the game that the setlist would be scraping the bottom of the barrel, but it was good! They had a video going behind the orchestra of various clips across the franchise. It felt a bit silly during one of the FF7 themes and they just had a talky dialogue scene going without any subtitles... but later they did the scene from The Honey Bee Inn and that was an excellent inclusion. All in all great time, I'd wanted to attend one for a long time and glad I finally got to.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on GlobalUsefulNativeTrees, a database documenting 14,014 tree species, supports synergies between biodiversity recovery and local livelihoods in landscape restoration in ~enviro

  4. Comment on Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of April 28 in ~games

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    I love Mass Effect, I've played through the whole trilogy... a lot. While I still recommend the legendary edition, be forewarned that they botched the lighting for ME1 particularly. I highly...

    I love Mass Effect, I've played through the whole trilogy... a lot. While I still recommend the legendary edition, be forewarned that they botched the lighting for ME1 particularly. I highly recommend checking out mods to fix it, it appears someone did the work of restoring it with this mod below. Though I haven't tested it since it wasn't out when I last played.

    https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/1500

    2 votes

  5. Comment on May 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games

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    I haven't gamed much lately, and it's mainly been Persona 5 Royal when I have, but I'm interested in participating! Here's my card. I may need to reroll after work once I review my library, I...

    I haven't gamed much lately, and it's mainly been Persona 5 Royal when I have, but I'm interested in participating!

    Here's my card. I may need to reroll after work once I review my library, I think the only corner I might be able to work is the recommended by Tildes, and that's a big maybe.

    Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 0/25
    Has been banned, censored, or challenged You started it but never completed it Has romanceable characters You chose it based on title alone You can't remember where you got it from
    Has a weather system Set in a dungeon From a genre you don’t normally play It’s already installed You can save/pet/care for animals
    You can complete it in one sitting Has a moral choice system ★ Wildcard Considered a cult classic Has a time limit
    Is one of the oldest games you own Has season pass DLC You have to tinker to get it running Popular game you never got around to playing Is considered “abandonware”
    Recommended by someone on Tildes Is open-source Randomness determines your fate You wanted it when you were younger Has/uses cards
    5 votes

  6. Comment on How to end a level 20 D&D campaign with a bang in ~games.tabletop

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    Our DM rather respected that developmental warden aspect. He allowed us to more or less dictate aspects of the world through our character history and create our own "companion side quest" for our...

    Our DM rather respected that developmental warden aspect. He allowed us to more or less dictate aspects of the world through our character history and create our own "companion side quest" for our characters, much in the vein of Mass Effect 2 and RPGs of the like.

    I'll leave off with perhaps the most memorable story of the campaign. We needed to infiltrate a nearby raider encampment in order to eliminate their leader, but we couldn't just waltz up to the front door. So we concocted a plan.

    My super mutant was gruff, no nonsense, stand off-ish. We had a ghoul party member that was very bubbly. That created tension between the characters at times, at least one of which caused an outburst in town. We decided to play off that reputation.

    We made a big show of the super mutant fighting the ghoul in town and taking her prisoner to offer the raider leader as a show of good will, claiming his mission was to ingrain himself as the leader's right hand man/bodyguard. While the leader liked my gusto, he already had one. So I say, job should go to the strongest, I challenge him to a duel to the death.

    So we go outside to their fight pit. It was a hard fought battle, but I downed him with a brutal critical hit, guts and blood everywhere, very impressive display of might. The raider leader is jubilant to add such a strong fighter to his ranks, he comes down to welcome me as his new bodyguard. As he reached out to shake my hand, I decided that's the moment to strike. So I take my roll to attack.

    1

    It's a damned 1, after all those sweet skill checks and critical hits, the plan falls apart right at the end.

    So I go to take the swing, but slip on all the blood and mud from the fight. Of course the raider leader saw me take a swing and all hell breaks loose. I go down pretty quick, already weakened by the duel and then falling prone. Our rogue had stealthed in and opened the gate for our comrades, but it was still hard since I was the powerhouse in a group of mostly social players. The ghoul was still bound and of course also our medic, she had a heck of a time getting out and then getting me back up. Nevertheless, we manage to win the fight and live another day.

    It may be "just a game," but you're right -- they can be much more and mean so much to us.

    2 votes

  7. Comment on How to end a level 20 D&D campaign with a bang in ~games.tabletop

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    At the end of our year+ long campaign to level 20, us players surprised the DM by dressing up as our characters for the last session. He lost his mind he thought it was so cool. It was a fallout...

    At the end of our year+ long campaign to level 20, us players surprised the DM by dressing up as our characters for the last session. He lost his mind he thought it was so cool. It was a fallout based system, I had played a super mutant so I caked on some blue face chalk along with everything else. Now I'm wondering if we remembered to snap any photos.

    That may actually be the only campaign I've finished and didn't fizzle out due to scheduling.

    6 votes

  8. Comment on Need help with my home guitar rig in ~hobbies

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    I'm more A/V than instrumental, so maybe I'm missing something obvious, but wouldn't a simple 3.5mm y adapter work for combining the signals from the guitar and whatever you're pulling your...

    I'm more A/V than instrumental, so maybe I'm missing something obvious, but wouldn't a simple 3.5mm y adapter work for combining the signals from the guitar and whatever you're pulling your backing track from? Obviously you would be trading form factor for mixer functionality, but that may not be a big deal if you've got appropriate control on either end? It would be less cumbersome than a mixer. But there's also small, passive aux mixers too that I think would work here.

    3 votes

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

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    The main thing I'd wanted was more organized logging and I hadn't even considered that docker was saving and managing the logs already! Thank you for the input and reminding me not to over-solve.

    The main thing I'd wanted was more organized logging and I hadn't even considered that docker was saving and managing the logs already! Thank you for the input and reminding me not to over-solve.

    2 votes

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

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    I'm still working on my server. My best friend is getting miffed with streaming services, that motivated me to revamp the server and make it more stable and consistently accessible outside my...

    I'm still working on my server. My best friend is getting miffed with streaming services, that motivated me to revamp the server and make it more stable and consistently accessible outside my local network.

    I've got it running as well as it was before, and now I've got my stack dockerized so the apps are fully portable, but I'd still like to flesh out my functionality. Currently I'm working through subtitles with Bazarr. Last time I used it, it downloaded a bunch of out of sync subtitles, but that was years ago. It seems like they've added a lot of functionality since. I was hoping there was some sort of function that could scan the current subs and report if it had typos or didn't meet the Netflix subtitles QC standards, but it looks like I'll need to rely on Subtitle Edit for that.

    I've got a fair bit of anime, I'm curious how helpful Bazarr will be for that. Near all anime subs I find are translations of the JP rather than actual EN subs, so I'm on the look out for a provider that gives preference to those. I reckon this may be where the Whisper functionality will really shine. (For those that are unaware, Whisper is an AI model that processes audio and writes subs)

    Once I'm satisfied with my Bazarr setup, I'll be moving into metadata, posters, and title cards. Not totally certain what tools to use for that yet. Plex Meta Manager (now Kometa?) seems like it'll do some of that, but I'm not sure if it'll do the title cards so I was also looking at TitleCardMaker as well.

    Managing these containers is getting out of hand, I'll need to find something to help me organize them. I'm mostly using LinuxServer.io images, so I was curious about their fleet image. I've also heard of portainer. I haven't delved into this at all, so any input on the management aspect would be welcome.

    3 votes

  11. Comment on Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of April 21 in ~games

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    Watch out for that Persona Collection on the bundles tab, P5:R, and P4:G pages -- it has Persona 3 Portable, not the new Reloaded. (Reloaded is on sale still, just not in the bundle).

    Watch out for that Persona Collection on the bundles tab, P5:R, and P4:G pages -- it has Persona 3 Portable, not the new Reloaded. (Reloaded is on sale still, just not in the bundle).

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Lemon-scented marijuana compound reduces weed’s ‘paranoia’ effect in ~science

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    Compound: d-limonene (common terpene) Number of participants: 20 Number of tests: 9 I've actually found the opposite for myself, that weed with more citrusy profiles are more prone to giving me...

    Compound: d-limonene (common terpene)
    Number of participants: 20
    Number of tests: 9

    I've actually found the opposite for myself, that weed with more citrusy profiles are more prone to giving me anxiety compared to earthier profiles. Exciting to see work that shows a connection between terpenes and subjective effects, even if just a correlation and not establishing any mechanisms yet.

    10 votes

  13. Comment on FYI: This site claims to have harvested 4B+ Discord chats, today all yours for a price in ~tech

  14. Comment on Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of April 14 in ~games

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    There's a second one this week too! https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/town-of-salem-2-ab6497 Looks like a virtual one night werewolf? Might be fun if I can get my friends to grab it too.

    There's a second one this week too!

    https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/town-of-salem-2-ab6497

    Looks like a virtual one night werewolf? Might be fun if I can get my friends to grab it too.

  15. Comment on Kroger’s panopticon: Making criminals of grocery shoppers in ~tech

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    Last time I went to a Kroger I had to deal with that AI. The machine kept accusing me of stealing for trying to use my own bag. There's bag mandates here that charge you for buying paper sacks at...

    Last time I went to a Kroger I had to deal with that AI. The machine kept accusing me of stealing for trying to use my own bag. There's bag mandates here that charge you for buying paper sacks at the store, bringing your own is pretty standard.

    The other store across the street seems to be doing fine without these so-called loss prevention methods. They're targeted towards lower income folk, but their quality to cost ratio is whack -- their food sucks. They've sold actively rotting produce, their store brand is just awful, and they use scummy pricing tactics. This opinion seems to be singular between my partner and I amongst all the folks I know around here though.

    I miss Aldi.

    17 votes

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

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    I've been rebuilding my media server recently with manual configuration. Kicking up a local server to just do simple media hosting was easy. Configuring my whole media management stack to be just...

    I've been rebuilding my media server recently with manual configuration. Kicking up a local server to just do simple media hosting was easy. Configuring my whole media management stack to be just the way I want has been work though. May be worth your time to spin YAMS up first and see if it does what you want.

    Specifically, I've been trying to work out docker networking so that I can keep some dockers containerized to their own network namespace with a VPN. Docker as a whole is new to me, so that's been its own learning process and I'm still not totally sure how best to configure the network side.

    I recently got a second 6TB to act as a mirror in a btrfs pool, that's been a huge peace of mind. The old drive was NTFS, so I used rsync to transfer the data to the new btrfs drive before configuring the pool.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on As I get older, I get more and more disillusioned with "activism", and I'm fine with this in ~talk

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    Your post reminds me of an earlier point in my life. Not about activism though, but about the notion that you realized you were misguided but felt you'd wasted your time. I had a similar...

    Your post reminds me of an earlier point in my life. Not about activism though, but about the notion that you realized you were misguided but felt you'd wasted your time. I had a similar realization and changed course. It wasn't easy, fighting the inertia of my choices and foregoing the path I had set. I didn't really realize it until someone told me, but it was courageous.

    Your experience has led you to take a more nuanced position, experience you lacked as a youth and couldn't have known for yourself yet. You can't fault that experience as a waste. That path led you here. You're courageous to look at your past and say what you're telling us now -- doubly so to actually tell us and open a dialogue. The only waste would be deciding not to change course towards a happier and more fulfilling life after coming to your realization.

    Sorry if I've missed the mark and not engaging so much with the activism aspect. These are words I would've liked to have heard when I was at the place your post reminded me of is all. I'm glad you've already found the joy and liberty of the quiet destruction preceding change, that's a lovely way to put it.

    10 votes

  18. Comment on Can noise canceling headphones be effective against non continuous noise such as music? in ~tech

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    You can control individual app volume on Android with Samsung Sound Assistant. It's on the Galaxy store, there's apk downloads available elsewhere, but I'm not sure if those work on non-samsung...

    You can control individual app volume on Android with Samsung Sound Assistant. It's on the Galaxy store, there's apk downloads available elsewhere, but I'm not sure if those work on non-samsung Androids or not. There also appear to be solutions for rooted Androids.

    2 votes

  19. Comment on Need help planning a pseudo-upgrade for my computer tower in ~comp

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    Even though the CPU is older, I'd bet your graphics card is the bottle neck for helldivers. Pull up the task manager while you're playing and check out the utilization charts. You should be able...

    Even though the CPU is older, I'd bet your graphics card is the bottle neck for helldivers. Pull up the task manager while you're playing and check out the utilization charts. You should be able to tell what's the bottleneck by what is maxed out while the other is not.

    I don't think you'll need a new PSU for those parts, but you can double check a calculator.

    I don't think you'd be getting a good deal out of any CPU/RAM upgrades that are still available and compatible with that mobo.

    6 votes

  20. Comment on Linux Distro Recommendations in ~comp

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    I've dipped my toes into Linux off and on over the past decade or two, predominantly using the Ubuntu family of distros, and enjoy them. I've been happy with them on my old laptop, server, and...

    I've dipped my toes into Linux off and on over the past decade or two, predominantly using the Ubuntu family of distros, and enjoy them. I've been happy with them on my old laptop, server, and gaming PC and within the past year, different Ubuntu flavors have become my daily drivers on each. As one of the most popular, support is fairly easy to find.

    Regular Ubuntu uses the GNOME desktop environment which is fairly Mac like whereas Kubuntu uses KDE and is more Windows like. You can spin up a live USB of each before installing to see which feels better, but they're more or less the same under the hood.

    They're part of the Debian family, which generally means that whatever apps and instructions are appropriate for Debian system will be appropriate for any of the related distros.

    You'll largely be good to go out of the box with these installs, they'll handle drivers and software packages that'll give you a pretty capable and accessible OS without tinkering.

    I haven't tried other distros as in depth so I can't earnestly comment on their accessibility. They've got their pulls for sure, but I find these ones to be the most starter friendly because of their popularity. There hasn't been anything I've needed to Google help with that didn't have hits for Ubuntu and advice was generally geared towards beginners.

    My biggest gripe comes down to the app stores. Ubuntu (and Kubuntu) comes with two but they don't clearly distinguish which one is what and the default settings cause deb files (install files) to open in the wrong store that just tells you it isn't in the store versus the right store that actually installs it. But I've spent more text griping on it than it really impacts my use though since I stick to command line for program management and/or go to the actual program site.

    4 votes