CrypticCuriosity629'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 your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk
CrypticCuriosity629 Link ParentI mean this just comes down to not knowing how these codes are generated. I've been generating my own memorable but completely random passwords with a self made password generator for years now,...I mean this just comes down to not knowing how these codes are generated.
I've been generating my own memorable but completely random passwords with a self made password generator for years now, and you can give it parameters to follow so it's not just monkey on a keyboard random, but more abstract ideas with symbols random.
Anyways, using numbers only it's entirely possible to use parameters to fine tune the output.
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Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative
CrypticCuriosity629 (edited )LinkSo I guess this technically counts as a creative project as well as a technical/programming project. I recently developed a new hyperfixation after being given a ton of old computers and HDDs from...So I guess this technically counts as a creative project as well as a technical/programming project.
I recently developed a new hyperfixation after being given a ton of old computers and HDDs from my work: Homelab. I'd been wanting to start a homelab for a while, specifically a streaming media server for ErsatzTV, but I just didn't want to spend the money.
I basically frankensteined a server out of all the parts, and got some other stuff from Goodwill and Re-PC to round everything out, but it's all over my desk and looks like a Cyberpunk Hacker's desk. lol
Now here's where the project becomes creative. So in order to organize everything I've been looking into 3D Printable Server Racks and came across this one which is modular and expandable.
So I'm usually a bit extra, so I always try to think of creative variations of these kinds of projects I can do. I thought of a Stargate themed one that looks like an Ancient device with control crystals, I thought of a Cyberpunk theme with embedded EL Wire lighting that looks like circuitry, and a couple of other things.
But my golden idea was this: "Nickelodeon Blaster" Wacky Postmodernism Retro Device themed. I think the juxtaposition of maximalist wacky whimsical novelty toy designs from the 90s mixed with the complexities of a homelab server is kind of funny and unique.
So I actually have this phone that I snagged off of ebay years ago before this recent nostalgia craze drove up the prices, and I still want to collect them all. I LOVED these things when I was a kid, and LOVED the colors, the slime, oozing, etc.
Here's the rest of the devices:
https://i.postimg.cc/gJmpcxqw/ug36bno3p6a61.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/zXhmTDQr/s-l2400.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/cJQZNR3j/il-fullxfull-2295337640-4kni.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/4NcCp40T/TK-VR-1028-1.webp
https://i.postimg.cc/WbZR0pHK/TK-VR-1029-4.webp
https://i.postimg.cc/xTmrLjZV/PC-VR-1375-1-fb90886e-17bc-4a94-a3ba-ab9fd8d1e8ce.webp
https://i.postimg.cc/k453Sx0z/Chat-GPT-Image-May-26-2026-11-10-50-AM.png
https://i.postimg.cc/NMBtGK7r/Nickelodeon-1.webp
ANYWAYS, I've started designing a variation of that 10" Server rack using these colors and design aesthetics.
I used AI to get an idea of what it could look like, and this looks pretty spot on to what I had in my mind's eye as far as theme and color scheme go.
Now keep in mind, the AI version is mostly incoherent so I'm not going to be copying the AI, just kind of using it as inspiration when modeling this out in CAD, and will probably come up with a far more coherent design.
Like I'll be utilizing exaggerated red buttons and levers, maybe some doohickeys, and I want to see if there's a way to incorporate these kinds of 3D hologram stickers into it somewhere, as well as these mini spinning emergency lights which I actually have just lying around my electronics bin. We'll see as the project comes along, I'm just in the sketching phase right now and I still need to plan out my modules, but I've locked in on the design for now!
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Comment on 'The Boys' has ended. What are your thoughts? in ~tv
CrypticCuriosity629 LinkFirst, I really want to make a meme of that guy a few seasons back that was eating his own ass, and make it about all the people hating on the show. Don't get me wrong, criticism of the show is...- Exemplary
First, I really want to make a meme of that guy a few seasons back that was eating his own ass, and make it about all the people hating on the show.
Don't get me wrong, criticism of the show is absolutely fair and valid, but good lord the internet loves to circlejerk around hating on the same thing. It seriously becomes some kind of strange tribalistic social ritual. It's just an endless sea of everyone desperately trying to one up each other's hate by finding a new detail to hate on so they can feel like a part of the group.
Like Annie and Hughey naming their kid Rose. Like Rose got murdered, they didn't just break up. I've been unfortunate to know several people who have lost their significant other's to things like cancer or car accidents, and I've been around as they've started dating again, and they still love their passed away SO, and their new SO is perfectly understanding of it.
The only people who just hate their ex's or their partners ex's by default and without good reason are emotionally immature insecure teenagers who lack the emotional depth to realize that the concept of widows, widowers, and people remarrying or dating after a death of a significant other, actually exist.
With that out of the way, I was pretty underwhelmed. I don't think it was awful, it was no Game of Thrones Finale or Stranger Things Finale, but "underwhelming" is a pretty apt description in my head. I don't hate the ending and I'm pretty content with it, but it was no Avengers Endgame with me at the edge of my seat rooting for the characters like a sports show. And then again, not everything has to be amazingly satisfying perfection, sometimes ok is good enough, so I'm not upset at all.
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Comment on A random sci-fi question for you in ~talk
CrypticCuriosity629 LinkI'll take my chances with New Mongolia. I see it in terms of opportunity. New Mongolia has a lot more opportunity than Mars then back to Earth. I mean, you'd be the first to see a lot of things,...I'll take my chances with New Mongolia.
I see it in terms of opportunity. New Mongolia has a lot more opportunity than Mars then back to Earth.
I mean, you'd be the first to see a lot of things, like imagine what exploration would be like, the biology. Even if it wasn't the most advanced and was more like the frontier that'd still be good for me.
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Comment on A random sci-fi question for you in ~talk
CrypticCuriosity629 Link ParentI mean water/Ice is a pretty good insulator for radiation and you don't need much of it to be an effective shield, so my guess is that anything permanently built on Mars would initially be at the...Of course, at our present level of technology, so would a stint in the Mars gulag. Unless I'm misremembering, Mars doesn't have a notable magnetosphere, so anyone stuck there is gonna pick up a hellacious dose of radiation unless the colony is pretty deep under the surface. That raises further logistics questions.
I mean water/Ice is a pretty good insulator for radiation and you don't need much of it to be an effective shield, so my guess is that anything permanently built on Mars would initially be at the poles.
Also any permanent buildings would probably be made with a layer of water/ice to shield from radiation as well.
Not too unfeasible with current or near-current technology.
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Comment on Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ in ~tech
CrypticCuriosity629 (edited )LinkOh man. This is the same kind of energy as "We have eliminated all workplace injury incidents after we stopped keeping an accident log!" or "We have completely eliminated all workplace safety...Oh man. This is the same kind of energy as "We have eliminated all workplace injury incidents after we stopped keeping an accident log!" or "We have completely eliminated all workplace safety hazards we've been plagued with after we fired all our safety inspectors!"
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Comment on San Francisco Sign Guild in ~arts
CrypticCuriosity629 Link ParentThanks! Unfortunately it doesn't seem they have anything up in Seattle, but it's nice to know that things like this exist. Maybe I'll reach out to them and see if they know of anything similar in...Thanks!
Unfortunately it doesn't seem they have anything up in Seattle, but it's nice to know that things like this exist. Maybe I'll reach out to them and see if they know of anything similar in Seattle.
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Comment on ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ reviews mixed: “Boring and lifeless” vs. “best Star Wars in years” in ~movies
CrypticCuriosity629 (edited )Link ParentHaha you can believe what you want, but I think the fact that there were no official products for The Child available for months after the episode aired, missing the holiday season, kind of speaks...Haha you can believe what you want, but I think the fact that there were no official products for The Child available for months after the episode aired, missing the holiday season, kind of speaks for itself.
I think people sometimes flatten companies like Disney into one giant evil monolith, but internally it’s not that simple. At least before COVID, there were a lot of genuinely passionate artists, designers, creatives, and production people there who cared about what they were making.
And that includes at Lucasfilms and Marvel. I actually came from the entertainment side originally, having worked art department in the broader entertainment industry before I started at Disney.
The upper executives 1000% deserve your critique and only cared about money and exploitation, obviously, and they were the bosses of our bosses so they held a lot of strings. Like I hold a fat grudge against Bob Chapek personally, that guy is a soulless shill who gutted the parks of talent when he was VP of DPECP, and gutted the rest of company of talent when he was CEO. But the people actually making the work were not all just cynical corporate drones trying to sell toys. A lot of them cared deeply about the art and characters.
Like my boss's office was a museum of historical Disney merchandise, wall to wall Disney stuff from Star Wars to classic Disney.
At least before COVID. I really can't speak to anything after the covid layoffs.
I had been working with people who had been there so long they had designed the Disney stores that I remember when I was like six years old in the mid '90s, and they were all laid off during COVID.
Disney lost a lot of that passionate core and institutional knowledge during COVID. That's part of why I didn't go back when they offered.
And to make it worse, when they asked a lot of people to come back, they were trying to move the HQ to Florida, and everyone, including myself, was basically like "fuck that, fuck the weather, fuck the politics, we have our families here in LA."
Anyways, at this point in my life I'm pretty anti-capitalist and so I understand your point of view and I'm sure a lot of companies, including Disney, deserve that criticism, I'm just sharing my little personal slice of experience from that moment in time.
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Comment on Lifetime Plex Pass will cost $750 USD after July 1st in ~tv
CrypticCuriosity629 Link ParentI think it's mainly because Plex and Jellyfin are based on legacy projects that existed far before Rust. Plex was literally a fork of XBMC which was made for the original Xbox. Jellyfin's a fork...I think it's mainly because Plex and Jellyfin are based on legacy projects that existed far before Rust. Plex was literally a fork of XBMC which was made for the original Xbox. Jellyfin's a fork of Emby from 2008.
Most other self-hosted projects were developed long after that, after Go and Rust were released.
People would rather build off of what exists instead of building an entire media server/player from scratch.
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Comment on San Francisco Sign Guild in ~arts
CrypticCuriosity629 LinkOh man, I've been in the signage and printing industry for a lot of my career, these are great. Can I ask you about grants? I've always wanted to do a public art project called Hidden Neon, where...Oh man, I've been in the signage and printing industry for a lot of my career, these are great.
Can I ask you about grants? I've always wanted to do a public art project called Hidden Neon, where I'd put up neon signs in obscure places around a city for people to discover, with some only lighting up at certain times or when certain conditions are met, or with certain interactive elements. The idea is to have kind of mysterious flair with a bit of a scavenger hunt to find them all.
I've always wanted to figure out how grants work to do a proposal on that project.
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Comment on Lifetime Plex Pass will cost $750 USD after July 1st in ~tv
CrypticCuriosity629 Link ParentOh god the memories.Oh god the memories.
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Comment on Lifetime Plex Pass will cost $750 USD after July 1st in ~tv
CrypticCuriosity629 (edited )Link ParentI mean I'm not sure what you disagree with, it just sounds like we both just have had different experiences with neither of our experiences being the universal truth. For me, I'm just tracking...I mean I'm not sure what you disagree with, it just sounds like we both just have had different experiences with neither of our experiences being the universal truth.
For me, I'm just tracking what app I told them to download and that's what they're calling it. The more tech illiterate family members just know it as whatever I told them to download, and "Jellyfin Server" doesn't come into play.
Sure, it's one extra step and one extra app, and that kind of pushes the limit of some people's tech literacy, but I manage it well by walking them through the setup and making sure that the final experience is smooth.
But I also wrote a one page PDF documentation for them to print out that has all their login and URL information with screenshots and icons, and a short troubleshooting section that basically says the first thing to do is to check Tailscale. That's what's helped my grandparents with other stuff I've set up for them and so that's what I used for this.
But like with everything, YMMV. 🤷
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Comment on ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ reviews mixed: “Boring and lifeless” vs. “best Star Wars in years” in ~movies
CrypticCuriosity629 (edited )Link ParentOk, so funny thing, I worked at Disney's Parks Experiences and Consumer Products in late 2019 around the time when The Mandalorian was released and not a single one of us in that building knew...- Exemplary
Ok, so funny thing, I worked at Disney's Parks Experiences and Consumer Products in late 2019 around the time when The Mandalorian was released and not a single one of us in that building knew anything about The Child until the day it came out. Haha
In fact it was a frantic panic driven race from the moment the episode released to get products out as quickly as possible and there were VPs out for blood about the fact that Lucas Films/Star Wars told no one in the consumer products division and had kept The Child a secret. To put it in context, we knew about the end of Avengers: Endgame well before the movie came out so we could develop products around Iron Man's broken gauntlet, and we knew about the multiple Spider-Man variations in No Way Home WELL before that was announced publicly, but no one at Star Wars told anyone in the consumer products department about The Child.
God I was in so many heated and frantic meetings around that time. We had people from Lucas Films coming in with VFX renders of The Child and there were VPs practically screaming about why they hadn't seen this ahead of time.
Because not only because The Child was a hit with people all over social media literally BEGGING to have merchandise to buy, but also because everyone was trying to get product out for the holiday season, when product development usually takes months and we were all trying to do it in days.
That's why there were no official products when the show first came out and everyone was buying things off of etsy.
I have so many pictures of cursed "The Child" toy prototypes on my camera reel. Hilariously awful rushed abominations, one was even a baby Yoda with an ass crack.
So to put it simply, no the character wasn't originally created to sell toys, but Disney sure as hell milked it after the fact.
Also interesting side note, because of the frantic race to get products out, people in my department were flying to and from China with "The Child" prototypes, including Chinese factory owners showcasing products, and many people in my department all got super sick with horrible coughs and flu to the point it was being talked about as a bad bug going around. And this was before COVID-19 was officially announced in the US, but just months before COVID shut everything down. Some of us kind of wonder how much of a ground zero that building was considering the high concentration of travel and direct interaction a lot of people in that building had with China around that time. People were literally going to China and traveling from factory to factory, and people from factories all over China were coming into our office to present their prototypes.
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Comment on ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ reviews mixed: “Boring and lifeless” vs. “best Star Wars in years” in ~movies
CrypticCuriosity629 Link ParentGive's me "OH I LOVE BIG SPACE EXPLOSIONS" vibe. But my next question would be what did that reviewer think of the Abram's Star Wars movies and to see if they reviewed them.Give's me "OH I LOVE BIG SPACE EXPLOSIONS" vibe.
But my next question would be what did that reviewer think of the Abram's Star Wars movies and to see if they reviewed them.
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Comment on Lifetime Plex Pass will cost $750 USD after July 1st in ~tv
CrypticCuriosity629 Link ParentYeah as I said, I've been pleasantly surprised by how Jellyfin has matured. I also really like the fact that Jellyfin has themes and multiple client options, so if I don't like one I can switch to...Yeah as I said, I've been pleasantly surprised by how Jellyfin has matured.
I also really like the fact that Jellyfin has themes and multiple client options, so if I don't like one I can switch to another without changing anything on my server side.
I set my friends and family up with my server over the weekend and I chose the best clients for each person to access my library at depending on how techy they were or what they were interested in.
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Comment on Was the creepypasta subculture as a phenomena already dead by somewhere in the mid 2010s? in ~talk
CrypticCuriosity629 LinkI mean, it was dead to me around then. It stopped being scary and genuinely creepy and started to be very try-hard and everything was trying to one-up everything else. Like Slenderman was great at...I mean, it was dead to me around then.
It stopped being scary and genuinely creepy and started to be very try-hard and everything was trying to one-up everything else.
Like Slenderman was great at first, so was sleep experiments. Then you got all these others things trying to be the next slenderman, and then all this convoluted and frankly low quality lore being created, then you've got like the tall thing with horns on it's head, and a hundred other random things that were supposed to be scary because the stories were supposed to be scary.
It really went from "Woah, this could be a real urban legend," to "I can tell a 6th grader wrote this," really really quickly around then.
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Comment on Lifetime Plex Pass will cost $750 USD after July 1st in ~tv
CrypticCuriosity629 (edited )Link ParentUhhhmmm... I'm not sure what you're talking about. You install tailscale and log in, that's literally it. There is no setup, at least not on the user's end. And if you've set up a Plex server then...Uhhhmmm... I'm not sure what you're talking about.
You install tailscale and log in, that's literally it. There is no setup, at least not on the user's end. And if you've set up a Plex server then setting up a tailscale server's a lot easier than that.
On phones, it's just an app with a login and you turn it on. If you're ok with it, you can just give them all the same login so they all connect to the same tailscale network if sharing to multiple accounts and account set up is too complicated.
And you can install Tailscale natively on an Android/GoogleTV or AppleTV or even Firesticks/FireTV literally as easy as any other app on the TV. The only one it doesn't really support is RokuTV.
For the users it's literally just install it and forget it.
I literally just did this with friends and family this past weekend, some not tech literate in the slightest, and none of them had any issues and it was very simple and smooth.
The ONLY real extra hurdle there was is just telling them the first troubleshooting tip is "Is your tailscale running?" and they had to just go into the app and turn it on.
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Comment on Lifetime Plex Pass will cost $750 USD after July 1st in ~tv
CrypticCuriosity629 Link ParentI mean Tailscale really isn't that difficult to set up and you can share your tailscale machine with others and just give them the URL to your server. In my opinion it's safer too since you're not...I mean Tailscale really isn't that difficult to set up and you can share your tailscale machine with others and just give them the URL to your server. In my opinion it's safer too since you're not giving a company access to your questionably obtained content library or exposing your server to the open internet. With Tailscale it's encrypted end to end from your server instance to your user's instance.
Caddy is only slightly harder to set up.
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Comment on Lifetime Plex Pass will cost $750 USD after July 1st in ~tv
CrypticCuriosity629 Link ParentHaha So truly I used to be in this camp too and avoided Jellyfin for years, but I recently set up a new Homelab and gave Jellyfin a go and like Jellyfin has most if not all of those features....Haha So truly I used to be in this camp too and avoided Jellyfin for years, but I recently set up a new Homelab and gave Jellyfin a go and like Jellyfin has most if not all of those features.
- The Plex Relay
Tailscale's really easy to use and manage, and you can share it with people. There's other ways to manage this through Caddy, and reverse proxies and LDAP, but I already had Tailscale set up.
- PlexAmp
Jellyfin has several mature music player specific apps for both android and iOS, my favorite being FinAmp, which I'm now just realizing is named FinAmp because it's supposed to have competitive features to PlexAmp. haha
- Skip Intro/Skip Credits
Jellyfin has that too as a plugin. It actually works really well.
- Hardware transcoding
Jellyfin has that as well, unless I'm mistaken on what you meant. I transcode on a GPU in my server.
- Mobile client playback
There's actually quite a bit of Jellyfin mobile clients now, some are very good. I like having options, and to my surprise an app called Jellybook exists which actually gives me a valid reason to upload my ebooks and audiobooks to my Jellyfin Server.
- Mobile client downloads
A lot of said client apps allow downloading as well.
Anyways, not trying to like shill for Jellyfin because I avoided it for years as subpar to Plex, but really at this point I've been very pleasantly surprised at how smooth and feature-filled Jellyfin has been out of the box, and through the multitude of plugins.
So I posted this on the creative topic too, but it's just as technical as it is creative so I'll post it here too.
I recently developed a new hyperfixation after being given a ton of old computers and HDDs from my work: Homelab.
I'd been wanting to start a homelab for a while, specifically a streaming media server for ErsatzTV, but I just didn't want to spend the money.
I basically frankensteined a server out of all the parts, and got some other stuff from Goodwill and Re-PC to round everything out, but it's all over my desk and looks like a Cyberpunk Hacker's desk. lol
Now here's where the project becomes creative. So in order to organize everything I've been looking into 3D Printable Server Racks and came across this one which is modular and expandable.
So I'm usually a bit extra, so I always try to think of creative variations of these kinds of projects I can do. I thought of a Stargate themed one that looks like an Ancient device with control crystals, I thought of a Cyberpunk theme with embedded EL Wire lighting that looks like circuitry, and a couple of other things.
But my golden idea was this: "Nickelodeon Blaster" Wacky Postmodernism Retro Device themed. I think the juxtaposition of maximalist wacky whimsical novelty toy designs from the 90s mixed with the complexities of a homelab server is kind of funny and unique.
So I actually have this phone that I snagged off of ebay years ago before this recent nostalgia craze drove up the prices, and I still want to collect them all. I LOVED these things when I was a kid, and LOVED the colors, the slime, oozing, etc.
Here's the rest of the devices:
https://i.postimg.cc/gJmpcxqw/ug36bno3p6a61.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/zXhmTDQr/s-l2400.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/cJQZNR3j/il-fullxfull-2295337640-4kni.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/4NcCp40T/TK-VR-1028-1.webp
https://i.postimg.cc/WbZR0pHK/TK-VR-1029-4.webp
https://i.postimg.cc/xTmrLjZV/PC-VR-1375-1-fb90886e-17bc-4a94-a3ba-ab9fd8d1e8ce.webp
https://i.postimg.cc/k453Sx0z/Chat-GPT-Image-May-26-2026-11-10-50-AM.png
https://i.postimg.cc/NMBtGK7r/Nickelodeon-1.webp
ANYWAYS, I've started designing a variation of that 10" Server rack using these colors and design aesthetics.
I used AI to get an idea of what it could look like, and this looks pretty spot on to what I had in my mind's eye as far as theme and color scheme go.
Now keep in mind, the AI version is mostly incoherent so I'm not going to be copying the AI, just kind of using it as inspiration when modeling this out in CAD, and will probably come up with a far more coherent design.
Like I'll be utilizing exaggerated red buttons and levers, maybe some doohickeys, and I want to see if there's a way to incorporate these kinds of 3D hologram stickers into it somewhere, as well as these mini spinning emergency lights which I actually have just lying around my electronics bin. We'll see as the project comes along, I'm just in the sketching phase right now and I still need to plan out my modules, but I've locked in on the design for now!