DeaconBlue's recent activity

  1. Comment on Best gas masks in ~society

    DeaconBlue
    Link Parent
    I also drive past those. No idea what is in them but those also seem like a fair guess. My point was more that just calling them what they are (respirators) is a much less aggressive description...

    I also drive past those. No idea what is in them but those also seem like a fair guess.

    My point was more that just calling them what they are (respirators) is a much less aggressive description than "gas mask"

    9 votes

  2. Comment on Best gas masks in ~society

    DeaconBlue
    Link
    Well that explains why I heard three people repeat that same question in a manner of hours. I was surprised when they asked though, because my immediate answer was "Lowes has full face...

    as I watched Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi appear on Fox News after Customs and Border Protection agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. “How did these people go out and get gas masks?” she asked, incredulously. “These protesters — would you know how to walk out on the street and buy a gas mask, right now? Think about that.”

    Well that explains why I heard three people repeat that same question in a manner of hours.

    I was surprised when they asked though, because my immediate answer was "Lowes has full face respirators, I bought one not that long ago for some house projects" and I know at least two of those people also owned respirators.

    The trick is calling them "gas masks" on the news I guess.

    16 votes

  3. Comment on Steam Deck hits 25,000 games Valve have rated Playable or Verified in ~games

    DeaconBlue
    Link Parent
    Yeah, I actually use the proton layer to "play" quite a few home grown tools for random projects. There are a lot of video game modding tools from over the years that use Windows Forms and they...

    Yeah, I actually use the proton layer to "play" quite a few home grown tools for random projects. There are a lot of video game modding tools from over the years that use Windows Forms and they work fine even on a Steam Deck as long as I tell Steam to run them as a game.

    8 votes

  4. Comment on Steam Deck hits 25,000 games Valve have rated Playable or Verified in ~games

    DeaconBlue
    Link Parent
    It means that they can run on the steam deck specifically, but by extension it practically means that they can be run on any Linux distro because the proton layer is not specific to SteamOS.

    It means that they can run on the steam deck specifically, but by extension it practically means that they can be run on any Linux distro because the proton layer is not specific to SteamOS.

    15 votes

  5. Comment on USB-C PD all the things! in ~tech

  6. Comment on Ideas for Arduino/microbits projects for my kids and me in ~hobbies

    DeaconBlue
    (edited )
    Link
    I think that those kind of kits are beat suited as an addition to hobbies rather than a hobby in and of themselves (at first, anyway). If they like gardening, using an arduino to make some kind of...

    I think that those kind of kits are beat suited as an addition to hobbies rather than a hobby in and of themselves (at first, anyway).

    If they like gardening, using an arduino to make some kind of ground hydration tracker can be a fun thing to do. If they like board games, making some kind of score tracker customized for the game can be cool.

    Don't make a new hobby, improve an existing one.

    6 votes

  7. Comment on New books aren’t worth reading in ~books

    DeaconBlue
    Link
    If we are cool with low effort ragebait being posted on tildes, can we at least tag it as such?

    If we are cool with low effort ragebait being posted on tildes, can we at least tag it as such?

    3 votes

  8. Comment on What's something you've moved on from? in ~talk

    DeaconBlue
    Link Parent
    There is a small brewery near me that does excellent sours, so I will get one of those if nothing else grabs my attention. They have done really weird ones like a blueberry pie sour that included...

    There is a small brewery near me that does excellent sours, so I will get one of those if nothing else grabs my attention. They have done really weird ones like a blueberry pie sour that included graham crackers to get a pie crust note.

    If I go to a brewery known for their stouts, I will get one of those. Another brewery near me did a dark chocolate cherry stout last Valentine's that was fantastic.

    Really I will just try the house special wherever, as long as it is interesting. Some winners, some losers, but that really isn't the point.

    3 votes

  9. Comment on What's something you've moved on from? in ~talk

    DeaconBlue
    Link
    Liquor. If I am going to drink at this point, I am going to go to some kind of craft brewery and nurse a beer for like an hour. I really enjoy the taste of beer and the flavors that some breweries...

    Liquor.

    • If I am going to drink at this point, I am going to go to some kind of craft brewery and nurse a beer for like an hour. I really enjoy the taste of beer and the flavors that some breweries come up with, but I have no interest in getting drunk.

    Video Games

    • I cannot enjoy myself playing games at all. I have a backlog of things to fix in the house, or chores to do, or going to play with my kids, or any number of other things. I stare at the screen enough at work, I don't really want to look at a screen to play games too.

    Helping family with tech issues

    • This might be a weird one but I am so far away from normal tech use that I can't really practically help people with their normal problems. I haven't used Windows in like 5 years outside of my corporate laptop that I can't really fiddle with, so I have no idea what to suggest to them when they have all kinds of weird problems. I also (per the last thing) do not have the time to try to learn someone else's tools. I just shrug and don't engage when it is clear that they are asking for help.
    22 votes

  10. Comment on UK Appeals court state RuneScape gold counts as property and can be stolen, in $700k bombshell case in ~games

    DeaconBlue
    Link
    The kid in middle school that took my rune platebody in the computer lab will be hearing from my lawyer!

    The kid in middle school that took my rune platebody in the computer lab will be hearing from my lawyer!

    21 votes

  11. Comment on Microsoft gave FBI keys to unlock encrypted data in ~society

    DeaconBlue
    Link Parent
    An inflammatory title might be the best way to get people to read instructions on how to disable this function.

    An inflammatory title might be the best way to get people to read instructions on how to disable this function.

    10 votes

  12. Comment on Government payments drive US farm income surge in 2025 in ~finance

    DeaconBlue
    Link Parent
    The commentary link is incorrect.

    The commentary link is incorrect.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on Banjo: Recompiled | Release trailer in ~games

    DeaconBlue
    Link Parent
    I haven't given it a shot yet, but per the release trailer everything just seems like QOL stuff so probably? I would definitely put the note saving on even for a first playthrough because...

    I haven't given it a shot yet, but per the release trailer everything just seems like QOL stuff so probably?

    I would definitely put the note saving on even for a first playthrough because backtracking doesn't add anything to the experience.

    5 votes

  14. Comment on Banjo: Recompiled | Release trailer in ~games

    DeaconBlue
    Link
    Copied comment from other thread: I saw this earlier, the biggest thing for casual play is the note saving. In the original version, you had to collect all of the notes in a given level in a...

    Copied comment from other thread:

    I saw this earlier, the biggest thing for casual play is the note saving.

    In the original version, you had to collect all of the notes in a given level in a single play. This meant that if you died or left or whatever, you had to start from the beginning. This is particularly annoying because there are a couple of times that backtracking is required (I am sure speedrunners have figured out a way around that, but whatever). You would collect like 75 notes in a level then realize it was all for nothing because you NEEDED key item XYZ to get the last few. Very frustrating.

    8 votes

  15. Comment on San Francisco parents are letting teens ride in Waymos without an adult in ~transport

    DeaconBlue
    Link Parent
    They can be a lot more dangerous than they claim to be before the danger level falls below that of a bicycle.

    They can be a lot more dangerous than they claim to be before the danger level falls below that of a bicycle.

    6 votes

  16. Comment on Massive winter storm expected to dump snow and ice across United States in ~enviro

    DeaconBlue
    Link Parent
    If they did have those things at the ready, they would be called wasteful for spending money and time on problems that don't usually come up. It is a very no-win scenario.

    If they did have those things at the ready, they would be called wasteful for spending money and time on problems that don't usually come up. It is a very no-win scenario.

    4 votes

  17. Comment on Massive winter storm expected to dump snow and ice across United States in ~enviro

    DeaconBlue
    Link
    Excited for the week of all of my family and coworkers calling most of the country inept for not having the infrastructure set up to deal with these semi-rare occurrences. If you are in an area...

    Excited for the week of all of my family and coworkers calling most of the country inept for not having the infrastructure set up to deal with these semi-rare occurrences.

    If you are in an area without the infrastructure in place to deal with this, I hope you stay safe and are able to just sit indoors for a couple of days while things thaw back out!

    26 votes

  18. Comment on What small thing made a big impact on you? in ~talk

    DeaconBlue
    Link
    When I was younger and getting frustrated by something not working quite like I wanted, my dad offhandedly said "some mortal designed it, some other mortal built it, and you have the power to...

    When I was younger and getting frustrated by something not working quite like I wanted, my dad offhandedly said "some mortal designed it, some other mortal built it, and you have the power to change how it works if you really care"

    That mentality changed how I look at a lot of problems in my life. Yeah, he's right, most things are not that complicated when you break them open and start looking at the guts. It might not be worth it to make everything function like I expect, but it is almost always possible to change.

    This applies to vehicles, house maintenance, toys, even random computer programs. Chop them up, take the parts you want, reassemble them as you need to solve your problem.

    43 votes

  19. Comment on The assistant axis: situating and stabilizing the character of large language models in ~tech

    DeaconBlue
    Link Parent
    If the question is "should we allow a bad actor as a source?" then I don't think "ignore the tag" is a reasonable response. If I posted links to malware and tagged them, the response should be...

    If the question is "should we allow a bad actor as a source?" then I don't think "ignore the tag" is a reasonable response. If I posted links to malware and tagged them, the response should be "stop posting malware" rather than telling people to ignore it if they don't want viruses.

    The question is whether Anthropic is a bad actor. I would say absolutely based on the rest of their blog posts that have been put on this site, but maybe I am in the minority.

    9 votes

  20. Comment on The assistant axis: situating and stabilizing the character of large language models in ~tech

    DeaconBlue
    Link Parent
    I could not agree more. Their blog posts might have some useful needles in the haystack of advertising but that doesn't make it a worthwhile read.

    I could not agree more. Their blog posts might have some useful needles in the haystack of advertising but that doesn't make it a worthwhile read.

    13 votes