Oxalis's recent activity
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Comment on Meet the UK's Eurovision entrant: 'The BBC is taking a risk on me' in ~music
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Comment on What are some bands you regret not seeing live (or, just never had the chance to see in the first place)? in ~music
Oxalis LinkDaft Punk, the Alive tour is still seen as a high point for electronic performance despite happening in 2006-2007. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmR4zLcORNc Chemical Brothers, pre-Push The...Daft Punk, the Alive tour is still seen as a high point for electronic performance despite happening in 2006-2007. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmR4zLcORNc
Chemical Brothers, pre-Push The Button era. Would have been amazing to hear tracks like Star Guitar from a true live sound system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut8R25lfplw
Just about any act at Printworks, London before it closed. The sets Bicep, Aphex Twin, Floating Points, and whatever this is played all look like once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
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Comment on Steam Next Fest recommendations and game demos in ~games
Oxalis LinkI was told to try out cursed words by a friend and I got hooked. It's satisfying to play, has a good number of systems it introduces as you unlock characters, and overall the game slots in...I was told to try out cursed words by a friend and I got hooked. It's satisfying to play, has a good number of systems it introduces as you unlock characters, and overall the game slots in perfectly with my need for something I can walk away from at any moment without issue.
I've done like 10 runs so far and I still have things in the demo to unlock along with some hinted-at secrets.
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Comment on Youtube channel recommendations 2026 in ~tech
Oxalis LinkAlex Hibbert Originals - Engineering, Adventure, Arctic Survival A lovely British dude taking on huge vehicle-engineering projects with the hope of taking them to the frigid north for adventure...Alex Hibbert Originals - Engineering, Adventure, Arctic Survival
A lovely British dude taking on huge vehicle-engineering projects with the hope of taking them to the frigid north for adventure and science. He's currently working on an amphibious survey vehicle big enough for a team to ride inside. If you know anything about composite materials, electric drive-trains, or extreme ice-ready wheels, please watch some of the newer videos and chime in. He reads and replies to nearly all feedback. If you don't know anything about those topics, come watch to see how the build goes along. It's quite the ride!
Marco Reps - Electrical Engineering, Accidental ASMR?, Reviews & Teardowns
Soft talking German engineer with very dry humor, taking apart crazy equipment from CERN, trying out the newest laser manufacturing hubs, creating over-engineered DIY solar arrays, etc. It's nice sleepy-time TV for nerds.
Old Forge Creations - Craft, Pottery, Ceramics, Instructional
Self-taught ceramicist from the UK, shows off loads of really clever techniques and methods for making pottery and custom glazes at scale. One of the few potters on yt that doesn't come off as an ascetic or a zany magpie (both are fine for entertainment/relaxation but I've learned more practical "that's so clever!" things from this channel than all the others combined).
Jonathan Zaragoza - Food, Cooking, Oaxacan/Mexican Cuisine
Found this guy when I was gearing up for making Oaxacan Black Mole. He's funny, approachable, and makes some really solid stuff. His pork tinga poblana, "salsa falsa", and frijoles charros have been welcome additions to the recipe rotation last year.
Bonus points for the pep talk (actually needed) and the reoccurring bit about the cinnamon roll in his mole video.
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Comment on Any beautiful and/or interesting magazines you like? in ~design
Oxalis LinkYou can view all the issues on the internet archive: https://archive.org/details/emigre-magazine-archive-1984-2005/ Overall this magazine is a bit scattershot and sometimes hard to parse. A heady...This award-winning quarterly (more or less) magazine published from 1984 until 2005 in Berkeley, was dedicated to visual communication, graphic design, typography, and design criticism. Produced by Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko, Emigre was known for creating some of the very first digital layouts and type designs.
You can view all the issues on the internet archive: https://archive.org/details/emigre-magazine-archive-1984-2005/
Overall this magazine is a bit scattershot and sometimes hard to parse. A heady mix of esoteric poetry, essay, patchwork visuals, and sardonic critique of the design world as it flowered into the digital, multi-billion dollar industry it is today. My favorite is Issue 9, since I love the what the record label 4AD was putting out in those days in terms of visual artifact.
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Comment on Dell's Consumer Electronics Show 2026 chat was the most pleasingly un-AI briefing I've had in maybe five years in ~tech
Oxalis LinkNice to see them be honest about how this isn't really panning out. Everyone wants AI except the consumer. That said, are there any functional-as-of-right-now use cases for NPUs on consumer...Nice to see them be honest about how this isn't really panning out. Everyone wants AI except the consumer.
That said, are there any functional-as-of-right-now use cases for NPUs on consumer machines? All of the "AI" I see people yammering about are just web APIs to cloud computation services.
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Comment on Trying to bring musicians and listeners together again - FLAPJams.com in ~music
Oxalis LinkAlways love when people build out little communities like this. My only feedback would be to ditch the genre categories entirely and just have all the tracks in fewer spaces with finer-grained...Always love when people build out little communities like this.
My only feedback would be to ditch the genre categories entirely and just have all the tracks in fewer spaces with finer-grained style and genre tags for the thread itself.
Also add some language regarding AI generated songs or suffer the wrath of Suno "producers" that spam 80 crummy pop tracks with poorly shoehorned lyrics.
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Comment on A lot at steak: US beef and cattle prices soar to record highs in ~food
Oxalis Link ParentIt's just one crisis after another. I've already had to ditch most chicken aside from thighs and drumsticks due to the Woody Breast issue. Of course those are steadily climbing in price now as...It's just one crisis after another. I've already had to ditch most chicken aside from thighs and drumsticks due to the Woody Breast issue. Of course those are steadily climbing in price now as consumers shift away from the disgusting texture nightmare that most whole breast meat is becoming.
It’s much more likely that you’ll get a chicken breast with issues than you’ll get one without, Tuell points out. In a recent study, researchers examined 179 chicken breasts and found that only 18.4 percent were normal, while 13.4 percent had a single issue—like woody breast—and 68.2 percent had more than one disorder.
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Comment on Affinity V3 is here with a new freemium model in ~design
Oxalis LinkI installed it. The account making process used email address for the one-time-code to login, no password. The main three apps (vector, pixels, and layout) are all rolled into one program. There...I installed it. The account making process used email address for the one-time-code to login, no password.
The main three apps (vector, pixels, and layout) are all rolled into one program. There is a fourth item for some canvAI thing but you can actually hide it by clicking the three dots and unselecting that item. Leaving the UI clean of any upsells for the time being.
Seems okay so far!
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Comment on iiO - Rapture (Armin van Buuren Remix) (2011) in ~music
Oxalis Link ParentI've admittedly fallen out of the loop somewhere around 2018 when it comes to new tracks. There's just too much to keep up with and my usual sources like di.fm have made the listening experience...I've admittedly fallen out of the loop somewhere around 2018 when it comes to new tracks. There's just too much to keep up with and my usual sources like di.fm have made the listening experience so bad for anyone not paying $5 a month.
That said, here's a collection of tracks that I still come back to. You've probably heard most of them, it's those overplayed singles that tend to stick in the brain the longest lol.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdJAZNqmZSydATqvbn2tuz3dqYjFMRMa9&si=SKfC51OfvG-dKWmV
If you haven't heard of them before, check out Above and Beyond. They're more than another electronic duo, they've been an incubator and community builder for a lovely gaggle of singer songwriters that bring more consistent emotion to the dancefloor than any act I know of.
Their side project OceanLab is still stunning: https://youtu.be/p_TkwNLJn68?si=icxqmC8XsZ91obMh
Another artist with an entire album of hits is Kaskade; Strobelight Seduction is sexy and emotive all the way through: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA12RRcehQi8AZSfM6cdvxQpPOsA2ey1T
Last thing worth mentioning is the Lush channel on Soma fm. 24/7 tracks of the electronic persuation with female vocals. It leans more into downtempo than dance but it's a great stepping off point for finding new vocalists. https://somafm.com/lush/
Happy listening!
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Comment on iiO - Rapture (Armin van Buuren Remix) (2011) in ~music
Oxalis LinkWhen I was first getting into electronic music (All thanks to the genre-expanding game series Dance Dance Revolution), I stumbling across a massive treasure trove of DJ mixes that fostered my deep...When I was first getting into electronic music (All thanks to the genre-expanding game series Dance Dance Revolution), I stumbling across a massive treasure trove of DJ mixes that fostered my deep love for female vocal-forward trance and house. Emotive and energizing stuff.
If you want to go back in time, loyal fans have been nice enough to upload what mixes remain onto The Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/gt-vs-project-c-voices-of-seasons - Sets themed around seasons. I've been playing the Summer and Autumn sets for over a decade now. Still can't get enough.
https://archive.org/details/dj-doboy-the-vocal-edition - A good run down of the hits of the era. Nearly every mix is quality.
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Comment on Automation for android, preferably FOSS in ~tech
Oxalis LinkI haven't used an android device since 2022 so I don't know all the latest stuff but I remember these being the only FOSS automation apps that people mentioned. All are on f-droid. Automation -...I haven't used an android device since 2022 so I don't know all the latest stuff but I remember these being the only FOSS automation apps that people mentioned. All are on f-droid.
- Automation - https://server47.de/automation/ (Was last updated 2 months ago. Will probably be very complicated to use since you want to interact with elements and features within other apps)
- Easer - https://me.ryey.icu/Easer/en/ (I've tried to use this one, it's really damn complicated. Also seems to not be receiving updates since 2022.)
Tasker is probably the best bet though and even then, I don't know if you can really connect things like calendar events and alarms together in flexible ways. Everything is getting so locked down.
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Comment on AOL will end dial-up internet service in September, 34 years after it's debut — AOL Shield Browser and AOL Dialer software will be shuttered on the same day in ~tech
Oxalis LinkWhat began in September will end in SeptemberWhat began in September will end in September
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Comment on HBO Max to stream fifteen BritBox shows from Aug. 1st to Sept. 29th in ~tv
Oxalis LinkGiven that BritBox seems to focus on murder mysteries, it's worth noting for USA peeps that a bunch of these are available for free almost all the time on library-supported streaming platforms...Given that BritBox seems to focus on murder mysteries, it's worth noting for USA peeps that a bunch of these are available for free almost all the time on library-supported streaming platforms like Hoopla and Kanopy.
Specific titles will vary by region but my local library's... library of titles is chock-full of UK dramas and murder mysteries.
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Comment on A company called Inventwood is starting to mass-produce "superwood" in ~engineering
Oxalis LinkHouse construction is cool and all but I'd love to see furniture makers play around with this stuff. If it's as strong as they say, you could make some impossibly thin chairs and tables that would...House construction is cool and all but I'd love to see furniture makers play around with this stuff.
If it's as strong as they say, you could make some impossibly thin chairs and tables that would look bonkers and still be usable.
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Comment on Decrypted Apple Intelligence safety filters in ~tech
Oxalis (edited )LinkEDIT: as stated by Pending, this is for the assistant/Siri. Here's a good summary of what this is about: https://successquarterly.com/apple-intelligence-guardrails-exposed/ Also the hackernews...So is this giving access to the content filter models that Apple uses to mark and report illegal content on a user's iDevice?Aside from a general curiosity, the only use cases I can see here areGetting to test innocuous data and find false positives to build evidence about how lame the entire concept is.Enabling bad actors to create adversarial networks that can take illegal content and mutate it subtly so it can pass as clean.
EDIT: as stated by Pending, this is for the assistant/Siri. Here's a good summary of what this is about: https://successquarterly.com/apple-intelligence-guardrails-exposed/
Also the hackernews thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44483485
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Comment on Experience on Mastodon in ~tech
Oxalis (edited )LinkTwitter styled "everyone-in-one-room-shouting-eternally" social networks are a bad concept to begin with. For maximum interest, they need a huge numbers of users, many eagerly seeking their five...Twitter styled "everyone-in-one-room-shouting-eternally" social networks are a bad concept to begin with. For maximum interest, they need a huge numbers of users, many eagerly seeking their five seconds of viral fame. Usually that comes in the form of a joke, a cute animal photo, some kind of nsfw media, a hot take regarding [current issue], or a diss reply to a popular account.
With that said, I'm pretty burnt out on the concept and stopped posting to my twitter, bluesky, and mastodon.xyz accounts. Mastodon not really gelling with me forced me to think critically about why it wasn't meeting my needs and from there, I figured out there wasn't much in any form of microblogging that I really enjoyed to begin with.
With regards to mastodon in particular,
The fediverse puts too many technical barriers for most folks (e.g. following accounts on other instances), and the majority of the rest are sidelined by the catch-22 of any fledgling social network: Not enough users to build momentum and draw in more users. -
Comment on What is the best way to discover and listen to music? in ~music
Oxalis (edited )LinkEven though the actual reviews can be a bit... pretentious, I find sites like https://rateyourmusic.com/ and https://www.albumoftheyear.org to be useful. In particular, RateYourMusic has a really...Even though the actual reviews can be a bit... pretentious, I find sites like https://rateyourmusic.com/ and https://www.albumoftheyear.org to be useful.
In particular, RateYourMusic has a really nice collage/list system where people can put together albums under whatever theme they want: https://rateyourmusic.com/lists/ Some of them can get really esoteric like "Water Themed Vaporwave".
The site also describes releases not just by genre and sub-genre but also by music movements and "descriptors". Check out this album for an example that uses all the fields: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/boards-of-canada/music-has-the-right-to-children/
Usually what I do is find an album I like that I would enjoy something similar to. Find its page on RYM and see if there are any interesting lists it is a part of. Then I check out its genre/subgenre/description tags and explore from there.
The last site I poke around on is https://everynoise.com/ but since the owner was a spotify dev that got laid off last year, he's put the site on life support. It's just a massive, messy map of genre names. Click on one for a sample, click the little arrows for a focused cloud of artists in that style.
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Comment on Thomas Keller asked me to leave the French Laundry. It turned into my most extraordinary night as a critic. in ~food
Oxalis LinkThat's some old-school pettiness. I wonder how Keller feels about the de-professionalization of the review industry; the endless throngs of normal folk peddling their yelp opinions on things he...That's some old-school pettiness.
I wonder how Keller feels about the de-professionalization of the review industry; the endless throngs of normal folk peddling their yelp opinions on things he probably feels they deserve no say in?
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Comment on Will the humanities survive artificial intelligence? in ~tech
Oxalis Link ParentI've only used LLMs a handful of times for one off questions so I don't really have my finger on the pulse of the state-of-the-art. That said, I've heard good things about the LLama and Qwen...I've only used LLMs a handful of times for one off questions so I don't really have my finger on the pulse of the state-of-the-art.
That said, I've heard good things about the LLama and Qwen series of 'nets. They're distilled down to be functional on consumer hardware.
The Getting Started guide I've had bookmarked for ages: https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/16y95hk/a_starter_guide_for_playing_with_your_own_local_ai/ (Might be out of date)
The community that guide came from seems like your normal enthusiast subreddit, still could be useful for finding what models are worth trying: https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/
Still can't believe it. I adore LMNC's "go on, just dig in and get messy" way of taking on complex projects like DIY modular synthesis and midi-fying an entire church organ. He really does embody this scrappy punk meets eccentric inventor aesthetic that feels exceedingly British.
I wish him luck with Eurovision! Hopefully the Bandcamp friday sales that just ended will help make all the stress worth it.