Pistos's recent activity
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Comment on Time for a new mouse? in ~comp
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Comment on What do you use for 2fa? in ~tech
Pistos Link ParentAnother Yubikey user here. Linux-compatible, simple (ish), and obviates the need for a phone app.Another Yubikey user here. Linux-compatible, simple (ish), and obviates the need for a phone app.
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A critical look at CASPer (post-secondary admission test)
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Comment on Photovoltaic-thermal window achieves 3.6% electrical efficiency, provides hot water at 50 C in ~enviro
Pistos LinkThey really could have done a better job describing to the layperson the improvement or benefits compared to current, popular technology.at an inclination of 90°, the PVTW system recorded an electricity efficiency of 3.3%, a thermal efficiency of 17.6%, and a maximum outlet water temperature of about 42 C. “Compared to a standalone STW, the PVTW not only provides higher temperature hot water but also shows a 10% absolute increase in thermal efficiency, along with electricity generation
They really could have done a better job describing to the layperson the improvement or benefits compared to current, popular technology.
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Comment on November 2024 Backlog Burner: Conclusion and Recap in ~games
Pistos Link ParentMaybe people can share, for each game they play, how long it was backburnered (days since last play, or purchase); then maybe tally up some stats about that.Maybe people can share, for each game they play, how long it was backburnered (days since last play, or purchase); then maybe tally up some stats about that.
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Comment on November 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
Pistos Link ParentThanks for your comment! Lots of info here. Too much to digest in one go, I think, but I will refer back here if I'm mid-game and remember, "oh yeah, someone gave me useful advice about this on...Thanks for your comment! Lots of info here. Too much to digest in one go, I think, but I will refer back here if I'm mid-game and remember, "oh yeah, someone gave me useful advice about this on Tildes". I'll try to put some of this into practice, like improving relations with France ("sorry we wrecked your navy; can we be friends?"), and changing my infantry:cavalry ratio. I was building the armies at 2:1 or so.
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Comment on November 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
Pistos Link ParentThank you for the very informative and helpful comment! So, some questions: (for context, in this playthrough, I [somewhat arbitrarily] chose Castile) Well, I did try to pick a couple allies that...Thank you for the very informative and helpful comment! So, some questions: (for context, in this playthrough, I [somewhat arbitrarily] chose Castile)
just ally someone really big close to you and you'll be free to pursue your goals without fear of being attacked (France, Austria, and Ottomans are really good for this).
Well, I did try to pick a couple allies that I thought were powerful enough to help feel safer. It was Aragon, Portugal, then, a little later, Brittany. I would have considered England and France, but, for whatever reason, it started me with negative relations with them, I think. Anyway, what ended up happening is
long-ish war chronicle
that Portugal got a bit aggressive, so I got dragged into a couple offensive wars together with them. Then Brittany got attacked by Burgundy, and we were way outmatched by the opposing alliance. Then, while that war was still happening, France got in on the action, declaring a separate war, and setting (I think) the same province as the war goal. Didn't think that would be possible, but there it was. Land-wise I was far enough away from the Burgundy alliance members that I didn't get attacked on home soil (though Brittany got steamrolled pretty quick), but once France became an active enemy, that was bad news for us. They marched like 50k+ armies into our lands, and I could not really fend them off. Ended up going fairly deep into debt just to hire mercenaries and keep up large enough armies to swat the bear away. While that was going on, I didn't understand why the Brittany war didn't just end, because their whole country was occupied, including the war goal. It eventually did, but it was difficult having probably 8-ish countries as potential attackers on land and at sea at any time.What's funny, though, is that, after Burgundy won Brittany, and that war ended, then Burgundy and its allies, which we were fight against just a minute ago, became our allies in the French-Brittanian war, turning the tables on France (+ Scotland). I saw that our side was slowly eating away at territory in northern France, but, somehow, France was devoting nearly all of its land-based forces to bothering us in Castile. I figured that I could try to just hold out by staying defensive, even to the point of letting 30-40% of my land get occupied, anticipating that the allied forces would eventually overtake all of France. That did end up happening (and France still didn't surrender!), and eventually the war ended.
So, I managed to regain all of Castile, but much of the land is smouldering from war, and the nation is like 6+ loans in debt. Looking back, I wonder if it would have been better (cheaper) not to try to fight off the French alliance, but just let the nation become undefended and taken over while my allies took over France. Assuming our side wins, I'd presumably get my nation back, but without the huge debt, which, at this point, I wonder how long it'll take to dig out of.
So, yeah, in my experience so far, alliances can be plus-minus. :)
can set your game to automatically pause for you whenever you receive certain notifications, so you'll never miss an event regardless of what speed you're on
Took me a while to find this out. I'm like "hm, what's this random icon in the corner of this popup -- Ohhhh". My worry here, though, is that I haven't gotten to all the different popup types yet. I think, once I do, I can start speeding up. I'm still pretty content to play at 2 speed for now, going up to 3 for bursting time now and again.
maybe you're fixing your army layout and composition
I do see the two rows of little squares during land battles, but I have very little idea what they mean, or if we can even adjust that stuff to be better. I haven't gotten around to learning about that yet.
Every game I start by lowering crowlands (because I give out the estate privileges that give you 1 free of each of the monarch points at the cost of 10% crownlands). Just take back some crownlands whenever the game tells you you can and you'll be back to 30% (the minimum needed to not have a penalty) in no time. The main downside of being below that minimum is that you'll miss out on some tax revenue, but the 3 monarch points you get are more than worth it.
Interesting. It didn't occur to me to think of it in these ways. By now in my game, I ended up getting back to 30%+ by way of wars, events, and general development (+0.2% per development, I think it is). And, yes, I'm seeing that the three monarch point types seem to be very key to success in the long term. My starting ruler only had like +1 +1 +2, and, for a long while, our nation was technologically behind most major powers.
Thanks for tips on trade. I think I have a better grasp on it now, and I'll try experimenting with some things.
Overall, thanks again!
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Comment on Touch typing learning software in ~tech
Pistos Link ParentBeing left-handed gives a sort of positive bias in this respect. Those Ctrl-ZXVC "shortcuts" are only short for people that mouse with the right hand. For left handers, you don't benefit because...Being left-handed gives a sort of positive bias in this respect. Those Ctrl-ZXVC "shortcuts" are only short for people that mouse with the right hand. For left handers, you don't benefit because you have to take your hand off the mouse (or trackpad). If I am mousing at the same time, I use the left-hander-friendly shortcuts: Ctrl-Insert, Shift-Delete, Shift-Insert (otherwise, if I'm typing with both hands, I just use the ZXVC ones).
I guess the difficulty with key chords is harder for some than others. I [eventualy] used emacs and vim with Dvorak without too much ramp up, plus the standard ZXVC in other apps, etc. I guess I have them mapped with the letters in my head, not the hand positions?
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Comment on November 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
Pistos LinkCross posting my comment which came at the tail end of Week 4's post: Europa Universalis IV The first thing that struck me was the background music, even as early as at the opening menu screen....Cross posting my comment which came at the tail end of Week 4's post:
Europa Universalis IV
The first thing that struck me was the background music, even as early as at the opening menu screen. Listening with headphones, I thought, "hey, this is really good music". Well-written, well-performed, well-engineered, etc. I went to go look for a Steam entry for the soundtrack, but found none. I would have happily paid for it, but, anyway, I found it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hGrtN02XTI0 Is it stereotypical-sounding? Yes, but I still like it. Looks like this composer also created some music for Crusader Kings III, too.
Went through the game tutorial, and over several sessions, at that. Honestly, I was on the edge of "ugh, this is too complicated", and thought about giving up on the game. So many little details and UI elements and numbers to juggle and manage. Well, I powered through and finished all tutorial parts, then started my first game. For a while in the early going, I felt like I didn't know what I was doing, and was worried about something bad happening due to my incompetence, like getting attacked, or nationwide civil war, or some other disaster. Well, I'm now several in-game decades into the game, and the nation hasn't completely crumbled -- though I did have one civil war already, heh. I'm feeling more comfortable, but I still think I'm doing several things not quite optimally.
I've tried to avoid going online and learning best practices, or reading the wiki too much, as I want to learn just from doing, making mistakes, living with the consequences. I'll take that experience into the next playthrough. It's clear from what little I did read in the wiki that you can really microoptimize in this game if you really want to.
I'm still waiting to conclude whether I like this game or not. It's better than Crusader Kings III, which I kinda-sorta enjoyed (but it kept crashing on me). It's more detail- and management-oriented than CK3, which seems to be more focused on pseudo-roleplay, characters, and random events happening to characters. EU4's events are always about the nation, or the royal family (and the effects on the nation). A fair bit of the game seems to be just waiting for the next interesting point, or the point that you have enough X points to spend on thing Y that you want to buy or unlock. I understand that you can speed up and slow down time, but I worry about missing something important, so I only ever speed up to 3/5, and usually play at speed 2/5.
War is a little interesting, though not at all at the level of a 3D battlefield simulator like the Total War series -- but I understand it's not trying to be that. I've won most battles so far, but I am still getting the hang of things. Took me forever to figure out how to get troops onto a transport. Yes, the tutorial shows you this, but I forgot it, and couldn't find it in the UI that easily.
I made some early governing mistakes, and I think they hurt the nation significantly in the long run (such as having crown land % below a penalty threshold for a long time). I also don't quite understand how trade works. I mean, I see numbers, and arrows, and I see that I get money each month, but it's difficult to see what actions the player can take to influence the numbers in the right directions. The tutorial showed the very basic elements of trade, but it's not nearly enough. I might have to cave and read the wiki on this topic.
Overall, I'll still keep playing a bit more, but am still delaying judgement. Good so far, but only so far.
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Comment on November 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 4 Discussion in ~games
Pistos LinkEuropa Universalis IV The first thing that struck me was the background music, even as early as at the opening menu screen. Listening with headphones, I thought, "hey, this is really good music"....Europa Universalis IV
The first thing that struck me was the background music, even as early as at the opening menu screen. Listening with headphones, I thought, "hey, this is really good music". Well-written, well-performed, well-engineered, etc. I went to go look for a Steam entry for the soundtrack, but found none. I would have happily paid for it, but, anyway, I found it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hGrtN02XTI0 Is it stereotypical-sounding? Yes, but I still like it. Looks like this composer also created some music for Crusader Kings III, too.
Went through the game tutorial, and over several sessions, at that. Honestly, I was on the edge of "ugh, this is too complicated", and thought about giving up on the game. So many little details and UI elements and numbers to juggle and manage. Well, I powered through and finished all tutorial parts, then started my first game. For a while in the early going, I felt like I didn't know what I was doing, and was worried about something bad happening due to my incompetence, like getting attacked, or nationwide civil war, or some other disaster. Well, I'm now several in-game decades into the game, and the nation hasn't completely crumbled -- though I did have one civil war already, heh. I'm feeling more comfortable, but I still think I'm doing several things not quite optimally.
I've tried to avoid going online and learning best practices, or reading the wiki too much, as I want to learn just from doing, making mistakes, living with the consequences. I'll take that experience into the next playthrough. It's clear from what little I did read in the wiki that you can really microoptimize in this game if you really want to.
I'm still waiting to conclude whether I like this game or not. It's better than Crusader Kings III, which I kinda-sorta enjoyed (but it kept crashing on me). It's more detail- and management-oriented than CK3, which seems to be more focused on pseudo-roleplay, characters, and random events happening to characters. EU4's events are always about the nation, or the royal family (and the effects on the nation). A fair bit of the game seems to be just waiting for the next interesting point, or the point that you have enough X points to spend on thing Y that you want to buy or unlock. I understand that you can speed up and slow down time, but I worry about missing something important, so I only ever speed up to 3/5, and usually play at speed 2/5.
War is a little interesting, though not at all at the level of a 3D battlefield simulator like the Total War series -- but I understand it's not trying to be that. I've won most battles so far, but I am still getting the hang of things. Took me forever to figure out how to get troops onto a transport. Yes, the tutorial shows you this, but I forgot it, and couldn't find it in the UI that easily.
I made some early governing mistakes, and I think they hurt the nation significantly in the long run (such as having crown land % below a penalty threshold for a long time). I also don't quite understand how trade works. I mean, I see numbers, and arrows, and I see that I get money each month, but it's difficult to see what actions the player can take to influence the numbers in the right directions. The tutorial showed the very basic elements of trade, but it's not nearly enough. I might have to cave and read the wiki on this topic.
Overall, I'll still keep playing a bit more, but am still delaying judgement. Good so far, but only so far.
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Comment on Finding real images in ~creative
Pistos Link ParentThanks for sharing [the second link]. I read most of it, though I'm not interested enough to go looking for rebuttals or such, for balance.Thanks for sharing [the second link]. I read most of it, though I'm not interested enough to go looking for rebuttals or such, for balance.
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Comment on Touch typing learning software in ~tech
Pistos (edited )LinkI've used a few typing sites, but have settled on https://monkeytype.com/ , with which I am very satisfied. Minimal superficially, but actually quite rich and featureful if you dig deeper....I've used a few typing sites, but have settled on https://monkeytype.com/ , with which I am very satisfied. Minimal superficially, but actually quite rich and featureful if you dig deeper. Supports many languages and word sets. Per your original post, it isn't going to teach touch typing explicitly, or bring the user through a formal programme; but for simply letting you do a quick typing exercise when you have some free time, and tracking your stats and progress, it's great. It's also open source, and has no sign-up fee.
I don't need it for English; I use it to practice typing Korean.
The only knock against it that I see is that it only drills you on random words, rather than full, proper sentences, which I think are important for really learning to type in a language.Update: Oh, I just learned that there's a custom mode where you can paste in anything you want, and practice typing with it. -
Comment on Touch typing learning software in ~tech
Pistos Link Parent(Long-time Dvorak user here.) 1) It's better; 2) it's not really worth it; 3) it doesn't help on phones and tablets. I can still type on QWERTY, but not at the speed I used to.(Long-time Dvorak user here.) 1) It's better; 2) it's not really worth it; 3) it doesn't help on phones and tablets.
I can still type on QWERTY, but not at the speed I used to.
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Comment on How has your industry changed in the past decade? in ~life
Pistos LinkI'll mention one thing among many: The average web developer seems much more tolerant of friction now. Cloud deployment, devops configuration, forests of dependency packages, supply chain...I'll mention one thing among many:
The average web developer seems much more tolerant of friction now. Cloud deployment, devops configuration, forests of dependency packages, supply chain injection, app bundling, SPAs, microfrontends (hello again, iframes), test suites too big to run locally, flaky tests, frameworks upon libraries upon other libraries, linting just to avoid talking about linting, containers, containers needing other containers, containers for local dev not fitting in local dev, PR actions, merge checks, pre-commit checks, commit text linting, secret management, force pushes...
I miss the days when I could just Save in my editor, then see my change in my browser.
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Comment on Daily driving linux (Fedora KDE) - My experiences after a week in ~tech
Pistos Link ParentWell, it could work on a case by case basis. Sometimes I don't have them running, or it's okay if they're suspended and stop listening, but listen again later. However, with a full shutdown and...Well, it could work on a case by case basis. Sometimes I don't have them running, or it's okay if they're suspended and stop listening, but listen again later. However, with a full shutdown and restart, it'd be a hassle to fire them up again, in some cases.
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Comment on Daily driving linux (Fedora KDE) - My experiences after a week in ~tech
Pistos Link ParentFull shutdown or restart won't meet my needs, as I often have processes staying alive doing things or listening on ports. If hibernate or sleep can keep things the same, but reduce wattage to a...Full shutdown or restart won't meet my needs, as I often have processes staying alive doing things or listening on ports. If hibernate or sleep can keep things the same, but reduce wattage to a minimum, I could work with that. Will try again some time.
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Comment on Daily driving linux (Fedora KDE) - My experiences after a week in ~tech
Pistos Link ParentI would shut down if I could get everything back exactly the same. It's the main reason why I don't shutdown or restart if I can help it. I haven't tried to do a sleep or hibernate on desktop in...I would shut down if I could get everything back exactly the same. It's the main reason why I don't shutdown or restart if I can help it.
I haven't tried to do a sleep or hibernate on desktop in forever. Maybe it just works, and I should try it.
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Comment on Daily driving linux (Fedora KDE) - My experiences after a week in ~tech
Pistos LinkSounds like it's going relatively smoothly. Regarding the visual glitches: Ensure your video drivers, firmware, etc. are up to date. Experiment with flipping from X to Wayland, or the other...Sounds like it's going relatively smoothly.
Regarding the visual glitches: Ensure your video drivers, firmware, etc. are up to date. Experiment with flipping from X to Wayland, or the other direction. I've used KDE for many years, and don't get visual glitches like you're describing, but I have always used ATI, never nvidia.
re: wake from sleep issues: Have you considered just not turning off the computer? Me, I just turn off my monitors. An idle desktop might use 30-100 watts; a laptop even less. You can know for sure by buying an electricity usage meter.
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Comment on Steam game recording - available now in ~games
Pistos Link ParentLinux support is indeed a bit spotty. With most games I played, it worked fine, but, with at least one, it would crash when I switched away from the game to another app/window. Also, with some...Linux support is indeed a bit spotty. With most games I played, it worked fine, but, with at least one, it would crash when I switched away from the game to another app/window. Also, with some games it would strain the computer noticeably. FPS would drop a bit, CPU/GPU fans would engage earlier, that sort of thing. I'll still use it from time to time, but I've disabled the "always recording" mode, and switched to on-demand.
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Comment on The case for left-handed representation in gaming in ~games
Pistos LinkI know this maybe doesn't really count, but sports games have had this for a long time, because it matters in real life sports, too. In particular, I'm thinking about baseball, hockey, and...I know this maybe doesn't really count, but sports games have had this for a long time, because it matters in real life sports, too. In particular, I'm thinking about baseball, hockey, and basketball. Boxing, too.
I understand your main point, but, I'm just grateful to be able to be able to customize keyboard layout so I can mouse with my left, and WASD with my right (on the arrow keys), and map other WASD-adjacent functions to Ins, Del, Page Up, etc. Most games allow remapping, and it's pretty annoying when you play a game that doesn't.
If it's a cheap mouse, just get a new one.
If you're feeling driven, then some tests you can do are:
In my experience, the buttons are the first to go. In the case of many-button mice, it's a two-edged sword. On the one hand, you have additional buttons you can remap to when one breaks. On the other hand, having so many buttons means odds are high that one of them will break down soon. My current mouse is hardly a year old, and one of the main buttons sometimes misbehaves.
You might get it working with a cleaning (possibly with a chemical of some kind), but usually the job will require some soldering, and the average person doesn't have a soldering iron.