ShroudedScribe's recent activity
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Comment on We’re seniors. It’s not our responsibility to fix the housing supply. in ~society
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Comment on We’re seniors. It’s not our responsibility to fix the housing supply. in ~society
ShroudedScribe Link ParentI was curious about this, and while this review of housing prices in US metro areas sourced from Redfin is a little light on content, it does confirm housing prices are down too. I recall people...rent in Austin is falling faster than anywhere else in the country, and housing is being built at the fastest rate of any large metro in the country.
I was curious about this, and while this review of housing prices in US metro areas sourced from Redfin is a little light on content, it does confirm housing prices are down too.
While home prices in Austin boomed over the pandemic, they are now down 12% in three years.
During the pandemic, home construction surged in Texas and Florida. But now, many of those homes sit empty. In Cape Coral, FL, sellers are cutting prices to attract buyers in a sluggish market.
I recall people being pissed about these homes "sitting empty" (in other areas) where they were actually owned by out of country investors who didn't even rent the places out. And it was hard for families to compete with these investors because they were paying with cash and no conditions (often not even an inspection). I wonder what's happened with those homes (if anything).
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Comment on Horror games to play during October in ~games
ShroudedScribe LinkI've watched a handful of Let's Play videos of the I'm on Observation Duty games. I'm not a big horror fan, but these are fun. You're trying to identify any changes ("anomalies") in various rooms...I've watched a handful of Let's Play videos of the I'm on Observation Duty games. I'm not a big horror fan, but these are fun. You're trying to identify any changes ("anomalies") in various rooms that you're monitoring with CCTV cameras.
If you haven't seen them, you'll enjoy it more going in blind. These games have always been priced very low. Looks like the bundle of all 7 of them is ~$30 on Steam currently. If you don't want to commit to buying them all, the first 3 are less than $3 each.
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Comment on Looking for music solutions for my car; can anyone recommend a digital audio player? in ~tech
ShroudedScribe Link ParentThis reminded me of what I did with mine (slightly different model) ages ago - installed Rockbox on it! It looks like it now supports at least one of the other suggested hardware options mentioned...Sansa clip style mp3 player
This reminded me of what I did with mine (slightly different model) ages ago - installed Rockbox on it!
It looks like it now supports at least one of the other suggested hardware options mentioned in this thread, so it's worth exploring if the device is good but the official software is bad.
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Comment on Bluesky melts down over Jesse Singal in ~tech
ShroudedScribe LinkI wish more people adopted mastodon. I understand why it hasn't become as popular- the amount of friction involved in signing up is greater than any of these other social networks, even though it...I wish more people adopted mastodon. I understand why it hasn't become as popular- the amount of friction involved in signing up is greater than any of these other social networks, even though it isn't truly that difficult.
But it's actually decentralized, while bluesky is not decentralized (at least not currently/effectively). And Jack Dorsey left the bluesky team even though he was a core founding member, for some reasons I agree with, and others I don't.
I've seen some arguments here against mastodon due to the lack of moderation on some instances, possibly even on the "main" one. But the tools you have to block or mute people, filter out posts with keywords for a certain period of time (or infinitely), have those filtered posts show collapsed or not at all... it's more powerful than anything I've ever used.
Is it perfect? Far from it. But it's the only twitter-like platform I've ever regularly engaged with due to how much I can tailor my feed, and not be a victim of "the algorithm" other social networks employ.
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Comment on Updates to Xbox Game Pass: Introducing Essential, Premium, and Ultimate plans in ~games
ShroudedScribe Link ParentI agree, but that just confirms your point that financial literacy is also a big problem. A Venn diagram would certainly have overlap there, along with the other subset you're referring to of...if you're currently struggling paycheck to paycheck, buying consoles should not even be a purchase you should be considering
I agree, but that just confirms your point that financial literacy is also a big problem. A Venn diagram would certainly have overlap there, along with the other subset you're referring to of people who have the means but do not make the best financial decisions.
I wish high schools would carve out a month of curriculum (maybe in a math course?) to go over these things. If they did, payday loans would likely go extinct (as they should). For the uninitiated, from the US Consumer Finance Protection Bureau website:
A typical two-week payday loan with a $15 per $100 fee equates to an annual percentage rate (APR) of almost 400 percent.
From a CNBC article summarizing some data in 2021:
for states that do not have rate caps, the interest can be sky-high. Texas has the highest payday loan rates in the U.S. The typical APR for a loan, 664%, is more than 40 times the average credit card interest rate of 16.12%. Texas’ standing is a change from three years ago when Ohio had the highest payday loan rates at 677%. Since then, Ohio has put restrictions on rates, loan amounts and duration that went into effect in 2019, bringing the typical rate down to 138%.
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Comment on Updates to Xbox Game Pass: Introducing Essential, Premium, and Ultimate plans in ~games
ShroudedScribe Link ParentA lot of people aren't fortunate enough to afford paying high upfront costs. There's a lot of "paycheck to paycheck" individuals and families with minimal savings. Even if you aren't stretched...Most people in North America aren't good with high upfront costs due to poor financial literacy skills.
A lot of people aren't fortunate enough to afford paying high upfront costs. There's a lot of "paycheck to paycheck" individuals and families with minimal savings. Even if you aren't stretched quite that far, it's still not easy for many people.
Most people know it's cheaper to buy some products in bulk at places like Costco. But spending $40 for 3 months of toilet paper is a big immediate cost vs $5 for a week's worth.
There's businesses in multiple industries that prey on these people. Family Dollar is one of the few choices in food deserts. And back to the topic at hand, places like Rent-a-Center are insane from a long term perspective. Sure, you can "rent" an Xbox Series S for $26 a week, but over 54 weeks you'll end up paying $1,400 for it. (RAC seems to be more of a loan/finance company at this point, with "rent to own" potentially applying to all their products. So that price may eventually end in ownership, assuming you finish the payment plan.)
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Comment on Updates to Xbox Game Pass: Introducing Essential, Premium, and Ultimate plans in ~games
ShroudedScribe Link ParentI'm a PC gamer, so I have some bias, but I ran the numbers (USD) and didn't come up with a strong conclusion either way. Gamepass has a lot going for it, but the value depends on a lot of other...I'm a PC gamer, so I have some bias, but I ran the numbers (USD) and didn't come up with a strong conclusion either way. Gamepass has a lot going for it, but the value depends on a lot of other factors.
An Xbox Series S is $380. $15/mo (previously) for gamepass is $180 for a year. So you're in $560 total.
Using historical lowest prices for the games you've outlined, on PC and compared with IsThereAnyDeal, is a total of approximately $138.
Saying the prices of gaming PCs vary is an understatement. You're going to pay at least double the price of the Series S. So if we say an $800 PC along with those games, $938 for the year. Maybe another $150 or so for your preferred hardware peripherals (controller or mouse/kb), so we'll round it up to $1100.
If you're using the cloud gaming portion, I would think you can play on a lot of cheaper (PC) devices, so maybe that's the sweet spot (assuming you have the right setup to get good streaming performance).
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Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (October 2025) in ~health.mental
ShroudedScribe Link ParentA good while ago, I read an article by a psychiatrist where they discussed their thoughts on how to determine when to prescribe stimulants. They came to the following conclusions: By their...The last time I talked to a psychiatrist they would not prescribe me medication and I’m scared to try again.
A good while ago, I read an article by a psychiatrist where they discussed their thoughts on how to determine when to prescribe stimulants. They came to the following conclusions:
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By their estimates, 1 out of 4 psychiatrists (or other prescribers) will give stimulants to someone who provides the right ADHD "keywords" without batting an eye.
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While they could attempt to screen more rigorously for ADHD criteria, that comes with the risk of someone with ADHD not getting the help they need. So they started to view their job a bit differently, and land somewhere in the middle.
I would recommend seeing another psychiatrist or prescriber.
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Chrono Trigger in ~games
ShroudedScribe LinkFor anyone wanting to play on iOS but discouraged by the comments about the port, look into the Delta app. That, alongside some internet searching, should make your experience mirror the DS version.For anyone wanting to play on iOS but discouraged by the comments about the port, look into the Delta app. That, alongside some internet searching, should make your experience mirror the DS version.
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Comment on Data removal services? in ~tech
ShroudedScribe Link ParentVery good point that we need to continue educating everyone about the way this information can be misused by scammers. There's somewhat of a stereotype that only older people are at risk, but as...Very good point that we need to continue educating everyone about the way this information can be misused by scammers. There's somewhat of a stereotype that only older people are at risk, but as the scams get more elaborate and combine different information sources, anyone can be convinced under the right circumstances.
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Comment on UPS recommendations for home use? in ~comp
ShroudedScribe Link ParentI am also anti Cyberpower. They have a 2yr warranty on their units, iirc. I was outside of that window and the UPS malfunctioned. It repeatedly clicked off and on, which killed a couple of RAID1...I am also anti Cyberpower. They have a 2yr warranty on their units, iirc. I was outside of that window and the UPS malfunctioned. It repeatedly clicked off and on, which killed a couple of RAID1 volumes I had. But it didn't just take out the data, it also killed the drives.
I reached out to them about their insurance, as I anticipated it would be similar to what is advertised with a surge protector. They said since the warranty was up, their connected equipment policy no longer applied. So if one of their UPSs burns your house down a day after your warranty is up, they'll say it's your fault for using it while out of warranty.
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Comment on Data removal services? in ~tech
ShroudedScribe LinkThis is a very large web to unravel, but I've previously posted about how I was disappointed by Mozilla's choice of partner for a "data protection" service, which is similar. I think it's worth...This is a very large web to unravel, but I've previously posted about how I was disappointed by Mozilla's choice of partner for a "data protection" service, which is similar.
I think it's worth reading the Krebs article on this. In a nutshell, sometimes these companies are scummy enough to be working both ends of the deal, posting info and then charging to get it removed.
Additionally, at some point, you have to accept that some of your information will always be out there. Property records, any company you've given your mailing address to (even if you've moved, since they can follow mail forwarding), etc. Just run through the potential risks, probability, and so on, which can change depending on how "high profile" you are.
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Comment on NET Dollar by Cloudflare in ~finance
ShroudedScribe LinkAm I the only one who thinks "stablecoin" is an incredibly dumb concept? Oh cool, it should be at 1:1 value with USD, but instead of 1 USD, I have 1 cryptodollar that is accepted almost nowhere...Am I the only one who thinks "stablecoin" is an incredibly dumb concept? Oh cool, it should be at 1:1 value with USD, but instead of 1 USD, I have 1 cryptodollar that is accepted almost nowhere and still holds risk, because even if it's "decentralized" it also relies on some central entity. But that entity certainly isn't a bank that insures your money.
I suppose the idea is that the currency will become accepted elsewhere. And that this will somehow become the defacto payment method for... AI companies paying to scrape content they already rip for free?
Cloudflare does a lot of cool stuff, but I would be surprised if even they could make a cryptocurrency that is simultaneously successful and also not a grift.
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Comment on I tried to protect my kids from the internet. Here’s what happened. in ~tech
ShroudedScribe Link ParentOne of the arguments I've seen (and generally agree with) is that if someone, especially a determined teenager, is blocked from accessing a site, they will find another one with similar material....Block Snapchat and the child will go to Instagram. Block Discord and the child will go to Roblox (I've seen both of those examples in real life).
One of the arguments I've seen (and generally agree with) is that if someone, especially a determined teenager, is blocked from accessing a site, they will find another one with similar material. But if lawfully operating sites comply with this, that means the ones who ignore the law will gain more visits, and the material there will likely be less regulated as well.
I can imagine this could easily extend to social media sites. If a child is able to access Wikipedia, they can pull up a list of active social networking services. And word-of-mouth among peers at school, etc will likely be sharing the "next big thing" that will be used for outside of school communication. And I've heard that predators are typically able to convince children to move to other chat platforms with relative ease.
With that context, do you believe that making individual websites implement age verification would be a net positive? I feel like that would just be another variety of whack a mole.
Rambling that is more adjacent and opinionated
That being said, I don't think that the solution is to "do nothing" or fully expect parents to be tech wizards. While the author of the post expresses frustration at the state of parental controls, I think education can help. There's several free options to block DNS resolution of websites, such as this offering from Cloudflare. While Cloudflare only includes two categories - "malware" and "adult content" - I've seen more granular options as well. Doing this on each device shouldn't take more than 20 minutes of time from someone with no experience following a step-by-step guide.
Is this foolproof? Not even close. But nothing is, especially when the op-ed author mentions her daughter changing the parental control software settings from a parent's unattended device.
That's why the other portion of education is parent-to-child. Explain to them why some material is blocked. Be prepared to answer questions in an age-appropriate way. Inform them that others on the internet could be the equivalent of strangers offering candy from vans, regardless of who they claim to be. But don't lie and say that everyone on the internet is a predator. Have regular check-ins. Encourage and reward open communication. Employ "safe words" and get-out-of-jail free policies so they know you will come help them if they get into something over their heads.
Parenting is tough, and the concept of invisible avenues of communication is an evolving concern. But all you can do is prepare your child the best you can, and seek resources to educate yourself further if you feel lost.
Personally, I intend to heavily restrict private device usage. I have the technical background to lock down devices well, but the best thing any parent can do (imo) is to refuse to provide a cellphone until a certain age/maturity, and scale it up so you don't even start with a smartphone, but a "dumb phone" instead.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
ShroudedScribe LinkI recently set up Joplin for my note-taking solution, and am pretty happy with it. I spun up a self-hosted Joplin Sync Server and it's working well. I decided that it would be nice to display a...I recently set up Joplin for my note-taking solution, and am pretty happy with it. I spun up a self-hosted Joplin Sync Server and it's working well.
I decided that it would be nice to display a note constantly on my personal desktop, just to keep certain things that need attention visible. Microsoft has a Sticky Notes application for Windows that has been updated a few times. Before, the notes were just stored in a userdata folder or something. Now it apparently has integration with OneNote. Regardless, this wasn't what I was looking for.
I discovered WinWidgets, which basically allows you to run a local HTML file with CSS and JS in a desktop widget. It can even do the "always on top" display while being smart enough to hide if you're running a full screen application. It seemed easy enough from here, just make a page that polls the Joplin server API and displays the note data.
Of course, it wasn't that simple. Accessing any HTTPS resource from a local HTML file is never going to work out well. I tried playing around with request and response header override rules in Cloudflare, but never got it working quite right. So instead, I used webhookd to create an intermediate script that could poll the Joplin server API in the way I needed it to. That includes logging in and saving the session id. Now, my local file, which is displayed in a widget, can just send an insecure http GET request to get the contents of the file.
Joplin stores files in markdown, so I had to pull in a JS library to convert the markdown to HTML. And now it works!
There's still a couple things I want to do.
I want to be able to write back to Joplin from this note as well. I started to play with this and am using a different JS library to convert the HTML back to markdown. This library is somewhat opinionated about how it returns markdown, but allows for custom rules and replacements.
I also want to continue to play with the formatting, and refresh the note periodically. This is theoretically easy, but I'll need to effectively interrupt this regular refresh if I'm making changes to the note that have not yet been saved.
Ideally, it would be nice to have a link to open the note in Joplin. Unfortunately, the WinWidget application does not support custom protocol URL navigation, but I'm hopeful it will be addressed as discussed in the relevant issue on GitHub.
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Comment on Mastodon now has a Quote Post feature in ~tech
ShroudedScribe Link ParentI may have misunderstood, are you saying mastodon.social is one of the problematic instances? If so, and if they are failing to moderate obvious abuse, harassment, etc. then yes, that is a...I may have misunderstood, are you saying mastodon.social is one of the problematic instances?
If so, and if they are failing to moderate obvious abuse, harassment, etc. then yes, that is a problem. I'm not familiar enough with the instance to know how large the overlap is between application devs and instance moderators.
We are definitely on the same page about how instances should be moderated. But at the same time, each instance should retain the ability to moderate at their discretion, with the knowledge that other instances can de-federate from them. I don't want to have many moderation rules hardcoded, as that ruins the point of having separate instances. The centralization of moderation rules can pretty quickly lead to discrimination against many groups.
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Comment on Is anyone else having trouble focusing? What strategies do you use to help with focus? in ~society
ShroudedScribe Link ParentOh absolutely, I was moreso saying that even the warranted anxieties are often treated by others (and perhaps even one's self talk) as unwarranted. Worrying about hypothermia while shoveling your...Oh absolutely, I was moreso saying that even the warranted anxieties are often treated by others (and perhaps even one's self talk) as unwarranted. Worrying about hypothermia while shoveling your driveway in inadequate clothing is warranted, even if your grandfather "walked 2 miles in the snow uphill both ways to get to school" and you think you should be able to tolerate it by comparison.
And regardless of how "warranted" they are, they should be acknowledged as valid concerns and be treated with coping strategies. Anxiety is a mental state - regardless of how you've entered that state, it's now very real.
(Also, I hope you don't take this at nitpicking at your comments, I'm just trying to share my perspective for the general audience. I've been in states where I try to talk myself out of anxiety by telling myself that I'm overreacting, and it never ended well.)
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Comment on Is anyone else having trouble focusing? What strategies do you use to help with focus? in ~society
ShroudedScribe Link ParentYeah, I would argue a lot of (pre-Gen Z) generations have this mindset, and apply it to more than just anxiety. Almost everyone I've talked to has heard "finish your plate of food, there are...It's very hard to maintain mental health because so many coping strategies are based on the idea that your anxiety is unwarranted
Yeah, I would argue a lot of (pre-Gen Z) generations have this mindset, and apply it to more than just anxiety. Almost everyone I've talked to has heard "finish your plate of food, there are starving children in Africa who are less fortunate than you" from their parents or their friends' parents while growing up. Many of these same parents expressed similar sentiments when confronted with mental health concerns.
Using comparisons to minimize your emotions, mood conditions, mental health issues - whatever term applies best to you - is ultimately not helpful. Different perspectives can be a positive experience. But everyone needs to acknowledge their struggles and find ways to work through them or employ a compensating strategy to work around them. Pretending they aren't big enough to be something that affects you is a sure fire way to get burnout.
Gen Z seems to be much more cognizant and accepting of mental health topics. While have some personal gripes with terms like "neurodivergent," and worry a little about self-diagnosis, I still believe this increased awareness is a net good.
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Comment on Mastodon now has a Quote Post feature in ~tech
ShroudedScribe Link ParentNot sure what you mean? Instances (or more specifically, their admins) can de-federate from other instances. Mastodon also has a wide array of effective filtering tools. I'm fine with the main...higher priority than actually reigning in all the bots, trolls, and harassment that come from those two "flagship" instances that will likely use Quote Post for evil.
Not sure what you mean? Instances (or more specifically, their admins) can de-federate from other instances. Mastodon also has a wide array of effective filtering tools.
I'm fine with the main project focusing on stability and features, especially when the existing features already let you do a sweeping ban on problematic instances.
Reduced prices can occur for other reasons too.
Mortgage rates are a big one - we've seen some big percentage increases in the past few years, mostly tied to the Federal Reserve raising it. Pandemic years prior to that created some insane lows. And now there's been another cut by the Fed.
There also has to be a pool of capable buyers. Usually this means families have to be able to afford a mortgage. If they're priced out of everything, to the point no one can buy, there's a gap. Outside investors were filling this gap at one point. If no one is, then prices will go down.
And of course, everyone likes to talk about the housing crash of 2008. But I don't believe we'll see another event like that anytime soon.