arch's recent activity

  1. Comment on How do you volunteer your time? in ~talk

    arch
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    I'm happy to see a thread asking for input on what to do with our free time. I've recently been laid off, and it's given me some time to think more about what I want to do with my life. And to...

    I'm happy to see a thread asking for input on what to do with our free time. I've recently been laid off, and it's given me some time to think more about what I want to do with my life. And to think about what might actually be meaningful to me. It brought me to thinking about signing up to substitute teach in my local school system. It's not by definition a volunteer position, since it's paid, but my understanding is that most districts are hard pressed to find decent coverage when teachers are absent. That said, it's been a lot of soul searching for me to conclude that education is something that is very meaningful to me. That, along with the idea of providing children with a healthy, patient and understanding role model, stood out to me as the way I could pursue meaning in my life. Long term, I want to use the opportunity to see if being a career educator would make me happy, despite offering lower pay than I could get in my usual line of work. I don't think it would necessarily look like this for most people, but it's been a lifelong issue for me to understand what I actually find meaningful. I knew that for me it wasn't the standard responses and examples people give. The key for me was delving into why I felt afraid to do it. I came to the realization that I was scared I might be bad at it, and that was actually because it's something I legitimately care about.

    So, whatever you volunteer your time for, try to find something you're passionate about.

    3 votes
  2. Comment on Honk your horn in ~health.mental

    arch
    Link Parent
    I lived in the woods growing up, and my brother and I were going wild on a windy day and just literally screaming at the ground. A neighbor came running through the woods to make sure everyone was...

    I lived in the woods growing up, and my brother and I were going wild on a windy day and just literally screaming at the ground. A neighbor came running through the woods to make sure everyone was okay. It was funny as a kid, but my parents were pretty embarrassed.

    2 votes
  3. Comment on Controllers that work well with CachyOS? in ~tech

    arch
    Link Parent
    Yes, that's exactly what I mean. The "no name" brands that you can find on Amazon will often have false information in their listings. Everything from SSDs and USB sticks that are flashed to...

    Yes, that's exactly what I mean. The "no name" brands that you can find on Amazon will often have false information in their listings. Everything from SSDs and USB sticks that are flashed to appear larger than they actually are, Android Auto head units that report Android 15 but are just Android 10 with edited info, to battery powered devices that say they have 1500mAh but actually have far less capacity.

    If you stick with a reputable brand like 8bitdo you're safe, but any names you can't pronounce could be dubious.

    1 vote
  4. Comment on Controllers that work well with CachyOS? in ~tech

    arch
    Link Parent
    Rumble is working fine for me with 3rd party PS4 style controllers over Bluetooth. Using whatever Steam implements for it.

    Rumble is working fine for me with 3rd party PS4 style controllers over Bluetooth. Using whatever Steam implements for it.

    3 votes
  5. Comment on Controllers that work well with CachyOS? in ~tech

    arch
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    Just to confirm, are you gaming with Steam? Meaning the cachyos-gaming-meta package is installed. I am using Bazzite myself, but CachyOS should be more compatible since it has a newer kernel....

    Just to confirm, are you gaming with Steam? Meaning the cachyos-gaming-meta package is installed. I am using Bazzite myself, but CachyOS should be more compatible since it has a newer kernel.

    Honestly, any bluetooth PS4 knockoff should work very well. Being the 2nd most common style of controller means it's going to be compatible out of the box with more games. I have found them to be much better than Xbox controllers. Microsoft pulled to many changes with the wired vs. dongle vs. bluetooth models and it made it hard to tell what you're getting. I personally have the TOPAD Go2fun controllers, but they don't seem to be available any longer.

    Selling points for one brand over another would be hall effect joysticks, and increased mAh. That said, if you're getting a 3rd party controller, you're taking a chance on actually getting what you order with these features. If you go this route, I recommend ordering just 1 to start from Amazon or another seller with easy returns, then order more of the exact same one from the same seller if you want to have more for multiplayer.

    2 votes
  6. Comment on Looking for feedback on a homelab design in ~tech

    arch
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    My initial thought is that your setup here sounds like overkill. For context on that: I have almost all of the systems you mention running on a Beelink Mini S12. Plex can handle transcoding...

    My initial thought is that your setup here sounds like overkill. For context on that: I have almost all of the systems you mention running on a Beelink Mini S12. Plex can handle transcoding multiple 4k video files to 1080p on the fly after I passed the Intel CPU based video card to the container in Proxmox. The only thing I don't have that you mentioned is TrueNAS. Instead, I set up samba and NFS to share a USB hard drive on my Raspberry Pi4b router running OpenWRT. I don't recommend that last part be mimicked, but it just illustrates that for your use case you are going far above what you need to.

    I would highly recommend gong Intel over AMD for any system that will be doing transcoding. You can save the video card for the AI models. I personally used an Nvidia Tesla P4 for that, which I got on eBay for ~$100. I don't know if you can tell, but I'm very frugal when it comes to my homelab, perhaps to the point of absurdity. I haven't actually built a new PC in over 10 years.

    If you're okay with spending the money and having a truly future proof setup, then you've definitely got that.

    1 vote
  7. Comment on Is there a service that a regular joe can use to provide subs or dubbing for a movie? in ~movies

    arch
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    I have used SubGen for this with great results. It's an LLM subtitle generator that processes the audio track to generator that can run locally. I Integrated it into Bazaar, but there's a bunch of...

    I have used SubGen for this with great results. It's an LLM subtitle generator that processes the audio track to generator that can run locally. I Integrated it into Bazaar, but there's a bunch of options for setup.

    It supports multiple languages, translations, etc.

    4 votes
  8. Comment on What's your video game comfort food? in ~games

    arch
    Link Parent
    I don't know if you'd be into this at all, but the decompilation/PC build for SM64 has come a very long way with mods. There's an online multiplayer version available that has a bunch of other...

    I don't know if you'd be into this at all, but the decompilation/PC build for SM64 has come a very long way with mods. There's an online multiplayer version available that has a bunch of other mods you can add in as well. It may be able to get you a community of other people who enjoy the game on the level you do, and maybe bring a new experience for you in the game you love.

    That said, there's something truly special about having a comfort game like you do, and revisiting it in the original way once a year. All the ports and mods in the world can't hit that nostalgia without a lot of customization.

    1 vote
  9. Comment on Does anyone here use a SAD lamp? in ~health.mental

    arch
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    You are correct --every study I have read that actually looks into conditions like SAD, or delayed sleep phase disorder, or anything of the sort is studying 10,000+ lux, above the eyeline, for a...

    You are correct --every study I have read that actually looks into conditions like SAD, or delayed sleep phase disorder, or anything of the sort is studying 10,000+ lux, above the eyeline, for a variable number of minutes (30 to 90). These devices are prohibitively expensive, and I'd honestly be concerned about the UV output of anything that's really cheap.

    Personally, it got to the point that it made more sense to go read outside for 15 minutes when I wake up. It's really easy to do in the summer months, but come winter I am an abject failure at it.

    That said, I doubt many people are clinically diagnosed with these disorders. I doubt many PCPs are looking for them or referring their patients for them. They'd probably just get diagnosed with depression and tossed on antidepressants instead.

    [edit] looks like there are some options that are too expensive these days.

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PCN4UVU

    3 votes
  10. Comment on GrapheneOS is finally ready to break free from Pixels, and it may never look back in ~tech

    arch
    Link Parent
    Well, the "a" series tends to be reasonably priced. Saying similarly prices to Pixels is really leaving a large range. Google actively tries to hit the flagship and midrange price tiers.

    Well, the "a" series tends to be reasonably priced. Saying similarly prices to Pixels is really leaving a large range. Google actively tries to hit the flagship and midrange price tiers.

    6 votes
  11. Comment on High pollen count: The last straw effect on suicide risk in ~health.mental

    arch
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    Totally anecdotal, but I swear my allergies have underlying systemic symptoms that include mood swings, brain fog, and depression. Traditional allergic rhinitis doesn't really happen to me. I...

    Totally anecdotal, but I swear my allergies have underlying systemic symptoms that include mood swings, brain fog, and depression. Traditional allergic rhinitis doesn't really happen to me. I don't get the visibly red eyes and symptoms that others get. But my eyes will itch intensly, I get knee pain, severe fatigue, my nasal cavities can swell to the point I can't breathe through my nose. I get what I consider "minor" headaches that last for days, stomach issues, and it all makes the excessive sleep I get feel useless, since I wake tired. But no doctor can visibly see these things so it's not even considered an allergic reaction. Yet antihistamines help more than anything else.
    It might be that I have an autoimmune disease. It might be that I may have some underlying undiagnosed condition like MCAS. But the immune system is absolutely bonkers and it is not understood as completely as we would hope.

    So yeah, I can't say that this study is surprising given my lived experiences. But I'm glad it's being done, and I hope it builds more compassion and understanding of the importance of studying, diagnosing, and treating allergies.

    4 votes
  12. Comment on High pollen count: The last straw effect on suicide risk in ~health.mental

    arch
    Link Parent
    I never realized people could get floaters so frequently and densely. I see mine every once in a while, especially while looking at a clear blue sky, but it's so infrequent that they're just...

    I never realized people could get floaters so frequently and densely. I see mine every once in a while, especially while looking at a clear blue sky, but it's so infrequent that they're just interesting curiosities. I'd probably go insane if I saw them all the time.

    Have you ever tried naming them?

    2 votes
  13. Comment on NFS at 40 – Remembering the Sun Microsystems Network File System in ~comp

    arch
    Link Parent
    I don't personally find the user situation on NFS to be too bad. Its UID/GID based as far as I remember, so as long as you're accessing from 1000 on both systems, everything maps just as you'd...

    I don't personally find the user situation on NFS to be too bad. Its UID/GID based as far as I remember, so as long as you're accessing from 1000 on both systems, everything maps just as you'd expect. Many apps will use custom UID/GID values these days so they're more likely to remain the same across devices. The only time I personally ran into issues was over a decade ago when I migrated to a new user account on one desktop for myself.

    I can understand that on an enterprise level it might be more complicated, but you probably have good systems in place to keep UID/GID consistent.

  14. Comment on Has anyone here tried bone conduction headphones? in ~tech

    arch
    Link Parent
    I don't have pros and cons, but I can tell you there are no known negative health effects or outcomes. The tech has been in use in hearing aids since the 1970's. Your ear drum consists of bones,...

    I don't have pros and cons, but I can tell you there are no known negative health effects or outcomes. The tech has been in use in hearing aids since the 1970's. Your ear drum consists of bones, and sound waves vibrating them is how we hear everything.

    5 votes
  15. Comment on The Buff Scammer, isolation, and the male loneliness epidemic in ~life.men

    arch
    Link Parent
    Civil rights activists, like Martin Luther King Jr. are not seeking to exclude. Neither are feminists. If men today read his speech and feel excluded, then they are reading the words "and all...

    Civil rights activists, like Martin Luther King Jr. are not seeking to exclude. Neither are feminists. If men today read his speech and feel excluded, then they are reading the words "and all flesh shall see it together" and "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers" and somehow claiming it excludes them. Civil rights activists do not seek to exclude anyone based on gender, race, or sexual orientation. They seek to exclude bigots.

    So, if you are a modern man who feels excluded by inclusive actions, can you take the time to ask yourself why? Really, really ask yourself, and be open to the difficult truth that may be there. Do you need feel like you of the same value as people of a different race, gender, or sexual orientation?

    5 votes
  16. Comment on The Buff Scammer, isolation, and the male loneliness epidemic in ~life.men

    arch
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    So, here's my big problem here with this entire topic. These people have all written a series of posts about this buzzword topic, and they are often contradicting each other. Many of them are...

    So, here's my big problem here with this entire topic. These people have all written a series of posts about this buzzword topic, and they are often contradicting each other. Many of them are contradicting themselves in their own pieces. Take, for instance, the best written of all of them by overfedvenison:

    the issue is men have no companionship or outlets for emotion
    ..
    So men feel isolated - that's what the 'male loneliness epidemic' actually is.
    ..
    But we also need spaces where men can be traditionally masculine and not have that be a weird radicalization chamber created with the goal of exploiting them. For example, if a man wants to improve physically and grow stronger... You know, there's no reason that has to be about deadlifting and eating raw meat and not like, cleaning a river or learning home improvement.

    In my reading of this, he's saying: So men feel lonely. Men feel isolated. The solution is: safe spaces just for really manly men and no one else? Because without the subtext of what they actually mean, they just described a gym. They described Planet Fitness or any of the chains or locally owned gyms in the country. That is where you go when you want to improve physically and grow stronger.

    Yes, there is a "male loneliness epidemic," and yes it is real. Yes, it is being exploited and exacerbated by bad actors. But, in the end, I think the problem is that some men for some reason(s) refuse to let themselves feel comfortable around people they see as others. And these men are increasingly labeling wider and wider groups as others: be it people of color, foreigners, women, LGBTQ+, autistic, liberal, etc. We can not solve that for them.

    edit to add below
    Okay, I unfortunately have more to say, specifically about this:

    ...i think one of the most important things we can do as a society... is to stop validating the unhinged reactionary narrative that Male Intimacy Is By Definition Gay.

    because like. it's funny when it's fiction.

    That right there. That's inherent prejudice and a dogwistle they are sending off. It's not funny when it's fiction. It literally just shouldn't matter in the slightest to anyone if someone is gay. If you feel like you can't be friends with another man because you think it's gay

    3 votes
  17. Comment on Why do some gamers invert their controls? Scientists now have answers, but they’re not what you think. in ~games

    arch
    Link Parent
    This is funny to me! I'd be interested in seeing if there's any correlation as well. For another anecdotal reference point: I have diagnosed ADHD(PI) and I have very good perceptual reasoning. It...

    This is funny to me! I'd be interested in seeing if there's any correlation as well. For another anecdotal reference point: I have diagnosed ADHD(PI) and I have very good perceptual reasoning. It was even noted on my diagnosis. My wife is also diagnosed ADHD, but she struggles with perceptual reasoning. To the point where she gets frustrated when I ask her to try to picture something fitting somewhere.

    2 votes
  18. Comment on Why do some gamers invert their controls? Scientists now have answers, but they’re not what you think. in ~games

    arch
    Link Parent
    I always thought it was due to my visual-spacial interpretation of the events on screen: am I thinking about myself as the avatar, or am I thinking about myself as something inhabiting the avatar...

    I always thought it was due to my visual-spacial interpretation of the events on screen: am I thinking about myself as the avatar, or am I thinking about myself as something inhabiting the avatar and controlling it. Trying to phrase that more plainly: am I a person flying a plane, or am I the plane?

    12 votes
  19. Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech

    arch
    Link Parent
    It's... way more complicated than that. I'm a little reluctant to get too into it, because someone else always comes along and nitpicks the details. But for a crash course, all of the consumer TVs...
    • Exemplary

    When I looked it up, apparently it's made with sports in mind...?

    It's... way more complicated than that. I'm a little reluctant to get too into it, because someone else always comes along and nitpicks the details. But for a crash course, all of the consumer TVs are doing some sort of frame interpolation under those settings. That means they are making (interpolating) new frames to insert in between the actual frames that are in the content you are watching. It can make videos you watch "feel" more realistic, which is probably why people say it's for sports. This is the same method that modern de-compilations of N64 games -like Ship of Harkinian- are using to hit 60 fps or higher (but those games are much better at it than the TV because they have more information about the image and movement to go off of).

    One of the reasons these settings have become so widespread is due to the issues with how modern televisions work compared to CRT. The old tubes had phosphors that would glow when the light beam hit them, then slowly fade out over a few frames. This made the image look a lot smoother than it does now, but introduced a type of blurring to the image. Modern screen's visual issues are most noticeable to me in films that are panning left to right quickly. If there is text, the jitter and stutter of low frame rate makes it impossible to read without pausing. On a CRT, it would be blurry, but you would have an easier time reading the text. With frame interpolation, we can more easily approximate that. The best solution available seems to be CRT beam simulation on a high HZ display (we're talking 120hz to be usable but with noticeable flicker or 240 or higher hz to actually look good to most users). Maybe one day we'll have a 480 Hz OLED that integrates this software solution, but I honestly doubt it.

    Where I want to speak up is the idea that these settings are inherently bad because they're not. You may not like them, I may not like them, but some people do and they are there for a reason. It leads to a demonization of actual high frame-rate content, which sucks because filming in high frame rate is absolutely better for certain content. If can reduce the likelihood of rolling shutter issues for a start. That one is something that Netflix is extremely bad about. Ever notice how shows/movies where there's a bunch of flash photography going off on screen will have different potions of the image lit from frame to frame? It drives me crazy and immediately takes me out of the experience, but most people don't notice it. Suffice it to say, none of this technology is perfect. If someone likes the motion interpolation, then let them enjoy what they like.

    17 votes
  20. Comment on Is Tildes protected from malicious actors, aka paid trolls, aka bots? in ~tildes

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    I'm curious to see what the general consensus is here, I'm sure you'll get more informed replies than I am going to give. That said, if you suspect an account is a bot, is engaged in trolling, or...

    I'm curious to see what the general consensus is here, I'm sure you'll get more informed replies than I am going to give. That said, if you suspect an account is a bot, is engaged in trolling, or is otherwise breaching the Tildes Philosophy then you should bring it to the attention of those in charge. I've only ever had one occasion to reach out, it took about 8 hours for them to shut down and remove the offending thread after I reached out. The post was up for over 16 hours total, and unfortunately baited a large number of users in a sexist manner. But in the end the team was responsive and they removed the thread confirming to me that it was not something they wanted on this site. This is still a very small community, and all "moderation" is done manually by very few people. If you have records of accounts you feel have been engaging in questionable patters, and you have links to support it, I doubt there is any harm in you emailing that information directly to either contact@tildes.net or abuse@tildes.net -it's possible that no one has read all of the content that you have seen to piece together a pattern.

    10 votes