arghdos's recent activity

  1. Comment on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom discussion in ~games

    arghdos
    Link Parent
    Excuse the ignorance, how does one do that? And what’s the gameplay quality like as compared to native? I’ve not played a Zelda since … NES, because that was the last Nintendo console I had access...

    I bought it, and am emulating it on my desktop for that smooth 60fps.

    Excuse the ignorance, how does one do that? And what’s the gameplay quality like as compared to native? I’ve not played a Zelda since … NES, because that was the last Nintendo console I had access to (when I was 10, or so)

  2. Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food

    arghdos
    Link Parent
    Ah! I’ve never made orgeat myself before, that tracks! A tiki drink themed TTRPG night sounds like heaven

    Ah! I’ve never made orgeat myself before, that tracks! A tiki drink themed TTRPG night sounds like heaven

    1 vote

  3. Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food

    arghdos
    Link Parent
    … so did you make it with orange blossom water? That sounds like a fun twist on a Curaçao!

    … so did you make it with orange blossom water? That sounds like a fun twist on a Curaçao!

  4. Comment on Beer peeps, what have you been drinking? in ~food

    arghdos
    Link Parent
    Indeed — we were just in the Caribbean, and I was drinking my way through all the local rums on the island. Was a great time :)

    You still on a rum kick? I think I owe you a shipment of some spirits. I've really gotten into finished whiskeys like port/rum/cab cask finishes.

    Indeed — we were just in the Caribbean, and I was drinking my way through all the local rums on the island. Was a great time :)

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Beer peeps, what have you been drinking? in ~food

    arghdos
    Link Parent
    FWIW, even Treehouse can’t really even be Treehouse these days. We’ve done blind taste tests and literally can’t tell a Julius apart from a Green (or any of their other IPAs, really) It’s sad, but...

    Not everything can be Treehouse.

    FWIW, even Treehouse can’t really even be Treehouse these days. We’ve done blind taste tests and literally can’t tell a Julius apart from a Green (or any of their other IPAs, really)

    It’s sad, but the vast majority of my beer geek friends just drink White claw or Miller high life these days.

    I pretty much only drink liquor or European beers because they know how to hit a style right on the nose.

    3 votes

  6. Comment on Tildes Pop-up Book Club: Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky in ~books

    arghdos
    Link Parent
    Translation quality varies quite a bit off the beaten path in my experience. I had a hard time reading Far Rainbow because it was hard to follow. That was a 5$ pick-up at the library book sale...

    Haven't had the chance to read any of their other work though.

    Translation quality varies quite a bit off the beaten path in my experience. I had a hard time reading Far Rainbow because it was hard to follow. That was a 5$ pick-up at the library book sale tho, so entirely possible there’s a better version floating around

    2 votes

  7. Comment on Megathread #10 for news/updates/discussion of AI chatbots and image generators in ~tech

  8. Comment on Anyone here in or familiar with Denver and the surrounding area? Going on a trip and have zero idea what to do as a non-tourist... in ~hobbies

    arghdos
    Link Parent
    And Rocky Mountain National Park is not far either

    Well, you can go to the Rocky Mountains if you have the time.

    And Rocky Mountain National Park is not far either

    1 vote

  9. Comment on What do you not ask the internet about? in ~talk

    arghdos
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Honestly, this is one of the parts of the internet I get the most use out of. I have very wide ranging and eclectic food tastes (in general, I usually prefer something new over something I’ve had...

    I usually don’t ask the internet for restaurant recommendations in an area so long as I have a friend living there

    Honestly, this is one of the parts of the internet I get the most use out of. I have very wide ranging and eclectic food tastes (in general, I usually prefer something new over something I’ve had before), and relatively few of my friends (at least the ones I travel with) are the same.

    My formula for nearly 5 years now has been:

    • Google maps (I’ve tried others, but Google has the best mobile interface and results by far IME)
    • 4.5+ stars (or 4.0 depending on the day / what’s open / restaurant density)
    • 1-2 $

    From there, survey the options. Look for restaurants with ethnic cuisine you’ve never had before — remember you’re grading “new” on a curve. For instance, if you’re new to (e.g.,) Thai, probably any place will do. But once you’ve been to a a few places, you might start to ask, “what is this meat salad called larb, and do I like it?”, or you might start to pick up on menus written in Thai, or you might get really excited when you find a place that has 5 different types of laab (looking at you MaoMao).

    Rinse and repeat for any ethnicities of your choice, and you will become quite good at picking restaurants out in new places (or at least, that’s what my wife tells me). You will also go to a lot of places where they don’t speak English (which is always a sign you’re in the right place), or, as a friend recently told me, you might be somewhere where the fumes from the gas station next door to pair well with the ga prow, or, as my wife recently told me, you might find the best Cuban sandwich you’ve had your life next to the sketchiest Kratom shop in Florida.

    This 100% does not work for me for “American” food, and only very occasionally for high-end dining (having a reviewer with similar tastes matters), but I have little interest in that anyway. Nor do I know if it would work for anyone else. If food reviewers work for you, more power too you.

    But the internet is my absolutely vital source of new places to try.

    3 votes

  10. Comment on Megathread #8 for news/updates/discussion of AI chatbots and image generators in ~tech

    arghdos
    Link
    Has anyone used GPT-4? On a whim, I started using the free ChatGPT to learn something at work that I’m wholly unfamiliar with (Apache/SQLAlchemy/Pandoc) to create a customized report for my...

    Has anyone used GPT-4? On a whim, I started using the free ChatGPT to learn something at work that I’m wholly unfamiliar with (Apache/SQLAlchemy/Pandoc) to create a customized report for my nightly CDash builds, and it’s been… mostly useful? Like, … maybe more useful than a Google search?

    I feel as if it does a good job interpreting my lack of contextual knowledge (I.e., why Google searches would be hard: I don’t know enough of the terminology), but anytime I try to really drill down for specific examples, it falls apart. That plus it hallucinated >5 open-source libraries doing what I am building.

    Wondering if GPT-4 is a significant upgrade / worth the subscription?

    3 votes

  11. Comment on The Mandalorian Season 3 finale. What did you think? in ~tv

    arghdos
    Link Parent
    Isn’t that sort of what Filloni did in Clone Wars for the prequels? Heck, Mando probably has a better success rate overall!

    The sequels were a disaster so why on earth would you keep trying to stories leading up to them?

    Isn’t that sort of what Filloni did in Clone Wars for the prequels? Heck, Mando probably has a better success rate overall!

    3 votes

  12. Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of March 27 in ~news

    arghdos
    Link Parent
    https://mega.nz/file/2Bt1RQiB#IjjMVbYC4nt3Q1VEXiQK4nlFskrQumJre6Rz3R30VDo The untagged version is ROIO on Trader's den if you're into that sorta thing :) Haven't found the video other than on YT...

    https://mega.nz/file/2Bt1RQiB#IjjMVbYC4nt3Q1VEXiQK4nlFskrQumJre6Rz3R30VDo

    The untagged version is ROIO on Trader's den if you're into that sorta thing :)
    Haven't found the video other than on YT yet (perhaps it's on Dime, but my login/re-register always fails there these days)

    1 vote

  13. Comment on The Mandalorian Season 3 finale. What did you think? in ~tv

    arghdos
    Link
    I had to laugh at the: mild spoilers for ep 7 Bo Karan: “I dunno if I can reunite the Mando’s there’s just too much animosity.” Audience: uhhh what? Y’all just landed next to each other and had a...

    I had to laugh at the:

    mild spoilers for ep 7 Bo Karan: “I dunno if I can reunite the Mando’s there’s just too much animosity.” Audience: uhhh what? Y’all just landed next to each other and had a weird staring match. … 3 min later…. *Vibroblade fighttttt!*

    It felt sort of emblematic of the struggles the writing had had all season (just like … show us before telling us, please?). I didn’t hate the season, but it does seem like the wheels have fallen off the cart a bit when they tried to pivot to a more ‘galactic’ scope story.

    I wonder if that’s something inherent to Mando? For me, S1/2 was at it’s best when it was Shiny Space Sheriff rolls into town and does Westerny things (or fights a large Star Wars creature, or does a crazy thing to save Grogu, or whatever). That’s distinctly different from the galaxy scale machinations this season has pivoted to (presumably trying to build to a vague First Order thing?), and I’m left wondering if that really meshes with what made me like the show in the first place.

    3 votes

  14. Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of March 27 in ~news

    arghdos
    Link Parent
    A completely unrelated thing that helped distract me from the dumpster fire we call humanity this week. I discovered an old Leon Russell tape I had a rip of forever got a complete video upgrade on...

    Sup with y'all?

    A completely unrelated thing that helped distract me from the dumpster fire we call humanity this week.

    I discovered an old Leon Russell tape I had a rip of forever got a complete video upgrade on YT a year or so ago:

    https://youtu.be/G85oZvB-dZo

    Huge sound upgrade too.

    1 vote

  15. Comment on Judge decides against Internet Archive in ~tech

  16. Comment on Teaching myself how to cook - where to begin? in ~food

    arghdos
    Link Parent
    Disagree. Olive oil (at least anything unrefined) has a relatively low smoke point. Generally I’ve found the “sear, then finish on high in the oven” to get me to a perfect medium rare

    There should be no problem cooking a steak with olive oil.

    Disagree. Olive oil (at least anything unrefined) has a relatively low smoke point.

    Generally I’ve found the “sear, then finish on high in the oven” to get me to a perfect medium rare

    2 votes

  17. Comment on Does anyone actually like canned beans? in ~food

    arghdos
    Link Parent
    Try a pressure cooker. An overnight soak with around 30 minutes in a pressure cooker will get nearly anything soft. I cooked brown chana (chickpeas) which are far more fiberous than white...

    I find that even with soaking and a long cook time the texture is never as consistently soft as canned beans

    Try a pressure cooker. An overnight soak with around 30 minutes in a pressure cooker will get nearly anything soft. I cooked brown chana (chickpeas) which are far more fiberous than white chickpeas last night and they turned out great.

    2 votes

  18. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

    arghdos
    Link
    Listened to Donald Byrd’s Places and Spaces for the first time in awhile when making Tomato Sauce this afternoon and good lord is it a banger.

    Listened to Donald Byrd’s Places and Spaces for the first time in awhile when making Tomato Sauce this afternoon and good lord is it a banger.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on The most important year in the history of science fiction is 1973, because that’s when science fiction ended in ~books

    arghdos
    Link Parent
    See, for instance, Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End from 1953, or Bester’s work in the 1950’s for some profound techno-pessimism

    But pulp sci-fi isn't the only thing that was happening in the genre in the '20s through the '60s and it's ridiculous to try to classify only those stories that fit your thesis as part of the genre.

    There is a strong future-cynical streak in a lot of very important sci-fi works that predate the '70s, some all the way back to the foundation of the genre.

    See, for instance, Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End from 1953, or Bester’s work in the 1950’s for some profound techno-pessimism

    5 votes

  20. Comment on My company offers a stipend of $150/quarter to improve my home office in ~life

    arghdos
    Link
    A good web cam? A printer? Someone to come in and assess the ergonomics of your WFH setup?

    A good web cam? A printer? Someone to come in and assess the ergonomics of your WFH setup?

    2 votes