arqalite's recent activity
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Comment on NVIDIA announces CEO transition: Jensen Huang has resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board, effective immediately in ~tech
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Comment on Digital Detox discussion: November 2026 in ~life
arqalite Link ParentI haven't yet, despite knowing of NewPipe for years now. I should give it a try.I haven't yet, despite knowing of NewPipe for years now. I should give it a try.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
arqalite LinkI mentioned getting inspired by (not) solitaire to rework how cards are rendered and handled in my Yu-Gi-Oh! simulator. That's all done and it works well, right now I gave every transition a basic...I mentioned getting inspired by (not) solitaire to rework how cards are rendered and handled in my Yu-Gi-Oh! simulator.
That's all done and it works well, right now I gave every transition a basic ease-in-out curve so cards just move from point A to point B, but that's still a pretty nice visual uplift compared to having cards just snap into place. And I don't have to torture myself to hand-code every single card movement, they're all centralized into one system. The moment I want to vary the animations, I just have to add a enum defining the animation type and associate a CSS transition to it, then apply the relevant transitions to the card doing the movement as needed. Should be pretty simple overall.
I am taking a break from that however, as my partner wants an enhancement on his finance tracker app. He got tired of manually taking transactions from his bank statement and putting them in the system so now I gotta write a parser for Excel bank statements. Given that every bank that even supports Excel bank statements has their own format (you'd think they'd go with a CSV with a handful of columns, and that would be pretty standard, no? welp that's not the case) I'll have to make the parser hyper-specific on our relevant banks, with maybe some heuristics to try and figure it out for other banks. We'll see.
I felt like doing the UI first (who knew that writing parsers wasn't a desirable activity for my brain) and that's ready, but now I actually have to write the parser. Shouldn't take long, hopefully.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
arqalite (edited )Link ParentUpdate: Halfway through and I gotta say, this is quite the charming game. I got hooked and spent the last two evenings glued to it. I'm in an area with a large variety of encounters, and grinding...Update: Halfway through and I gotta say, this is quite the charming game. I got hooked and spent the last two evenings glued to it.
I'm in an area with a large variety of encounters, and grinding up XP here really does make you use the whole moveset, which I haven't gotten the chance to do so yet. I spent a bit of time optimizing the right choices for each encounter which was fun, although I had to be careful when Googling stuff because Gemini absolutely has no idea how things work in this game - unsurprisingly, it's best to stick to the wikis and look stuff up manually, who knew.
The game does have its parts that are a product of its time (like annoying mechanics that are there just to be annoying - why can I catch colds and/or get asthma attacks? also clunky UI because the NES didn't give you much choice in menu design) but that's me speaking from 2026, it probably slapped back then.
I am relying much more on the walkthrough than I expected because otherwise I would just miss a lot of stuff? I got too comfortable with modern games giving you achievements/interactive map/lists of collectibles and stuff to do, and getting thrown into an open world with just a slice of Bread and nothing else to go off is now very difficult. I did see a modern review saying "treat this game like you were a kid stuck with it over the weekend" and yeah, that's probably the best way to approach it, just spend time in it and try stuff out until you figure it out.
I do like that game overs are pretty forgiving, you can just keep all your cash in the ATM so you barely lose anything when you die, and then it's a quick trip to Magicant and you're up and ready to rumble. So the above approach really is feasible if you have the time to sink into it. I do have two more games to play this month, so I'll just be following the walkthrough from now on.
I could write on and on so I'll stop here - the takeaway is that this is a good game. I haven't finished it so I won't say "go and play this as soon as you're in the mood for something retro" but I'm leaning in that direction for now.
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Comment on Digital Detox discussion: November 2026 in ~life
arqalite Link ParentI find the Shorts interface horrible on desktop so I actually don't have this issue there. My main problem is the YouTube app on my Android phone - that one's the devil.I find the Shorts interface horrible on desktop so I actually don't have this issue there.
My main problem is the YouTube app on my Android phone - that one's the devil.
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Comment on Digital Detox discussion: November 2026 in ~life
arqalite LinkWell this is my chance to rant about something I probably never would otherwise. YouTube added a function to limit your Shorts watching time. I happily set it to an hour because my ADHD brain...Well this is my chance to rant about something I probably never would otherwise.
YouTube added a function to limit your Shorts watching time. I happily set it to an hour because my ADHD brain would not stop otherwise.
Except when the pop-up appears, I can just press a button to ignore it for the whole day. Even worse, I can just swipe back, watch a short, go to the next one, get the pop-up again, go back to dismiss it, watch the next short, and so on. I have the motion muscle-memorized at this point.
I wanted to cut YouTube from my media consumption but unfortunately I do still enjoy a lot of the long-form content there, and Shorts is just a button away so I end up tapping it during breaks.
I could look into a third-party client (or mod the app to remove Shorts entirely, I am using Morphe anyway) but eh. Can't be bothered.
Part of me thinks they intentionally made the feature so bad because why would they want to prevent you from giving them the ever-so-juicy watch time their advertisers desire? Better to just slap this in, gloat about "protecting your digital well-being" and return to appeasing advertisers.
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Comment on This battery-less piezoelectric toothbrush generates electricity every time you brush your teeth and removes more than 99% of plaque in lab tests in ~science
arqalite Link ParentAs someone who doesn't like electric toothbrushes, I would get this if it became commercially viable and available even if it wasn't as good as the average electric brush.As someone who doesn't like electric toothbrushes, I would get this if it became commercially viable and available even if it wasn't as good as the average electric brush.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
arqalite (edited )LinkI challenged myself to play the entire Mother/Earthbound series as part of this month's CGA, and as such, I'm currently going through MOTHER (aka EarthBound Beginnings). I grabbed this mod as...I challenged myself to play the entire Mother/Earthbound series as part of this month's CGA, and as such, I'm currently going through MOTHER (aka EarthBound Beginnings).
I grabbed this mod as recommended by @lily, and saved this walkthrough for reference. So far so good - although I'm still in the early stages and less than a few hours in.
I was afraid it was going to be a grindfest, and while it is grindy, it's not a total slog. Especially since I'm playing on an emulator I can split-screen into other tasks while I let Auto mode kill every encounter. I got the $500 needed for the Wooden Bat and now I hit hard, but apparently enemies also scale very quick and very hard, so we'll see how I fare.
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Comment on Formatting USBs with live Linux... what's the right way? in ~comp
arqalite LinkWouldn't Rufus be able to do it? You can tell it to not flash anything on it and just format as FAT32. I haven't touched any other disk utility since Rufus came out (but tbh I also try out fewer...Wouldn't Rufus be able to do it? You can tell it to not flash anything on it and just format as FAT32.
I haven't touched any other disk utility since Rufus came out (but tbh I also try out fewer and fewer distros as time goes on, Fedora and Zorin are good enough for my purposes).
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
arqalite LinkOkay, so - I've been working on a web-based Yu-Gi-Oh! simulator and one of my main frustrations and roadblocks is the fact that I cannot get animations to work without a metric ton of boilerplate...Okay, so - I've been working on a web-based Yu-Gi-Oh! simulator and one of my main frustrations and roadblocks is the fact that I cannot get animations to work without a metric ton of boilerplate and incredibly ugly code.
I realized my main issue is that I tried to encode the board layout into the DOM which caused each zone and game area to be its own HTML element. This means that moving a card from hand to the graveyard requires cloning the card element, unmounting the original from its parent, animating the clone across the screen, and then mounting the original at the destination. As you might have guessed, error prone, janky, and frankly unenjoyable to code.
But I've been playing a lot of (not) solitaire (thanks @Zorind & @kfwyre for spreading this around Tildes, it's a blast!) and in the developer console I found the answer.
They have a separate div holding the visuals of the game field with the zones and everything, and a transparent div holding all the cards together. Cards are positioned on their respective zones via absolute positioning and Z-index stacking does the trick of making overlays and piles look correct. I still will have to grab coordinates and calculate the trajectory when making the animations, but at least I no longer have to unmount and remount elements since the cards never leave their parent div.
It's a simple approach that in retrospect feels obvious, but it just hadn't occurred to me. I now have something to do over the weekend, lol.
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Comment on CGA-2026-11 🌍️🪀 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Mother 3 in ~games
arqalite Link ParentI was getting checksum errors with all of the Earthbound Beginnings ROMs I was able to find. Had to search for the prototype ROM exactly for the patch to apply.I was getting checksum errors with all of the Earthbound Beginnings ROMs I was able to find. Had to search for the prototype ROM exactly for the patch to apply.
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Comment on CGA-2026-11 🌍️🪀 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Mother 3 in ~games
arqalite Link ParentThanks for the tip regarding the ROMhack, with some tinkering I got a compatible ROM going (the page says it's for the Virtual Console release of Earthbound Beginnings, but it seems it's meant for...Thanks for the tip regarding the ROMhack, with some tinkering I got a compatible ROM going (the page says it's for the Virtual Console release of Earthbound Beginnings, but it seems it's meant for the unreleased Earthbound English port) and I plan to give it a try first.
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Comment on 2026 United States midterm elections megathread in ~society
arqalite LinkThe world is rooting for y'all - go and vote, each and every one of you.The world is rooting for y'all - go and vote, each and every one of you.
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Comment on CGA-2026-11 🌍️🪀 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Mother 3 in ~games
arqalite LinkI haven't played Mother 1 & 2 yet, is it safe to jump onto 3 right away, or should I start with 1 & 2 first?I haven't played Mother 1 & 2 yet, is it safe to jump onto 3 right away, or should I start with 1 & 2 first?
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Comment on What did you do this week (and weekend)? in ~talk
arqalite LinkJust got in Cluj-Napoca for a Yu-Gi-Oh! regional qualifier. I'm not feeling prepared enough to aim for the top but I still wanted to participate and travel with the rest of the squad so here I am....Just got in Cluj-Napoca for a Yu-Gi-Oh! regional qualifier. I'm not feeling prepared enough to aim for the top but I still wanted to participate and travel with the rest of the squad so here I am. :)
Tomorrow's the big day, wish me luck. In the meantime, gonna enjoy some ramen at a really good Asian place here.
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Comment on Timasomo 2026: Final Updates in ~creative.timasomo
arqalite LinkWelp, I didn't make any music this week. Between my job, other software development work (more on that below) and preparing for a Yu-Gi-Oh! regional, I haven't felt the push to make music. Which...Welp, I didn't make any music this week. Between my job, other software development work (more on that below) and preparing for a Yu-Gi-Oh! regional, I haven't felt the push to make music. Which is a bit upsetting, I hoped I'd at least get one of the two tracks done.
So let me talk about the software at least. This month I continued work on Project Tensho, my YGO simulator platform. As part of it, I realized I needed a way to cache card data, card images and Lua card scripts in a way that is fast and responsive while also not upsetting the upstream providers or running into their rate limits.
So I wrote Courtier, a web API to retrieve these assets and cache them in a local SQLite DB and in an S3 bucket. Hosted on Railway, it's quite fast and does the job well. It's downloaded quite a few GB of card images though so we'll see how costs add up.
I already integrated it into Tensho (except Vercel builds exploded for some reason and the live version is no longer receiving updates - will fix next week) and the plan is to finally add the ability to click a card and be able to read its text and attributes which was missing until now. I also got to remove most of the bundled assets with the app which should make the bundle much leaner.
Courtier is already out, I just haven't announced it anywhere, so I'll probably do a little announcement online alongside posting in the showcase thread.
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Comment on Heroic Games Launcher: an open source, cross-platform launcher for GOG and Epic Games Store in ~games
arqalite Link ParentIt's also pretty plug-and-play for installing older Windows games directly as it sets up the Wine prefix and Proton for you. I love Heroic.It's also pretty plug-and-play for installing older Windows games directly as it sets up the Wine prefix and Proton for you. I love Heroic.
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
arqalite LinkI got Sadye's music recommended by Spotify as I was listening to some girly pop tracks, and yeah, this is more good, fun, girly pop to add to the collection. "Fake Bitch", "Pretty Traumatized" and...I got Sadye's music recommended by Spotify as I was listening to some girly pop tracks, and yeah, this is more good, fun, girly pop to add to the collection. "Fake Bitch", "Pretty Traumatized" and "Hello Kitty Pickup Truck" are the highlights for me, in that order, but I do like most of her tracks.
Besides that, Riot Games released a new EP for their virtual K-pop band, K/DA, and if FIRESTARTER was anything to go by, it's gonna be a total bop. I've been hating League of Legends for the past few years, but the joke that Riot is a recording label that sometimes makes games is said for a good reason. They have really good songwriters.
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Comment on Timasomo 2026: Week 3 Updates in ~creative.timasomo
arqalite LinkProgress is slow, but we do have progress! Was playing around with some basses in Vital while sorting through some preset packs and found a really thick dubstep bass patch that I fell in love...Progress is slow, but we do have progress!
Was playing around with some basses in Vital while sorting through some preset packs and found a really thick dubstep bass patch that I fell in love with. Quickly made a bassline with it, added some drums, a bit of atmosphere and we got a vibe going.
Now the titan that I must face is arrangement, I have an intro going and the drop, but I can't seem to glue them together just right. Build-ups have never been my forte unfortunately, especially since I used to make very slow, melodic beats where I could just progress naturally through my instruments up to the climax.
I'll persevere through it and hopefully we have the first track ready this week. I'll have to make a miracle happen to get the second one done for the showcase, but I'm gonna do my best.
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Comment on eMudhra intermediate CA compromise in ~tech
arqalite Link ParentDid your phone stop receiving security updates? If so, then disabling the cert manually should be enough, most apps will use the system list of trusted CAs and the ones that do not (like...Did your phone stop receiving security updates? If so, then disabling the cert manually should be enough, most apps will use the system list of trusted CAs and the ones that do not (like browsers), should ideally have their lists updated soon if not already updated.
From what I've read online, Huang preferred to keep upper management minimal so he can be involved in all aspects of the company.
This seems like an immense power vacuum and I don't think the company can fill it easily while retaining its current shape. This will be interesting to watch, but I fear for the consumer gaming division.