calm_bomb's recent activity

  1. Comment on When was the golden age of the internet to you? in ~tech

    calm_bomb
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    For me it's late '90s/early '00s. My story is somehow a "classical" internet guy in my country (Romania). First I've heard of this "internet" was when I was browsing MTV's teletext: there were...

    For me it's late '90s/early '00s. My story is somehow a "classical" internet guy in my country (Romania).

    First I've heard of this "internet" was when I was browsing MTV's teletext: there were pages about bands (sort of like Wikipedia today) and in the contact section there was a "internet link" for some bands, followed by "www.ironmaiden.com" (or whatever the band name was) and I was wondering what that was! Then in 1996 some of my highschool friends got into programming college and started coming with stories about the internet. The one that I remember vividly was when one of them came to me and told me "dude!!! I found an internet page where you can find band lyrics and cover art!!! It's called yahoo and you can search for a band name and get all types of information." Being a (metal/punk) music lover, I asked him to get me some cover art for some bands and in a few weeks he came back with two floppy disks with said cover art. I was astonished!!!

    Then in late '98 I got my first job as a IT technician at the high school I was student at. They were the first school in my town to have an internet connection. It ran on dial-up and that's when things started for me. I found out about IRC and joined a few great communities, but the "breakthrough" for me was when I created a new channel for the supporters of a big football (soccer) club. I became the admin and the channel grew to almost 400 people daily. I started using bots to automoderate the channel, then to save the logs. From this I started learning some HTML and created a web page to post the logs.

    Still on IRC I found out about the possibility to download MP3s. It was insanely slow, but worth it! I was able to download music albums the next day after the official release - that was almost impossible before. This was the second hobby of mine: I created a geocities page where I kept track of what I downloaded and put up links to where people could download the music: I wasn't aware of "piracy"; after all I was in Romania, which was out of communism just a few years earlier.

    But for me the most important thing was getting to know new people. In those early days I got to know people all around the country and met with some of them: I even fell in love with a girl on the other side of the country and was mad enought to visit her by taking the train with almost no money (a 24 hours ride).

    Then later (2002-2004) I bought my first domain name and created a website where I posted news and "editorials" about the football team I supported. This is when I first set up a forum and a great community emerged. I then moved to Bucharest, where I met most of the people from this community and we had our own group going to the matches. And so on and on...

    Anyway, around 2007/2008 facebook made its way among people and then everything went downhill: there was no community as before - everyone kept posting their life on there. There was no group discussion anymore, there were no debates. People started giving themselves the most importance and here we are: the internet today is awful.. or maybe I got older and don't see its charm anymore.

    I still love the internet and use it as I learnt 20+ years ago: I read and search for what I need, I never browse without and ad blocker, I don't have a facebook account (and for that matter instagram, tiktok, snapchat and all the other distractions).

  2. Comment on Popular subreddit r/antiwork goes private after Fox interview in ~tech

    calm_bomb
    Link Parent
    I don't know what you got from that sub, but it wasn't (lately) about not doing work - it was more about people trying to be better and refusing to do something they weren't supposed to. I never...

    I don't know what you got from that sub, but it wasn't (lately) about not doing work - it was more about people trying to be better and refusing to do something they weren't supposed to. I never saw a post in there (as I said, lately, because I got posts in my popular links) supporting cheating at work or things like that.

    6 votes
  3. Comment on Neil Young pulls his music from Spotify after his ultimatum regarding Joe Rogan and ‘fake information about vaccines’ in ~music

    calm_bomb
    Link Parent
    I used it for importing my liked artists/albums and transfer the playlists from Spotify to Deezer. It took less than 1h and it worked without any problem.

    I used it for importing my liked artists/albums and transfer the playlists from Spotify to Deezer. It took less than 1h and it worked without any problem.

    1 vote
  4. Comment on Putin’s wager in Russia’s standoff with the West in ~misc

    calm_bomb
    Link Parent
    You mean one hundred years, maybe.

    You mean one hundred years, maybe.

  5. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    calm_bomb
    Link Parent
    How do you know he's Putin's creature? Is it the same story as with Assange? Is there any real proof of this? If so, where?

    How do you know he's Putin's creature? Is it the same story as with Assange? Is there any real proof of this? If so, where?

  6. Comment on The rise and fall of teletext in ~tv

    calm_bomb
    Link
    Wow... I have some great memories of teletext. Coming from the "communist era", in Romania, we only had black-and-white TV, so the biggest change was the colour TV. But then, around 1992-93, when...

    Wow... I have some great memories of teletext. Coming from the "communist era", in Romania, we only had black-and-white TV, so the biggest change was the colour TV. But then, around 1992-93, when small companies started providing satellite TV through cable, we were on our way to get on (almost) the same level as civilized countries. Our first colour TV was a GoldStar (now LG), if I remember correctly and it had teletext. We were getting the TV programme and news and then the national TV started posting movie reviews and sport reports. In the same period we got MTV and there were a lot of music news in there, but one thing I remember very well is that they had a sort of database of bands and ways to contact them - and besides postal addresses and phone numbers I started seeing web and email addresses. I clearly remember seeing something like contact@ironmaiden.co.uk, band@acdc.com and so on... but at that moment I didn't understand what they were. I had no concept of what the internet was and it was a mistery for me - until around '96, when a friend came home from university and told us about this thing called "yahoo".

    Later in the late '90s we started seeing live scores from different sports, then they started posting all kinds of ads - especially for sex phone lines. Then betting companies started buying space to post odds and results and so on. I think I remember some trivia games too, but I'm not so sure.

    So, yeah, teletext was a great way to find out things back then and it was sort of a gateway to the internet for me.

    3 votes
  7. Comment on Please stop closing forums and moving people to Discord in ~tech

    calm_bomb
    Link Parent
    I also hate the way substack is being pushed lately. It will become the next medium (the blogging platform) an then someone else will come with an idea of how to make money and so on. Why don't...

    I also hate the way substack is being pushed lately. It will become the next medium (the blogging platform) an then someone else will come with an idea of how to make money and so on.

    Why don't people keep blogs like they used to? It wasn't that hard.

    2 votes
  8. Comment on Ghost - Enter Sandman (2021) in ~music

  9. Comment on Netflix intensifies ‘VPN ban’ and targets residential IP-addresses too in ~tech

    calm_bomb
    Link Parent
    A reply to explain what I meant: If you're not in US and don't use a VPN (and you can see what they're doing right now about it), then you don't have all the shows. I pay (almost) the same amount...

    A reply to explain what I meant:

    If you're not in US and don't use a VPN (and you can see what they're doing right now about it), then you don't have all the shows. I pay (almost) the same amount for my subscription as an american, but I'm in Romania, so I'm not able to watch all the catalog. For example, I really wanted to see "Z.Z. Top - That Little Ol' Band from Texas", but it's not available for me, so I pirated it.

    Also, Disney, Hulu and other services are not available universally, so you're out of luck if you're not in the "correct" country.

    So, yeah, there's competition (in some parts of the world), but we're still not "there" and still people go to pirating because even if they want to pay they can't.

    3 votes
  10. Comment on Netflix intensifies ‘VPN ban’ and targets residential IP-addresses too in ~tech

    calm_bomb
    Link
    We're getting back to where we were before Netflix. Fragmentation and multiplication of streaming services are driving people back to piracy - myself included. Many people don't afford this. Also,...

    We're getting back to where we were before Netflix. Fragmentation and multiplication of streaming services are driving people back to piracy - myself included. Many people don't afford this. Also, many people (like me) don't like having 5+ apps to watch movies/TV series.

    Also, containerization/automation made piracy much easier - especially if you live in a country where no one gives a fuck about the law.

    23 votes
  11. Comment on Do you wear a non-smartwatch? If so, what do you have? in ~hobbies

    calm_bomb
    Link Parent
    There's an android app that helps sync the watch. I have exactly the same model as OP and used it with success on the first try: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.houryo.dcf77emulator

    There's an android app that helps sync the watch. I have exactly the same model as OP and used it with success on the first try: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.houryo.dcf77emulator

    2 votes
  12. Comment on What do you like and dislike about your chosen music service(s)? in ~music

    calm_bomb
    Link
    I've been a GPM user since day one - at the time Spotify was not available in my country. I adapted so quickly to it that it seemed natural to me - I'm used to playing full albums and not using...

    I've been a GPM user since day one - at the time Spotify was not available in my country. I adapted so quickly to it that it seemed natural to me - I'm used to playing full albums and not using playlists. I really liked it, but then google decided to move to youtube music and I decided to go to Spotify (they finally arrived!).

    So at the moment I'm (rarely) using Spotify with a Family subscription. And here's my opinion:

    What I like about Spotify:

    • being able to stream the music on any device: from the TV to the media receiver/amplifier, to my Raspberry Pi running librespot. And that's about it.

    What I don't like about Spotify:

    • it's based on playlists - I HATE THIS!
    • there's no order in the discography in the artist profile/page. And they make it worse and worse with time. In GPM all albums were ordered by the release year/date and the release year was displayed. In Spotify this was never the case.
    • it behaves oddly when I try to play an album: sometimes it plays the album, sometimes it just queues it after the current playing song
    • there's no option to "add album to currently playing" or something like that - the app decides how to add it. The option to add to the queue adds the album after the currently playing song and then it continues with the previous album you were listening.
    • for me, a metal fan, the recommendations are usually OK, but sometimes I get totally crap ones

    Unfortunately there's no other application that streams to any devices natively. I tried Deezer and Tidal with Heos (I have a Denon amplifier) and they're shit - you have to go to the Heos app and choose the music in there.

    At least in the case of Deezer I saw a lot of users asking the company to open their API so people can create clients for streaming, but they seem deaf to the requests.

    3 votes
  13. Comment on What do you like and dislike about your chosen music service(s)? in ~music

    calm_bomb
    Link Parent
    navidrome is an open source alternative to subsonic. I have it working on my machine and it's great.

    navidrome is an open source alternative to subsonic. I have it working on my machine and it's great.

    2 votes
  14. Comment on Cars and trucks are changing forever in ~transport

    calm_bomb
    Link Parent
    I don't agree with you. Not all humans like noise. I live in a big city and I'm tired every day by the noise. I took a VW id.4 Uber a few days ago and it was bliss. I certainly will not miss the...

    I don't agree with you. Not all humans like noise. I live in a big city and I'm tired every day by the noise. I took a VW id.4 Uber a few days ago and it was bliss. I certainly will not miss the noise!

    5 votes
  15. Comment on Roadburn Redux was the best pandemic festival!!! in ~music

    calm_bomb
    Link Parent
    Regarding Lingua Ignota, you can check GOLD's performance "This Shame Should Not Be Mine" - which talks about abuse - it was praised by so many people in the chat and the facebook group!

    Regarding Lingua Ignota, you can check GOLD's performance "This Shame Should Not Be Mine" - which talks about abuse - it was praised by so many people in the chat and the facebook group!

    2 votes
  16. Comment on Roadburn Redux was the best pandemic festival!!! in ~music

    calm_bomb
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    I regret not posting about this before it started and it's already ended, but still available today (April 20). For those who don't know, Roadburn is one of the best European music festivals. It...

    I regret not posting about this before it started and it's already ended, but still available today (April 20).

    For those who don't know, Roadburn is one of the best European music festivals. It started as a stoner rock/metal festival, but expanded so much that now it includes experimental electronica and new folk and so many other great stuff.

    One of the specifics for Roadburn is having a curator for every edition. The curators are almost always playing artists themselves and they promote bands and projects they like, often getting commissioned music/work from them. One other great thing is bands playing full albums (some bands playing 2-3 albums in different days during the festival).

    There's also a great sense of community, not only during the festival, but also between editions - on social networks especially, with people discussing new findings and so on.

    But enough with the "presentation". As with other festivals and events, Roadburn has been canceled in 2020 and then in 2021, but the organizers came up with the "Redux" idea: getting bands and artists a platform for sharing their ideas and playing their latest albums.

    And it was INSANELY GOOD! They had a lot of pre-recorded pre-recorded exclusive sets and talks, but there were also live streaming concerts from the 013 venue, the main venue for the festival. I was a bit skeptical at first, as were a lot of people, as to how it would work, but there were no issues at all. The organizers had a timetable with events showing up on the website as scheduled, but being available from their posting until tuesday, April 20.

    There was also a chat window on the website and people were great there - with moments where they reminisced past editions, discussed weed and drinks, came up with jokes and so on. I've seen the same level of community as with the live festival. And all of us appreciated the quality of the shows - both artistic and technical. I've had no issues watching live streaming in 1080p and some of the pre-recorded sets were at 4K resolution, but all of them had something in common: great sound!

    As for discovery, because that's one of the reasons we go to Roadburn, I got into Kairos; IRSE, Steve von Till, Knoll, Wayfarer, etc.

    So, if anyone here too part in this, what's your opinion? And for those who still have some time to get to see some of the performances, please go and do it!

    3 votes
  17. Comment on Psychonaut live at Studio Scampi (2021) in ~music

    calm_bomb
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    Belgian post-metal band. They sound insanely good - at least to me. For this live session they are joined by saxophonist Dieter Vaganée, who adds a great layer to their music.

    Belgian post-metal band. They sound insanely good - at least to me.

    For this live session they are joined by saxophonist Dieter Vaganée, who adds a great layer to their music.

    1 vote