deathinactthree's recent activity
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Comment on November 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion in ~games
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Comment on November 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion in ~games
deathinactthree Linkdeathinactthree's bingo card Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 4/25 Considered a disappointment You can save/pet/care for animals From now-defunct dev studio ✅Cave Story+ Has a lives system You...deathinactthree's bingo card
Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 4/25 Considered a disappointment You can save/pet/care for animals From now-defunct dev studio A solo-dev project
✅Cave Story+Has a lives system You control a party of characters You're giving it a second chance Nominated for The Game Awards
✅ CelesteA modded game Features a mystery Has permadeath Recommended by someone on Tildes ★ Wildcard Has driving Has a third-person perspective
✅ Ariel_Knight's Never YieldHas a skill tree Is considered relaxing A romhack or total conversion mod
✅ Project Borealis: PrologueSomeone else has played it for their Backlog Burner Has a score system Focuses on exploration
✅ CaynePopular game you never got around to playing Uses a unique control scheme Adaptation of other media type (e.g. board game, movie)
✅ Dark Future: Blood Red StatesIs open-source Project Borealis: Prologue
I thought this would count as a total conversion mod for the bingo card, but it was a tech demo if I'm being extremely generous. There is literally no meat on this bone--it's meant to be a prequel to the Ravenholm level of Half Life 2, but it's just a few rooms full of headcrab zombies with some upgraded lighting and it's over. I never want to slam the modding community in general, but the trailer for it is as long as the actual game is. If I seem disappointed it's because I felt like it was a bit oversold. I might swap this out with another actual TC mod like Archolos if I have time to get to it.
Ariel_Knight's Never Yield
A 3D endless runner game with a frame story, set in a futuristic Detroit. Gameplay is the typical simple style for this game with directional controls (and a jump button if you want to use it), which is why it's a little odd it doesn't seem to be available for any portable platform except the Switch and Steam Deck.
It's very solid, and for better or worse there's not too much to say about it beyond that--graphics are great for this style of game, soundtrack is a standout, it's the kind of game you don't need to know much going in and can just kind of zone out to the beat and follow the colored instructions, as that how it announces the button you need to hit for each obstacle. All the more reason it seems odd you can't get this on a phone or tablet, as it seems it would excel there.
Celeste
An extremely well-made precision platformer game in the spirit of Super Meat Boy but with slightly (slightly) less challenge and more heart and visual style. An overall vibe that will take you back to the True Dark Souls Starts Here platforming of the old NES days. I am terrible at this game so far. I couldn't get even close to completing it, but I understand that's probably the typical story. I see myself going back to this and beating my head against it again in the future, but it probably won't be before the end of this month so I'm writing this now. Highly recommended if you like Super Meat Boy or N or similar precision platformers where frustration is expected and desired. Unironically.
Cave Story+
This kinda felt like cheating, as it's both one of the most popular PC solo dev projects, and also I completed the original Cave Story almost exactly 20 years ago (released December of 2004) on an old Acer gaming laptop that I had in college. But I bought the update several years ago and never played it, and going back to it honestly was a bit like going home for Gaming Christmas.
It's a "metroidvania-lite", in the sense that the overall structure and gameplay are the same but it's comparatively linear without a ton of backtracking (but some! secrets await in backtracking!). It has a story that is just compelling enough for a game this relatively simple and short. I ran through it in about 5 hours, didn't quite 100% it and got the Normal Ending. The biggest thing working against me was coming straight off Celeste, which has hyper-precise platforming controls, whereas Quote jumps more like Luigi in Super Mario Bros. 2. It occasionally drove me nuts.
But it's a great game, and is almost like comfort food for me after not having played it in 2 decades. The upgraded graphics are nice but not game-changing vs. the original, just a bit of zhuzsh. The soundtrack however is significantly improved and pretty terrific. I highly recommend this game if you just want to chill for an afternoon and play an old-school-style platform shooter that isn't too challenging but isn't too brainless either.
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Comment on How well do you cook? in ~life.men
deathinactthree LinkI started learning to cook at a very young age. Bluntly, I grew up in poverty with a single mom who was checked out on opioid pills most of the time, so I usually had to fend for myself, and...I started learning to cook at a very young age. Bluntly, I grew up in poverty with a single mom who was checked out on opioid pills most of the time, so I usually had to fend for myself, and around the age of 9 or 10 I'd gotten pretty sick of eating $0.70 microwave pizzas and cold Spaghetti-o's out of the can. (Although, fun fact, I still occasionally eat cold-can Boyardee as a weird sort of comfort food.)
I had to teach myself for the most part (this was before the Internet) but we had a couple of cookbooks lying around and I'd also watched people do a few of the basics like boil pasta in water or heat ground beef in a skillet to the right color. I started with spaghetti and red sauce because it seemed the easiest and it was. Then started building on it, adding beef and vegetables and seasonings (pepper, basil, etc), then started branching out into other kinds of foods. Never anything too complicated until later, but by the time I left home at 18, you could trust me in a kitchen to chop your onions, dice your potatoes, and heat a chicken breast in the oven that wouldn't put you in the hospital.
I didn't get a chance to cook all that much in my college years between full-time work and studying but always did when I could. I even had a friend (we are still friends today) with a bit more cooking experience than me, and we would set aside a Saturday or Sunday every month or so and make dinner together--he would show me how to make something if I didn't already know how. I also picked up a few things from the food service jobs I worked through college, but those were usually cafes and not full restaurants so I didn't get anything like actual cooking instruction, just the odd tip here or there about how to use which kind of knife for example or how to grill a bell pepper on a gas stovetop.
Once I finished school and had more free time, I started cooking much more often and experimenting with recipes and new types of cuisines. I don't pretend to Michelin-level expertise, but I sincerely enjoy cooking a lot and by now I'm pretty good at it. I consider it recreational and it never feels like a chore unless I simply don't have the time. To me, nothing beats a lazy Saturday afternoon putting on some music and just riffing on what's in my pantry that day.
I feel very confident in a kitchen, and I have a large repertoire of dishes I can make blindfolded, or simply figure out as I go. A few signature favorites from the past are mushroom stroganoff, chicken jalfrezi, and NY strip steak with a simple red-wine demi-glace. I also cook vegan--in fact I pretty much only cook plant-based this last year or two, probably 90% of the time--and it's been an extremely fun (really) challenge looking at food in a whole new way and figuring out what you can do with it. Feels like NG+, but it's also been kind of a blast to explore spices, sauces, and flavors that I used to not spend as much time or attention on.
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Comment on eBooks cost too much in ~books
deathinactthree Link ParentThis is what I do if I don't already know it's something I want and am confident in purchasing (or can't get it via Libby). I used to do this with music as well back before subscription services...This is what I do if I don't already know it's something I want and am confident in purchasing (or can't get it via Libby). I used to do this with music as well back before subscription services made it unnecessary--"obtain" a copy of the album, and if I love it I'll buy a copy, and/or merch, and/or buy tickets and see them on tour. I've even bought tickets for shows I had no intention of seeing due to schedule conflicts, just to support the musicians. They make more money that way anyway.
In theory, if I bought and then ended up not liking the book I would just return it anyway viz. whatever policies are supported by, say, Kindle. So I'm saving myself, the retailer, the publisher, and the author a bunch of logistical steps by verifying that it's something I want to pay for. Rightly or wrongly, I don't really see it as much different than the days of my misspent youth crouching in the corners of bookshops and comic shops reading stuff, and buying it if I read enough of it to know I want it.
That's my justification anyway, for better or worse.
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Comment on Daily driving linux (Fedora KDE) - My experiences after a week in ~tech
deathinactthree LinkI've been running Linux as my primary/only desktop OS for about 18 months, and bounced between several of the main distros during that time. I ran Fedora 40 for a long while and generally like it,...I've been running Linux as my primary/only desktop OS for about 18 months, and bounced between several of the main distros during that time. I ran Fedora 40 for a long while and generally like it, but ran into almost all of the issues you mention. Like you, most of them I was able to resolve (RPM Fusion, NVIDIA drivers, multiple displays, etc) but there were still small, nagging issues that just made F40WS feel kind of rough around the edges. Honestly what made me finally look for an alternative was the same thing that originally drew me--and you--to it: the semi-rolling release distributed so many updates when I was using it that I had to restart my computer several times a day or all of my work apps would break until I did. I couldn't afford to keep doing that and risk my stuff breaking and dropping me in the middle of an important work call.
Eventually after multiple distros I settled on Pop_OS and found it really stable--everything works (for me, YMMV) and required little setup. And no time in the terminal unless I just preferred to. However, yesterday I went back to the distro that originally convinced me to switch from Windows back in July 2023, Zorin. Zorin seems to get a mixed reaction but the most recent version was completely painless to set up, flies in a way that Pop_OS doesn't seem to, and is just a clean experience. I moved away from Zorin to Fedora last year due to the previous version (Z16) being based on an Ubuntu LTS version that was simply too old for my hardware. Z17 updated this--and I also switched to a pretty kickass and better-supported AMD-based miniPC this summer--so the hardware issues I had with my previous HP Pavilion gaming rig have entirely disappeared. I have this computer fully set up for daily driving since installing yesterday evening and I literally didn't need to touch the terminal once. I also need to note here for the record that I'm not a knowledgeable Linux guy at all, I had virtually no experience with Linux beyond occasionally spinning up a distro in a VM just for fun before I finally switched.
I guess my point here, assuming I have one, is that even with all this bouncing back and forth and researching and solving various issues, I've been super-happy switching to Linux from W11 last year. All my work apps function just fine with Outlook and Teams via PWAs that work better than the Windows native versions anyway. OnlyOffice works great as a replacement for O365 apps. All my games work, since like you I don't play competitive online games. Any issues I've had with various distros, and they do happen, were still WAY less of a headache than the constant troubleshooting I had to do with W11 before finally giving up on it. It's been pretty great.
Oh, and my other point is don't be afraid to test out other distros...F41 is great but the issues you mention are pretty common to Fedora and wouldn't necessarily be a universal experience across distros.
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Comment on Is empathizing by sharing experience not normal? in ~health.mental
deathinactthree LinkI'm coming from the opposite direction. My partner has severe ADHD, diagnosed and taking medication, and they hate it if they say something is going on with them and I respond by sharing...I'm coming from the opposite direction. My partner has severe ADHD, diagnosed and taking medication, and they hate it if they say something is going on with them and I respond by sharing experiences as a form of empathy ("oh man, that sucks, that happened to me once and I know how painful it is", etc.). They see it as "trying to take the spotlight", even if it's just a quick acknowledgement that I know what something feels like. So now I just let them vent and make "hm"s of agreement.
NB: I don't know if I necessarily qualify as neurotypical, but I don't have autism or ADHD so probably counts for the purposes of this question. For myself, whether I want empathy via experience or to just be given a space to complain basically depends on whether it's something I can actually do something about in which case experience is welcome even if it doesn't come with advice, or something I can't do anything about and I just want to release steam.
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Comment on Dwayne Johnson became the world’s biggest movie star. Now he’s trying to disappear. in ~movies
deathinactthree Link ParentRight--half the time his face turns came because he was so good at being the bad guy that the fans went from shitting on him to unironically rooting for him and it put the writers in a corner....I never watched Wrestling but a bit of reading, and listening to people who love the muscle soap operas in the ring, reveals he always played a heel.
Right--half the time his face turns came because he was so good at being the bad guy that the fans went from shitting on him to unironically rooting for him and it put the writers in a corner. Rock was often boring as a face (good guy wrestler), so it would never be long before the heel turns came around again. That's what the audience--including me--enjoyed. Rock's kind of a punchline now but it's hard to overstate just how good he was at being bad back in the late 90s Attitude Era days...so charming as a villain and so good at working a crowd that the fans are cheering you at your worst, not booing because it's part of being the heel.
It's a shame that we won't see him as a villain on the screen even on occasion, because I think he'd be great flexing those muscles again (no pun intended). He's a total dialtone as a hero most of the time. I'm not sure why he seems to have a phobia of it. Not just Arnold, but tons of modern A-list action stars have played bad guys and it didn't hurt their careers at all. Michael B Jordan, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, etc. Hell, Tom Cruise, arguably the biggest action movie star in the world going by receipts that aren't Marvel movies (then it's Samuel L Jackson, who has also successfully played villains), only ups his reputation when he plays villains like in Collateral.
What I'm saying, I don't think it's just a fear of box office numbers that's causing this aversion of never not being the hero. I don't have any insight as to why, just uneducated armchair psychology guesses that I won't bore the room with, but I don't think it's simply about the effect on his receipts.
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Comment on November 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 2 Discussion in ~games
deathinactthree Link ParentIt gives you a break in that there are multiple characters to unlock, but the one you start with (Brain in a Jar) lets you restart missions on death on your first run instead of ending the entire...I'm a bit surprised the game uses permadeath. I guess that mimics a board game, but feels a little strange in a mission-based video game adaption. I think I wouldn't mind the option of continues being allowed, but maybe unlocking perks are the main intended purpose of the game.
It gives you a break in that there are multiple characters to unlock, but the one you start with (Brain in a Jar) lets you restart missions on death on your first run instead of ending the entire run, although you still lose resources. The idea is to give you time to learn the game. But yes, the roguelite unlocking of perks that carry over is a main function of the gameplay loop.
It is much more like moving pieces around a constantly moving board vs. an arcade-style racing game like Road Blasters, although it can start to feel more like the latter as you get comfortable using the hotkeys more. It's interesting in how it successfully executes being a hybrid like this, and the novelty of the playstyle keeps your attention as long as you keep it to relatively short sessions before the repetitiveness sets in--fortunately it does lend itself pretty well to only playing for like 20 minutes at a time.
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Comment on November 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 2 Discussion in ~games
deathinactthree (edited )Linkdeathinactthree's bingo card Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 2/25 Considered a disappointment You can save/pet/care for animals From now-defunct dev studio A solo-dev project Has a lives system You...deathinactthree's bingo card
Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 2/25 Considered a disappointment You can save/pet/care for animals From now-defunct dev studio A solo-dev project Has a lives system You control a party of characters You're giving it a second chance Nominated for The Game Awards A modded game Features a mystery Has permadeath Recommended by someone on Tildes ★ Wildcard Has driving Has a third-person perspective Has a skill tree Is considered relaxing A romhack or total conversion mod Someone else has played it for their Backlog Burner Has a score system Focuses on exploration
✅ CaynePopular game you never got around to playing Uses a unique control scheme Adaptation of other media type (e.g. board game, movie)
✅ Dark Future: Blood Red StatesIs open-source I'm already a bit behind on my bingo card and was only able to fire up 2 games from my backlog so far this week.
Cayne
I don't play point-and-click adventure games pretty much ever--I have nothing against the genre but it's just not for me, especially when they become exercises in pixel-hunting. But I had seen enough positive buzz on the Stasis series and bought all 3 (Stasis, Stasis: Bone Totem, and Cayne which is a short series prequel) based on vibes.
And the vibe of Cayne is as good as I was promised, as you play a young woman who attempts to terminate her unwanted pregnancy and is kidnapped by $PLOT_POINT which wants to harvest the pregnancy at the expense of her own life. You escape from this fate by the skin of your teeth in the first few minutes of the game, and then attempt to discover where you are, why you're there, and how the hell to get out.
The writing and voice acting does sell the fear of body horror and sci-fi dystopia. As a narrative and an overall vibe, it was just what I wanted. Unfortunately the puzzles are sometimes not intuitive and do involve the aforementioned pixel-hunting (even sometimes just to figure out where to click to go through a door, which was pretty odd). I did have to refer to a walkthrough guide often, although again I don't normally play these kinds of games so take that for what it is.
The game length is short enough however that if you don't have any issue with occasionally referring to guides, which can also risk some spoilers, then I would recommend this game to sci-fi/horror fans for the story and presentation. I enjoyed it enough despite some minor gameplay and technical frustrations (there were multiple crashes) that I'm looking forward to the rest of the Stasis series.
Dark Future: Blood Red States
This was an interesting take as a translation of the tabletop game. As a Sanctioned Op, you take your Mad-Max-style (armed and armored) car through multiple missions that play as a semi-real-time tactics game. You don't actually drive per se, you pause/slow down time to issue "orders" to the car to speed up, slow down, change lanes, fire weapons, etc.
There are shortkeys for this so it can kind of feel like driving, but here's my recommendation: don't use the hotkeys at all until you really understand how the gameplay works, because even small mistakes can quickly cost you, and you don't get any do-overs--restarting the run means losing any fuel or single-mission items you went in with, and money to replace them is a precious resource you won't have a lot of. This may mean the game moves "slower" as you frequently pause to change and issue orders, but the difficulty curve spikes exponentially pretty quickly in this game, and death is frequent and semi-permanent (dying means you have to restart the game, but some perks carry over when you unlock them).
Missions can get pretty same-y: kill X enemies for whatever reason, escort this vehicle for Y amount of time, stick close enough to this truck long enough to scan it before the timer runs out, etc, all of them play out in a pretty similar fashion. You drive for a while, you blow stuff up while others try to blow you up, you fulfill the win condition in the the last couple of minutes. Upgrade your car in the shop between missions.
That said, the gameplay is quite fun for a unique take on a tactics game, and I've found the trick to enjoying it is to play it in short bursts before the repetitive missions wear out their welcome. (Most missions have a ~10-minute timer, actual runs usually take about 5-7 minutes, at least in the early game.)
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Comment on We can have a different web in ~tech
deathinactthree Link ParentI've been leaning towards doing the same--I have a spare PC (my last gaming rig) with 3TB of storage and I'm thinking about setting up a server with a blog, which I used to do all the time but...I've been leaning towards doing the same--I have a spare PC (my last gaming rig) with 3TB of storage and I'm thinking about setting up a server with a blog, which I used to do all the time but haven't in years. I'm kind of looking forward to learning about all the various pieces. I know just enough about doing a project like this to be dangerous, having had a hobby server or two a long time ago, but there's a ton about server setup and maintenance that I either never learned or have become super-rusty on.
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Comment on Vegan recipe log in ~food
deathinactthree Link ParentAll of that will be fine, there's no special kind of stock you need to use and chestnut mushrooms are basically the same as cremini for this. Like the title says, it's easy. :) It'll still be...All of that will be fine, there's no special kind of stock you need to use and chestnut mushrooms are basically the same as cremini for this. Like the title says, it's easy. :) It'll still be good. Good luck.
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Comment on Vegan recipe log in ~food
deathinactthree Link ParentSure, plain yogurt would probably work actually, though I haven't tried it. And a vegetable oil spread is basically all Earth Balance is, so whatever you have is fine. You can use regular...Sure, plain yogurt would probably work actually, though I haven't tried it. And a vegetable oil spread is basically all Earth Balance is, so whatever you have is fine.
You can use regular vegetable or mushroom stock instead of the water and Better than Bouillon if you have it, I just use BtB because it's cheaper and more shelf-stable than having open quarts of stock in the fridge. They sometimes go bad before I can finish using them, vs. BtB which is a small jar that keeps in a fridge for a few months. Or you can make your own stock if you can't/don't want to buy it at the store.
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Comment on Vegan recipe log in ~food
deathinactthree LinkEasy Mushroom Stroganoff Ingredients 1 cup rotini pasta 1 cup water 1 tspn Better Than Bouillon roasted vegetable flavor stock paste 1 tab of Earth Balance vegan butter OR 2 tblspns water for...Easy Mushroom Stroganoff
Ingredients
- 1 cup rotini pasta
- 1 cup water
- 1 tspn Better Than Bouillon roasted vegetable flavor stock paste
- 1 tab of Earth Balance vegan butter OR 2 tblspns water for sauteing
- 1/4 onion sliced
- 1/2 cup sliced cremini mushrooms (1 cup is fine if your pot has space and you want more)
- Kite Hill vegan sour cream OR a very small amount of tahini or peanut butter to taste
- Nooch, minced garlic, and ground black peppercorns to taste (you should not need salt as the stock will have plenty)
Optional
- Abbot's Plant-Based "Beef" for a more traditional beef stroganoff--cook this separately and add in last before serving
- Chopped green onions for garnish
Instructions
- In a large pot or large high-lipped skillet on medium heat, melt the butter (or heat water for oil-free sauteing)
- Add onions and mushrooms and sweat for several minutes until soft (DO NOT add garlic at this stage)
- Add dry pasta and water and nooch, raise heat to high to bring to a boil, and stir in the Better than Bouillon until thoroughly blended as stock
- Once the stock is mixed in, immediately bring heat down to a simmer, and set a timer for 12 minutes while the pasta cooks; stir occasionally
- Once the pasta is cooked through and the stock is almost fully reduced, remove from heat, mix in some minced garlic and vegan sour cream, and serve
Serves 3-4 people. Note that the only important ratio is equal parts pasta and water, so you can scale this up or down and just eyeball the other ingredients. I make this all the time, it's incredibly easy and only takes about 3 minutes of prep and 15 minutes total on the stovetop. I do highly recommend using vegan sour cream if you can find it at your store--you can use substitutes like the ones listed above to make the sauce creamy but IMO it's not quite as good.
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Comment on Announcing the Tildes Backlog Burner event for November 2024: Shrink your unplayed games list this coming month! in ~games
deathinactthree LinkThis is a cool idea--my backlog now probably consists of more games than I've actually played, and my eyes glaze over every time I scroll through the list deciding what I want to install next....This is a cool idea--my backlog now probably consists of more games than I've actually played, and my eyes glaze over every time I scroll through the list deciding what I want to install next. This will definitely help force me to choose what to play.
I like this card but I do think I may run into still having too many games to choose from to fit many of the categories--if that turns out to be the case then I'll try rerolling the card sometime in the next week or so.
Death in Act Three's Bingo Card
Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 0/25 Considered a disappointment You can save/pet/care for animals From now-defunct dev studio A solo-dev project Has a lives system You control a party of characters You're giving it a second chance Nominated for The Game Awards A modded game Features a mystery Has permadeath Recommended by someone on Tildes ★ Wildcard Has driving Has a third-person perspective Has a skill tree Is considered relaxing A romhack or total conversion mod Someone else has played it for their Backlog Burner Has a score system Focuses on exploration Popular game you never got around to playing Uses a unique control scheme Adaptation of other media type (e.g. board game, movie) Is open-source -
Comment on Linux gaming and the Steam Summer Sale: What are your favorites? in ~games
deathinactthree (edited )LinkI also switched full-time to Linux last year, and gaming on it has been a positive experience. I've had only a couple of games not run (as in literally two), but for the most part it's been great....I also switched full-time to Linux last year, and gaming on it has been a positive experience. I've had only a couple of games not run (as in literally two), but for the most part it's been great.
For RPGs, Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2 run natively on Linux, as well as the Pillars of Eternity series and the Wasteland remakes--you may already be familiar with them, but if not, definitely pick them up. A couple of lesser-known ones I've been getting into and are Linux-native are Roadwarden, Deep Sky Derelicts, Fell Seal, and Nowhere Prophet.
(Sims and 4x I'm not really into but I'm sure others will make great recommendations.)
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Comment on Should I be friends with this person? in ~life
deathinactthree LinkAt the risk of projecting too much of my own experience here, this sounds extremely familiar and almost identical to a situation I was in some years back. This is what really keyed me into it,...At the risk of projecting too much of my own experience here, this sounds extremely familiar and almost identical to a situation I was in some years back. This is what really keyed me into it, because I've said this statement myself word-for-word:
as long as I didn't engage with anything I consider to be unethical there couldn't be any harm done.
The problem here is that as soon as you have to make that qualification for a friendship, something is already wrong.
Assuming that our experiences are similar, the good/bad news here is that the situation is less complicated than it seems, and in fact you pretty much already identified it:
- Yes, she is attracted to you.
- No, she doesn't want to sleep with you.
- Yes, she wants you to want to sleep with her.
- She wants the emotional/sexual validation of not sleeping with you, but knowing she could.
Even in broadly happier relationships, many (not all) people still like to occasionally feel the dopamine hit and validation of being desired by other people outside of the relationship. By itself, this feeling isn't some egregious sin. It's what you do about it--ideally being nothing--and some people do what she is doing currently to you: using you as an IV drip of dopamine to feel like she is still desirable. If it makes you feel any better, you're almost certainly not the only person she is doing this to.
She probably does genuinely value your friendship and company, but being that IV drip is of more value to her. And here's how you'll know: if you don't do anything differently, your friendship will continue as-is with this ersatz version of "will they/won't they" until you start getting serious (not just dating, actually serious) with someone else. At first, she'll ask a million pointed questions about your partner under the guise of "just looking out for a friend". If she believes you two are truly in a serious relationship, you're going to gradually start to see less and less of her. She won't ghost you outright probably, but those trips are going to be less frequent, plans will start to get broken, and eventually it's going to degrade into "oh, it's been awhile, we should totally catch up" and it'll be a friendship purely in name only.
I would probably start distancing yourself from her, because one very important thing to understand is that even though you consider your morals to be ironclad, you're risking the "appearance of impropriety" around other people who may intentionally or unintentionally misread the nature of your relationship. Including her husband. Which, to my mind--and this is where I ended up coming down after negotiating this situation myself--means this friendship is, or is going to be at some point, significantly more trouble than it's worth.
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Comment on My Windows computer just doesn't feel like mine anymore in ~tech
deathinactthree Link ParentSure! I primarily use it for Excel files, as the web versions of PowerPoint and Word are much more capable now and usually enough. Excel on the web works okay for basic stuff but still has some...Sure! I primarily use it for Excel files, as the web versions of PowerPoint and Word are much more capable now and usually enough. Excel on the web works okay for basic stuff but still has some gaps, especially with its charting tools--it can read but can't create or edit a combo chart (two y axes) for example. But OnlyOffice can do the stuff that web Excel can't, and if you need it, its charting tools are better than native Excel's IMO--not more capable per se, just a nicer and easier-to-use editing interface if you spend as much time making semi-complex charts from data as I do.
It also has a tabbed interface for its whole suite, unlike native Office, so everything you work on regardless of file type is in a single application window that you can tab between. Its only drawback, besides struggling with very large Excel files above a certain size, is that unlike native Office it doesn't have OneDrive/Sharepoint integration and autosaving, so if you use those at work you'll just have to manually save and upload to your cloud drive. (OnlyOffice has its own cloud service that costs money and provides the same functions as OneDrive integration/autosaving but if your company is on MS there's no advantage to using it.)
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Comment on My Windows computer just doesn't feel like mine anymore in ~tech
deathinactthree Link ParentI likewise tried to make the jump to Linux every few years, off and on since 2008, but although I was always interested in it, I never really felt like it was ready for prime time (meaning what I...I likewise tried to make the jump to Linux every few years, off and on since 2008, but although I was always interested in it, I never really felt like it was ready for prime time (meaning what I personally needed a computer to do).
After a lot of the same pain people are describing in these comments, I finally pulled the trigger about this time a year ago and moved to Linux full-time. I was tired of fighting my W11 install--I would say that I like W11 when it works, but in my experience across multiple machines since its release, it never does. Now I use Linux, beginning full-time with Zorin and since moving to Fedora, and it's pretty painless. Everything works, no ads or telemetry, it generally seems to run faster and better overall, and I'm not a Linux expert in the slightest. Couple of things finally made it viable that weren't true in all the previous years I tried to make the shift:
First, the web versions of Office got better in the last year or two, so I can do the professional work stuff I have to do via browser, or PWA for Outlook and Teams (which seem to be much more stable as PWAs in Linux than the native apps in W11 for some reason). Also, OnlyOffice is a native Linux app built in Office XML and works great for MS files if I need to work offline, although I notice it does start hanging on any Excel data larger than about 10k rows, otherwise very solid and 100% compatible. Historically, not being able to do basic professional stuff always ended up being the dealbreaker for me, and Libreoffice et al were absolutely not acceptable solutions for what I need an office suite to do. Now? No real issues at all. Worth noting that I don't need VBA for anything, which Linux still doesn't have a solve for, so YMMV. In fact I did have a use case for VBA when I first arrived at my current job, and switched my team off of it to a different (and better) workflow just so I wouldn't have to switch back to a Windows machine.
Second, Proton development has completely changed gaming on Linux, in that I can play 95% of my Steam/GOG catalog with minimal or no fiddling. Also worth noting that I don't play any competitive online games as I know some of the most popular ones (esp. ones that use anticheat) don't run, but I can play all the stuff I want to play, like Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Witcher 3, Skyrim, any of the Fallouts, Elder Scrolls Online, etc. I have about 1100 PC games in my library across Steam, GOG, Epic, etc. and although I certainly haven't tested every one of them, I've tested a lot of them, and in a year so far only 2 games didn't run at all, and maybe 2 or 3 required a little fiddling up front and then worked just fine. The rest ran out of the box once you turn Proton on for non-native games in Steam or Heroic Launcher (for GOG and Epic).
Again, I'm not proficient at Linux, just a casual hobbyist who found it shockingly easy to switch completely away from Windows when I would say even 3 years ago it would've been a fool's errand. My PC can do everything I want/need it to do and nothing I don't. Despite all the jokes people have made over the last 20 years, I can't help but feel like it finally became The Year of the Linux Desktop, but quietly, when no one was looking.
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Comment on Defunct studios discussion - Who remembers Black & White? in ~games
deathinactthree LinkI don't think it could be called a "hit", but Defiant shut down in 2019 and I thought they showed real promise with their Hand of Fate series. Defiant was an indie studio based in Australia that...I don't think it could be called a "hit", but Defiant shut down in 2019 and I thought they showed real promise with their Hand of Fate series. Defiant was an indie studio based in Australia that mostly did mobile games and HoF was their first attempt at a full-fledged PC/console title.
Hand of Fate is a pretty innovative blend of a tabletop game, ARPG, and an unconventional deckbuilder where your cards aren't for powers, you instead use them to build the level you're on and define encounters. Also has one of the best narrators of all time in the character of The Dealer, an immortal being you are playing this game against for your soul, a la the chess game with Death in The Seventh Seal. The voice actor of the Dealer is fantastic as he comments on everything you're doing in the game, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes gloating and cruel, and never seems to run out of things to say.
The games are still available via Steam/GOG but they may get pulled at some point, hopefully not. I recommend them to anyone who'll listen.
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Comment on An announcement regarding Kris Nóva in ~comp
deathinactthree LinkOh wow, I had no idea, that's awful news. Like @0xSim, I also joined Hachyderm largely based on Nova's laid-out vision for the instance, and technology more broadly. Hope everyone close to Nova is...Oh wow, I had no idea, that's awful news. Like @0xSim, I also joined Hachyderm largely based on Nova's laid-out vision for the instance, and technology more broadly. Hope everyone close to Nova is doing okay.
I can honestly say I didn't notice any timing or lag issues. FWIW I played it on my Linux mini-PC (AMD Ryzen 9, Radeon 6600M, Pop_OS) via Heroic Launcher, though I don't know that that's useful info.
I didn't realize that it was that unknown, which is kind of a shame, it's a quality version of this kind of game and I generally don't care for endless runner games.