granfdad's recent activity
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Comment on Updates to Xbox Game Pass: Introducing Essential, Premium, and Ultimate plans in ~games
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Comment on Elon Musk plans to take on Wikipedia with 'Grokipedia' in ~tech
granfdad Link ParentI love Wikipedia, but whenever I get a popup to donate, it serves as a nice reminder for me to donate to the Internet Archive instead.- Exemplary
Wikipedia is how often they beg for donations like the site is about to shut down when the company generates insane amounts of revenue and the vast majority of their money goes to doing stuff other than running the site.
I love Wikipedia, but whenever I get a popup to donate, it serves as a nice reminder for me to donate to the Internet Archive instead.
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Comment on Updates to Xbox Game Pass: Introducing Essential, Premium, and Ultimate plans in ~games
granfdad Link Parentthis is the logic that makes me absolutely sure that microsoft has no interest in consoles anymore, their vested interest in PC gaming means they can never make xbox a truly compelling package...it massively devalues the console because there will be practically no console exclusives
this is the logic that makes me absolutely sure that microsoft has no interest in consoles anymore, their vested interest in PC gaming means they can never make xbox a truly compelling package like sony or nintendo can. i assume that they're looking to make xbox closer to "windows for gamers", which would work with their conflict-of-interest.
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Comment on Hot take: 4:3 > 16:9 in ~tv
granfdad LinkMy understanding (someone correct me, please!) is that 16:9 was designed to be a middle ground between 4:3 and cinematic widescreen. I don't think that any aspect ratio is inherently better than...My understanding (someone correct me, please!) is that 16:9 was designed to be a middle ground between 4:3 and cinematic widescreen. I don't think that any aspect ratio is inherently better than any other (relevant CD video), but I certainly believe that intended ratio > any post-creation adjustment. I often play old games in 4:3 and with letterboxing on my widescreen display, just because it's the ratio that the game devs would have designed the game around (not that it really matters, though).
EDIT: I just realised that my source for that 16:9 middleground fact was the CD video I linked!
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Comment on My take on Apple's Liquid Glass in ~tech
granfdad Link ParentThis is still pretty close to how it works. I didn't do any special setup for my iTunes library, and I just have a "music" folder that separates all the files in my library by...One of my favorite things about old time iTunes was that once you put your music in it the software literally arranged it for you into a very sensible directory structure based on the tags on the file.
This is still pretty close to how it works. I didn't do any special setup for my iTunes library, and I just have a "music" folder that separates all the files in my library by .../artist/album/track.wav
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Comment on Kojima's OD | Knock teaser trailer in ~games
granfdad LinkVideo game animations are getting insanely good, the mocap in this trailer was insane. I don't play horror games, but I'm excited for this level of tech to get implemented into more projects.Video game animations are getting insanely good, the mocap in this trailer was insane. I don't play horror games, but I'm excited for this level of tech to get implemented into more projects.
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Comment on The Buff Scammer, isolation, and the male loneliness epidemic in ~life.men
granfdad Link ParentI don't know when this shift happened, but it feels like at some point the list of "acceptable male activities" got hugely reduced. It always seems like if you push far enough back in history the...I was friends with a lot of girls, and did “girly” sports like cross country and swimming (??) and “girly” activities like art (??)
I don't know when this shift happened, but it feels like at some point the list of "acceptable male activities" got hugely reduced. It always seems like if you push far enough back in history the societal norm goes from "man is big strong guy who cut log" to "man is big strong guy who cut log AND also the only gender capable of having nuanced philosophical and artistic expression"... when/why did the patriarchy cut out the arts?
Anyway, all that to say that the “That’s Gay” thing really fucks up straight men's relationships, and it also fucks up queer men (which is, I guess, the intended audience). I guess that's probably not news to anyone, but it was what I thought of when I read your message (which I rather like and agree with, by the way!).
I'm very lucky to have been born to/surrounded myself with people who are comparatively progressive about this sort of thing, so I've never had much real interaction with it. I'm also basically at the top of the privilege chart in just about every metric, so if anything I'm much more likely to be an inadvertent perpetrator of these issues than a victim. I'm curious about your age and what years you were in college and whatnot, because I'm relatively young so my experience is also more recent, which I think has a big impact on my lack of firsthand experience with "That's Gay".
The other thing I thought of is how fucking constantly my brother, dad, and ex-step-dad insist (in private) that they know the sexuality of someone (always another man) based on ridiculous things like their mannerisms or speech patterns
This kind of surprises me, I would assume that being able to "guess" someone's sexuality would be considered gay in and of itself (did i use that right?), just based on my experience of the gaydar trope in films and TV.
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Comment on The Buff Scammer, isolation, and the male loneliness epidemic in ~life.men
granfdad Linki love this. every time i see discourse about "how can we solve the manosphere", someone always makes the point that women doing more emotional work to pander to men is a terrible idea. they're...so anyway i think one of the most important things we can do as a society, that doesn't even require anyone to take on the burden of Managing Dudes' Feelings For Them, and which is conveniently a much smaller target than Fix Manhood Systemically, is to stop validating the unhinged reactionary narrative that Male Intimacy Is By Definition Gay.
because like. it's funny when it's fiction. but when a real guy who is not gay, which is statistically gonna be most of them, is getting barraged from both sides of the political aisle with the message that he can't have an emotional connection of any significance with a male friend without Proving that the world Knows Better Than He Does and he's clearly gay and just lying to himself about it.
i love this. every time i see discourse about "how can we solve the manosphere", someone always makes the point that women doing more emotional work to pander to men is a terrible idea. they're obviously right, but it's never said in good faith and is more used as a way to avoid any critical analysis of left-wing cultural ideals and fall back on "men are bad" rhetoric. this is the first time that i've seen anyone make that argument in an honest way, and it's an incredibly good point.
i'm a cis man, and i haven't ever experienced the "That's Gay" thing earnestly, but certainly i do not open up to any of my male friends as much as i would to any other friend, and that's already not a lot. that point got me thinking about my own experience, and i think it's touching on something that's a more specific version of the root cause: male friendships are mean.
there's a stereotype that men are mean to each other's faces (and nice behind their backs) and that women are mean behind each other's backs (but nice to their faces), but that stereotype always comes with some kind of implication that the male mean-ness is... better? like, it's not equally as harmful? sure, there's banter that never actually leaves any emotional damage but when so much friendly male interaction walks that line, it (accidentally) gets crossed a lot and you end up genuinely hurt. when everyone else shrugs it off as just more banter, you're pressured to let the hurtful stuff go as you would with harmless stuff and you build up a distrust for these people, even if you like them!
this is sort of a stream-of-consciousness comment, and i'm now not so sure which of the two issues comes first: are men mean to each other to not seem gay, or are men scared of being called gay because that's the kind of insult that might get thrown around?
in my own experience, the "That's Gay" thing actually manifests as the complete opposite: men will act gay for their homies, with the intention of laughing it off. i really don't know what kind of cultural aspects contribute to that but it gives a vibe of "making a facade of male intimacy to get a hit of that security, but still maintaining the low-level homophobia of 'haha no but thats actually fucked if i did that for real' to keep up masculine appearances/affirm my own gender"
i have no grand point to make, but thought i would say that i liked the post.
At some point in my transition, the "hate yourself, get an eating disorder, buy product" messaging I get switched from woman flavor to man flavor, and omfg. What the hell is this shit!
welcome to the club, it sucks in this corner too.
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
granfdad Linkyoung scrolls just dropped WE KNOW which is awesome as usual, i particularly like the intro to this track. I've also been adding to my ever-expanding hyperpop collection, particularly looking more...young scrolls just dropped WE KNOW which is awesome as usual, i particularly like the intro to this track.
I've also been adding to my ever-expanding hyperpop collection, particularly looking more towards digicore/glitchcore and... robloxcore...? I don't really know if that's a real thing, but it's in the tags of the tracks on soundcloud and that is good enough for me.
gicc - scare
prkr blu - RADIATE
dime! - ##areuwitmystats
minok0 - jasonThere's just something about the pretty aggressive lyrics compared to the super pitched vocals (not to mention the insane album art) that makes the genre so much fun to listen to.
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Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech
granfdad Link ParentApple is allergic to that mentality lol. It's not been that hard to switch away from launchpad. The quick actions being directly integrated into spotlight is great, I've got two letter shortcuts...Why not just let users have the option of using it?
Apple is allergic to that mentality lol. It's not been that hard to switch away from launchpad. The quick actions being directly integrated into spotlight is great, I've got two letter shortcuts to all my frequently used apps - I just liked launchpad because I had muscle memory from windows of launching things with the mouse.
I don't know how spotlight used to be, but it's better than it was in the immediate past. I've uninstalled Raycast because it's now more than close enough for my casual needs.
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Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech
granfdad Link ParentI'm on Tahoe, and the one thing I dislike is that launchpad has been removed and replaced with an "apps" feature that sucks. Apart from that, it's mostly the same.I'm on Tahoe, and the one thing I dislike is that launchpad has been removed and replaced with an "apps" feature that sucks. Apart from that, it's mostly the same.
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Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech
granfdad Link ParentThere's a lot of lag and heat generated immediately after updating as the phone re-configures everything, mine had frame drops for a few hours but it runs smooth now.There's a lot of lag and heat generated immediately after updating as the phone re-configures everything, mine had frame drops for a few hours but it runs smooth now.
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Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech
granfdad Link ParentMy guess is a scramble to put something together to make people forget about Apple Intelligence...My guess is a scramble to put something together to make people forget about Apple Intelligence...
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Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech
granfdad Link ParentThat doesn't bode well, I really like the state of modern macOS... fingers crossed it's not too bad.macOS Tahoe is even worse in terms of visual inconsistency and lack of polish, but that’s probably a conversation for a different thread.
That doesn't bode well, I really like the state of modern macOS... fingers crossed it's not too bad.
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Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech
granfdad Link ParentI am of the opinion that a large change to the design of one of the most popular objects in recent history is relatively important. It's no world ending threat, but it's certainly worth discussing.Let's all find something more important to complain about, shall we?
I am of the opinion that a large change to the design of one of the most popular objects in recent history is relatively important. It's no world ending threat, but it's certainly worth discussing.
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Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech
granfdad Link(admins, you might want to change the link to https://www.apple.com/au/os/ios/ instead, since it's the official page, but it will change overtime...)(admins, you might want to change the link to https://www.apple.com/au/os/ios/ instead, since it's the official page, but it will change overtime...)
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Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech
granfdad LinkWhen Liquid Glass was announced, I wrote the following So... I wasn't wrong, per se... but this is the most under-cooked iOS update ever. There's all sorts of problems, but the best example is the...When Liquid Glass was announced, I wrote the following
I know the world has a massive hate-boner for Apple, and for the most part I agree, but for this one I may be going against the grain when I say: this looks nice!
It seems to be really focused on showing content, be it a wallpaper, an article, a video, etc. and having the UI 'melt' into the display. Also, I appreciate using our modern processing power to have live(?) distortions, it seems like the natural evolution of the noisy blur that we got used to over the last 5+ years. I disagree with concerns about readability, since a UI rarely has walls of dense text, and iOS is icon-forward anyway. People have to keep in mind that the average Apple user doesn't care at all about the form (or function!) of their products in any real sense, so I can't imagine there being any real reception to this beyond "ooh, glassy buttons". All in all, I'm down for a return to depth and what seems like a pretty novel UI concept.
So... I wasn't wrong, per se... but this is the most under-cooked iOS update ever. There's all sorts of problems, but the best example is the new keyboard. It looks good, they've switched to using SF compact which I quite like. However, if you're not using an app that's updated to use the Liquid Glass UI kit, then you just get the old keyboard... what even is the point? I've managed to break my homescreen icons twice, once requiring a reboot. iOS users, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this update. I'm super disappointed by how busted the update is despite it being such a promising concept.
I fear for my macbook!
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iOS 26 is here
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Comment on Wireless earphones: a belated review in ~tech
granfdad LinkI've done the opposite, going from wireless for the last 5+ years to wired this year. My wireless experience was (suspiciously) amazing, spending $80 on a pair of JAM Live Loud earbuds for about a...I've done the opposite, going from wireless for the last 5+ years to wired this year. My wireless experience was (suspiciously) amazing, spending $80 on a pair of JAM Live Loud earbuds for about a year until they had charging issues, then spending another $100 on some Sony WF-C500s which are seemingly indestructible, with an infinite battery life that never degraded in the 4 years I was using them (which is the complete opposite of what reviews say, and the general wisdom around TWS, so I guess I just got a standout unit).
This year I picked up an iPod in an attempt to get away from music streaming and my smartphone, so I needed some wired earbuds to go with them. After doing some research, I spent $40 on a pair of Tanchjim One earbuds. It is truly insane how much better the sound quality is on these inexpensive wired earbuds compared to my TWS that were nearly double the price. It's not quite night-and-day, but I instantly noticed more detail in my music upon the first listen. It's slightly annoying having a cable that can get caught, but it's a minor gripe (and the cables can be replaced on this model so even if something breaks, it's a temporary and inexpensive setback).
I think the main thing that made this switch so easy was the fact that I do not use noise-cancelling. I'm super sensitive to the "pressure" feeling that noise cancelling generates, so I prefer to rely on the physical noise isolation and just deal with the degraded listening experience. If I'm commuting I'm not going to be actively listening to my music, so it's not a big deal.
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Comment on Flux Pavillion & Doctor P - I Can't Stop (Flux's Version) (2025) in ~music
granfdad Link ParentI must say that now is a prime time to get back into the scene, it's matured well beyond the homogeneity from it's peak popularity and sparseness is coming more into fashion as of late. The sound...a mismatch of various screechy sounds plastered onto bass that is so loud you can’t hear the vocals
I must say that now is a prime time to get back into the scene, it's matured well beyond the homogeneity from it's peak popularity and sparseness is coming more into fashion as of late. The sound is undeniably changed from the influence of Skrillex and the like, but it's come a long way.
Infekt - Allure
Claybrook - Conflict
SVDDEN DEATH & Marshmello - Vortexblade
Oolacile - Perceiver pt. 1 Consciousness Program (one of my favorite albums)
Completely off-topic, but why does Tildes show the favicon of xbox.com to be the 360 logo, when the site itself uses the up-to-date flat version?