jakeinator21's recent activity

  1. Comment on What are your "must-read" books? in ~books

    jakeinator21
    Link Parent
    Just started Knife of Dreams a couple days ago. Wheel of Time is such a phenomenal series.

    Just started Knife of Dreams a couple days ago. Wheel of Time is such a phenomenal series.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Windows Phone gets revenge on YouTube from the grave by helping users bypass its ad-blocker-blocker in ~tech

    jakeinator21
    Link Parent
    It's possible they may have disabled the functionality sooner, it's been so long I can't remember exactly when it happened. But I for sure remember in like 2012 or so that my Galaxy S1 could do...

    It's possible they may have disabled the functionality sooner, it's been so long I can't remember exactly when it happened. But I for sure remember in like 2012 or so that my Galaxy S1 could do it. Google may have disabled it as early as 2014 in preparation for YouTube Red, but I can't be certain exactly when.

    The reason it was still possible on Windows Phone after that was the fact that there was never an official YouTube app for the windows phone. Microsoft's "YouTube app" was just a wrapper for the mobile version of the website, so the limitations Google wrote into their official app never made it over to Microsoft's platform.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Windows Phone gets revenge on YouTube from the grave by helping users bypass its ad-blocker-blocker in ~tech

    jakeinator21
    Link Parent
    Playing YouTube with the screen off wasn't exclusive to Windows phone, Android phones used to be able to do it too. It wasn't until a while after they implemented YouTube Red that they started...

    Playing YouTube with the screen off wasn't exclusive to Windows phone, Android phones used to be able to do it too. It wasn't until a while after they implemented YouTube Red that they started blocking the functionality, in an attempt to get more paid subscribers. That was in like mid 2016.

    8 votes

  4. Comment on Your favorite band that no one has heard of? in ~music

    jakeinator21
    Link
    Bloom Weirdly found out about this group from my mom who tagged me on one of their songs on Facebook one day. Never met another person who has ever heard of them, but I've listened to their...

    Bloom

    Weirdly found out about this group from my mom who tagged me on one of their songs on Facebook one day. Never met another person who has ever heard of them, but I've listened to their Photosynthesis album more times than I can count.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on What is a simple tech tip that changed how you use your computer or other devices in a significant way? in ~tech

    jakeinator21
    Link Parent
    And Win+Shift+S will automatically let you screenshot a portion of your screen and open it for editing. I used to have Snipping Tool pinned to my taskbar on every computer I used, but Win+Shift+S...

    And Win+Shift+S will automatically let you screenshot a portion of your screen and open it for editing. I used to have Snipping Tool pinned to my taskbar on every computer I used, but Win+Shift+S totally eliminated the need for that.

    17 votes

  6. Comment on Black Mirror: Favorite episodes in ~tv

    jakeinator21
    Link
    The only episode I've seen of the current season was Beyond the Sea and I loved it. My top three favorite episodes of the series are White Christmas, White Bear, and Be Right Back.

    The only episode I've seen of the current season was Beyond the Sea and I loved it. My top three favorite episodes of the series are White Christmas, White Bear, and Be Right Back.

    3 votes

  7. Comment on Any hardcore leftists here? in ~talk

  8. Comment on I'm trying to find "mild" horror movies, any suggestions? in ~movies

  9. Comment on What game is your current addiction? in ~games

    jakeinator21
    Link
    Rain World. I can't stop dying, but I also can't stop playing. It's quite the conundrum.

    Rain World. I can't stop dying, but I also can't stop playing. It's quite the conundrum.

    4 votes

  10. Comment on What is your favorite type of horror movie antagonist? in ~movies

    jakeinator21
    Link
    For me, it's the ones that can affect the protagonist's ability to correctly discern their reality. Sometimes it's facilitated by mental instability, like The Babadook, and other times it's an...

    For me, it's the ones that can affect the protagonist's ability to correctly discern their reality. Sometimes it's facilitated by mental instability, like The Babadook, and other times it's an actual malevolent entity, like Oculus. But either way, that idea that the characters (and by extension myself, as the viewer) can't be certain whether something is real or not, or perhaps aren't fully in conscious of themselves, is just so unsettling to me. How can you stop something that you can't even accurately perceive?

    I remember as a teenager seeing an episode of Criminal Minds where this dude snapped one day and killed some woman that cut him off in traffic, then for the rest of the episode he's upset because his wife and daughter won't talk to him for some reason and have locked themselves in their rooms. Then at the end of the episode it's revealed that he had a psychotic break after killing the first woman, during which he came home to kill his wife and daughter as well, with absolutely no recollection of it after the fact. So the whole time that he thought they were just ignoring him, they had actually been dead. That episode messed me up pretty bad.

    3 votes

  11. Comment on What are your thoughts on the second season of Vinland Saga? in ~anime

    jakeinator21
    Link Parent
    I choose dubs over subs in most cases, for a couple of reasons. I don't like that having to read subs takes my attention away from the visuals, especially in shows with very good animation. As...

    I choose dubs over subs in most cases, for a couple of reasons. I don't like that having to read subs takes my attention away from the visuals, especially in shows with very good animation. As long as the dub isn't distractingly bad, I feel I enjoy shows more when I watch them dubbed.

    Also my wife and I both have ADHD, which makes it harder to follow what's happening in shows with subs. If we get distracted during a scene, our brains can usually still pick up what's being said and piece things together when we refocus. But with subs, it doesn't work because our brains can't piece together a language we don't understand. I find myself pretty regularly needing to rewind scenes when I'm watching with subs, but almost never so with dubs.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on Favorite ambient / instrumental music? in ~music

  13. Comment on What are your thoughts on the second season of Vinland Saga? in ~anime

    jakeinator21
    Link Parent
    Same. I'm dying waiting for the second half of the dub.

    Same. I'm dying waiting for the second half of the dub.

    3 votes

  14. Comment on How to get back into recording music? in ~creative

    jakeinator21
    Link Parent
    Ah nice, I'll have to keep an eye out for secondhand deals then. Thanks for the recommendation!

    Ah nice, I'll have to keep an eye out for secondhand deals then. Thanks for the recommendation!

  15. Comment on Music Discovery Thread: Share the Top 3 songs you’re currently obsessed with! in ~music

    jakeinator21
    Link Parent
    I looooove Haken. My second favorite group of all time, just behind Between The Buried And Me in first place.

    I looooove Haken. My second favorite group of all time, just behind Between The Buried And Me in first place.

  16. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    jakeinator21
    Link Parent
    Oh yeah, that's another huge control scheme issue I hate. You should be able to pull up the item menu then select to throw the item. Having to pull my weapon up to throw is so clunky AND makes me...

    Oh yeah, that's another huge control scheme issue I hate. You should be able to pull up the item menu then select to throw the item. Having to pull my weapon up to throw is so clunky AND makes me infinitely more likely to throw my weapon accidentally, which I definitely have on several occasions. So annoying.

    1 vote

  17. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    jakeinator21
    Link Parent
    I'm finding that there are things about TotK that dramatically improved on BotW for me, and others that have gotten much much worse. Enemies have way too much health and hit much harder than they...

    I'm finding that there are things about TotK that dramatically improved on BotW for me, and others that have gotten much much worse.

    Enemies have way too much health and hit much harder than they should, unless they are bosses in temples. Getting hit by a temple boss takes one and a half hearts, meanwhile getting hit by a bokoblin arrow in Hyrule field takes ten hearts. Pink horriblins take like ten hits to kill with a weapon that does 70 damage. Meanwhile a temple boss take like six hits to kill with the same weapon. Why??

    Weapon durability is just as frustrating as the first game. The vast majority of weapons you find are worthless because they are decayed and break even more quickly than in the first game. Fusing simply brings weapon durability back up to what it would have been in the first game. Really disappointing.

    The building mechanic can be really useful, but is a pita to use. Autobuild doesn't have nearly enough favorites slots for me to feel like I can experiment much at all without wasting a huge chunk of time on it. Some platform-type parts have snap points while other don't, which can make building with the wrong materials incredibly frustrating. Some enemies can just easily smash all your stuff so building larger weapons can be a huge waste of time. Also any time you load a save, anything you've built disappears, which is idiotic.

    Sage powers are stupidly frustrating. Why did they make the button to activate them the same button to pick stuff up? Why do I have to be standing next to the sage I want to activate their ability? They really dropped the ball on the controls for them.

    And honestly, they dropped the ball on all of the controls in this game. No way to rotate clockwise when building. No way to switch between types when selecting an item in the dpad-up menu. No way to quickswap bows without pulling a bow out, and no way to quickswap your melee weapon while your bow is out. Z-targeting is an archaic form of lock on. Sprinting / jumping doesn't take you out of a crouch. The sprint button and jump buttons being across from each other is asinine. So many frustrations with the control scheme in this game.

    On the flipside, I find the story to be a lot more engaging than BotW. Zelda is less annoying and the sage quests were more fun and memorable than the last game. I also think the depths and sky maps add a lot of variety to the gameplay so if I'm bored of the overworld I can go do stuff in the sky or underground. Even though I hate the weapon durability garbage, the fuse mechanic makes killing big enemies feel more worth my time. And as annoying as the building mechanic can be, being able to build air bikes and frost carts has definitely been a game changer for me. I've played TotK for much longer than I ever played BotW because of these few improvements.

    12 votes

  18. Comment on What is your favorite board or card game for seven or more players? in ~games.tabletop

    jakeinator21
    Link
    Secret Hitler! It's kinda like Mafia / Werewolf, but with a bit more structure. Everyone is split into two parties, Liberals and Fascists, with the Fascist party having one member that is Hitler....

    Secret Hitler! It's kinda like Mafia / Werewolf, but with a bit more structure.

    Everyone is split into two parties, Liberals and Fascists, with the Fascist party having one member that is Hitler. The fascists know who else is a fascist and who Hitler is, but Hitler doesn't know who the other fascists are. Liberals don't know anything about anyone.

    Every round, the next person in the circle is made "president" and has to select a chancellor. Then everyone votes on whether they are ok with both of these people being in power. Once in power, the chancellor draws three "policies" from the draw pile (they're all simply labeled Fascist or Liberal), discards one, then hands the remaining two to the president. The president then selects one policy to be enacted.

    As more policies get enacted, new actions are unlocked such as viewing a players party affiliation, or killing a player. Either party can win by getting the required number of policies enacted. Additionally, Liberals can win if Hitler is killed, and Fascists can win if Hitler is elected chancellor.

    I find it more compelling than typical Mafia / Werewolf type games because there's a bit more strategy to it.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on Music Discovery Thread: Share the Top 3 songs you’re currently obsessed with! in ~music

  20. Comment on What are your favorite animes and what do you like about them? in ~anime

    jakeinator21
    Link Parent
    Yeah, the movie gets really heavy. Season 2 gets pretty hard to watch too, but its visuals are so bright and colorful that it feels less depressing than the movie, somehow.

    Yeah, the movie gets really heavy. Season 2 gets pretty hard to watch too, but its visuals are so bright and colorful that it feels less depressing than the movie, somehow.