robotsneedhugs's recent activity

  1. Comment on Do you have any hobby electronics projects in progress? in ~hobbies

    robotsneedhugs
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    Months ago, I bought a cheap USB footpedal with the intent to use it as a universal push-to-talk switch for my computer microphone, to mute and unmute. But when I tested it, I realized it only...

    Months ago, I bought a cheap USB footpedal with the intent to use it as a universal push-to-talk switch for my computer microphone, to mute and unmute. But when I tested it, I realized it only sends “switch down” events and no “switch up” event over USB - if you hold the switch down, it sends repeat “switch down” events like holding down a keyboard key.

    So I soldered a microcontroller (Teensy) onto the pads of their PCB, wrote a little driver, and now have distinct “switch down” and “switch up” events, all using USB HID.

    Aaaaand naturally the microcontroller won’t fit inside the actual footpedal case. Actually, it fits, but the rigid plastic around the mini USB connector on my cable takes up too much space. So I ordered a different Teensy with direct pads for the USB connection so I can strip the wire and solder it directly. It’s supposed to arrive next week - I’m excited to finally finish this project!

    It’s definitely not a super difficult project, and I probably did lots of things wrong along the way, but I’m still learning and it totally works so I’m quite happy about it.

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

    robotsneedhugs
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    I’m playing it on a modded Wii. Ripped the game off my original disc and now running it off a harddrive. My original Wii broke a few years ago but I was able to get a refurb from GameStop for $50....

    I’m playing it on a modded Wii. Ripped the game off my original disc and now running it off a harddrive. My original Wii broke a few years ago but I was able to get a refurb from GameStop for $50. Looks like it’s gone up in price since then. It was a super popular console so you can probably find a cheap one somewhere.

    The only emulator for GameCube that I know of is Dolphin, and from what I can tell, it’s quite good. I know they have a wiki with game-specific settings recommendations and such. I don’t have any other tips besides that. Not much experience with it. I used it to play Smash Bros in college and it worked okay, and that was off my 2012 laptop. I’m sure any half decent desktop PC would run it just fine these days.

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

    robotsneedhugs
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    A Short Hike is phenomenal! Love that game. Such a nice atmosphere and relaxing game. If you liked A Short Hike and NITW, you might want to check out Celeste, which is also in the bundle. It’s...

    A Short Hike is phenomenal! Love that game. Such a nice atmosphere and relaxing game.

    If you liked A Short Hike and NITW, you might want to check out Celeste, which is also in the bundle. It’s similarly gorgeous with a truly fantastic soundtrack, and is also an old-school-inspired platformer with a story to tell. Definitely a higher-pressure, less chill vibe than those other games but I still recommend it. It has really good difficulty/accessibility options - if you don’t like difficult platforming, you can make it easier for yourself at any time.

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

    robotsneedhugs
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    I’ve been replaying The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (the original, for GameCube) and loving every minute. It’s a serious contender for “my favorite Zelda game,” and even though I’ve already beaten...

    I’ve been replaying The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (the original, for GameCube) and loving every minute. It’s a serious contender for “my favorite Zelda game,” and even though I’ve already beaten it 3 or 4 times over the years, I always have a blast whenever I revisit it.

    This time, I’m doing a 100% run, which I’ve never done before. I was inspired by watching a 100% run which used a randomizer to shuffle the items in the game around. It changed the game into a sort of item-dependency puzzle, since most items/dungeons can only be obtained if you already have a different item. So planning your route becomes a much bigger part of the game than it would be normally. I’m just playing the normal “vanilla” game right now but maybe someday I’ll try out a randomized version.

    3 votes
  5. Comment on Like Michael Jackson and R Kelly's songs but not them? Ethical approaches for how to deal with it in ~humanities

    robotsneedhugs
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    Counterargument: what's the point of having moral standards at all if we choose not to enforce them? Personally I think there are enough excellent artists that we can (and, I believe, should) be...

    Counterargument: what's the point of having moral standards at all if we choose not to enforce them?

    Personally I think there are enough excellent artists that we can (and, I believe, should) be picky about our consumption. Of course, this proves to be very difficult in practice. I also think the way we give power to celebrities in our culture creates a system where they can frequently operate outside normal moral (and, often, legal) bounds with no significant repercussions. Until we address that systemic issue, I don't think we will be free of the social and philosophical issues presented in the article.

    Until then, here are some things I think we should try to do, even though it's hard:

    • Promote people and voices who act in ways we want to encourage in others above those who perform unethical acts (yes, this means effectively demoting people like R Kelly in favor of other artists who are better role models)
    • Strongly acknowledge the problematic nature of works and their creators, and actively discuss how the philosophies embodied in those works may have affected the culture around them. Recognize the historical context of these works, but don't use it as an excuse to allow people to get away with bad things.
    • If we feel strongly about the quality of a work and want to own a copy of it or support it in some way, do it in such a way that doesn't support the original creator financially. This for me usually means tracking down a second-hand copy of the work.
    5 votes
  6. Comment on How do you organize your bookmarks? in ~tech

    robotsneedhugs
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    I think you can export your bookmarks as an html file. You could then edit that file to delete the ones you don't want to share, and upload it to a personal website, dropbox, gist, pastebin, etc....

    I think you can export your bookmarks as an html file. You could then edit that file to delete the ones you don't want to share, and upload it to a personal website, dropbox, gist, pastebin, etc.

    Note: I'm not a Chrome user so it's possible they don't let you export to html anymore, but I know they used to.

    1 vote
  7. Comment on How do you organize your bookmarks? in ~tech

    robotsneedhugs
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    Would you be willing to share any of your bookmarks? Things like "Purchases" and "sort out" might be too personal, but I'm intrigued about what you have filed under sections like "Tools,"...

    Would you be willing to share any of your bookmarks? Things like "Purchases" and "sort out" might be too personal, but I'm intrigued about what you have filed under sections like "Tools," "Theory," and others.

    5 votes
  8. Comment on Why vi rocks in ~comp

    robotsneedhugs
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    Something that I never see talked about with Vim, and one of the things I like about it, is that it makes editing fun. I like to hope it makes me more productive, but wouldn't be surprised to find...

    Something that I never see talked about with Vim, and one of the things I like about it, is that it makes editing fun.

    I like to hope it makes me more productive, but wouldn't be surprised to find out any perceived productivity gain is just that - perceived. But for me, Vim makes basic and complex editing tasks fun. Moving around and getting the cursor to go where I want without touching a mouse feels like a superpower. Figuring out how to string together commands to achieve a goal is like solving a puzzle. Watching a macro run on every line in sequence is like toppling dominoes.

    It just feels good to use Vim. I'm at the point where a lot of it is muscle memory, so my conscious mind gets to watch as my body convinces my computer to do exactly what I need. A mind-reading text editor is pretty fun to use, it turns out!

    Sure, I could probably accomplish these tasks in another editor, possibly even faster than in Vim. But I wouldn't enjoy the editing process nearly as much.

    2 votes
  9. Comment on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker | Teaser trailer in ~movies

    robotsneedhugs
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    Did anyone else find it strange that Rose was, as far as I can see, completely missing from this trailer?

    Did anyone else find it strange that Rose was, as far as I can see, completely missing from this trailer?

    4 votes
  10. Comment on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker | Teaser trailer in ~movies

    robotsneedhugs
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    I disagree that the average fan didn't like TLJ. I think it received a mixed response from the fanbase as a whole, but it's not clear to me what the average or even majority viewpoint is. Full...

    I disagree that the average fan didn't like TLJ. I think it received a mixed response from the fanbase as a whole, but it's not clear to me what the average or even majority viewpoint is. Full disclosure: I loved TLJ, it's my personal favorite Star Wars movie.

    Even still, I understand their desire, even though I disagree with it, to bring the fans back together in consensus and make a follow-up with broader appeal. But based on this trailer, I think they went too far, and it's going to make the sequels feel like a disjointed set of three movies rather than a cohesive trilogy.

    But it's definitely too early to say for sure, and I'm optimistic that this will turn out different from how it seems today.

    7 votes
  11. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~talk

    robotsneedhugs
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    I really miss having friends living nearby to play board games with. I've considered looking for a meetup, but I'm worried it'll be too much commitment. Like, I definitely want to be playing board...

    I really miss having friends living nearby to play board games with. I've considered looking for a meetup, but I'm worried it'll be too much commitment.

    Like, I definitely want to be playing board games regularly again, but I don't want to get roped into a group that insists on me being there every single week - sometimes I won't want to go! I'm also worried about having trouble entering a pre-established group and being the (n+1)th wheel of a circle of existing friends.

    Any thoughts based on your experience? Also, how does your group decide which games to play on a given week?

    2 votes
  12. Comment on What are your dreams like? in ~talk

    robotsneedhugs
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    My dreams tend to be grounded in reality - all the laws of physics apply. Like, I read about people who have dreams where they can fly or breathe underwater or dreaming of a sci-fi future with...

    My dreams tend to be grounded in reality - all the laws of physics apply. Like, I read about people who have dreams where they can fly or breathe underwater or dreaming of a sci-fi future with hoverboards and lasers. But everything that happens in my dreams could theoretically happen in the real world, but other things about them can be strange. For instance, I'll be back in high school again, or someone from my past will show up inexplicably even though I haven't seen them for many years, or I'll be in a weird situation that I would never get myself into in the waking world.

    From time to time, I'll have a strikingly... cinematic? dream, for lack of a better way of describing it. I've had dreams with full soundtracks (note: I'm not a musician in my waking life, so extra bonus points to my subconscious brain!). One notable dream - nightmare, really - was a "chase" dream where my friends and I were hiding from some type of monster that was picking off other friends and classmates one-by-one. But this monster had a sound cue! I remember hearing the cue right next to my ear and waking up in a panic because I knew the monster was right behind me.

    Not to derail the discussion, but does anyone else get frequent sleep paralysis? Every time I have a nightmare, I wake up with sleep paralysis. My heart beats really fast and I'm unable to move. By now I'm used to it, but it was pretty scary when I was a kid!