sparkle's recent activity
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Comment on Valve has released CAD files for the Steam Controller in ~games
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Comment on Space Hauler | Announcement trailer in ~games
sparkle Link ParentI so wish Hardspace had an official VR mode! I would legitimately consider buying VR just for that game alone, being that immersed in space and being able to use your hands to manipulate the tools...I so wish Hardspace had an official VR mode! I would legitimately consider buying VR just for that game alone, being that immersed in space and being able to use your hands to manipulate the tools and float through space would be fantastic.
I know there's VR mods for it but that sounds like a lot of work for something I know little about :/
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Comment on What was the best job you ever had? in ~life
sparkle (edited )LinkResearch librarian's assistant! I held this job at my university for two years and it was an absolute blast. I primarily helped the head research librarian, but I got to learn a lot along the way...Research librarian's assistant! I held this job at my university for two years and it was an absolute blast. I primarily helped the head research librarian, but I got to learn a lot along the way and he even let me help some of the other students with their research projects, allowing me to develop a really deep understanding of library material organization and just absorbing a lot of knowledge about a lot of topics to enable me to make good suggestions for books.
There was also ordering papers and books via interlibrary loan, but that was kind of a streamlined process so not much fun to be had there.
I also had access to our archives! It was a small school so it was like, mostly historical documents, past student theses, photographs, etc., but still really cool.
Still not really sure how I wound up in dev ops/cloud engineering but here we are. I honestly didn't think research librarians were still much of a thing but one of my friends is getting her degree in it, so must still be in demand. It's great being able to chat and (healthily) live vicariously through her. Who knows - maybe one day after the great communication collapse of 2067 I'll go back to working in a library.
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Comment on Do you prefer chunky or smooth peanut butter? in ~food
sparkle (edited )LinkI don't really like peanut butter all that much. However! I do love peanuts. Roasted, fried, boiled, salted, unsalted, shelled, unshelled, don't matter. The one time I do like peanut butter is on...I don't really like peanut butter all that much. However! I do love peanuts. Roasted, fried, boiled, salted, unsalted, shelled, unshelled, don't matter. The one time I do like peanut butter is on toast with garlic dill pickle slices, in that case I usually prefer chunky but I'll take whatever's on hand, so long as there's no high fructose corn syrup in it.
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Comment on Original Apollo 11 code open-sourced by NASA in ~space
sparkle (edited )LinkEdit: Tom's Hardware writers are either in an alternate timeline, had a story get stuck in the queue and just now automatically released, or something weirder because this was apparently already...Edit: Tom's Hardware writers are either in an alternate timeline, had a story get stuck in the queue and just now automatically released, or something weirder because this was apparently already done by the same intern in 2016?. I guess at no point do they actually claim this was newly released, the title is just bad.
Original comment: Hasn't the code been available for awhile? Perhaps they just mean that it has been uploaded to GitHub from an official source.
I'm fairly certain the original source code is what they are using in the Apollo Guidance Computer restoration video by CuriousMarc with Mike Stewart doing most of the AGC code work.
This one in particular has them using the Apollo 11 AGC original code to "fly" the LM.
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Comment on Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, an epic adventure, will release in IMAX and wide globally in theaters on February 12, 2027, and on Netflix on April 2, 2027 in ~movies
sparkle Link ParentYes. It was a very confusing childhood. Very much a "judge the book by its cover (or title)". The real icing on the cake - The Lord of the Rings was completely acceptable (no mention of magic in...So is The Magician's Nephew solely excluded because it has the word magic in the title regardless of the content?
Yes. It was a very confusing childhood. Very much a "judge the book by its cover (or title)". The real icing on the cake - The Lord of the Rings was completely acceptable (no mention of magic in the title - in fact Return of the King probably evoked images of the Rapture). I should also mention she is incapable of imagination, she quite literally cannot read fiction and be immersed in the world, so she never actually read any of the books that were subject to a ban (or not).
She's since admitted that she didn't know how to parent and she was just basing a lot of her belief system on what other moms in the church were saying/doing. And there were some real crunchy Utah moms in that bunch. My mom just didn't want to do the legwork of figuring out the why behind the various bans/boycotts they instituted. Disney, Pokemon, Magic the Gathering, Power Rangers, Harry Potter, any TV channel but PBS, etc. were all subject to a crunchy mom ban at some point and my mom was more than happy to join in to show how dedicated she was to the cause.
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Comment on Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, an epic adventure, will release in IMAX and wide globally in theaters on February 12, 2027, and on Netflix on April 2, 2027 in ~movies
sparkle Link ParentI also grew up religious but my mom was extremely anti-magic. The mere mention of the word was enough to send her into a frenzy. The Magician's Nephew was especially touchy because it was...I also grew up religious but my mom was extremely anti-magic. The mere mention of the word was enough to send her into a frenzy. The Magician's Nephew was especially touchy because it was Christian literature by a well renowned and respected Christian author so this understandably created quite the cognitive dissonance. For years it sat there in the box set with the other six books, each of which was dog-eared and worn from having been read so many times. And then there was The Magician's Nephew, nearly pristine, almost imagined out of existence lest we upset my mother by mentioning it or reading it.
Of course, what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her, so one day when I felt bold enough I started to read it. Mom had stopped caring as much after we switched churches to somewhere less dogmatic and I seized the opportunity. I definitely liked it more than The Horse and His Boy, though my young mind wasn't as receptive of the prose and symbology of either at the time. And I read it too late in life - I wasn't nearly as interested and I was already on my way out from the church.
Anyway my favourite has always been The Silver Chair just because I really like spelunking and the Underland was really cool to me. It was also nice to see Eustace again after the conclusion of Dawn Treader.
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Comment on Apple set to become third-biggest laptop maker this year in ~tech
sparkle Link ParentMy 2006 MacBook was free because it was stolen from the original owner, ditched in a bush and left outside for three days in the rain, recovered, and the original owner said I could have it if I...My
20082006 MacBook was free because it was stolen from the original owner, ditched in a bush and left outside for three days in the rain, recovered, and the original owner said I could have it if I could fix it since he had already gotten a new one.I let it dry thoroughly, cleaned up any debris inside, slapped a new battery and HDD in and used it for a good year. Those polycarbonates were fantastic, I still have a
20112008 model in the basement although the screen is shot. Speaking of which, I did replace the screen on one of them at one point - also a very easy repair.Edit: got my dates a little mixed up. I got the free 2006 model in 2008, then got a 2008 model in 2009.
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Comment on "Why was I invited to Beast Studios?" - A comprehensive investigative analysis of YouTube's biggest channel in ~tech
sparkle Link ParentMr Beast branded anything hearkens forth images of Krusty branded products. -Bort SampsonMr Beast branded anything hearkens forth images of Krusty branded products.
I've been scorched by
KrustyMr Beast before. I got a rapid heartbeat from hisKrustyMr Beast Brand vitamins; myKrustyMr Beast Calculator didn't have a 7 or an 8; andKrusty'sMr Beast's autobiography was self-serving with many glaring omissions; but this time, he's gone too far!-Bort Sampson
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Comment on SUPER ZSNES - SNES Emulator in ~games
sparkle Link ParentOh ok that's awesome then! Wonder if they saw there was a lot more demand for Linux gaming since the original release and quickly spun up a pipeline for unity.Oh ok that's awesome then! Wonder if they saw there was a lot more demand for Linux gaming since the original release and quickly spun up a pipeline for unity.
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Comment on SUPER ZSNES - SNES Emulator in ~games
sparkle (edited )LinkModern Vintage Gamer did a video/interview? on Super ZSNES just recently. Shows off the features as well as discusses some of the the tech behind it and also the mod tools being developed. ZSNES...Modern Vintage Gamer did a video/interview? on Super ZSNES just recently. Shows off the features as well as discusses some of the the tech behind it and also the mod tools being developed.
ZSNES was a core part of my childhood, from the moment my friend showed it running under DOS and explained it did better than it did under Windows because... Windows. I pretty much made sure I installed it on every computer I had access to cuz it was small and I could play so many games with it. I'm pretty certain I had the emulator + like five essential games (Chrono Trigger, FF6, Super Mario World, Bahamut Lagoon, and MarioRPG, if I had to guess) in a compressed archive on a floppy disk somewhere that went everywhere with me.
Unity engine is still a weird choice to me - maybe because so much is done in GPU as opposed to the original that was mostly CPU? Also hoping they don't keep Arial as the default font (I think that's what Unity sets as a default?) and either let you pick other fonts or use the original pixel font cuz Arial is just ... There's a place for it and this ain't it.
I also don't know why MVG says it's only available on Windows, Mac, and Android when there's a Linux build available on the main page unless it wasn't available at the time of publication.
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Comment on What’s the best 3D-printed thing you have? in ~talk
sparkle LinkI've not done a lot but I feel like I've gotten my money's worth. Best self-designed part: Just a simple little chain link for the pull chain on rolling blinds. I've actually had to print this...I've not done a lot but I feel like I've gotten my money's worth.
Best self-designed part: Just a simple little chain link for the pull chain on rolling blinds. I've actually had to print this like five times because the originals keep breaking throughout the house. I'm just proud of it because it was my first time measuring and troubleshooting a part.
Best third-party design: The vanity mirror in my wife's car had the plastic piece break where the headliner meets the stem and the plastic piece grips the stem. New mirror assembly (because you can't buy just the plastic mount!) would run ~300$. 50 cents of filament and an hour of work fixed it to almost new. Felt really smug about that one for awhile
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Comment on Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold | Teaser trailer in ~games
sparkle Link ParentI absolutely do love crafting for people. Always made me really happy when friends would come back and I'd greet them and make the latest set for their favourite class so they could jump back in....I absolutely do love crafting for people. Always made me really happy when friends would come back and I'd greet them and make the latest set for their favourite class so they could jump back in. But then one of them decided to sell everything I made them without even using it (obviously since it wasn't soulbound) and said nothing to me, so that really sucked. I don't talk to them anymore for other reasons (extreme misogyny among them) but that was the beginning of the end.
I'll still do it for friends I really know and trust, just not less-acquainted raid friends.
I also love glamming and I know that has had a ton of improvements, so at least I've got that to encourage me :)
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Comment on Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold | Teaser trailer in ~games
sparkle (edited )Link Parent"Pray return to the Wakin...." NO FFS Minfilia, if it's that important, you come here or just call me on the linkpearl!! I actually made the effort to not skip cutscenes or speed through anything...Feel like so much of the MSQ these days is just fetch or walk/teleport then talk to NPC quests and then long-ass cut scenes.
"Pray return to the Wakin...."
NOFFS Minfilia, if it's that important, you come here or just call me on the linkpearl!!
I actually made the effort to not skip cutscenes or speed through anything in DT. It... didn't really help much tbh. But I wanted to fully enjoy the story instead of rushing through to endgame.
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Comment on Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold | Teaser trailer in ~games
sparkle (edited )Link ParentEdit since this turned into a lengthy rant and I don't like being so negative: Things I did enjoy were the raid series, up until my static fell apart and I didn't have the desire to find 6 new...Edit since this turned into a lengthy rant and I don't like being so negative:
Things I did enjoy were the raid series, up until my static fell apart and I didn't have the desire to find 6 new people I meshed well with. I enjoyed Viper quite a bit and mained it for most content, though I do miss my Samurai. The world was also beautiful and of course the music was phenomenal.Sargatanas is one of the legacy servers (I've been playing since Heavensward) - it's definitely not low pop lol. It's frequently congested for character creation and logins.
Kinda surprised you haven't seen bots, though I've not been on Crystal much so I can't say much about the state there. And my interests possibly don't align with yours in game. Ironically though, treasure hunting is where I've seen the most bots outside of gathering/mining. When you've been playing for years, you learn to spot them pretty easily - they're everywhere once you recognize the patterns. Granted I've not played in a year+ but I still talk to friends and nobody has really said "wow the bot situation has really improved" or they're all just accepting of it.
It's especially difficult if you want to make money crafting because there are bots farming the mats and selling for cheap, bots crafting gear and selling for cheap, bots buying up more expensive things and relisting them for cheap, etc. so it makes it not even worth it when you have to spend an hour farming stuff and crafting only to be able to sell it for maybe 75000 gil because you get undercut every five minutes.
If you look at the market board right after a major patch you'll definitely see a difference in prices (higher), volume (lower), and undercutting (less) because the third party tools take 24-72 hours to be updated, typically. Though some of the paid bot tools are updated even faster so there's less of a window. Doesn't really help me since I can't really get online at 3am after a patch to sell things.
Bots also ruined hunting - players running stuff like GatherBuddy often have Sonar turned on and if you're unaware they're in the zone and you put in the effort to kill 300 mobs for a rare S-rank spawn, only to have the bot indiscriminately alert everybody and somebody with a bone to pick zones in and starts killing the mark (which usually melts because everybody else using the sonar plugin piles on so they don't miss out on the rewards) before most people who don't want to use third party tools can show up and then they get mad at you because they missed out, well it's a bit disheartening.
Anyway obviously I burnt myself out a bit, as evidenced by my lengthy rant. I probably got a bit too into things. Maybe I'll be even more casual on Evercold. Perhaps won't even touch hunting this time around, since that is rife with drama. Crafting and hunting were the two things I enjoyed the most and the bots and lack of response from Squeenix were a big part of me stepping away, so maybe I just need to focus on the non bot-infested portions and enjoy the simpler things in life.
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Comment on Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold | Teaser trailer in ~games
sparkle LinkI guess I might resub. I stopped around 7.2 I think? Dawntrail was worse than Heavensward for me. In fairness, pretty hard to follow up on the blockbuster ending that was Endwalker. I did tell...I guess I might resub. I stopped around 7.2 I think? Dawntrail was worse than Heavensward for me. In fairness, pretty hard to follow up on the blockbuster ending that was Endwalker. I did tell myself that if Dawntrail was bad, I'd just sit it out and the next one would be better.
Hopefully the QoL changes are enough to keep me subbed this time. Some of the reasons for not playing are my own fault, but a lot has to do with Squeenix decisions (or lack thereof). The bots were especially bad in 7.x, it was really difficult to do anything on the market board if you weren't online 24/7. Or you would get stuck in a bot party via DF. Or you'd have to mute half the world because it was bots shouting about gold selling.
At the end of the day, I just didn't enjoy my experience in DT. Maybe this'll be better. And I'm not letting myself get hyped either - that was a big personal issue because I was really excited for DT originally but most of my friends weren't, so the social aspect was sorely missing. And while the game can be played solo, it's a very densely populated lonely world.
I'm on Aether-Sargatanas so maybe I'll see some of you around :)
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Comment on I worked as a professional video editor until 2014. How much has changed since then? in ~tech
sparkle Link ParentI'm on Wayland and don't have too much recent experience with X11, but I've followed pretty much this workflow using Intel drivers on my laptop running X11 as well. Pop see I pretty much just...I'm on Wayland and don't have too much recent experience with X11, but I've followed pretty much this workflow using Intel drivers on my laptop running X11 as well. Pop see
I pretty much just checked the card was detected with
lspci, installed the Nvidia drivers, checked the card was detected withnvidia-smi, if not there, checklsmod | grep -E 'nvidia|nouveau'to see if the kernel module was actually loaded. There can always be some variations depending on distro flavour, but generally it should just work.Steam games work pretty well with minimum tinkering needed. Non-steam games can require a bit more tinkering but it's generally just adding a variable for Proton.
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Comment on At long last, InfoWars is ours - The Onion in ~news
sparkle Link ParentI always thought this was a joke from The Onion Movie. I had no idea it was the real parent company lol Apparently it actually comes from The Onion book "Our Dumb Century", which I also did not...Under the terms, The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron,
I always thought this was a joke from The Onion Movie. I had no idea it was the real parent company lol
Apparently it actually comes from The Onion book "Our Dumb Century", which I also did not know existed
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Comment on Which Linux distro do you use, and why? in ~tech
sparkle (edited )Link ParentHow is the experience on surface pro? I have an old surface pro 3 that I put Arch on but it's a bit long in the tooth and power management is a headache, though I love the display and overall it's...How is the experience on surface pro? I have an old surface pro 3 that I put Arch on but it's a bit long in the tooth and power management is a headache, though I love the display and overall it's a pretty comfy device for light browsing and pdf viewing
I'm familiar enough with Alpine from container management but I haven't used it extensively
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Comment on Which Linux distro do you use, and why? in ~tech
sparkle (edited )LinkArch, of course, though my lineage dates back to Mandrake Linux and then a long stint on old Ubuntu with some Windows side quests along the way. Been running Arch in some fashion since 2016 but...Arch, of course, though my lineage dates back to Mandrake Linux and then a long stint on old Ubuntu with some Windows side quests along the way. Been running Arch in some fashion since 2016 but only recently started to daily drive it. Oh I also successfully booted Linux From Scratch and then never touched it again.
I like Arch just because it really works well for me. I've built up a knowledge base of common problems I've faced and solutions but I rarely have to touch it lately because things just... work. I've got btrfs and snapper set up so that does give me some ease of mind as well. It's also got a lot of inertia, most commands are muscle memory at this point and I've got about a 95% confidence that if something breaks, I can fairly quickly identify the issue and fix it or workaround it. And I also just like problem solving too, I think I'd be bored with an OS that I didn't have to tinker with.
I primarily use Debian or Alpine for all my servers though. Debian is just really nice and stable for the most part and is like a good Clydesdale. Alpine is tiny and great for SBC projects or anything lightweight - I have a couple containers running Alpine as a base. A surprising amount of power in such a little distro.
You'd rather they host on GitHub and have the controller reverted to v1? (I'm extremely oversimplifying and misconstruing the whole snafu from two weeks ago for the sake of the joke)