whs's recent activity

  1. Comment on Humble Choice - June 2026 in ~games

    whs
    Link Parent
    I did a playthrough with a friend and I had really good fun. It's Factorio without the logistics problems. Instead the combat is a lot more fun with ARPG style hack and slash, and a wide variety...

    I did a playthrough with a friend and I had really good fun. It's Factorio without the logistics problems. Instead the combat is a lot more fun with ARPG style hack and slash, and a wide variety of weapons. You also get tower defense with several tower and traps options.

    2 votes

  2. Comment on What's your favorite personal gaming memory? in ~games

    whs
    Link
    It seems that for many people, their MMORPG has a lot of very personal story. Here's my story in Guild Wars 2 over a decade ago. I got into Guild Wars 2 because it was on sale for $10. It's a no...

    It seems that for many people, their MMORPG has a lot of very personal story. Here's my story in Guild Wars 2 over a decade ago.

    I got into Guild Wars 2 because it was on sale for $10. It's a no brainer to buy it, but I didn't play it. At some point I thought I might as well try it to see if it works. What intended to be "fire the game up, walk around and quit that night" got me hooked for a few days. Then I tell myself "I'll 100% map completion and quit".

    At that time the PvM end game contents of Guild Wars 2 base game are basically: grind daily dungeons for money or fractal of the mist (random dungeon slices with random effects, which I don't like). There are also some one time higher end content, like the Aetherblade Dungeon that are 2 hours long. Then I looked into the achievement and it seems that in the world boss category there are two hard bosses. Tequatl, and Triple Trouble. These bosses are map-wide event that spawns at a specific times only - for me it is 7.30am, 10.30am, 2.30pm, 6pm and 3am iirc.

    Tequatl is easy in a mass, which happen at every spawn at most maps. You just need 2-3 people who know how to operate the turrets (click the head and press 2, basically. The rest like cleanse are helpful but optional), then the rest of the mob just keep DPSing.

    Triple Trouble on the other hand is very complicated unlike any other content in the game at that time. You need to escort the 3 NPC separately to each corner of the map, and if any one of them died the boss will not spawn (it's not hard but you need 3 groups). Then the 3 bosses spawn at the same time, but is invuln. You'll need to do its mechanics (which are different for all 3 of them) before it is vulnerable for just under a minute, so you need 3 groups of people who can do the mechanics and has good DPS. To add to the difficulty., the boss can spawn two types of mobs infinitely until the event timer runs out. The first type are larvae which spit acid. If you're in meta zerker gear you'll drop immediately. The other type are abomination which can explode, and is tanky against direct damage. Keep in mind that most other content in the game you can use zerker gear to clear, these abominations you'll need to use damage over time (conditions).

    Finally, if you kill one boss the other will despawn in a minute. So you need to get all of them low but not kill them, then do one final mechanics to kill them at the same time hoping that the others will not fuck up their mechanics. And that is just phase 1. The second phase the bosses will charge around the arena and you just need to pass the DPS check within time limit, but the charges can still one shot people in full zerker. Generally people just stack at a cliff face so that the boss cannot charge you.

    Obviously this boss requires very good coordination. In the NA server there are only a few guilds that can do this content, even if it is otherwise a public, uninstanced world boss. And only one of them are doing public run, TTS. Since I was looking to get the achievement I start joining TTS runs, but they only run at 10.30am and 6pm, and only one map (iirc a map can fit about 200 people, divide that to three teams)

    The strategy used by TTS is to have 3 commanders who communicate in TeamSpeak. One of the feature of TeamSpeak that Discord doesn't have is you can have multiple push-to-talk button that only speak to ranks. So if you're leading a group you're expected to be able to communicate in English (which is not my native language), explain the mechanics of the current head to the team, tell everyone what they should be doing and tell/listen to the other commanders when to go for a kill.

    The second role is the reflector. The reflectors will stand inside the boss model and use projectile reflection skills when the boss is spawning larvae to prevent them from spawning at all. The abomination projectiles cannot be reflected. TTS use a team of 5, but you could have done it with 1 if you never miss. Keep in mind that you have about 0.6s window to press reflect when you see the animation, and in some classes you have one reflection so if you misread the animation, your reflect will be on cooldown when the real one comes. The boss also do some melee attacks that reflectors will dodge, so a caller on Teamspeak will call the animation "large spin, dodge.", although if you're good you don't need that.

    The last role is the condition team, who pulls and use condition builds to deal with the abomination away from the main group. They use 5 people but there are 3 spawns so one should be experienced.

    Once I got a few kills under my belt, I decided to make myself useful and join one of the team. Elementalist (my main class) only has one reflect, and I'm bad at reading animations so reflection is out of my game. I joined the condition team and later on I even stepped up to be commanders.

    Now on days I'm not running the show, I wonder if people are doing this boss and using the LFG tool I found people publicly offering party to the map they're supposedly running the show. I joined some that seems organized and it was a guild I never know about called EVOS. They had good runs, but without Teamspeak and that TTS mindset of "if you're not in TTS you're not coming in this map" you get random people with random gear and they never passed the DPS check.

    Still, it was a good practice, so I joined EVOS. They're basically anti-TTS. They don't have a public Teamspeak (a month or two later I learned that there is a Teamspeak, but it is just a hangout for officers and I hang there A LOT). EVOS does everything using map chat. You don't get reflect calls here. If you're commandeering, you type the guide out in local chat during downtime (of course you can just cut and paste). Coordination are done in map chat (the game show HP for all 3, so once the boss is low they say "amber decap" and the rest will continue the mechanics). Their idealogy is that the boss should be open and doable by anyone because you don't need external tools anymore.

    EVOS were formed by a group of people who also try for low man world record of world bosses, but day-to-day operations were not done by them. I think I very rarely get to talk with them.

    Now there was one of the founder I believe that told me there is a secret method to do this boss. He sent me a link on Guild Wars 2 official wiki from the user page of one of the guild's founder.

    Remember that I said that Abominations are not reflectable? But they are blockable. Now you just rendered the role of condition team extinct.

    To do this, however, is very hard. To block a projectile, you need to spawn in the path of the projectile and go invulnerable. This also means that there is no AoE like reflection, you need to know where the game will spawn the projectiles and stand exactly on that spot. Plus, Elementalist has two invulns, so in total you have one reflect for eggs, one invuln for the husks and one for backup (or for the long range acid fields). Note that the invulns last exactly the same as the boss' cast, so you need to be very precise.

    I realize, this is the EVOS dream! But this is asking a lot. So I started practicing all day all night. I tricked people to spawn the 7.30am one so that I can practice blocking on the real one. I camp at one of the environmental random for hours just to test blocking one spit. Some people told me that it is not an intended mechanics of the boss (why does the projectile spawn on the floor when the boss is meters high) and could get me banned. TTS also tried to censor me from even hinting about the possibility (Even as an EVOS officer I still take on event roles at TTS sometimes)

    I can't remember the time it took me to perfect the blocking. Probably 2-3 months of hard work, considering that I started from not even able to dodge the normal spins at all. But I was proud - I'm probably the best active person in the game at solo perfect blocking (of course the owners are probably better than me, but they don't show up at PUG runs so that doesn't count).

    I started blocking at EVOS runs, against the instructions of the more highly ranked people in the guild. I insist that this will achieve our goals, but they were worried that I'm leading people to the banhammer. This created a rift in the guild - what are we going to do with condi now that they're out of jobs. Some people say it's still optional to block, which I think was not a good idea - what if nobody show up in condi gear and there is no bank in the map? Eventually, I got burned out and quit a short time after the expansion (Hearts of Thorns) came out.

    There are other reasons I quit. One of them was that it's not good for my real life as well. The 10.30am spawn is basically while I have class. I was leading a raid in class, several times at that. My grade did not suffer for it, some professor didn't care as well. I also block my own schedule at those times every day including weekends that I will have to be there on my PC/laptop. Like, if I need to go out for a dinner it needs to be after 7pm which is not good if you're going with other people.

    Around the time I quit, my friend who I found in EVOS condi (and now an IRL close friend) also learned blocking. Two other people, one from condi and one from reflect also learned blocking. They started organizing the 7.30am runs that nobody has run before, this time without a guild (the EVOS dream) and with full blocking. I believe they too, like EVOS, eventually got a guild sponsor who bring members with the DPS and eventually it is a regular "guildless" run by the regular people. I heard that my friend and the reflect guy left EVOS and was making their own guilds but I didn't know what happened to them. Eventually they disagreed and my friend left that new guild too. One of the EVOS officer posted for clarification on the forum. A month later, it was officially confirmed that blocking is allowed. Last I heard TTS know about it but still discourage the use of it. I also heard from my friend that EU guilds regularly used it, perhaps even before I did it, but since you need another account to access EU servers we never learned about it.

    2 votes

  3. New "old school" gadgets?

    ~tech Ask (recommendations)
    I recently realized that many of my favorite gadgets are basically "new" versions of old technology. I use Sony Xperia 1VII, with a headphone jack, side mounted fingerprint, no screen cutout,...

    I recently realized that many of my favorite gadgets are basically "new" versions of old technology.

    • I use Sony Xperia 1VII, with a headphone jack, side mounted fingerprint, no screen cutout, stock Android. It's running the latest Snapdragon chip, however, and the camera hardware is better than the current iPhone (doesn't mean the software is better)
    • My favorite smartwatch is Pebble Time. My rePebble Time 2 is on the way. I'm currently using a Garmin, but I'm not exactly happy with it.
    • My keyboard is a Niz EC84. The default keycap looks like my keyboard in middle school and it is just perfect right out of the box (except I should've got the 45g one). As a Topre clone, it bounces with rubber domes. I don't like mechanical as the tactile point is not right at the very top of the curve. It also supports hardware mouse key and Bluetooth which is useful when you're working with multiple machines. (Sadly no QMK in this layout)
    • When I was buying my PC I couldn't find a single good modern case (i.e. with USB C ports in the front panel) that doesn't have any glass like old school PC. Luckily, Fractal North was just released back then and I immediately preordered.
    • I suppose the ThinkPad line may fit into this aesthetically, but it's not exactly the same as it was in IBM era. I heard that the Chinese are making new board for the old ThinkPad chassis though.

    I feel like this is an underserved market - why can't they just give me the same phone/computer I have but with the latest technological advancements. Sure, it'd be niche and many people will complain at the price, but at least there is a choice.

    Does anyone have other favorite new old school tech they wanted to recommend?

    32 votes

  4. Comment on Smartphone recommendations? in ~tech

    whs
    Link
    I use 1VII and I can confirm the Bluetooth audio issue. It only bother me when I'm paired with my car as in all other use cases I just use the speaker or, you know, the headphone jack. My 5IV...

    I use 1VII and I can confirm the Bluetooth audio issue. It only bother me when I'm paired with my car as in all other use cases I just use the speaker or, you know, the headphone jack.

    My 5IV doesn't seems to have the issue, but they no longer make new 5 series phones.

    3 votes

  5. Comment on Linux privilege escalation (CVE-2026-31431) in ~comp

    whs
    Link Parent
    Careful that RHEL and some derivative have this thing compiled into the kernel and not a module, so disabling modprobe will not help. A comment down here mentioned a kernel cmdline that will...

    Careful that RHEL and some derivative have this thing compiled into the kernel and not a module, so disabling modprobe will not help. A comment down here mentioned a kernel cmdline that will disable it.

    2 votes

  6. Comment on Brave Origin (Nightly), a paid, bloat-free version of Brave in ~tech

    whs
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I'm curious. What do you propose browsers make money from? Chrome, Safari and Edge are used push the owner's agenda. (eg. improved energy efficiency so that they can claim that their product can...

    I'm curious. What do you propose browsers make money from?

    • Chrome, Safari and Edge are used push the owner's agenda. (eg. improved energy efficiency so that they can claim that their product can browse the web longer, nudging people to Bing, test non-standard protocols like GQUIC, unilaterally requires specific SSL certificate lifetime)
    • Firefox, Vivaldi and Waterfox take search engine deal, then they're unable to block ads on those search engine by default
    • Brave, Opera, Edge and Vivaldi ship bloatware in the browser
    • Orion from Kagi wants users' money directly, but they risk that one misstep can immediately decrease their revenue (like how people canceled Kagi after they announced Yandex integration). I believe
    • Other smaller browser projects are run by smaller team or volunteers (low bus factor) and take most features from other browsers. This can be an issue if they are not aligned with those browsers' roadmap (eg. Waterfox doesn't like that Firefox removed XUL, but eventually they are unable to maintain it themselves. Manifest V2 were removed by Chrome and most Chromium forks do not have its own extension store to host MV2 extensions)
    2 votes

  7. Comment on Brave Origin (Nightly), a paid, bloat-free version of Brave in ~tech

    whs
    Link Parent
    They can't really fix the first one, but Origin directly address the second issue.

    They can't really fix the first one, but Origin directly address the second issue.

    1 vote

  8. Comment on Brave Origin (Nightly), a paid, bloat-free version of Brave in ~tech

    whs
    Link
    At the start of the year, Brave announced that they're looking to make Brave Origin available. It'll be Brave, except with all the crapware features removed. Brave Origin now have launched in the...

    At the start of the year, Brave announced that they're looking to make Brave Origin available. It'll be Brave, except with all the crapware features removed.

    Brave Origin now have launched in the nightly version, with the release version scheduled to launch in early June. It has one-time purchase price of $60, with 10 activation limit that they have said you can contact support to reset. (The activation system is not tied to an account, so they need to limit it to prevent abuse)

    Alternatively, Linux users can activate Brave Origin for free and users can use group policies to disable features in the same way Origin did it.

    Origin will have two variants:

    • Standalone: Separate installer. Bloatware features are permanently compiled out (not available on mobile)
    • Upgrade: Activate the Origin key in your existing Brave to get a page that you can selectively disable bloatware, with all features disabled by default and future features will be opt-in. (available on all platforms)

    The features disabled by Origin currently are: Telemetry, Leo, News, Playlist (iOS), Rewards, Speedreader, Talk, Tor, VPN, Wallet, Wayback Machine, Web Discovery Project. Some of those features can already be disabled in the interface, but the menu option will remains. Origin should entirely remove the menu.

    I think at some point I've saw on the checkout page that Brave Search Premium is also included, as the browser will block the ads. However, it is not on the page now and current Brave policy is that the default blocking level do not block first party content so sponsored ads in Brave Search still remains.

    10 votes

  10. Comment on Framework reveals 13 Pro laptop with 20-hour battery in ~tech

    whs
    Link
    I wish they sell it in Thailand. I went to their booth at Computex two years ago, and the answer I got was "you have to get it here while you're in Taiwan". Which is probably not an easy option -...

    I wish they sell it in Thailand. I went to their booth at Computex two years ago, and the answer I got was "you have to get it here while you're in Taiwan". Which is probably not an easy option - they are not selling in retailers and online ordering might not arrive until you've left. I heard that they also actively banning re-shipper and the use of credit cards from other countries (your order may get canceled, or if you admit that you did those your forum account banned and warranty void).

    The only asian countries that Framework ships to are Taiwan, Singapore.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on Anyone else enjoying OSRS leagues? in ~games

    whs
    Link Parent
    I wasn't there when they moved to sixth age (I returned around the launch of archeology, my favorite skill). Personally I'm not a fan that you can go talk to Saradomin. They could've make the god...

    I wasn't there when they moved to sixth age (I returned around the launch of archeology, my favorite skill). Personally I'm not a fan that you can go talk to Saradomin. They could've make the god more human (which they are - none of them are perfect being) but with how lighthearted the story is they can't really emphasis this other than for comedy.

  12. Comment on Anyone else enjoying OSRS leagues? in ~games

    whs
    Link Parent
    I did 75 easy clues already. With Larcenist you can pickpocket 100 clues from wealthy citizen, go stand at Aldarin bank, pull clue and if it's not your position you just re-pull - clues progress...

    I did 75 easy clues already. With Larcenist you can pickpocket 100 clues from wealthy citizen, go stand at Aldarin bank, pull clue and if it's not your position you just re-pull - clues progress do persists across clues in league. I did it with only Karamja unlocked and I got exactly 20 boxes from 100 easy clues.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Anyone else enjoying OSRS leagues? in ~games

    whs
    Link
    I'm having fun. I got the 4th region unlocked even before I unlocked my 3rd (which is the first free choice) following Faelkrane's guide. I haven't play OSRS for quite a while. After I got quest...

    I'm having fun. I got the 4th region unlocked even before I unlocked my 3rd (which is the first free choice) following Faelkrane's guide.

    I haven't play OSRS for quite a while. After I got quest cape in 2018 I switched to RS3 and got a quest cape in 2019. I was surprised how fun skilling in RS3 was, compared to OSRS. But the game is showing its age, and EoC doesn't get much better. Still, free death week and PvM hub make it much more fun to experiment compared to OSRS where I am mostly a skiller, which make me poor as my job has been replaced by automations (and noted drops) for years.

    This time I'm playing on HDOS, another lesser-known but legal client. Unlike RuneLite, it is completely closed source and has less plugins. (RuneLite is not completely open source either - Jagex made all the open source client illegal). It tries to adapt RuneScape HD client and graphical style to OSRS, and playing it feel like this is exactly what I wanted OSRS to be. If you want to try HDOS it is on Bolt launcher, or you have to install it manually then it will show up on Jagex Launcher.

    Anyway back on to league. I'm playing water mage, and once I got that overheal I don't know why but that makes me able to face tank Huey easily. Still, I did tried the fight caves and with how I am unfamiliar with the models on HDOS I got the prayer swapped at Jad and died in two hits after 80 mins of effort. Maybe I'll try after I get the faster attack speed.

  14. Comment on Keychron Hardware Design — hardware design files for Keychron keyboards and mice in ~tech

    whs
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I have the same mouse in white since February. The product felt cheap, but I suppose because it is very light (compared to MX Master 2s I used) and the plastic is of different kind. It hasn't get...

    I have the same mouse in white since February. The product felt cheap, but I suppose because it is very light (compared to MX Master 2s I used) and the plastic is of different kind. It hasn't get a shine from all grease on my hand though.

    I always keep it wired. The configurator is web-based at launcher.keychron.com so you don't need a software and it is usable in Linux (you can see a demo UI i n there without a mouse). There's a tons of features like firmware update, profiles, remapping, macros and lift distance (FPS gamers flick mouse fast to turn that they run out of room on mousepad. They have to recenter by physically lifting the mouse, and the mouse should detect that it is being lifted and stop giving inputs) that you only see in high end gaming mouse and not ergonomic mouses.

    edit: I forgot to write that the biggest issue for using Ergo mouse for gaming is that pulling the mouse down use considerable more effort than other axis, as you need to tighten your grip and pull compared to just pushing it away or to the side on other axis. On regular mouse you always grip the mouse so movement in any axis use similar effort. I also feel that pushing the mouse upwards is also not straight (not because of hardware issues). While playing Hitman 3 I found that for the first hour at least, I no longer try for headshots when the target are on the stairs.

    5 votes

  15. Comment on Denuvo DRM has been cirmumvented using hypervisor based bypass in ~games

    whs
    Link Parent
    I suppose this is a promise that, unlike when cheats goes into/under the kernel and anticheats has to become kernel mode, Denovo will not become kernel mode anti tamper.

    I suppose this is a promise that, unlike when cheats goes into/under the kernel and anticheats has to become kernel mode, Denovo will not become kernel mode anti tamper.

    4 votes

  16. Comment on Can we talk about rice cookers? in ~food

    whs
    Link Parent
    Adam Ragusea did a video on this. I watched it long ago and what I remembered was that in some cultures rice is not safe to eat without washing it first. Also the fat in the rice grains will go...

    Adam Ragusea did a video on this. I watched it long ago and what I remembered was that in some cultures rice is not safe to eat without washing it first. Also the fat in the rice grains will go stale after exposure to air, so if you buy a small amount of rice and it is vacuum sealed your rice is of higher quality, while in places that buy large amount of rice that are not vacuum sealed will want to wash the smell off. (In Thailand the most common size for rice is 5kg non vacuum packed, while rice I found in a supermarket in Taiwan comes in 1kg bag vacuum sealed)

    3 votes

  17. Comment on I'm glad Hideo Kojima went into games instead of directing movies in ~games

    whs
    Link Parent
    I'd second the social strand feature is very important to the game's experience. In DS1 there's delivery to the wind farm early on in the game. The forest in front of the wind farm is infested...

    I'd second the social strand feature is very important to the game's experience.

    In DS1 there's delivery to the wind farm early on in the game. The forest in front of the wind farm is infested with BTs and you'll need to sneak around. Once you connected the wind farm to the chiral network now you'll see people putting 👻 signs around BT dense area making the return trip easier to plot around.

    Then there's a quest that asks you to go over the mountain to deliver to the next city. The mountain is also BT infested so you can't really use a vehicle. Once you're there I think the next quest would be a chilling one, instead it just throws you into a boss fight with no warning. I'm not equipped for a boss fight but you'll have ghosts of other players throwing gears at you (if you're offline they just unnamed ghosts) after that fight I went back to the boss area and throw down two loads of gear just for the next poor soul even though it looked like I'm just litterring the ground

    10 votes

  18. Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech

    whs
    Link Parent
    Apple also does that for installing profiles. If you aren't at your usual location (eg. Home) you'll need to wait 4 hours. The attacks they're trying to prevent are real and prevalent in Thailand....

    Apple also does that for installing profiles. If you aren't at your usual location (eg. Home) you'll need to wait 4 hours.

    The attacks they're trying to prevent are real and prevalent in Thailand. Either it will be a malicious phishing link sent via SMS (eg. There's something wrong with your account, tax refund, etc.) or a phone call from authority that tells you to contact the authority using a specific app which of course is a fake app.

    Personally, I wish it's like Nintendo DS custom firmware. Open the battery tray, there's an electrical contact in one of the screw hole with warranty sticker. While flashing CFW you need to keep the contact bridged with a flathead screwdriver. I heard ChromeOS machines also require unscrewing something inside the machine. No need to wait for arbitrary time yet nobody will accidentally do it

    7 votes

  19. Comment on What are people using instead of VS Code? in ~comp

    whs
    Link Parent
    I find VS Code's AI internal implementation quite interesting even if the UI push it in your face. The Copilot UI is actually not that coupled with GitHub Copilot (although parts of it still is -...

    I find VS Code's AI internal implementation quite interesting even if the UI push it in your face.

    The Copilot UI is actually not that coupled with GitHub Copilot (although parts of it still is - they often said in the docs that they will work on remove that). Internally, VSCode has a "Language Model Chat Provider API" which Copilot is one of them. Many other providers do provide alternative provider implementation (and Copilot allow for custom API key as well), so you can switch to your chosen provider.

    There is also a Language Model API, which allow extensions to submit request to the provider, so that any extension you install in VSCode can utilize your LLM provider without providing API keys to every extensions. Of course, there are people who built an OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible API server in VSCode so that you can use in any LLM tools. I tried and it seems that you do get the Copilot billing for it (eg. GPT 4o is unlimited even when using the emulated API outside of VSCode).

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Leon S. Kennedy is a car salesman now in ~games

    whs
    Link
    My favorite YouTuber remarked that almost every single vehicle (before RE9) that Leon has ridden on didn't end well. And then they just want him to be a car salesman...

    My favorite YouTuber remarked that almost every single vehicle (before RE9) that Leon has ridden on didn't end well. And then they just want him to be a car salesman...