xk3's recent activity

  1. Comment on I created my own audio player, here is my experiences with the process in ~tech

    xk3
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    It's really satisfying to see the progression of the case design across iterations! It seems like you could use os.environ to get/set the DEVICE_ID similar to how you are dealing with...

    It's really satisfying to see the progression of the case design across iterations!

    It seems like you could use os.environ to get/set the DEVICE_ID similar to how you are dealing with SPOTIPY_CLIENT_ID.

    Then you could make a function to update by doing something like

    git pull origin master --no-rebase --no-edit
    
    3 votes
  2. Comment on CGA-2025-11 🔴🟡🔵🟢 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ PlayStation WHAT? in ~games

    xk3
    Link Parent
    Huh! I first read the marketing taunts in the video ("Infinite ways to die...", "There's always better ways to die") as the purpose of the game is to die. Like you rack up points by dying faster...

    Death by Scrolling

    Huh! I first read the marketing taunts in the video ("Infinite ways to die...", "There's always better ways to die") as the purpose of the game is to die. Like you rack up points by dying faster as a novel game mechanic. But this reading conflicts with the "where you kill enemies, collect gold, and avoid the Reaper long enough to pay the Ferrymanʼs exorbitant river-crossing fee" sidebar text. So I guess not...

    But there's probably a game like that somewhere out there... and that seems more interesting than running away from a pacman ghost

    4 votes
  3. Comment on 10x engineer - Midlife crisis in ~tech

    xk3
    Link Parent
    This is definitely referencing that... same elevator shots, same dialogue...

    This is definitely referencing that... same elevator shots, same dialogue...

    2 votes
  4. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    xk3
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    The code itself isn't that interesting, and it only works for content which shares the same parent tag (though perhaps I can extend this later), but it was really satisfying to add just a few...

    The code itself isn't that interesting, and it only works for content which shares the same parent tag (though perhaps I can extend this later), but it was really satisfying to add just a few dozen lines of code to extend the functionality of an existing subcommand so that something like this would be possible to add a bit more structure to text extraction:

    $ library text --firefox https://aaronson.org/full-moon-albums/ --select .album-artist,.album-title --sep ' - '
    Way Dynamic - Massive Shoe
    Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche 85
    YHWH Nailgun - 45 Pounds
    I Am Robot and Proud - Bird at Sunrise
    Water from Your Eyes - Long Days, No Dreams
    XTC - Skylarking
    ...
    

    Initially, I was writing a separate script that borrowed a lot of code from library text but once I had an MVP hardcoded for working with CSS classes I realized I could generalize it to work with other CSS selectors using Soup Sieve and at that point I realized it would be useful to have in the library text command.


    It's really satisfying when the solution to a problem is just a minor tweak. Last week I had a similar experience when adding archive.org/ghostarchive/preservetube as backup locations for when downloading directly from YouTube doesn't work. At first I felt dread because it seemed like something that would be brittle and difficult to add but after playing around with it for a bit it, a solution appears which turns out to be not so bad.

    Another satisfying simple thing that I finally sat down and made is a script to print out the layout of disks on my LFF r730xd. I've been buying cheaper-than-tape small-capacity SAS drives (3TB, 4TB, sometimes 8TB) from server farm surplus stores so I'm hot-swapping disks several times per week and relying on lsblk HCTL was growing a bit tedious as I don't want to accidentally eject a drive that's in-use.

    $ r730xd.disks
    [!] sda   b9 | [!] sdh  x19 | [!] sdc  b11 | [!] sdj  b10
    [!] sdb   b8 | [O] sde      | [ ]          | [!] sdk    d
    [!] sdg  x18 | [!] sdf  x15 | [!] sdi   b2 | [!] sdl   b4
    
    [O] = unmounted
    [ ] = empty bay
    

    It's beautiful.

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

    xk3
    (edited )
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    The flaws system is a nice touch! The game feels like a genuine sequel but there are minor aspects of it that seem unpolished and half-baked compared to the first. Parts of it are a bit...

    The flaws system is a nice touch!

    The game feels like a genuine sequel but there are minor aspects of it that seem unpolished and half-baked compared to the first. Parts of it are a bit underwhelming but there are other aspects that are really great. The visuals and map layout, macro-level design, are really excellent!

    Also the Grand Plan Radio is pure bliss...

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

    xk3
    (edited )
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    I've been playing The Outer Worlds 2 and it is almost as fun as the first game. If you aren't familiar with the series it feels and plays very similar to both the Borderlands series and the...

    I've been playing The Outer Worlds 2 and it is almost as fun as the first game. If you aren't familiar with the series it feels and plays very similar to both the Borderlands series and the Fallout 3+ series. That is, there's a bit more of a continuous storyline with more meat and dialogue than Borderlands, while not quite being as well-written as the Fallout series, but the game engine doesn't feel as buggy as the modern Fallout games.

    The choices that you can make in the game don't have much breadth but the game still posits situations with political and philosophical concerns that one can chew on often enough. I've played through 15 hours and there's still a few more places that I haven't explored on the first world but the game is starting to feel a little bit repetitive but I haven't lost interest completely yet.

    9 votes
  7. Comment on Diagram Website (2023) in ~tech

    xk3
    Link
    https://everything.elliott.computer/projects/diagram-website

    "I made a map of the Internet. It is incomplete. You won’t find links to social media sites, big corporations or advertisement renderings. In fact, most of the Internet is missing from the map. Hence, it is more accurate to describe the map as My Internet or the Naive Internet Universe." – Kristoffer Tjalve

    A project by Kristoffer Tjalve and Elliott Cost. Made in Athens in November 2023.

    https://everything.elliott.computer/projects/diagram-website

    4 votes
  8. Comment on Do you recommend any website to host a free sub-forum in Portuguese? Not Reddit. in ~tech

    xk3
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Years ago it looks like there were more options for hosting phpBB and Simple Machines Forum for small communities for free. It looks like there is perhaps still a few sites like that but as you...

    Years ago it looks like there were more options for hosting phpBB and Simple Machines Forum for small communities for free. It looks like there is perhaps still a few sites like that but as you can see the users that they attract can be rather spammy: https://www.createaforum.com/directory.php

    Nowadays, it seems like Discourse is the modern forum software of choice for small communities. I agree it is disappointing to not be able to spin one up as easy as a Google Document (though... this could be legitimate forum software as well: up to 100 people can edit and comment at the same time). But I feel like Discourse's requirements for free hosting are pretty generous.

    If you don't have an existing community, how do you expect to build one? Why would people go to your site vs another forum? It's a chicken and egg problem that few people can overcome.

    A few more links:

    3 votes
  9. Comment on Do you recommend any website to host a free sub-forum in Portuguese? Not Reddit. in ~tech

  10. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    xk3
    Link Parent
    Maybe just print something out and put it in the bottom drawer of your nightstand or some similar place? https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/538:_Security

    Maybe just print something out and put it in the bottom drawer of your nightstand or some similar place?

    https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/538:_Security

    3 votes
  11. Comment on 11foot8.com: trucks + bridges in ~transport

    xk3
    Link Parent
    I imagine this happens to the truck drivers too... maybe there is something supernatural about this gate... a power spot with high Qi levels...

    having no idea where it was then suddenly hey there it is in front of me

    I imagine this happens to the truck drivers too... maybe there is something supernatural about this gate... a power spot with high Qi levels...

    8 votes
  12. Comment on What are your favorite simple pleasures? in ~talk

    xk3
    Link Parent
    dropping from sixth gear to fifth to crawl into bed at night

    dropping from sixth gear to fifth to crawl into bed at night

    2 votes
  13. Comment on What are your favorite simple pleasures? in ~talk

    xk3
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    The sound of rain on the tin roof of a dimly lit outhouse A long, uninterrupted gulp of water when you're hurtin' with a thirstin' Taking off ski shoes after skiing for a bit Taking off socks at...
    • The sound of rain on the tin roof of a dimly lit outhouse
    • A long, uninterrupted gulp of water when you're hurtin' with a thirstin'
    • Taking off ski shoes after skiing for a bit
    • Taking off socks at the end of a long day
    • Pure silence in rural snowfall
    • curry rice, taco rice, sukiyaki, veggie base pork tsukemen
    27 votes
  14. Comment on The origin of the USA's 1040 income tax form in ~society

    xk3
    (edited )
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    Tax Rate 1913 Income Level Adjusted for Y2K Dollars zero Up to $20,000 Up to $341,819 1% $20,000-$50,000 $341,819 to $854,546 2% $50,000-$75,000 $854,546 to $1,281,819 3% $75,000-$100,000...

    Most folks seem to believe that U.S. citizens have been paying a mandatory tithe ever since the Income Tax was written into the Constitution of the United States by its Founding Fathers in 1776. Oh to the contraire. Wrong century. Wrong document. Wrong gender.

    ...

    The new union still had to support itself, so the Constitution allowed for tariffs on imports and exports, excise taxes on liquor, and support from issuing government bonds. Which seemed to work well - for the next 124 years, there was no individual income tax. Except for two brief periods - during 1862-1872 (an "income duty" to pay for the Civil War) and 1874-1875 (until the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional) - this nation thrived without a national income tax imposed on its citizens. Americans were free to earn, save, use, build, invest, donate and bequeath their wealth without limit. With that freedom, the colonies of farming communities and hunter-gatherers developed into the greatest industrial nation on Earth.

    ...

    We had some arguments, since I am for taxation. I don't comprehend how everything runs, but logic says a community/country needs money to facilitate communication, education, transportation, protection of our lives and human rights. I didn't know how much was really necessary - though an individual's 5-10% tithe from that year's net seemed reasonable.

    ...

    Though all versions could have used a better choice of fonts and the typesetting prowess of Kibo, the first 1040 was still attractive in its simplicity. No accountants or computers were needed for its easy calculations and substantial exemptions. One's personal loss was minimal (and minimized), especially since this modest tax applied only to the very wealthy. A ONE PERCENT TAX was no huge loss - a mere tenth of what tycoons tithed churches for a cooler space in the afterlife. And the grand open ranks of the fabulously rich enticed a hardworker's hope of someday attaining that 6% goal line. Myghod, $20,000, in 1913! What would that be, at today's exchange rates..?

    Tax Rate 1913 Income Level Adjusted for Y2K Dollars
    zero Up to $20,000 Up to $341,819
    1% $20,000-$50,000 $341,819 to $854,546
    2% $50,000-$75,000 $854,546 to $1,281,819
    3% $75,000-$100,000 $1,281,819 to $1,709,091
    4% $100,000-$250,000 $1,709,091 to $4,272,728
    5% $250,000-$500,000 $4,272,728 to $8,545,455
    6% Over $500,000 Over $8,545,455
    Exempt:
    Single $3,000 $51,273
    Married $4,000 $68,364

    Though it should be noted that I think the author misread the document. It seems to be that any non-exempt portion would be taxed at least 1% with section 8 being "additional tax":

    https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/f1040--1913.pdf

    But still this is very surprising to me! I didn't know this history--maybe I skipped that day in school

    1 vote
  15. Comment on Post breakup ramblings in ~life

    xk3
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    Actions speak louder than words when people act certain ways and don't want to explain themselves It sounds like you could eventually get back together but right now she wants to know what other...

    Actions speak louder than words when people act certain ways and don't want to explain themselves

    this is her first romantic relationship

    It sounds like you could eventually get back together but right now she wants to know what other relationships could be like before she commits to something more.

    I think you should prepare to end things amicably or at least pretend to so that the loss of you as a potential partner feels real. Maybe she'll come back but maybe she won't.

    2 votes