zoroa's recent activity

  1. Comment on Test 3 in ~test

  2. Comment on Test 3 in ~test

  4. Comment on Accessible forms of poetry for journaling? in ~creative

    zoroa
    Link Parent
    I appreciate the sentiment, but I need structure. I've tried to freeform a couple times, and end up never finishing since I didn't have enough constraints.

    I appreciate the sentiment, but I need structure. I've tried to freeform a couple times, and end up never finishing since I didn't have enough constraints.

    3 votes

  5. Accessible forms of poetry for journaling?

    ~creative Ask (advice)
    I journal sporadically, and have sometimes wanted to record a thought as a poem. I like idea of using constraints to further my grasp on the thought I'm trying to express, and it'd leave me with...

    I journal sporadically, and have sometimes wanted to record a thought as a poem. I like idea of using constraints to further my grasp on the thought I'm trying to express, and it'd leave me with something I'd feel proud to come back to.

    But I don't really know where to start? I'm hoping to find a form of poetry can be short enough to not feel daunting to start, but still forces enough structure to make the exercise worthwhile.

    I imagine this effort means I'll also need to read more poetry and find stuff I like. My only real experience with the medium is from school, and thinking back to that time only reminds me of how confused I was while guessing if a foot was stressed or unstressed. I do remember liking Arthur Rimbaud's Le dormeur du val though. If anyone has any recommendations for poems they like, I'd take those too

    13 votes

  6. Comment on Xbox is planning to shutter Peabody Award-winning Compulsion Games (We Happy Few, South of Midnight) in ~games

    zoroa
    Link
    Ninja Theory, who just announced a new game last week, and Double Fine are also under threat

    Ninja Theory, who just announced a new game last week, and Double Fine are also under threat

    6 votes

  7. Comment on So I fell for a phishing in ~comp

    zoroa
    Link Parent
    Thank you for talking about this. It's not your fault. Even the people who really really know better get phished: The guy who made HaveIBeenPwned.com The innumerable amount of Open Source...

    I'm so embarrassed. I know better.

    Thank you for talking about this.

    It's not your fault. Even the people who really really know better get phished:

    These scams are so widespread because they count on shame keeping people silent. They prey on folks who may be tired, stressed, or otherwise wouldn't expect someone to target them to do them harm. I really appreciate you making the topic, and engaging with folks in the thread. If its any solace, you're helping folks avoid similar situations.

    26 votes

  8. Comment on Ruins of the web: Hello Internet in ~tech

    zoroa
    Link Parent
    Every time I hear someone mention Adelaide, the first thing that comes to mind is "The Mighty Black Stump"

    Every time I hear someone mention Adelaide, the first thing that comes to mind is "The Mighty Black Stump"

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

    zoroa
    Link
    Operation "Prolong the Lifespan of My PC By Keeping It Cool" Concludes (for now...) Undervolting This ended up being way easier that I thought it would be. For my CPU, it just took me specifying a...

    Operation "Prolong the Lifespan of My PC By Keeping It Cool" Concludes (for now...)

    Undervolting

    This ended up being way easier that I thought it would be.

    For my CPU, it just took me specifying a negative voltage offset in "Curve Optimizer" to shift the CPU's Frequency/Voltage curve. An initial boot failure and sudden restart at idle was all it took to dial in on an offset that's been rock solid. For reasons that I learned and have since forgetten, you need 3rd party software to apply an undervolt to your GPU. I used MSI Afterburner and was thoroughly confused with the UI until a nice italian guy on YouTube talked me through the process.

    Results

    In the stress test I've been running, I saw a temperature difference of -2C for my GPU and -11C (!!) for my CPU since my last run.

    Which means in total, I've seen a 34C decrease in CPU temps and a 10C decrease in GPU temps. Granted, most of the CPU improvements were from correcting an installation mistake. But my push for cooler temps also had a bunch of nice second order effects:

    • Noise quality is much better. I no longer have to deal with shrill GPU fans.
    • PC runs a bit faster.
    • Case fans provide some ventilation for non-GPU/CPU components (VRMs, SSDs, etc..)

    I think this process has been pretty successful. And I ended up learning that there are a bunch of simple mods that result in decent temperature improvements, that I'll be doing on future PCs.

    6 votes

  10. Comment on Landmark German ruling declares Google's AI Overviews are Google's own words and makes it liable for false answers in ~tech

    zoroa
    Link
    I thought this article was worth sharing, because it highlights ways that the push to Gen AI challenges the foundations of how the Internet operates. Most of the legal questions I've seen for LLMs...

    A German court has ruled that Google is directly liable for what its AI search overviews say. Previous case law shielding search engine operators from liability doesn't apply to AI overviews.

    I thought this article was worth sharing, because it highlights ways that the push to Gen AI challenges the foundations of how the Internet operates.

    Most of the legal questions I've seen for LLMs have touched on whether it was legal for companies to scrape the entire internet as input to train their models. But the article touches on the other end, "are companies liable for the output of their models?"

    In many jurisdictions, like Germany, companies are shielded from being liable for 3rd party content that they host and serve on their platforms. That shield is foundational to the operation of sites, like Google or Tildes, that primarily surface content they did not create. The German Court's decision marks the first move I've seen to strip that protection from content synthesized by an LLM, which could jeopardize many company's pushes towards "AI Everything".

    The United States' version of that shield is Section 230, "the law that built the internet". I'm curious whether there'd be a move to follow the German court's lead, and clarify whether Section 230 protects LLM content too.

    Further Reading

    34 votes

  12. Comment on N Plus Infinity Times Two announced in ~games

    zoroa
    Link
    Announcement Trailer This was the biggest surprise of the day for me (over Tupac and Sonic Pico Park). n is still my favorite platformer I've ever played (not that I play them much anymore):...

    Announcement Trailer

    This was the biggest surprise of the day for me (over Tupac and Sonic Pico Park).

    n is still my favorite platformer I've ever played (not that I play them much anymore): https://www.thewayoftheninja.org/nv2.html

    2 votes

  13. Comment on Mina the Hollower | Out now! in ~games

    zoroa
    Link Parent
    Game Informer produced a documentary on the game a few years ago too https://youtu.be/Z6WWGkVf3uU

    Game Informer produced a documentary on the game a few years ago too https://youtu.be/Z6WWGkVf3uU

    1 vote

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

    zoroa
    Link Parent
    Aeotec Z-Stick 10 Pro. I want to say I picked it because I carefully considered the pros and cons. But really I just got decision fatigue. I saw it appear in a Youtuber's videos that were 6 months...

    Which Zigbee coordinator did you end up using?

    Aeotec Z-Stick 10 Pro. I want to say I picked it because I carefully considered the pros and cons. But really I just got decision fatigue. I saw it appear in a Youtuber's videos that were 6 months apart, and figured he was happy with it in his much more complex smart home.

    Per caddy/https, did you consider using Cloudflare tunnels? I found that quite trivial to set up but then you need your own domain name. For your reverse proxy usage, I guess you still needed a bit of router config to expose it to the internet? Have you also tied it to a domain name?

    My goal with the reverse proxy was primarily to have easy to remember addresses for my self-hosted services. I got tired of remembering <ip>:<port> addresses, and my phone failed to perform mDNS lookups. Don't have anything exposed to the internet yet.

    I did have to touch my router's config, but that was just to send all traffic that matches *.MY_INTERNAL_DOMAIN.home.arpa to the reverse proxy.

    1 vote

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

    zoroa
    Link
    Setting up a Reverse Proxy + HTTPS for Home Server I'd been dreading this for a while. I'd heard that Caddy would make setting up the proxy pretty easy. But I wasn't not excited to study the...

    Setting up a Reverse Proxy + HTTPS for Home Server

    I'd been dreading this for a while. I'd heard that Caddy would make setting up the proxy pretty easy. But I wasn't not excited to study the ancient tomes of man(1) to uncover the necessary arcane incantation of openssl to generate the certificates I thought I needed.

    Turns out, Caddy handles https by default. Took 30 minutes to get it setup.

    Home Assistant Shenanigans

    Setting Up Zigbee

    No one warned me about the decision paralysis I'd have trying to pick a Zigbee Coordinator. I wasn't seeing an obvious "here's the best one that's pretty good value", and it was pretty unclear whether the differences I was seeing between coordinators would meaningfully impact my experience.

    After way too long browsing forums and youtube videos, I just pulled the trigger on one and it's been fine I guess.

    A Calibration Saga

    I have an A/C with a builtin mode that tries to maintain a target temperature, that is basically useless because of how unreliable its builtin thermometer was. I figured that I could pick up some temperature sensors, that would ideally measure temperatures that were more reflective of what I was feeling in the room and make the control system more reliable.

    I set one on my desk near where I sit, and another further away in the same room. But seeing the initial readings confused me. Both sensors were reading ~10F higher than I felt the temperature was. And the one on my desk was at times ~10F higher than the sensor across the room.

    I figured I needed to calibrate them, so I put them in a plastic bag, submerged them in water, and stuck em in the freezer. They were still connected to my Zigbee network, so Home Assistant could continue plotting their values. Seeing a straight line on the graph would tell me how offset the sensors were from the freezing temp of water. They were both within a degree of 32F.

    Turns out:

    • I'm a poor judge of temperature when I'm indoors.
    • It was a poor decision to put my PC directly in front of where I sit, spewing hot air onto me
    2 votes

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

    zoroa
    Link Parent
    Dan A4 SFX. I was really married to idea of a "backpackable" PC when I got it. In hindsight, I've never put it in a backpack and wish I'd gone for something marginally bigger. That was the...

    What case do you have?

    Dan A4 SFX. I was really married to idea of a "backpackable" PC when I got it. In hindsight, I've never put it in a backpack and wish I'd gone for something marginally bigger.

    My big life hack, along with the AIO header being just a bonus fan, was getting a fan splitter cable so I could take one fan port on the board and run two fans off of it.

    That was the original plan! But then I got bit by the "I really don't want to spend $10 on another adapter" and the "I'm really running out of space in my case" bugs haha.

    3 votes

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

    zoroa
    Link
    Operation "Prolong the Lifespan of My PC By Keeping It Cool" Continues New Fans Installed 2 case fans (92x25 + 92x15). My case is SFF, so the install ended up requiring an uninstall of my...

    Operation "Prolong the Lifespan of My PC By Keeping It Cool" Continues

    New Fans

    Installed 2 case fans (92x25 + 92x15). My case is SFF, so the install ended up requiring an uninstall of my motherboard + wrestling with internal cabling for clearance.

    My motherboard only has one chassis fan header, but I learned that you can plug a fan into the AIO pump header after noticing that the two looked suspiciously similar. Your motherboard will likely default to running that fan at 100% all the time, but there's a decent chance the behavior is configurable in BIOS.

    GPU Deshrouding + Repasting

    I was always under the impression that deshrouding was a really invasive mod that would take forever to do. Turns out, it's dead simple and (in most cases) reversible. All you really need is a GPU whose heat sink is flat so you can lay your fans flat on it.

    Removing the builtin shroud + fan ensemble is just a matter of a couple of screws. Annoyingly, those screws on my GPU are only accessible if you detach the GPU die from the cooler. So I was forced into repasting my GPU (also pretty easy if you're comfortable doing it on a CPU). Once the shroud is gone, you can just ziptie your fans of choice (Two Artic P12 Slim) to the heatsink.

    Depending on your gpu, you might need an adapter to plug into the card's fan headings. Or you could choose to just use a fan header on your motherboard instead, and adjust the fan curve in software.

    And that's it!

    Results

    Roughly a -8C delta in average GPU temps under load (deshroud + repaste + case fans).

    Which is nice, but I've been way happier about the noise difference. Ever since I got the card, I've hated how obnoxiously loud and shrill the fans are under load. The artic fans have a lower max RPM, and are WAY quieter. With how easy the process can be, it blows my mind that card manufacturers aren't selling cards that can be easily deshrouded.

    What did I learn

    • Noctua fans are great
    • Arctic are like 70% as good, but 1/3rd the cost
    • You can plug a case fan into the AIO header.

    What's next

    Undervolting!

    4 votes

  18. Comment on Mythos finds a curl vulnerability in ~comp

    zoroa
    Link Parent
    Which links to https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2026/04/22/high-quality-chaos/ where he basically addresses your question.

    We also see a high volume of high quality security reports flooding in: security researchers now use AI extensively and effectively.

    Which links to https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2026/04/22/high-quality-chaos/ where he basically addresses your question.

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

    zoroa
    Link
    I achieved a 20-30° C average decrease in my CPU temps... by having my heatsink actually make contact with my CPU. I switched to my current CPU cooler an embarrassing amount of time ago. I...

    I achieved a 20-30° C average decrease in my CPU temps... by having my heatsink actually make contact with my CPU.

    I switched to my current CPU cooler an embarrassing amount of time ago. I remember thinking that my PC sounded really loud, but I didn't really think much of it. Months later, I got around to checking my CPU temps which were hovering around 70-80°C when web browsing.

    Seeing components I've bought years ago sell for 2-5x what I paid for them got my head out of my ass for long enough to order new thermal paste, and reinstall my cooler. I'm pretty sure I didn't tighten the screws to spec the first time, and now I'm seeing dramatically cooler temps and less fan noise.

    This is all in the effort of getting my PC to run cooler, to minimize the chance of a component failure before PC prices return back to earth.

    5 votes

  20. Comment on Which covers did it better than (or put a fresh twist on) the original? in ~music

    zoroa
    Link
    Weird Fishes by Noordpool Orchestra - Symphonic arrangement of Radiohead's Weird Fishes / Arpeggi Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Lettuce - Jazz-Funk Smooth Criminal by Hawyre - Jazz House...

    Weird Fishes by Noordpool Orchestra - Symphonic arrangement of Radiohead's Weird Fishes / Arpeggi

    Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Lettuce - Jazz-Funk

    Smooth Criminal by Hawyre - Jazz House (?) remix of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal

    交響曲第5番 (Kōkyōkyokudai 5-ban) by Chihiro Yamanaka - Jazz Trio rendition of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. (Less of a cover, closer to improvisation that reuses the main theme of the symphony)

    How Deep Is Your Love (Acoustic Version) by PJ Morton ft. Alex Isley - Gospel Piano version of Bee Gees' How Deep Is Your Love

    Atari by Nai Palm - Acoustic Version of Hiatus Kaiyote's Atari

    Isn't She Lovely by Victor Wooten - Solo Bass Cover with loop pedal of Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely

    1 vote