Zink
@Zink@programming.dev
- Comment on FireWire 1 week ago:
Oh I’m an engineer that works on physical products (embedded software) and you will get zero disagreement from me there, lol. That is the case even with expensive stuff that’s sold to other businesses rather than cheap consumer tech.
And the way I meant “better” was more like “superior specs / technically better.” I mean, as far as “good enough” and “meeting user needs at lowest cost > exceeding needs at higher cost” you cannot argue with the success of USB. It has succeeded beyond the scope of its own name.
- Comment on FireWire 1 week ago:
I remember reading that one reason firewire was so great was that every device had a controller chip or something like that, whereas USB used the system processor for a lot of stuff.
So the cheaper option won the mainstream market over the better option. Now where have I heard that before other than all of the times?
- Comment on Microsoft patent describes in-game advertising triggered by boss fights, loading screens, and cutscenes 2 weeks ago:
Oh good. I was only 98% sure I was done buying consoles forever. It’s good to really know.
I might make exceptions for consoles/devices that run linux off the shelf. (I want to get a steam frame, ok?)
- Comment on When it was all trial and error 2 weeks ago:
You could say the same our very DNA. Natural selection provided the guard rails that shaped evolution over the eons. And you know that was on the other side of those guard rails? Blood and death! :D
- Comment on About to ruin your whole day 2 weeks ago:
I have cleared my own check engine lights for long enough that I usually don’t worry when I see it come on, unless it is flashing.
With a cheap Bluetooth OBD reader and your phone in a mount, in addition to clearing codes you can do fun things like add gauges and graphs of values you are curious about.
- Comment on About to ruin your whole day 2 weeks ago:
Something as serious as a misfire can also cause the check engine light to flash.
Why yes, I did once lose a whole-ass cylinder in a 4-cylinder, manual transmission car. While a couple hours from home! It broke a freaking exhaust valve while we were just cruising along, and the light started flashing immediately with a code for cylinder X misfire.
Funny enough, other than the loss of power it drove alright while in motion, including on the highway. It would immediately stall if left to idle at a stop light, though. I think I ended up using the hand brake to hold still while keeping my foot on the gas to keep the revs up. Fun.
- Comment on I may have trust issues 3 weeks ago:
I totally see it, and I am totally here for it.
- Comment on Time keeps marching forward 3 weeks ago:
I submit as the most wince-worthy example of 20 year old console game graphics:
- Comment on Yes, I use Debian stable. How'd you know? 5 weeks ago:
MY man!
First, I appreciate that your comment is even longer than mine AND came with the multimedia.
I totally get what you mean about it being an occasion to listen to music with the old equipment. I had at least one portable CD player with no anti-skip. So not only can I feel some of that experience just through nostalgia, but then I start thinking about nerdy little kid me getting a player with anti-skip. It had a clear window on the lid, so I could see how the disc spun at 2x speed for while when starting a song or causing skips. I started to understand how it was filling a buffer and must have had a bit of extra RAM in there. And now middle aged me monitors and controls engine RPM all the time in my automatic car, lol.
On listening to MP3s, I see no issue there, but I have always been more of a videophile and less of an audiophile. However, I have also transitioned away from locally stored music, to just streaming from my Jellyfin server. Thanks to that practically eliminating audio size concerns, I just use FLACs of everything.
As high tech as that sounds, the server capacity also helps me discover music in the old-fashioned & natural way rather than algorithmically. When I realize I am missing some song I want, I will add as much of that band’s entire discography as I have available. Then it’s just a question of whether I listen to albums or random songs. Any songs that noticeably stroke my neurons the right way gets added to my single playlist of bangers, for when I don’t want random or albums.
Finally, a manual transmission midsize sedan can still be had in a few non-BMW forms. I have actually been researching current fun-transmission new cars even though I don’t plan to buy anything any time soon. Most of them will be performance oriented models that recommend premium, but most seem to be able to run regular these days with just reduced max hp. So just going off memory for now:
Civic Si - This might be your best bet. High fuel economy, great 6-speed, well equipped, well priced. I think it’s in the Car & Driver top 10, with a 10/10 score, alongside the Type R which is like $20K more.
Mazda3 hatchback - ok it’s not a sedan, but for some reason you can get a specific premium trim level of the hatchback with a really good 6-speed. It’s also a FWD 2.5L that recommends regular unleaded.
Elantra N: 6-speed manual and 8-speed DCT available. Seems like an extremely fun performance bargain. Lots of tech and adjustability, including fancy LSD.
WRX: 6-speed AND full time AWD. I had one long ago and loved it. It isn’t regarded as being quite as aggressive and refined as the Si and the N these days I think, but it’s definitely a great all around vehicle and you aren’t stuck with FWD if that matters to you.
- Comment on The sickness of infinite greed cannot be sustained on our finite planet 5 weeks ago:
Still insisted that he wanted the billion.
That demonstrates the underlying problem. When you can quantify something, people can compete over it. To most people money is THE quantifiable thing about humans. We literally call a person’s money number their “net worth.” It’s not “oh that guy with all these relationships and virtues and vices has just seen his net assets exceed one billion.” It is “he is now worth one billion.”
So with it carrying such cultural weight and such quantifiability… I guess what I am trying to say is that sometimes the problem really as is simple as “number go up.” Unfortunately, simple problems can still have impossibly complex solutions. How do you change the nature of a person, and then do it en masse? How do you break one feedback loop and get into another? (the people in control would make society more decent if they themselves grew up in a more decent society)
- Comment on Darude Sandstorm 1 month ago:
Even living in the US (but being on Lemmy and therefore knowing computers and hating advertising) getting stuck watching cable TV at a relative’s house can be a real “boring dystopia” experience.
It can be genuinely disturbing when you realize the majority of the ads you’ve seen were for ONLY medication and gambling.
- Comment on Yes, I use Debian stable. How'd you know? 1 month ago:
I feel at home in this photo. My beard has turned 1% more gray this blessed night.
The key differences I have come from the fact that I am drawn to the “chief engineer turned goose farmer” future even more than the “greybeard recluse inventor” one. I
get to use a Debian machine at work all day anyway, plus of course the home PC runs it. With KDE there is nothing that feels old about it unless I check when the kernel was released.
My car isn’t THAT old but it’s on its way. I drive an almost 15 year old mazda3, which we have owned for all of those years. I just did my biggest-yet DIY maintenance/repair when I had to replace some disintegrated-yet-seized brake hoses in addition to pads and rotors and flushing the fluid. In my driveway, no garage. I got a bunch of new wrenches and vise grips!
The mazda is an automatic since we originally bought it for my wife. But it was right after the company debuted the Skyactiv stuff. Among other things like great fuel efficiency, that means the transmission locks up the torque converter as often as possible. And it has manual shift mode. So when you’re in gear holding some mid-range RPM, you do still feel that direct powertrain connection between engine and wheels.
Part of me is casually keeping tabs on the “fun” new car models out there that still offer a manual transmission or DCT. But another part of me is constantly noting to self how I already have a nearly perfect old familiar car that is fun and practical for the whole family. It has low mileage for the age and a good maintenance history. And it is $FREE versus $30,000+.
Aside from the car difference, I have cast off a bunch of little devices and accessories thanks to my conscious efforts to be less connected and more about experiencing life at my natural pace. I no longer wear a watch, ever, even though I definitely have the chunky leather wallet. Also no glowing visible clocks in the bedroom or family room. And no big stereo because 95% of my music listening is via headphones at work or working outside in my yard.
- Comment on Profit over people is a failed system 1 month ago:
It’s like the “because double dog go fuck yourself” cherry on top of the layered parfait of redistribution of wealth in the wrong direction the years have given us.
- Comment on Groceries are expensive and they're too busy talking about culture war 1 month ago:
I love how this frame captured them both so well. If you look into the candidate’s eyes you see frustration. If you look into the Fox drone’s eyes, you see a big smiling face on an inflatable clown punching bag that’s about to tilt back to the right.
- Comment on I got your 6-7 right here, kids! 1 month ago:
God: eternal and omniscient.
Also god: surprised pikachu.
- Comment on Corporate media, owned by billionaires, refuse to recognize the wave of democratic socialism 1 month ago:
They love to use that specific picture of him too. They probably think it makes him look angry and middle eastern. It caught his eyebrows at the perfect angry-looking angle.
Too bad for them he’s charismatic as fuck everywhere else. And, you know, does stuff to help people.
- Comment on The legendary PS2 1 month ago:
Just rolling through here like “Do not cite the old firmware to me Witch. I was there when it was written.”
- Comment on Those moutains are so quaint 1 month ago:
Sometimes it’s not the moutains that get you, it’s the smaller hills and valleys surrounding them because there are actually people and roads there.
Sometimes if you make a wrong turn in Pittsburgh, you are not just going the wrong direction but are also at the wrong elevation or on the wrong layer, and there’s no looping around the block to get back to where you started.
Disclaimer: This thread led me to read the Wikipedia article about Appalachia. Some definitions of the region do not include Pittsburgh or even parts of Pennsylvania, but at the same time there’s a photo of downtown Pittsburgh at the top of the article, so I went with it.
- Comment on Those damned leftists!!!1!! 1 month ago:
Translation: I am uncomfortable with people different from me and I want to dictate how they live their lives, therefore I project upon those other people that they must want to do the same to me and all the world’s decent people who are (of course) like me.
- Comment on The perfect date 2 months ago:
I actually used to do single dots in my own file/folder names. It’s probably my favorite way visually, since it’s a minimal separator and as you showed it works without a separator at all.
- Comment on The perfect date 2 months ago:
oh yeah. There are numerous benefits to the format itself, outside the question of hyphens vs slashes.
I find the sortability quite satisfying, but also as somebody living in the US, I also like that it’s unambiguous regardless of my audience. Hell, half the time I see people hand-write a date on something they don’t even use a year.
- Comment on The perfect date 2 months ago:
Yep and it needs to use hyphens and not slashes. It helps avoid missed typos or mis-reads in some situations, especially if hand-written.
- Comment on Fahrenheit is better 2 months ago:
Maximum tip-to-tip efficiency or it’s back to apprenticeship with you!
- Comment on New clean energy comes out. *look inside* It’s just boiling water again… 2 months ago:
If I may achkshually your achkshually, I believe that heat is the energy in the collective motion of particles of matter, and infrared photons are one way that energy can be radiated away from one body and absorbed by another.
- Comment on If only I had enough for the superior siege engine 2 months ago:
This probably isn’t common for a lemmy linux nerd, but I have spent a few grand on lumber over the past two years for various projects.
I bet one could build a properly superior hobby-sized siege engine for a total budget of $1000!
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
The fediverse isn’t worth saving after all.
The fediverse shouldn’t need A savior. It should be its own thing that no one person can control or stop.
Maybe this… Maybe this is the fediverse healing? 🥹
- Comment on Me_irl 2 months ago:
But then you are treated to the ultimate satisfaction of “YOUR SOUND CARD WORKS PERFECTLY”
- Comment on three cheers for fate! 2 months ago:
An executive whose job it is to increase profits by systematically denying care to vulnerable people.
- Comment on Me this morning 2 months ago:
I’m a medicated ADHDer and I treat coffee like just yet another medication.
I was never a coffee drinker (or medicated in general) until my 40s. But now I literally prepare myself a cup of coffee in the morning and at lunch time, the same times I take my adderall. The combination is working great, even if it doesn’t fix everything.
- Comment on Me this morning 2 months ago:
I agree with you, and I think weed really helped me even though I’m not using any right now.
Sometimes it’s extremely beneficial to be chemically pushed into a good mood and satisfied with just existing, when otherwise existence just seems to be misery and pain.
But it is not a permanent fix. It’s a band-aid while you find more permanent ways to improve your life. But band-aids can hurt to take off when you’re done with them.
