aramis87

@aramis87@fedia.io

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨John Cleese urges St Andrews students not to elect Q Manivannan as rector⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Why is he even relevant to rector proceedings in a Scottish university?

  As mentioned twice in the article, Cleese was himself a rector at that very University.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What can I put on a street lamp to stop the light in one direction?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Edit: the duality between "lol get curtains" and helpful things is great. But! I can't put up curtains on the windows the light floods in - it's the front door and the sort of side window beside the front door.

  I also didn't want to put holes in the wall, so I got command strips (those little stick-on / pull-off hooks) and used them to hang my curtains. If the way it looks bothers you, you could hang a piece of decorative cloth in front or back of the curtain.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What can I put on a street lamp to stop the light in one direction?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Get blackout curtains. Wear a sleep mask.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trains cancelled after bedbugs found on board⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  "Cases have been contained to the drivers' cabs in only two of our trains and no bed bugs have been identified in areas for passengers."

  Some driver has bedbugs at home and is going to get endless ribbing from his mates.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I also have an opportunity to study abroad in Iceland. Is that also a good choice?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If you don't choose to study there you should definitely visit.

  For OP, if s/he decides on Hungary, or anyone else interested: I haven't checked prices recently, but IcelandAir used to be fairly competitively priced between Europe and North America, and they let you stopover in Iceland for up to a week with no additional airline charges.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Not saying this is Hell, but it's pretty fucking close⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don't know where the guy in the post is from. When I started a job with disability benefits (not sure if they were from the company or the state), they emphasized that we needed to look at the tax / take-home implications for if we were ever on disability.

  If we had our disability insurance payment taken out of our paycheck before taxes were paid from our paycheck, then we would also owe taxes on any payments we got while we were on disability. If we paid taxes first and then paid for our disability insurance, then any payments would be tax-free.

  Thing was, after taxes and deductions from our regular paycheck, we only got about 80% of the money we'd earned. And disability paid 80% of our regular paycheck. So if you paid for disability after paying taxes, you would still have about the same amount of income (though being disabled would bring in a bunch of new expenses). But if you paid for disability before paying taxes, then disability would pay 80% of your regular paycheck, and then it would be taxed - meaning you'd only be getting about 65% of your usual income.

  I know it's not like that everywhere, and many places don't even have disability anymore. But if you're getting disability insurance deducted from your paycheck, it's worth checking the tax/income implications if you ever need to claim it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do most Americans vote just based on name recognizing without any thinking of the platform? Or pigeon hole a candidate to one issue and vote for them? Even if that issue is way against beliefs?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You vote for the person you want in office in the primaries, and you vote against the person you don't want in office in the generals.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are you doing for digital estate planning?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  What happens when you need to replace your pacemaker?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Workers Guarding San Francisco’s Wealthiest Companies Vote to Authorize a Strike⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  So you're saying they're unguarded / under-guarded? Hmmm ....

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is ICE still doing the so-called "immigrant" hardass stance and in the states we don't hear about because "bigger" stories? Kind of like the Nazi's did against Germans about the Jews?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The One Big Beautiful Bill funded the majority of ICE through the shutdown - some civilian support positions were affected, but enforcement activity stayed pretty much the same. The reduction in coverage is far more likely due to both Noem and Bovino being kicked out of their jobs, taking their high-confrontation tactics with them. Homan is doing the same work, just in a quieter, less confrontational manner.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is ICE still doing the so-called "immigrant" hardass stance and in the states we don't hear about because "bigger" stories? Kind of like the Nazi's did against Germans about the Jews?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They've always had funding. The more recent budget funds then through 2028.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is this a scam or am I being paranoid? And if so, what kind of scam is this?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They're going to "overpay" you, then ask you to send them the money back (or sometimes but something for them). But eventually their check bounces, while you're out whatever money/items you sent them.

  You also need to start being more careful, because the scammers sell and trade lists of people who have fallen victim, or almost fallen victim, to their scam. Because if you've (almost) fallen for one scam, you're more likely to fall for a second one.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What should I do with boxes of old photos?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Back in the 80s, my uncle paid some company to convert the 8mm to VHS; they overlaid some music over the video, I didn't remember what. I borrowed the tape sometime around 2002 and converted it to DVD.

  Around the same time, my mom had a bunch of reel-to-reel and audio cassette recordings she asked me to convert to CD, which I did. One of the audio tapes was from a family reunion in the mid-70s, where they'd played the same home movies and everyone was discussing them. So I converted the tape and then synced the audio to the video; you can play either one the music or commentary track.

  There's one thing I meant to do back then that I didn't have the energy to deal with, which was to provide a transcription of the audio, so people would know who's voice was who's. Voice-to-text should make that fairly easy now. I think there's too much over-talking to do a decent set of labeled subtitles, but I might be able to swing something.

  Re: your VHS results: if it's not at the front of the tape when you start working on it, then fast-forward it to the end and then let it rewind; that'll give you a better tension on the tape. Depending on the tape, it's quality and it's condition, how it was stored (temperature/humidity and whether it was on it's end or on it's side), and when they thought it had been played last, I might try fast-forwarding and rewinding it anyway, as doing that would reset the tension and make sure that the tape wasn't sticking to itself when I was playing it and reducing the risk of the tape getting eaten. The trade-off was that doing that could pull some of the magnetized bits off the tape, increasing drop-outs. Whenever I started playing a tape, I was always recording the output, regardless of whether the video had started or the tracking was off, just in case the tape got eaten.

  If your tape does get eaten, you can try to iron out some of the wrinkles to get it to play through that section; or just rotate the spindles past the wrinkled bit and resume converting. If a tape gets eaten, I'd clean the heads on your vcr, just in case any debris got in there, and I'd clean it after any particularly dirty tapes (stored poorly, or lots of drop-outs) as well. (If it's a vcr from a thrift store or something, I'd clean it anyway, and make sure the that the first tapes I played were commercial tapes I didn't care about in case there were issues with it.)

  If the spindles on the tape get jammed, you can unshell the tape and spindles and re-shell them into a new case - I have some old VHS movies I keep on hand for just these situations.

  If you're using a standalone DVD recorder, given the option, use the RCA connections instead of coax for a better picture. If you're getting unstable brightness or color, try hooking up your cables to the front input instead of the rear inputs; sometimes those recorders pick up DRM-style signals on old tapes and interferes with the recording, except they assumed the front inputs would be used for camcorders and often put less DRM detection on those ports. If you still get unstable brightness or color and think that's wrong, see if you can find something called a video stabilizer or signal enhancer - that's what the copyright busters used to be called, and they also helped sharpen the image a bit too.

  If you're having issues with tracking, there are vcrs that let you do manual tracking adjustments, and you might want to see if you can find one. Many of my old Sony vcrs had that ability, and I really liked that. My old Sony vcrs also had the ability to move back and forward frame by frame, which was also nice: I could start the tape, get the tracking nice and settled, then back up to the first frame of the recording and start converting from there, thus avoiding the whole "tracking" notice on the screen without missing any of the recording.

  I dunno, I'm kinda babbling, sorry. Are there specific issues you were having with your tapes, or just "this was a cheap tape recorded over multiple times, the recording I want to save was made at EP, it was stored on its side on a hot and humid environment and I'm lucky I managed to get anything off it"?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What should I do with boxes of old photos?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I've inherited a lot of photos, and also a bunch of negatives. I've gone and thrown out many vacation photos that weren't relevant or unique: if I need a photo of the pyramids, I'm fairly confident I can find one, lol. But I kept the one of my mom in front of the pyramids.

  I'm in the process of scanning and organizing everything. Once I'm done, I'm planning on putting together five photo albums, all nicely labeled and organized. The first one's for me, of the people I loved or events I found special. Then one of each of the other albums for my nieces and nephews. There may be a handful of photos I copy and put in each album, but most of the pictures will be unique.

  Also enclosed in the albums will be a family tree, and whatever biographical bits of information I can put together of our various relatives. And a DVD with digital copies of all the photos and negatives I scanned in, so everyone will have access to a full set of photos, as well as a subset of the originals. I also have some digitized 8mm home movies from the 1940s and 50s, with my grandparents in the 1970s narrating who the various people are, so I'll probably include a copy of that.

  Honestly, I'm not sure how my nieces and nephews will feel about the albums, but it's the best connection I can give them to some of their roots and where their people came from. What they do with their albums afterward is up to them; I'll have honored the people in my past and provided what I can to the people in my future.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Has anyone ever actually had their vehicle tabs stolen?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  What is someone doing with expired plates?

  Decorate the inside of their barn with them!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Have you eat a purple potato?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I've had a farm share for a number of years, and have eaten a number of different types of potatoes, including two different blue ones.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Toothbrush heads⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I "solved" this problem by losing my original OralB (non-IO) and being forced to replace it with an OralB IO, then finding my original OralB. I keep one in the upstairs bathroom and one in the downstairs, and now I can use either type, lol!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don't know if it'll help, but there was this reddit post [sorry for the hellsite link] last year that listed a bunch of smaller, more specific/niche job search boards.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Video] Black guy tries to document white lynch mob, instantly gets attacked⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Sorry for the links to hellsite, but:

  Here's a video of a masked mob going down a Belfast street, trying and sometimes succeeding in breaking down doors to get into houses of suspected immigrants. And here's one where they set a vehicle on fire and sent it down the street.

  If you google for more Belfast videos, make sure to specify something like "mobs", "fires", "riots", etc, as the video of the second stabbing is fairly prevalent online.

  The Wikipedia article is getting updated regularly, but is obviously not as polished as events are still evolving.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Video] Black guy tries to document white lynch mob, instantly gets attacked⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Ugh. Okay, so: last December, Henry Nowak (a dual UK-Polish citizen) was stabbed by Vickrum Singh Digwa (a UK-born UK citizen of the Sikh faith). After the altercation, Mr Nowak was handcuffed by the police, who did not believe he had been stabbed, and died on the sidewalk. Mr Digwa was convicted of the murder on June 1st, and the bodycam footage of Mr Nowak was released last week. The UK right-wing (and their foreign sponsors) have spent several months using the incident to help foster anti-immigrant sentiment.

  A couple days ago, a Sudanese man living in Belfast stabbed his neighbor, a disabled man named Stephen Ogilvie. Right-wing figures claim that it was an attempted beheading; I do not know enough details of the attack to definitively refute that, but believe it unlikely. Elon Musk, himself an immigrant of dubious origins and even more questionable beliefs, echoed the calls from various UK right-wing figures for anti-immigrant protests, with at least one figure saying, "Do not make peace with evil. Destroy it."

  Mobs formed, some going down streets and breaking into houses where they suspected immigrants were living. They torched cars and sent them rolling down the street, stole a bus and set it on fire, etc. The UK right wing (as far as I can tell) appears to be doing little (if anything) to de-escalate the situation. It is not a good time to be a visible minority in parts of Ireland, Scotland, or the UK.

  The gentleman in this video is attempting to show one of the masked mobs in the streets, and is promptly attacked for being a visible minority.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What happened to us Pirates? We used to sail the web and never even thought about reprecussions just sharing. Now it seems like it costs to be a pirate like a VPN and such. WTH happened?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Private trackers?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"Nobody's making games for the retired people" – The growing yet underserved market for grey gamers⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I'm looking forward to the 1.7 update of Stardew Valley. I love discovering new stuff and going through all the mods people have created.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there a way to view the comments on a deleted Lemmy post?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You're fine to share this; thank you for finding it for those who are interested!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there a way to view the comments on a deleted Lemmy post?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You're absolutely fine to spread it. I'm just happy that people liked it enough to remember and share it :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Woman who rescued injured crow keeps getting ‘thank-you gifts’ from birds⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Okay, so I initially read that title as Woman who rescued injured cow, so that was a bit confusing, but it was a cool video regardless of my illiteracy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why Ireland?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Speech-to-text AI prompt, with someone slurring "Iran"?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your Truck is Stupid Big⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There should be an oversized vehicle parking area in the most inconvenient section of the garage, and if your vehicle is too big, you have to go park there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some good, casual mobile games.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Ridiculous Fishing

  "As of December 10, 2025, the Android version is no longer downloadable from the Google Play store."

  :(

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some good, casual mobile games.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I used to play the web version of Bee Sort. Unfortunately, I got stuck on level 371 and the web version doesn't have the option to skip a level. Does the app version have that option?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some good, casual mobile games.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Good choice - I was going to suggest Simon Tatham's Puzzle Collection.