wjrii
@wjrii@kbin.social
- Comment on Brought to you by the vertical mouse gang 10 months ago:
I have an Orbit Fusion for the couch. I looked at the Elecoms, but I just really like the scrollring. In my perfect world there'd be a god-damned three-button orbit with scrollring, but in the meantime remapping the Fusion's "Forward" button lets me use it with similar ergonomics. I notice the stiction, but it's a very minor little aspect of using the trackball, and it's not distracting enough for me to feel like I need to replace the bearings. I did do the "rub some nose oil on it" thing and that helped some.
There are a few DIY designs floating around that use BTUs, and some have certainly made their way into ergo keyboards, but I don't know of a commercial product that uses them.
- Comment on [Kind of weekly thread] What have you been watching? 11 months ago:
Discovery is almost more interesting as a meta-text at this point, though I think it takes more guff than it deserves. The tonal (and temporal) whiplash is a window into the creative process and audience feedback the churn of writers and shifting directives from Paramount.
Only one thing is constant: MICHAEL BURNHAM'S DRAMAWHISPERS!
- Comment on When will "Star Wars: A New Hope" enter public domain? 11 months ago:
That was added in 1981 when it popped back into theatres after Empire. It was not original, but it was a very early addition, and since ESB came out in the interim as Episode 5 from the get-go, very much a retcon in the George style.
- Comment on HP sued (again) for blocking third-party ink from printers, accused of monopoly 11 months ago:
I've had a fairly decent one with a Canon small-office B&W laser. It needs to be reset every so often, and it doesn't seem to like my wife (though no printer ever does), but its apps and drivers are mostly business related, so while they are more than happy to help you buy supplies, they don't force the issue, and the printer doesn't care what brand of toner you shove in it. 99% of the time it's just sitting there quietly on its LAN address, ready to print something successfully.
She just got an HP multi-function from work, and dear god that thing is annoying. It kept claiming that its own demo ink was counterfeit. Also fairly mediocre color prints.
- Comment on I keep salt and sugar in identical bottles. A mistake was bound to happen, and it just did. 11 months ago:
I was assured by Ted Lasso that this will turn out okay.
- Comment on Has there ever been an attempt to do a modern "novelisation" of Shakespeare's plays? 11 months ago:
The description of the Hogarth series is probably about as close as I've seen to what OP seems to be asking for, but obviously creatives in all media have been adapting Shakespeare for ages.
They may find a basic "nuts and bolts" adaptation to be a bit lacking though. Ol' Willy Shakes tended to lift his plots from middle-brow history books and from earlier plays. The brilliance came in the specific use of language and from stretching the psychological intimacy and realism of the characters in ways that were unprecedented, but which has become the norm, and might feel stale at this point. Frankly, the plays would have been viewed as sloppy and vulgar by many in the upper class, even if they found them compelling in a "best of that lower sort of thing." Shakespeare had to hustle and write "proper" poetry to build a reputation during his lifetime, and what was the net result of being the most brilliant literary innovator in English since Chaucer and possibly ever? He got to be like the second or third richest man in little Stratford-upon-Avon and told enough lies and paid enough bribes to get his dad a coat of arms.
- Comment on Starbucks accused of manipulating app payments for $900 million profit 11 months ago:
That’s his preferred coffee taste and that’s what he demands the company makes.
I'm sure it's also completely coincidental that burnt coffee tastes mostly same no matter where and when the beans came from. :-)
- Comment on Starbucks accused of manipulating app payments for $900 million profit 11 months ago:
I normally use that same coffee in an Ikea French Press and while I won't say it's gourmet, it meets my needs for "not particularly bitter caffeine juice". Honestly, I slowed it down the next time I did a single cup pourover and that took most of the battery acid notes out of it.
I don't have a particularly sophisticated palate and still want some sugar and milk in there; I just don't like Starbucks very much and hate paying a premium for a product that I like less than my homemade half-assery. :-)
- Comment on Starbucks accused of manipulating app payments for $900 million profit 11 months ago:
So it's not a lawsuit (yet), it's a complaint to the state attorney general of Washington accusing Starbucks of unfriendly consumer practices related to their gift cards, in part because they can recognize unspent gift cards as revenue, and also because it's instant cashflow for them even if the accounting revenue lags behind. The need to come up with a calculation for how much deferred revenue to recognize can be abused by execs to nudge the revenue higher (and with no additional costs associated with it, profit as well) and thereby improve stock price and trigger bonuses and whatnot.
The actual complaint reads as a bit of pearl-clutching ("involuntary subscription" because customers don't want to leave a balance OR talk to a real human at their local Starbucks!) , but on a the "death by a thousand cuts" model, yeah, I suppose Starbucks is being kinda dickish. The app doesn't give you as many rewards if you pay with CC, buries the other payment options a couple of layers deep in a menu, doesn't let you reload gift cards in increments equal to a purchase, doesn't let you split payment methods, and sets a high default reload so (on iOS at least) it isn't immediately visible that you even could scroll up to reload in smaller amounts.
It's sort of garden variety asshole app design meant to soft-lock customers in, but it's not really fraud in any meaningful way if someone is motivated. You add money, you get bitter overpriced coffee that your partner really likes for some reason. I prefer CHEAP, ACIDIC coffee because I did the pourover too fast on mediocre store-bought grounds that are too fine, LOL. Still, maybe worth a public scolding or some fines to get them to modify it so people can save a few bucks without diving into the finer nuances of their coffee app.
- Comment on Does the rest of the English speaking world generally understand what an American means when they say "soccer", or does it help to clarify by adding "football"? 11 months ago:
Agreed, and I'm not sure it was EVER used that way. I've only ever seen it written, and in places where someone wanted to distinguish it from the other codes without giving the impression they were excluding Canadian football. It's a useful term in the right context, but it's not "the full name". Contrast to soccer, where many teams have "Association Football Club" right there in their names as "AFC."
- Comment on Does the rest of the English speaking world generally understand what an American means when they say "soccer", or does it help to clarify by adding "football"? 11 months ago:
It would require more research than I'm willing to do, but the only part of that article that set off my sports-history-nerd Spidey Sense was this:
In full, it was known as gridiron football, but most people never bothered with the first word.
I don't know that anyone actually involved in playing or codifying the game ever used "gridiron football" in anything like the same official way that Association football or Rugby football were used. It feels much more like outside observers trying to impose logical categories from afar, British exceptionalism at its finest. AFAIK, gridiron was always used as a nickname for the field, and the sport itself was only ever widely referred to as "football," American exceptionalism at its finest.
- Comment on Does the rest of the English speaking world generally understand what an American means when they say "soccer", or does it help to clarify by adding "football"? 11 months ago:
For a while, the governing body in the US was the United State Soccer Football Association, so you're good, and it's also some good trolling of the zealots on either side of the "debate."
- Comment on Does the rest of the English speaking world generally understand what an American means when they say "soccer", or does it help to clarify by adding "football"? 11 months ago:
This. 'Soccer' is well understood and unambiguous, though it might prompt certain assumptions depending on your audience. There are times and places you might prefer to say 'football' to mean 'Association football,' but if you just need to communicate simple factual information in two syllables, it's probably the best word for that.
- Comment on Does the rest of the English speaking world generally understand what an American means when they say "soccer", or does it help to clarify by adding "football"? 11 months ago:
And Australia, at least when they're not trying to suck up to the British.
- Comment on This person's rejection reason 11 months ago:
You can only apply to jobs in European countries.
Sorry, I don’t make the rules.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 year ago:
As a defender of Tex-Mex as a legitimate fusion cuisine, can confirm that the Europeans do terrible things to Tex-Mex. You may think you’re over margaritas, chili powder, refried beans, yellow cheese, and salsa roja, but you will change your tune when confronted with odd vodka concoctions, paprika (and precious little of that), crunchy half raw white beans, mozzarella, and water-thinned ketchup.
- Comment on How well do Swedish fish keep past their best by date? 1 year ago:
Swedish Fish are garbage, dear friend. They are like a depressed dystopian robot's impression of candy. If we're going to kill ourselves eating overprocessed sugar, it should at least be tasty. Even the simple step to Gummy Bears marks a vast improvement.
- Comment on Maybe this isn't proper shopping but $18.50 for four veggie burgers, buns, and danish seems like a lot 1 year ago:
$4.50 more and a smaller piece of dessert and they could have got meal for 8 with probably a better veggie patty. Could have saved $1.50 to go with the cheapo buns, but the Sara Lee, while equally processed (I am not judging... they look pretty good), are a small investment to improve the dinner.
- Comment on What does .: come from / what does it mean? 1 year ago:
My parenthetical seems to have mysteriously vanished!
- Comment on What does .: come from / what does it mean? 1 year ago:
For English speakers, you can mentally substitute "idiom explained" and "example given" as a mnemonic to help remember the difference.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 year ago:
Then let employers shift hours or start times if they rely on daylight. Nothing that comes from DST is useful enough to be universally mandatory.
- Comment on Newspaper in 25th march 1924 writing to historians in 2024 1 year ago:
In-demand mind-altering substances banned due to unrealistic policy goals inflamed by small-minded moral panic, leading customers to seek out a high-risk/high-margin black market that attracts violent criminals and results in adulterated product.
- Comment on Anyone have experience with buying on eBay? 1 year ago:
Ha, yeah, I am not a huge hand plane guy, but I know the 46. I’d be miffed too if I was hunting one and somebody yanked a good deal out from under me.
I have one Japanese wooden block plane, a little green German block plane I saw on Matthias Wandel’s channel, a harbor freight smoothing plane, and a post war vintage no-name Jack plane that still cost more than you’d think.
- Comment on Anyone have experience with buying on eBay? 1 year ago:
So what kind of hand plane was it,LOL?
- Comment on The Greatest Shot In Television 1 year ago:
I loved anything with James Burke when I was younger.
Now, too, but also when I was younger.
- Comment on An £8 sandwich in Starbucks 1 year ago:
Bought a cold sandwich at a quick-service place in England.
There's your problem. This one has a certain appeal, though. I'd pay eight pounds just to be spared the usual pile of cucumber slices, old egg, and obscene quantity of mayonnaise.
- Comment on Chevy Chase Bashes ‘Community’: “The Show Wasn’t Funny Enough” 1 year ago:
I almost think it works well that he was in a completely different headspace than the rest of the actors. It made him effortlessly bizarre when he could have come off more as mailing it in.
- Comment on Wish | Official Trailer 1 year ago:
It's fairly subtle on my monitor, but I can definitely see some cell-shading, almost resembled Don Bluth rotoscoping.
Gotta admit, it felt like a half measure, and I didn't love what little I saw. Looked more like saving money than innovating. Willing to be convinced otherwise though.
- Comment on Why do sports commentators talk soft bullshit? 1 year ago:
NO YOU'RE RIDICULOUS! PIMENTO64 HAS NO HEART! THEY'RE A CHUMP! A CHUMP I TELL YOU! HOW MANY RINGS DOES PIMENTO64 EVEN HAVE??!?!?!
- Comment on Why do sports commentators talk soft bullshit? 1 year ago:
I think what they're saying is that there is a certain tolerance for silence from the Play-by-play and analyst in a football (soccer) broadcast in Europe. Part of it is style, but another part is simply the cadence of the game and the way crowd noise works. American fans tend not to (sonically speaking, and in aggregate) sort of hum and buzz in time with the tension of the play, and frankly most of our sports don't have that same rhythm. Football and baseball in particular would be bad TV if they were announced the way soccer can be, doubly so with the weight of audience expectation. I do think an ice hockey broadcast can sort of sound like a soccer broadcast on meth, though, and thinking about the structure and cadence of play, that makes sense. In some sense, they're the same sport with a different config file. :-)